Goyal HISTORIOGRAPHYIMPERIALGUPTAS 1996

HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE IMPERIAL GUPTAS: OLD AND NEW
Author(s): Shankar Goyal

Source: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , 1996, Vol. 77, No. 1/4
(1996), pp. 1-33
Published by: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
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Annals of the
Bhandarkar Oriental
Research Institute
VOL. LXXV1I ] 1996 [ Parts I-IV
HISTORIOGRAPHÝ OF THE IMPERIAL GUPTAS :

OLD AND NEW
By
Shankar Goyal
Beginnings of Historiography of the Gupta Age
The age of the imperial Guptas, which covers the fourth, fifth
first half of the sixth centuries of the Christian era has been one of
favourite ^reas of investigation by modern historians of ancient In
the epigráphic, numismatic and literary sources ascribable to the G
have been more or less thoroughly examined and made to yield
information as possible.1 Major events and controversies of the reig
1 The Gupta inscriptions have been edited and translated by J. F. Fleet i

Inscriptionum Indicarùm , III (Calcutta, 1888). Its Hindi translation by G
Mishra was published by the Rajasthan Hindi Granth Academy, Jaipur. I
R. Bhandarkar, B. Ch. Chhabra and G. S. Gai published its revised edition. D. C.
Sircar's Select Inscriptions ( Second ed., Calcutta, 1965 ) provides the most authen-
tic treatment to the epigraphs of the Gupta age. S R. Goyal's Guptakullna Abhilekha
( Meerut, 1984 ) presents the most exhaustive study of the subject in Hindi. B. S.
Upadhyaya's Gupta Abhilekha (Patna, 1974 ) is full of mistakes. Numismatic evi-
dence for the Gupta age is found in J. Allan, Catalogue of the Coins of the Gupta
Dynasty in the British Museum (London, 1914), and A. S. Áltekar, Catalogue
of the Gupta Gold Coins in the Bay ana Hoard (Bombay, 1954), Guptakãítna
Mudrãyeb (Patna, 1954 ) and S. R. Goyal. An Introduction to Gupta Numisma -
tics (Jodhpur, 1994). For a critical discussion on historiography of Gupta coinage
vide my write-up ť Historiography of Gupta Numismatics', ibid., pp. 5-12. The travel
( Continued on the next page* )

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2 Annals BORI , LXXVII ( 1996 )
Gupta monarchs from Chandraguptä I to Skandagupta anci the ach

of the Gupta age have been discussed in detail in a number of mon
and numerous research articles published so far.3 In this paper we
to trace the changing attitudes towards writing the history of the
empire. It is impossible to deal with all the significant historians o
works. Hence we have onfined ourselves to a few of the most im
ones. Other historians and their works are also mentioned in p
has been our chief purpose to examine the outlook of the historian
ned. We may also add that we are here chiefly concerned with wor
( Continued from p. 7. )
account of the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien is available in English translation
Giles, ( The Travels of Fa-hien , Cambridge, 1923). Literary sources of
history include AryamanjusrtmUlakalpa , Visâkhadatta's Devîcandr
works of Kälidisa, Kãmasutra of Vãtsyãyana, Kãmanãakiyanitisãra , Visnu
Purãna , Vãyu Purãna and Bhůgavata Purãna. For information about the
excavated material in the Gupta levels at various sites see relevant volumes of the
Ancient India and Indian Archaeology - A. Review .
8 Of the various English monographs on the Gupta period those of R. C. Majumdar and
A. S. Altekar ( eds. ), The Vãkãtaka-Gupta Age (Lahore, 1946), R. C. Majumdar
(ed. ) Comprehensive History of India , Volume III, 2 parts (New Delhi, 1981 and
1982), B. P. Sinha, The Decline of Magadha ( Patna, 1954) and P. L. Gupta, The
Imperial Guptas , 2 Vols. ( Varanasi, 1974 arid 1979 ) are the most handy. For the
serious students of political history, S. R. Goyal's A History of the Imperial Guptas
(henceforth referred toas Hig ) (Allahabad, 1967) is most essential. For a useful
summary of early Indian political thought see J. W. Spellman, Political Theory of
Ancient India (Oxford, 1954), R. S. Sharma, Aspects of Political Ideas and
Institutions in Ancient India (Delhi, 1968) presents by far the best and most
critical insight into the history of contemporary political ideas and institutions. S. K.
Maity's Economic Life in Northern India in lhe Gupta Period ( 2nd edn., Calcutta,
1970) was the first serious attempt to organise the economic data relating to the Gupta
period. For material on the land System see U. N. Ghoshal, Agrarian System in
Ancient India (Calcutta, 1973). R. S. Sharma's Indian Feudalism (Calcutta,
1965 ) provides the most critical analysis of the origin of the feudal land tenure in this
period. D. D. Kosambi's Introduction to the Study of Indian History ( Bombay,
1956) and Culture and Civilisaion of Ancient India in Historical Outline
(London, 1965 ) are also useful for the study of the beginnings of feudalism in India.
B. N. Puri's The Gupta Administration (Delhi, 1990) gives a masterly survey of
the subject. Charles Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism , 3 Vpls. ( London, 1921 ) and
R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Šaivism and Minor Religious Systems (.Strass-
burg, 1913 ) give an idea of changes in religio v S. JaiswaPs Origin and Develop-
ment of Vàishnavism (Delhi, 196 7 ) is the most up-to-date study of the Vaisnava
sect. The development of temple architecture is treated in P. Brown, Indian Archi -
tectu re (Bombay, 1959 ) and B. Rowland, The Art and Architecture of India
( Harmonds worth, 1?59). G. Yazdani's A janta is a profusely illustrated study of
the Ajanta murals including those of the Gupta Age. The interested reader will find
references to many other works on Gupta period in Essays ön Gupta Culture , ed.
by Bardwell L. Smith ( Delhi, 1983 ),

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ôoyal : Historiography of the Imperial Guptas : Old and New 3
the field of political history, though historiography of the cultural trends is

not altogether neglected.
Early works of the western scholars dealing with the history of ancient
'India did not contain any'reference to the Guptas. As late as 1865, Henry
Beveridge in his A Comprehensive History af India , Volume I, merely referr-
ed to Samudragupta as a ' fanatic who ť removed the seat of government
to Kanauj * and established a dynasty 4 which is held by those who follow
local tradition to have ruled for three or four hundred years.'3 Clark Marsh-
man also, whose work The History of India , Volume I, was published in
1867, did not refer to the Guptas at all.4
Early Western Historians
The existence of the Gupta dynasty was for the first time revealed by
the epigraphic researches of the second quarter òf the 19th century. Since
then historians of different ideological persuations have developed warring
schools of historiography. Up until about 1947, the vast majority of histori-
ans, who wrote about ancient India, including the period of the imperial
Guptas, were divided into two basic camps 3 those who shared a bias in
favour of British imperialism and those who opposed it.5 The imperialists
included orientalists as well as direct imperialists. Opposing them were the
nationalists and scientific*. The first work of a western author in which the
imperialist historians' concept of 4 oriental despotism a common key to
their interpretation of ancient and medieval South Asian political history,
was applied and the Gupa history was dealt with in some detail was the
Early History of India by Vincent A. Smith, the first edition of which
appeared in 1904. However, Smith never explicitly integrated his imperialist
bias in a coherent theory. Hé seems to have had a great admiration for
India of the Guptas. Thus, referring to Fahsien's description of the free
hospital at Pãtaliputra, he writes :
It may be doubted if any equally efficient foundation was to be seen

elsewhere in the world at that date ; and its existence, anticipating
the deeds of modern Christian charity, speaks well both for the
character of the citizens who endowed it and for the genius of the
3 Quoted in H/G, pp. 28-29. 4 Ibid p. 29.

5 Vide Lorenzen, David N., ' Imperialism and the Historiography of Ancient India ' in
S. N; Mukherjee ( ed ), India ' History and Thought, Calcutta, 1982, pp. 84-102;
4 Professor Goyal's Suggestion on Political History Writing in the Light of Historians
and Political History of the Gupta Empire', In Political History in a Changing
World , ed. G. C. Pande, S. K. Gupta and Shank ar Goyal, Jodhpur, 1991, pp. 44-45.

143.107.8.141 on Thu, 10 Aug 2023 19:40:16 +00:00
4 Annals BORI, LXXVU ( 1996 )
great Ašoka, whose teaching still bore such wholesome

centuries after his decease.6
Smith believed that Índia had probably never been governed bet
Oriental manner' than under Chandragupta II,7 and- the Gupt
* a time not unworthy of comparison with the Elizabethan and
in England'.3 Smith was immensely impressed by the dominee
lity of Samudragupta. He lionized the Gupta emperor as
Napolean '3 who was « endowed with no ordinary powers,10 a
thern campaign was simply ' wonderful'.11 ijowever, Smith h
even among Englishmen, Perhaps the most interesting of the
Havell, a pioneer in the sympathetic study of Indian art, who
Aryan Rule in India from the Earliest Times to the Death of A
in 1918. He rebuked Smith for his theory that Indians are he
centuries of ' oriental despotism. rn But he himself was the vi
losophy called Pan-Aryanism. According to it, for everything
in India, the Aryans were responsible. Even Akbar, the Great
an honorary Aryan, because he had Rajput blood in his veins
ged the Aryan virtues of tolerance and freedom. On the G
opined :
Gupta period politically was an Indo- Aryan revival for the Guptas
were undoubtedly the representatives of the Aryan Kshatriya tradi-
tion and champions of the Aryan cause against Aryavarta's adver-
saries of Turki, Hun, Dravidian and other alien descent. From the
religious point of view it was marked by a Vaishnava propaganda in
which Krishna, the Aryan hero of the Mahãbhãrata, was put for-
ward as the exponent of Indo-Aryan teàchiug in opposition to the
Buddhist doctrines, chiefly Muhãyãnist, favoured by Aryavarta's
alien enemies.13
In the period from the publication of Havell's work in 1918 to the publica-
tion of Louis de la Vallée Poussin's Dyasties et histoire de Vinde depuis
Kaniska jusqu'aux invasions Musalmaàs, the third volume of his well-known
Histoire du Monde series, which appeared in 1935, no important work having
an account of the political history of the Gupta period was written by any
6 Smith, Vincent A., Early History of India , p. 296.

T ihiil ~ n. 315. « Ibid.. D. 322.
8 Ibid., p. 306. 10 Ibid., p. 301.

11 Ibid..
H Havell, E. B., Aryan Rule in India, Intro., pt vin.
W J bid., p. 178.

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Goyal : Historiography of the Imperial Guptas : Old and New 5
Western author. Together with other two volumes it forms a complete poli-
tical history of ancient India down to the coming of the Muslims, and of all
the comprehensive studies of the subject hitherto produced in Europe they
are considered to be the most up-to-date and scholarly.14 Though, in
general, Poussin was chiefly concerned with political history, nevertheless,
his two later volumes, including Dynasties et Histoire de l'Inde. But his
style is generally said to be dry. Many of his sections, especially those on
dynastic history, it is said, seem little more than king-lists, to which brief
notes are appended. However, his work makes only a few concessions to the
general reader. It contains very lengthy bibliographies. Conflicting theories
are considered with great thoroughness, sometime without the author clearly
stating his own view, resulting in confusion on many widely accepted tradi-
tions.
Early Indian Historians
It was mainly in the twentieth century that Indian scholars directed

their attention to writing the political history of ancient India partly as
a reaction against the prejudiced approach of the Western scholars towards
India's past and partly from the influence of the nationalist movement on
Indian historians. They also regarded the period of the imperial Guptas
as the * Golden Age ' which demonstrated and anticipated the nation's
potential for future unity and glory. In 1920, R. G. Bhandarkar, the earliest
important indigenous historian of ancient India, brought out his A Peep into
the Early History oj India , a history of India from the beginning of the
Mauryan Period to the end of the Gupta Empire, which was first published
in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1900.
Bhandarkar's attitude to history was that of the nineteenth century; he
would probably have agreed with Ranke, whose works fie may have known,
that the task of the historian was to describe the past as it actually was.15
In the Introduction to his small volume he summarizes his ideas on the

duty of the historian :
14 For a detailed study of Poussin's historical outlook, vide Basham, A. ť Modern

Historians of Ancient India', in Historians of India , Pakistan and Ceylon , ed. C.
H. Philips, London. 1961, pp, 274-80.
15 Vide Basham, o£.> cit.. p. 28 lj for a wider evaluation of Bhandarkar's historiography,
see Goyal, S. R., H IG, Ch. 1. Also see A. D. Pusalker iri Historians and Historio-
graphy in Modern India , ed. S. P. Sen, Calcutta, 1973, pp. 27-45 ; Mukhopadhyay,
S. K., Evolution of Historiography in Modern India : 1900-1960 , Calcutta,
1981, p. 18.

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6 Annals BORI , LXXVIl ( 1996 )
In dealing with all these materials one should procee

principles of evidence as are followed by a judge. One mu
first place be impartial, with no particular disposition to f
materials before him something that will tend to the gl
race and country, nor should he have an opposite prejudi
the country or jts people. Nothing but dry truth sho
object ; and he should in every case determine the credibil
witness before him and probability or otherwise of what i
him. He should ascertain whether he was an eye-witness
temporary witness, and whether in describing a certain
himself was not open to the temptation of exaggeration
influence of the marvellous. None of the current legends
considered to be historically true, but an endeavour shoul
to find any germ of truth that there may be in them by
another nature.36
Bhandarkar was far more critical of his sources than were man
historians of ancient India, and, in a very lengthy review o
History of India , he finds much fault with V. A. Smith on
Elsewhere he writes :
Before admitting the narrative contained in any work to be histori-

cal, one ought to ask oneself whether the object of the author was
to please and instruct the reader, and excite the feeling of wonder,
or to record events as they occurred.17
For Bhandarkar the main question before the historian of early India was
« What happened ? not ' Why did it happen ? ' However, more than seven
decades after his death, the second question is still usually not answered,
despite the fact that the period of collecting the basic material for writing the
political history of ancient Tndia is by and large over.
Many Indian historians of pre-1947 period followed Bhandarkaťs

advice with varying degrees of success. They were mostly confined to the
study of facts as they are, without subjecting them to interpretation in the
light of a particular ideology. They differed from each other merely in the
degree of reliance which they placed in various types of evidence and the
technique to utilize them. In 1923, H. C. Raychaudhuri published his well-
known work Political History of Ancient India from the Accession of Parik -
16 Collected Works of Sir R. G. Bhandarkar , Volume I, p. 4.

Ibid P. 365.

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Goyal : Historiography of the Imperial Guptas t Old and New 7
shit to the extinction of the Gupta Dynasty. In so many respects it is still

the most important work of ancient Indian history written in the last seven
decades. Since its first publication in 1923 it has gone into many editions,
and has been used as a standard work in all 'hs coiieges and universities of
India, largely replacing Smith's Early History of India . Thus, it has affec-
ted our historical thinking immensely.
In general, Raychaudhuri is cautious and restrained, a historian of the

school of Bhandarkar, attempting to discover the * dry truth * and to present
materials for an authentic chronological history of ancient India, including
the neglected post-Bhãrata period. He himself maintains :
The idea of the work suggested itself many years ago from observing
a tendency in some of the current books to dismiss the history of the
period from the Bharata war to the rise of Buddhism as incapable
of arrangement in definite chronological order.18
However, Raychaudhuri never intended his work to be a comprehensive

survey of the political and dynastic history of every Indian province. He was
chiefly concerned with those kingdoms and empires whose influence transcen-
ded provincial limits and had an important bearing upon the general course
of political events in the heart and nerve-centres of the Indian sub-continent.
Like most early historians of ancient India, Raychaudhuri betrays no

dèfinite historical philosophy. Nevertheless, he frequently adduces parallels
from European history which can be taken to indicate that he believes history
to follow a definite pattern.
Other monographs that appeared immediately after Raychaudhuri, and

concentrate on the dynastic history of the Guptas, attempting only a chrono-
logical reconstruction of the coarse of important events and the achievements
of the individual rulers, are in the chronological order of publications : S. K.
Aiyangaťs Studies in Gupta History ( 1928 ), R. N. Shastri's Gupta Varňša
kã Itihñs ( 1932) and G. P. Mehta's Chandragupra Vikramaditya ( 1932).
The year 1933 saw the publication The Age of the. Imperial Guptas by R. D.
Banerji. It is illustrated with 41 plates. Banerji also believed in the recon-
structional aspect of history writing. He laid emphasis on his hypothesis
that Chandragupta I liberated ' the people of Magadha from the thraldom of
the hated Scythian foreigners,'19 and ' brought independence, self-realization
and glory to the people of Northern India '. 0
>8 Raychaudhuri, H. C, PHai, preface to the first ed., p. v.

10 AIG, p. 3. Ibid., p. 6,

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8 Annals BORI LXXVII (1966 )
1933 saw another significant work on political history

of India , A, D. 150 to A . D . 350 , by K. P. Jayaswal, a law
brilliant Sanskritist and also the chief representative of th
of Indian historians. It was written to controvert Smith's view that the
period between the extinction of the Kushäna and the Ändhra dynasties and
rise of the imperial Guptas is one of darkest in the whole range of Indian
history ' Jayaswal, by piecing together bits of informations scattered here
and there in the Purãnic literature, inscriptions and coins, tried , to disprove
this theory of the Dark Age, reconstruct the political history of the period
and show that it was an, er a of great national resistance and a bright epoch
in the political and cultural history of India. According to him the Gupta
empire was a natural successor of the Nãga-Vãkãtaka imperialism. How-
ever, the attitude, of Jayaswal towards the Gupta history was, to a certain
extent, ambivalent. As a patriot and nationalist he evidently desire^ to extol
the achievements of the Gupta emperors. Of Samudragudta he writes :
It should be noted that he did not over-do militarism. He was fully

conscious of the value of the policy of peace.21
Further, he opines that during the reign of Samudragupta :
The psychology of the nation was entirely changed and the outlook
became lofty and magnanimous. It was a psychology directly
borrowed from the Emperor. The Hindus of his day thought of big
undertakings. They contributed high, elegant and magnanimous
literature. The literary .people became literary Kuberas to their
countryamen, and literary empire-builders outside India ... Sanskrit
became the official language, and it became entirely a new language.
Like the Gupta coin and Gupta sculpture, it reproduced the
E¡mperor, it became majestic and musical, as it had never been be-
fore and as it never became after again.22
But Jayaswal was also one of those historians who believed that representative
democratic institutions existed in ancient India and that the ancient Indian
republican states were in fact little different, in constitution from the republics
of the contemporary West. In order to prove this thesis he had written
his famous work Hindu Polity in 1918. He was, therefore, much conscious
of the fact lhat the Guptas were largely responsible for the destruction of
these communities. Towards the close of his History of India he condemned
them for their imperialism :
81 Jayaswal, K. P., HI, p. 204. Ibid., pp. 205-06.

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He ( Samudragupta ) destroyed the Mãlavas and the Yaudheyas,

who were the nursery of freedom ; and many others of their class.
Once those free communities were wiped out, the recruiting ground
for future heroes and patriots and statesmen disappeared ... The life-
giving element was gone. The Hindus did not remember the name
of Samudra Gupta with any gratitude, and when Alberuni came to
India he was told that the Guptas were a wicked people. This is
another view of that picture. They were tyrants to Hindu constitu"
tional freedom, though excellent rulers to the individual subject.28
He, therefore, concluded :
Let us remember to-day the good deeds of the Guptas and forge
their imperialism.24
In 1934 R. G. Basak, who held an eminent position in the field of

Indological studies, brought out his History of North-east India from the
Founding of the Gupta Empire to the Rise of thè Pala Dynasty of Bengal ,
320-760 A. D. in which he devoted a hundred pages to the Gupta empire.
However, as he himself writes, he did omit the important question of
Rämagupta, who according to some of his colleagues, e. g. R. D. Banerji
and A. S. Altekar, belonged to the imperial Gupta family and was the
son and successor of Samudragupta. He did not also refer to Kãcha as
being a member of the imperial Gupta family. He, however, commented on
some of the controversial subjects in the Gupta history and tried to offer
new suggestions for their solution. For example, his interpretation of the
Mehaurali iron pillar inscription and identification of King- Chandra mention-
ed therein with Chandragupta I was quite original. A revised and enlarged
second edition of his work was brought out in 1967. Its chapters II, III and
IV deal with the history of the rise, culmination and decline of the Imperial
Guptas. In them were included discussion on controversial problems relat-
ing to Kãcha and Rämagupta. In Chapter IV, Basak has also thrown light
on the knotty problem of the successors of Skandagupta and the gradual dec-
line of the Guptas. However, he has not discussed the question of ' the
original home of the Guptas ' He took it for granted that the political
centre of the Guptas was at Pãtaliputra from the very beginning ; but he-has
not indicated how, when and under what circumstanc.es in his view they
occupied it, or who was the ruling authority there prior to their occupation,
or why did the Lichchhavis were of such a great importance to the Guptas.
»3 ibid., pp. 210-11. 24 Ibid., p. 211.

2 [ Annals BORI )

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10 Annals BORI , LXXVII [ 1996 )
In 1939 B. S. Upadhyaya brought out his book entitled Gupta

jya ka ltihas ( in two volumes ) and in the year 1941 R. N. Dandek
shed his A History of the Guptas . Both these works were written
traditional lines, initiated by R. G. Bhandarkar. Another work of
period was that of R. N. Saletore, Life in the Gupta Age, publishe
However, the most important work on the Gupta age that ap

the pre-independence period was The Vãkãtaka-Gupta Âge ( ca
A. D. ), prepared under the general editorship of A. S. Altekar
Majumdar. In it is found an elaborate account of the history o
Guptas strictly written on traditional pattern. Altek ir concluded
duction ' with the following observation :
The above survey of the features and achievements of our

show that it was undoubtedly a very important epoch o
history. It put an end to foreign domination and political'
gration and evolved a mighty state which could protect the
against foreign aggression for a long time. Governments of
were both efficient and popular and secured peace and pro
for the people ... Different religions and sects lived in pea
harmony, and the standard of average education and cultu
higher than in any other period of Indian history. An age
terised by the above features may well be called the Golde
Indian hirtory.25
Apart from these monographs, numerous articles and chapt

also written before 1947 on perennial problems of the numerous p
Gupta political history,26
25 Altekar, A. S. and Majumdar, R. C., The Vãkataka-Gupta Age> 2nd ed

1960, pp. 11-12.
86 Some of the important papers are the following : K. B. Pathak looked at t
vasion as the most important factor in the weakening of the dynasty ; an
on this by him, ' New Light on Gupta Era and Mihirakula' appeared in I A, XL VI
(1917), pp. 287-96. H. C. Raychaudhuri discussed the last days of the Guptas in
"The Gupta Empire in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries A. D.", JASB , N. S., XVl
( 1920), pp. 313-26. A. S. Altekar supported the theory that Rãmagupta, not Chandra-
gupta II, was the successor to Samudragupta (see ' A new Gupta King', J BOBS,
XIV ( 1928 ), pp. 223-53 ). He answered criticism of his article in ' Further Discus-
sion about Rãmagupta ' in the same journal, XV ( 1929), pp 134-41. The problem
of Vikramãditya, ( usually identified with Chandragupta II ) whose court of Ujjain
was graced by • Nine Jewels ' attracted the attention of many historians, including S. K.
Dikshit, 4 Chandragupta II. SghasSmka alias Vikramãditya and the Nine Jewels', /C,
VI ( 1939 ), pp. 191-210 ; and K. B. Vyas, " The Vikramãditya Problem ; A Fresh
( Continued on the next page. )

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GoYal : Historiography of. the imperial Guptas : Old and New li
Thus the pre-independence historiography of the age of the Guptas

was marked by ( I ) ' what happened ? ' approach and ( 2 ) emotional inter-
pretations to satisfy such sentiments as imperialism and nationalism. (3)
However, most of the studies by Indian historians claimed to belong to the
4 objective ' school of Bhandarkar. ( 4 ) They were all agreed on the designa-
tion of the Gupta period as the ' Golden Age * of the Indian past.
Classical or Golden Age Model
In the early years of the independence era Indian historians generally

followed the classical or golden age model for the Gupta age which they
inherited from earlier nationalist historians and which is still a hot favourite
among the latest generation of them. For example, R. K. Mookerji's The
Gupta Empire ( Bombay, 1947 ) gives an account of the moral and material
progress of the country achieved in the Gupta age and of the various institu-
tions - social, economic and administrative - in which the progress was embo-
died. It gives a picture of India's civilization in some of her best days, the
days of national freedom and expansion.
The term ' classical ' is derived from the Latin epithet Classicus, found
in a passage of Anlus Gellius, where a Scriptor Classicus is contrasted with a
Scriptor Proletarians. The metaphor is taken from the division of Roman
people into three classes by Servius Tivellius who calls Roman of the first
class Classici, of the second Ciassem and of the last Proletarii. Accordingly
the epithet ' classic ' is generally applied to an author of the first rank, and
( Continued from p . 48 )
Approach, 'in the AboRI , XXVII ( 1946), pp. 209-36. B. Bhattacharyya's * New
Light on the History of the Imperial Gupta Dynasty, ' JBRS , XXX ( 1944), pp. 1-46,
makes use of a Puräna text ( the ' Kaliyugarãjavrttãnta ' chapter of the Bhavisy ot-
tura Purana ) The identification of the King * Chandra ' mentioned in the Meharauli
iron pillar inscription had been one of the most debated questions of the Gupta history
among scholars of pro-1947 period. He had been identified variously with Chandra-
gupta Maurya by H. C. Seth (J IH XXVI, p. 117 ff. ) and B. P. Sinha ( PlHC VI, 1943,
pp. 124-27), with Kanishka by R. C. Majumdar ( JRASB L, IX, 1943, pp. 179-83),
with Chandravarman of Pushkãrana by H. P. Shastri (fî/XII, 1912, pp. 317-18),
with the Näga kings Chandra ms'a and Sadãchandra respectively by Raychaudhuri
( PHAI, p. 481 ) and A. V. Venkatrama Aiyer ( quoted by S. K. Aiyangar in Ancient
Indian and South Indian History And Culture , Vol. 1, 1941, p. 93), with Devara-,
kshita of the Purãnas by B. C. Sen ( Some Historical Aspects of the Inscriptions of
Bengal , 1942, pp. 205-7 ), with Chandragupta I by S. K. Aiyangar (AlsiHC, pp.
198-209) and R G Basak ( Il NEI* pp. 15-17 ) and with Chandragupta II by Hoernle
( I A, XXI, pp. 43-44), Jayaswal ( JBORS , XVIII. pp. 31 if.), Sircar (JRASB, L, V,
1939, pp. 407-15 ), Altekar ( y&4,p. 21 ), G. R. Sharma ( IHq XXI, 1945, pp. 202-
12) and many others.

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l2 Annals BORI, LXXVII ( 1996 )
more purticularly to a Greek or Roman author of that character. T

term 4 Classic ' is a synonym for the choicest products of the literature o
cient Greece and Rome. The high esteem in which Greek and Lat
held at the revival of letters obtained for these authors the name of ť Cla
and when other first rate works are intended, some distinctive name
as the English Classics, Spanish Classics or French Classics. The term
ssical *, therefore, refers to the literary and other production of the firs
order.27 Romila Thapar also follows such a definition. She opines :
the conventional definition of a classical age is one where liter

architecture, and the fine arts reach a high level of excellence to f
a standard for later times. 8
In the European context the classical tradition chiefly meant th

tural heritage of Greece and Rome and the Roman concept of Un
Empire and its legacy of law and jurisprudence. This legacy was
transformed in ther medieval period under the impact of various fac
forces chief of them being the immigration and invasions of the bar
growth in the dominance of the Christian Church, feudalism, etc. I
the situation was mutatis mutandis the same. Here usually the age o
imperial Guptas is equated with the ' classical age ' of India, als
c golden * because of its great achievements. Its achievements in lit
arts and sciences correspond to the achievements of the Greeks and
in these spheres, its concept of the Chakravartîkshetra is comparable w
concept of the Universal Empire, the title ' Caesar ' adopted by the
emperors reminds one of the title ť Vikramãditya ' usually adopted
Gupta emperors and subsequent rulers, the growth of the Smyti Law
ponds to the development of Roman law and jurisprudence, and so o
the factors in the decline of classicism in India were similar to those of E
However, there is no unanimity about the upper and lower limit
Indian classical age. Its lower limit is sometimes extended to 750 A.
the upper one is so stretched by some as to include the Kushãna and
times even the Maurya age in it. It is not surprising since in Europe
27 Maity, S. K*, The Imperial Guptas and Their Times (cir. A. D. 300-5
Delhi, 1975, p. 1 ; David N. Lorenzen also discusses the idea of the Gupta pe
golden age, « Professor GoyaPs Suggestion on Political History Writing in the
Historians and Political History of the Gupta Empire', Political History in
ing World , eds. G. C. Pande, S.K. Gupta and Shankar Goyal, Jodhpur, 19
44-56. For another unbalanced definition of the golden age, vide Jamindar, R
concept of the Golden Age and Some General Problems ', Problems of India
riography, ed. Devahuti, Delhi, 1979, pp. 76-77.
a8 Thapar, Romila, op. cit., p. 157.

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historians and chroniclers have been using the term ' ancient • as almost syno-
nymous with the age of the classical or Graeco-Roman civilization. It may,
therefore, be reasonably conceded that in India also the age of the Imperial
Guptas marked the efflorenscence and culmination of earlier tendencies, many
of which go back to the Maurya period and that some of its glory continued
for about two centuries after the fall of the Gupta empire. However, the age
of the mighty Gupta emperors was the focal point of this long period. It is
in this sense that the term * classical ' or * golden ' has been used for the
Gupta age by most Indian historians.
The climax of nationalist interpretation of the Gupta age as the classi-

cal of India was reached in 1954 with the publication of The Classical Age ,
the third volume of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's multi-volume History and
Culture of the Indian People series under the general editorship of R. C.
Majumdar, the best known of the older generation of Indian historians.
This is the work of nationalist historians writing for their own countrymen
at a time when nationalist feeling in India had never been more intense. In
his Foreword to this work K. M. Munshi highlights the achievements of the
Gupta rulers thus :
The four Gupta emperors, - omitting, of course, the ignoble Rãma-

gupta, - in maintaining the ideals of a chakravarti9 made the state
at one and the same time, powerful, stable, dynamic and happy.
The age saw the speculative thought among others of Vasubandhu
and the Nayanmãrs ; the perfect lyric and drama of Kãlidãsa ; the
astronomical discoveries of Varahamihira ; the iron pillar of Delhi ;
the beginnings of the structural temples; the beauty of the early
Ajanta fi escoes ; the' rise of Vaishnavism and Šaivism ; the comple-
tion of the Mahãbhârata and the composition of the Vayu and
Matsyapurãnas. The empire was not merely based on conquests or
administrative effeciency ; its greatness lay in its integral "outlook.
Its strength was based as much on military strength as on internal
order and economic plenty ; the sap of its vitality was drawn from
the roots of ancient tradition and race memory which they main-
tained, re-interpreted and replenished. The upsurge of the Kshatriya
hierarchs of Madhyadeša and Magadha, loyally pledged to stability,
constituted the steel-frame of the imperial structure. Nor was th¿
splendour of the empire an isolated phenomenon surrounding the
individuality of the rulers. The people, having discovered in their
traditional way of life, something noble and splendid, only saw it
reflected in the greatness of their rulers. The Vãkãtakas and the

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Í4 Annals BORI , LXXVIÍ ( 1996 )
Paliavas of the far sowb, the two other dominant powers in the
country closely allied with the Guptas, joined in availing themselves
of the agency of the Brãhmanas, the missionaries and instruments
of Dharma , by lavish generosity.29
R. C. Majumdar also evaluates the period Ihus :
The Gupta Age, which forms the subject-matter of this volume, has
been described in rapturous terms, as the ' Golden Age ' the
• Classical period • of Indian history, etc. And fully does it deserve
these appellations. It was during this period that Indian intellect
reaches its high watermark in most branches of art, science and
literature, and Indian culture and civilization reached a unique stage
of development which left its deep impress upon succeeding ages.30
Elsewhere K. C. Majumdar opines :
4 All mortal power is doomed to decline, but the memory of great-

ness stands for ever.' These words, put in the mouth of Pericles
by the great historian who witnessed the downfall of Athens, may
be taken as a fit epitaph for the Gupta Empire. It rose and fell,
but left a deep impress upon posterity by the standard which it set
in all departments of life and culture - a standard which was alike
the envy and despair of succeeding ages. Its greatness was such
that even today, after the lapse of fifteen hundred years, the Gupta
Age is regarded as thé Golden or Classical Age of India. In letters
and science, as well as in arts and crafts, it evoked the highest
intellectual expression that India was ever capable of, and the reli-
gious movements and philosophical speculations which it fostered
are still the greatest living forces in Indian life.31
However, in general, the attitude of Majumdar to the subject is admirably

impartial. He criticizes the followers of both Smith and Jayaswal, and
attacks those historians who paint ancient India in too garish colours. He is
not afraid to side with those who disparage Hindu India on certain particular
issues; thus he comments that aucient Indian political history is 'dull and
29 Cf. K. M. Munshi's 'Foreword* in The Classical Age , ed. by R. C. Majumdar,

Bombay, 1954, pp. xiv-xv.
3° In his Preface to The Classical Age, p. XL. vi.
81 Majumdar, R. C. (ed. ), A Comprehensive History of India , Volume Three, Part I
(A. D. 300-985), New Ďelhf, 1981, p. 105 ; also see his 'Preface 'in The Classi-
cal

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Goy al : Historiography of the Imparial Guptas : Old and New 15
lifeless, and, being devoid of general interest, makes no passionate appeal

to the human mind ' ; and on the question of historical writing in ancient
India, disagreeing in this even with V. A. Smith, he courageously states his
conviction that it was virtually non-existent.82 LikelK. M. Munshi and R. C.
Majumdar, R. N. Dandekar states :
In the realms of art and literature, in political and economic enter-

prises, in religious^ and philosophical speculations, in short, in
almost every sphere of life, we get, in this period, the best and the
highest of which the Indians were capable. It was an age of unique
and most typically Indian achievements in the realms of thought and
deed, and amply deserved to be called the Golden Age of Indian
History.33
Even Romila Thapar is apparently inclined to accept Gupta period as

an age when classical norms were evolved :
The Gupta age is better remembered as the age "which saw the
triumph of Sanskritic culture, in many parts of the subcontinent*
... This period saw the crystallization of what came to be the
classical norm in ancient India on both the political and the cultural
levels ... Thus Hinduism revitalized itself and was able slowly to
supplant the heterodox religions. The brãhmans, who regarded
themselves as the interpreters of Hinduism, were able to rewrite the
older texts to conform to their own vision of society, as is evident
from Puränic literature, and were able to convert popular secular
material, such as the two epics, the Mahãbhãrata and the Rama-
y ana, into sacred literature.
It was from these cultural roots that the classical norm evolved.84
The year .1954 also saw the publication entitled The Wonder That Was
India by A. L. Basham, the doyen among modern westerñ historians of
ancient India. However, his work was written in a period when the old
3* In The Vedic Age, Bombay, 1951, 42.

m R.N. Dandekar op. cit., p. 279.
3* Thapar, Romila, • Asokan India and the Gupta Age', in A. L. Basham (ed.), Cul -
turai History of India , London, 1975, pp. 38, 46, 48.
Many other historians of ancient India tend to accept the evaluation of the Gupta age
as a golden age. Vide Gupta, P. L., The Imperial Guptas , 2 Vols., Varanasi, 1974-
79 ; Narain, A. K., 4 Religious Policy and Toleration Gupta Age ' in Bardwell L. Smith
(ed.) Essays on Gupta Culture , Delhi, 1983, pp^ 17^-51,

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16 Armais BORI , LXXVII ( 1996 )
imperialistic school of historians had become a thing of the past. T

he could look at the history of ancient India in a more detached ma
example, he did not hesitate to concede that in the age of Chandr
India was perhaps the happiest and most civilized region of the w
the effete Roman Empire was hearing its destruction, and China w
through a* time of troubles between the two great periods of the
the T'angs. "*5 Further, the Allahabad prašasti of Samudragup
appeared to Smith as « ruthless boasts of sanguinary wars strikes
by its humane urbanity, when compared with many similar panegy
other ancient civilizations. ,36
Another work on the Gupta age, particularly on Samudrag

B. G. Gokhale's Samudragupta , Life and Times , published from B
19ò2. It is a readable account of the life, work and personality of
emperor and the background against which they must be viewed.
Gokhale says that ' anything tint is not directly connected with h
been, by and large, studiously avoided, ,37 but he has not in fact
closely to this rule. The work comprises five chapters, a short epl
an equally short appendix on Râmagupta. The first chapter is a tw
survey of the interval between the fall of the Maurya empire and t
the Guptas. The second chapter gives the history of the Guptas
accession of Samudragupta. On the Kãcha problem, Gokhale f
Father Heras, and treats him as an elder brother of Samudragupta
tested the succession and failed. Chapters II I-V form the core of t
and deal with the conquests, social and economic conditions,
religious set up of Samudragupta's time. According to Gokhale it i
doubtful if 6 the order in which the events are recorded ( in the
pillar inscription ) indicates that there were three distinct compaigns ' :
the wars and their results are grouped in various categories. Likew
is no warrant for the view that the southern campaign * was in the
an Ašvamedha campaign '39
S. R. Goyal and His Contribution to Gupta Historiography
In 1967 S. R. Goyal entered the scene with an entirely new ap

to the subject and startling results of a fresh and thorough investigation
field. His doctoral dissertation A History of the Imperial Guptas im
85 Basham» A. L , The Wonder that was India , London, 1954, p. 67.

36 Basham in C. H. Philips, op. cit., p. 270.
87 In his Preface to Samudragupta , p. viii.
88 Ibid., p. 45. 88 Ibid., p. 48.

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ately earned him a place among chief interpreters of the Gupta age.40 Between
1967 and 1989 Professor Goyal published as many as six books on the history
of the Guptas. These are: 1. A History of the Imperial Guptas ( 1967 ),
2. Gupta evam Saniakâlïn Fajavamša ( 1969), 3. Guptakãlín Abhilekha
( 1984 4. Samudragupta Parãkramãnka ( 1987 ), 5. Gupta Sãmrãjya kã
Itihãs ( 1987 ), 6. Gupta aur Vãkãtak Sãmrãjyon kã Fwg(1988).
Unlike his predecessors, Goyal is neither interested in the nature of

sheer dynastic account highlighting a chronological reconstruction of the cour-
se of important events and the achievements of an individual ruler nor is he
obsessed with personal prejudices resulting in coloured projections with histo-
rians writing on a particular dynasty or region generally taking it to be supe-
rior to or more important than other contemporary powers, thereby rendering
an objective assessment and scientific reconstruction practically impossible. On
the contrary, he takes an integrated objective view of history wherein geo-
political, socio-economic and religious factors interact with and not unoften
determine the course of political events and vice versa.41 He not only studies
' what happened ' but also ' why did it so happen ' While recognising the all-
important role played by economic factors in shaping the course of history he
keeps himself free from dogmatism characterising the writings of some Marx-
40 Before the supplication of his thesis in 1966 and its publication in 1967 more than a
dozen research papers of Goyal ón Gupta history had been published. They include :
• Were the Imperial Guptas Brãhmanas by Caste ? * ( in Hindi ), Bulletin of thè
Gorakhapur University , 1961, pp. 5-9; 4 Was Magadha the Original Home of the
Imperial Guptas?' PI HC, 1964 (abstract); 'Was Pãtaliputra the Capital of the
Imperial Guptas?', PIHç, 1964 (abstract); 'Samudragupta: the King of the
Meharauli Pillar Inscription ' (in Hindi), Nãgart Prachïïrinï Patrika , LXXIX, Pt.
iii, V. E. 2021, pp. 261-77; ' Samudragupta and the North-West ' Proceedings of the
Orièntal Conference , Gauhati Session, 1964, pp. 153-68 ; ' The Problem of Bãlãdityas
in the Gupta Period Bhuyan Commemoration Volume , Gauhati, 1965, pp. 100-4;
4 Observations on the Sri Vikrama Coin of Samudragupta ', JNSI, 1965, XXVII, Pt.
ii, pp. 142-45 ; • The Date of Kãlidãsa, An Old Suggestion Modified ' POC, XXII, i,
1965, p. 72f. ( abstract ) ; ' The Date of Vasubandhu and the Identity of His Patron *
(in Hindi), Shri S.'N. M. Tripathi Abhinandana Grantha , Varanasi, 196' pp.
10J.-07 Attribution of Chandragupta-Kumãràdevl Coin Type ' Indian Numismatic
Chronicle . IV, Pt. ii, 1965-66, pp. 116-26; * Attribution of the Coins of Prakãsàditya*,
JNSI , 1966, XXVIII, Pt. i, pp. 17-20; ' Early Chronology of the Gupta Dynasty',
JBRS , III, Jan. 1966, pp. 55-67; 'Gayã and Nãlandã Plates of Samudragupta *t
J BBS, III, Jan. 1966, pp. 68-72.
41 For a new awareness in political history writing of ancient India also see my paper
4 Political History : The Loss of Innocence ' in G. C. Pande, S. K. Gupta and Shankar
Goyal (eds. ). Political History in a Changing World , Jodhpur, 1992, pp. 290-99.
Also cf. my Hi story and Historiography of the Age ofHarsha, Jodhpur, 1992?
pp. 39-40.
3 I Annals BORI]

143.107.8.141 on Thu, 10 Aug 2023 19:40:16 +00:00
ist historians.13 Though in his work, which is primarily a p

Goyal does not refer to the ' golden age ' thesis, he is clearly
the Gupta empire and seems to be quite emotionally conc
growth, integrity and security. For example, he condemns the
gence of Chandragupta II that prevented the empire's expansi
cal fulfilment of greatness. He laments :
... he ( Chandgragupta II ) apparently did nothing to car

cy of annexation persued in the Ganga Valley by Samu
its logical conclusion by incorporating the Indus basin i
This negligence of his, for which Chandragupta and h
had to pay so dearly, becomes highly intriguing when w
that personally he was quite a capable monarch and
power and resources to undertake such a project. But ev
the opportunity slip from his hands arid undertook no
of expansion for about thirty years after his accession
what the available evidence suggests.45
Goyal notices emphatic nationalist orientaion of the Gup

self, particularly of the Brãhmanical revival that coincided
empire. In support of this thesis Goyal has frequently qu
nationalist historians as R. C. Majumdar and A. S. Alteka
Samudragupta as a national hero of Napoleonic stature. No
compares Samudragupta far favourably with Ašoka whose p
the country ' lost to nationalism and political greatness.'45
Despite such important similarities with nationalist his

has also basic differences with the more credulous of them. He criticises the
arch -nationalist K. P. Jayaswal fcr his bias and ambivalence. On the other
hand, he finds the ' dry facts ' - seeking Rankean scientism of R. G. Bhandar-
kar barren and inadequate and puts aside A. L. Basham's advice to only look
for ' what happened ' in ancient India as not applicable to the Gupta period.
He then proposes a new « why did it happen ' approach aiming at the dry facts
* interpretation in the light of a particular ideology.' To achieve the goal of
interpretational fulfilment one has to follow a method that takei into account
the c situational contexts ' of historical events such as components of poli-
43 For details cf. my paper * S. R. Goyal's Approach to History', in S. R. Goyal : His

Multidimensional Historiography, eds. Jagannath Agrawal and Shankar Goyal,
New Delhi, 1992, pp. 23-34.
« Goyal, S. R., H IG, p. 260. 14 Ibid., pp. 63-65.
15 Ibid., p. 189.

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Goyal : Historiography of the Imperial Guptas : Old and New Í9
tical power having « social, economic and religious bases. ' Goyal's approach
also enjoins that ' the different aspects of history cannot be studied in isola-
tion ' from one another but ' only as facets of an integrated reality. ' Then
he asserts that ample material on the Gupta period is available now and quite
a good number of aspectual studies have been completed by competent
scholars to warrant an integrated study of political history in its contextual
relatedness.46
David N. Lorenzen describes Goyal as " the best of a new group of

conservative historians who have reformulated nationalist historiography '' to
suit post-Chinese invasion ( 1962) realities in the subcontinent. He then goes
on to argue that Goyal has been writing " quite direct commentaries on con-
temporary India through implicit comparison between it and the conditions in,
the Gupta age " and " drawing an implicit moral lesson for contemporary
India. "47 Lorenzen feels that two great political controversies, namely, that
4 Ü Ibidu pp. 34-40 ; Goyal's approach to political history and his vision of s new political
history ' has been discussed in detail by a large number of scholars in Political His -
tory in a Changing World ( eds. G. C. Pande, S. K. Gupta and Shankar Goyal,
Jodhpur, 1992) " As far as I am able to see ", writes J. Gonda, " it will indeed imply
a new definition of political history. It will probably mean a turning point in the study
of Indian history." ( p. 370 ). A. K Narain concurs with Goyal by stating that «« ono
cannot agree more with Goyal that by and large history and historians in India have
become stagnant. ( p. 23 ). A. K. Warder enthusiastically welcomes the prospect of
the disappearance of Anglo-centric or Euro-centric studies and its replacement by a
new flowering of Indian tradition itself. ( p. 32 ). According to Alois Wurm, ť< S. R.
Goyal's epoch making contributions to scientific consciousness of history are not only
an appropriate new definition of political history but also, and especially, a concerned
appeal to all scholars to resurrect the phoenix of political historiology from the ashes
of its suicidal self-complacence." ( p. 34 ) A. M. Shastri feels that " the need to widen
and transform the outdated attitudes to history cannot be seriously disputed, and a
historian cannot now afford to remain content with finding out only 4 what happened
he must also try in earnestness to find out ' why did it happen ' wherever possible. "
(p. 36) David N. Lorenzen opines that the call of S. R. Goyal, who in his view is#
one of the five best recent historians of ancient India, other four being A. K. Narain
Romila Thapar, P. L. Gupta and D. N. Jha, " for a new style of political history of
ancient India deserves whole-hearted support from all historians engaged in this enter-
prize." ( p. 44 ). According to Vivekanand Jha, " Goyal deserves credit for stressing
the need for change and improvement in ancient Indian political history and for his
readiness to discard the stale and the puerile and to receive and welcome the best from
both West and East, old and new." (p. 63) Many other scholars such as K. D.
Bajpai, Ri P. Sinhá, Lallanji Gopal, B. N. Mukherjee, J. P. Sharma, Sibesh Bhatta-
chary and S. D. Singh have, mutatis mutandis , expressed their agreement with the
basic approach of Goyal.
47 Lorenzen. • Professor Goyals suggestion on Political History Writing in the Light ot
Historians and Political History of the Gupta Empire ' in G. C. Pande, S. K. Gupta
and Shankar Goyal (eds. ), Political History in a Changing World , pp. 53-54.

143.107.8.141 on Thu, 10 Aug 2023 19:40:16 +00:00
20 Annals BORI, LXXVÎt ( 1996 )
over the question of the appropriate level òf India's military preparedness

against threats from China and Pakistan and that over the question of th
extent of federalism in India, have cast their impact on Goyal's treatment
Buddhism and the feudal-federal structure of the Gupta empire respectivel
as the two chief causes of the empire's decline and fall. 118 However, it is n
at all clear why a researcher working on the Gupta empire should regard th
empire as an " unstable aberration " and the small and warring regional sta
tes as the more stable order of "things in ancient India.49 Despite such ne
imperialist bias of Lorenzen, his identification of S. R. Goyal as a neo-nation
list historian may be accepted with the modification that Goyal is scientifi
in approach and nationalist in spirit.50 Indeed Qoyal feels that the distinc
tion between the nationalist and scientific historians is more or less artificial
and some sort of nationalist bias is found among historians of all countries
when they write about the past of their own people. In support of this state-
ment Goyal quotes R. C. Majumdar who declared that the nationalist bias
" is not necessarily in conflict with a scientific and critical study, and a
nationalist historian is not ... necessarily a propagandist or a charlatan." 51
One of the most important results of Goyal's work was that the
interest of Indian historians in Gupta history, which was on the wane,
was rekindled. Consequently several monographs on the subject were
produced on the post-1967 period including P. L. Gupta's Gupta Sãmrãjya
(Varanasi, 1970), U. N. Roy's Gupta Samrãt aura Unkã Kãl (Allaha-
bad, 1971 ), P. L. Gupta's English work The Imperial Guptas , in two
vols. (Varanasi, 1974 and 1979), Š. K. Maity's Gupta Civilization ( Calcutta,
1974) and The Imperial Guptas and Their Times ( New Delhi, 1975 ), Ash-
wini Agrawal's Rise and Fall of the Gupta Empire ( Delhi, 1989 ) and T. R.
Sharma's A Political History of the Imperial Guptas ( New Delhi, 1989 ).
Apart from them, special mention should be made here of A Comprehensive
History of India , Vol. Ill, two parts (New DJhi, 1961, 1982) and B. P.
Sinha's A History of Bihar , Vol. I, and Dynastic History of Magadha ( New
Delhi, 1977 ). However, all of them are written from traditional point of
view dominated by ť what happened, ' approach. None of them seem to
have adopted the concept of New Political History which is becoming more
and more popular in the West and is being advocated persistently by Goyal
*8 ibid., pp. 54-55. 49 Lorezen, op. cit., p. 55.

B0 Mitra, P. K. 4 S. R. Goyal and Modern Historiography of the Gupta Age,' S. R . Goyal :
His Multidimensional Historiography , eds. Jagannath Agrawal and Shankar Goyal,
New Delhi, 1992, p. 85.
M Goyal, HIG, pp. 33-34.

143.107.8.141 on Thu, 10 Aug 2023 19:40:16 +00:00
GoyàL : Historiography of the Imperial Guptas : Old and New 21
in his numerous monographs and papers.52 In Maurya history also, Romila

Thapar and others are making use of it. In the reconstruction of political
events on traditional lines also, some of these works seek to avoid a discus-
sion on latest views by adopting the simple expedient of not referring to them.
For example, while B. P. Sinha, R. C. Majumdar and S. K. Maity quote and
discuss the suggestions of Goyal on numerous occasions in their respective
works quoted above, expressing their agreement or otherwise with Goyal,
P. L. Gupta and U. N. Roy nowhere mention his views though they were
published years before their own works came to light. Below we are giving
a comprehensive account of the contributions made to Gupta historiography
by S. R. Goyal and other historians who wrote after him. For the sake of
convenience we shall give the views and suggestions of Goyal first and then
point out how far other scholars differ from him.
Go>al wrote his doctoral dissertation in six chapters.53 In the first

Chapter he has analysed the methods and techniques of studying the various
types of data for the reconstruction of the Gupta history. In that context he,
for the first time, drew attention to the fact that the authors of the early
medieval inscriptions were greatly influenced by the contemporary ideas of
history and the methods of interpretation and inference current in the literary
world of the time. Then he has survèyed the approach of the earlier histo-
rians of the Gupta history and has explained the necessity of the study of
the various factors operating in society. No other historian of post-1967
period has made such an attempt to discuss techniques, methodology and
approaches.
Goyal devotes Chapter II to the study of the early Gupta age. He has
studied the problem of the original home of the Imperial Guptas from an
altogether new angle and has shown that they originally belonged to the eas-
tern part of the present Uttar Pradesh with Prayãga as the early centre of
their jSower. He has discussed the problem in the context of the various
factors leading to the rise of this region. The question of the social milieu of
the Guptas has been studied afresh and it has been shown that the Imperial
62 For a detailed discussion on the major trends in Gupta history and historiography my
Aspects of Ancient Indian History and Historiography , New Delhi, 1993, pp»
181-211. Also see my paoers in Šodha Patrika , Udaipur, Vol. 43. No. 1, Jan.-
March, 1992, pp. 14-35 and Vol. 43, No. 2, AprikTune, 1992, pp. 36-53.
53 For a useful discussion on Goyal's work vide Shastri, A. M., * S. R. Goyal's Contri,
bution to Gupta Historiography', Reappraising Gupta History for S. R. Goyal
eds. B. Ch. Chhabra, P. K. Agrawala, Ashvini Agrawal and Shankar Goyal, New Delhi,
1992, pp. 1-14; et al, Mitra, P. K., 'S, R. Goyal and the Modem Historiography of
the Gupta ' Age, ibid, pp. 15-37.

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iì Annals BORI, LXXVIl ( 1996 )
Guptas most probably belonged to the Brahmana order.54 In this co

Goya! has pointed out the significance of the popularity of the Vedico-Ä
movement and the predominance of the Brâhmanas in the administrat
structure and its effects on the Gupta history. Then, the emergence o
Gupta dynasty as an Imperial power under Chandragupta I is studied in
tion to the contemporary political situation and various other fáctors.
that connection Goyal has dealt with the history of some of the contemp
powers, specially that of the Vãkãtakas.65 Chapter II also contains
appendices, the first of which deals with the early chronology of the G
dynasty.06 Goyal has shown that the Gupta-Lichchavi alliance was cont
cted by Ghatotkacha, that thé Gupta era was founded by Chandragupt
though it was reckoned from the date of the accession of Chandragup
and that Samudragupta ascended the throne in c. 360 A. D. Appendi
concerned with the problem of the authenticity of the Nãlandã and the
copper plate grants of Samudragupta, and Appendix III with the proble
the attribution of the Chandragúpta-Kumãradevi type of coins. New so
tions of both these problems have been offered.
Chapter III is devoted to the reign of Samudragupta. Goyal h

studied the revolt of Kãcha against the background of various pulls
pressures that marked the debut of Samudragupta as an emperor. The
quests of Samudragupta in the different parts of the country have been stud
in the context of the various political, geographical, economic and reli
factors. It is for the first time that the contribution of religion to the
ing of political decisions in that age has been determined with some pr
sion.57 Further, it has also been shown that Samudragupta led more th
one expeditions in the South and that the aim of his adventures in that
of the country was the acquisition of wealth. The evidence of the Pray
prašasti on his relations with the North-Western foreign potentates has
For the view that the Guptas were Brahmaaas, also see present author's paper in
shad-Patrikã, Year 25, Vol. 2. pp. 74-80.
BB For a critical evaluation of the varioùs stages of the historiography of the Vãkãtakas
see my article ' The Progress of Vãkãtakà Historiography ' in The Age of Vãkãtakas #
ed. A. M. Shastri, New Delhi, 1992, pp. 297-308.
56 Fora discssionoi the chronology of the Guptas, see Alka . GoyaPs, paper 'S.R-
Goyal on the Chronology of the Gupta Dynasty ' in Reappraising Gupta History for
S. R. Goyal , eds. B. Ch. Chhabra et al, pp. 38-46. Also see her article 4 S. R. Goyal's
Contribution to the Study of Dynastic Chronology, Political Ideas and Administration '
in S. R. Goyal : His Multidimensional Historiography , eds. Jagannath Agrawal ,
and Shankar Goyal, New Delhi. 1992, pp. 186-93.
Cf. my paper, 'Political Ideology of the Early Imperial Guptas', in Reappraising
Gupta History for S. A' Goyal, eds. B. Ch. Chhabra et al, pp. 215-223.

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connected with the tribal movements that took place in Bactria and North-
western India in his reign and also with the evidence of the Meharauli pillar
inscription. The identity of the king * Chandra mentioned in the Meharauli
record, has been discussed in Appendix TIT of this Chapter and, for the first
time, it has been suggested that he was perhaps no other than Samudragupta
himself.53 Other appendices of this chapter are concerned with the place of
Kãcha in the Gupta history, the relative . chronology of Samudragupta's
campaigns, the capital of the Gupta empire, the date and patron of Vasu-
bandhu and the date of Kãlidãsa Goyal has placed the great poet in the latter
half of the fourth century A.D.
Chapter IV deals with the reigns of Chandragupta II and Kumära-

gupta I. In the reign of Chandragupta II western India became the major
stage of the drama of political history. In that context Goyal has studied
the problem of Ilãmagupta and has proposed an entirely new solution based
on a new interpretation of the archaeological, numismatic and literary data.
Then, the causes of the Šaka war of Chandragupta II are analysed and his
relations with the Vãkãtakas are discussed and put in their proper historical
perspective.69 Goyal has shown that the age of Chandragupta II and
Kumãragupta I was the period of transformation of the Gupta royalty and
the repercussions of this change on the political developments have been poin-
ted out. Then, the Gupta invasion of the Deccan towards the close of
the reign of Kumãragupta I is stuclied in the context of the new alignment of
powers that took place due to the hostility between the Vãkãtakas and the
Guptas.
Chapter V is devoted to the study of the transformation and decline of

the Gupta empire in the period from the accession of Skandagupta to the
death of Budhagupta. Goyal has shown that the invasion of the Pusyami-
58 Also see King Chandra and the Meharauli Pillar , eds. M. C. Joshi, Sr K. Gupta
and Shankar Goyal, Meerut, 1989. The present work is a complete study of the Meha-
rauli iron pillar and the inscription of King Chandra engraved on it. The Meharauli
iron Pillar is metallurgically unique and a fine specimen of Gupta art while the problem
of the identity of king Chandra eulogised in its record is one of the most intriguing and
baffling problems of ancient Indian history. The work contains the lead paper of
S. R. Goyal on the problem of the identification of King Chandra, (pp. 73-82 ) and
also presents twenty-four reaction-papers on it by the cream of Indologists ( pp.
83-196).
59 We also feel that for the Gupta political influence over the Vãkãtakas there is not much
tangible evidence. For details see my paper, • Chandragupta li s Political Influence on
the Vãkãtakas; Epigraphical Evidence Re-Examined', History and Archaeology
( Professor H. t>. Sankalia Felicitation Volume ), ed. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Delhi, 1989»
pp. 351-56.

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24 Annals BORI LXXVlI ( 1996 )
tras on the Gupta empire and the invasion of the Vãkãtakas o

connected events and were the results of the aggressive policy
against the Vâkãtakas in the preceding reign. The Huna invasi
studied afresh and the nature of Skan Jagupta's achievements i
tely determined. Then the problem of gradual transformation
the empire is taken up and it has been shown, for the first t
influence of Buddhism had much to do with the weakening o
authority in this period. The genesis of the feudal-federal organ
empire and its influence on the fortunes of the state are also
the two appendices of this chapter respectively, the problems
immediately after Kumãr .gupta I and the order of succession
gupta are dealt with. In the Uter appendix, a new solution of
of the place of Bãlãdityas in the Gupta history is proposed.
Chapter VI deals with the disintegration and collapse o

empire. In that connection, Goyal has studied the invasion
under Toramâna and Mihirakula and has given an entirely new
Further, the expansion of the Huna power has been put in its
context and the religious aspect of the Gupta-Huna struggle h
sed in detail, for the first time. Goyal has also shown how th
Buddhist ideology and the feudalization of the state structure u
central authority and led to the rise of new powers. In tha
history of some of the new powers has been dealt with. In th
this chapter, which deals with the order of succession after t
Budhagupta, Goyal has suggested a new solution of the problem
of Prakãsãditya in the Gupta history.
Goyal's new approach and its results created a stir in t

scholarship and older writers hurried either to refute Goyal's c
modify their own in the light of his suggestions. Younger writ
been deeply impressed and are sometimes carried away. Natur
solutions offered by Goyal to various problems of Gupta histo
been approved, but his basic concept and ideal of historiograp
unchallenged.
Marxist Criticism of the Golden Age Model : D. N. Jha
Meanwhile, Marxist historians appeared on the scene of In

riography seeking to explode the ' golden age ' utopia on the g
presence of what they call ' cruel and exploitive inequalities' in
D. D. Kosambi's Ah Introduction to the Study Gf Indian Hi
^nd Romila Thapar's A History of India , Vol. I. ( 1966 ), introdu

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Goyal i Historiography of the Imperial Guptas : Old and New 25
dimension in modern historiography of the Gupta age moderately and

soberly. Marxist interpretation of Indian history was initiated by S. N*
Datta,'50 S. A. Dangefil and D. D. Kosambi62 and has been followed mutatis
mutandis by many historians such as R. S. Sharim,63 Romila Thapar,04
Suvira JaiswaF5 and Vijay Kumar Thakur66 who have been explaining and
analysing the evolution of Tndian history with reference to the changes in the
means and relations of production, so much so that some of them even look
upon the the Gïtâ as a manual of feudal ideology.67 In recent years many of
them have criticised the concept of the Gupta age as the classical or golden age
of India. For example, V. K. Thakur 8 and R. S. Sharma69 have postulated
60 Studies in Indian Social Polity , Calcutta, 1944; Dialectics of Land Economics

in India , Calcutta, 1952. Taking a long view of ths socio-economic developments
throughout the ancient period, Dutta spoke at length of the class struggle and growth of
feudalism in ancient India.
61 Dange sought to prove the emergence of slave society in the later Vedic period. Vide
his India from Primitive Communism to Slavery , first edn., Delhi, 1949. Fora
critical evaluation of the book, see D. D. Kosambi, ť Marxism and Ancient Indian
Culture', A BOR I, XXIX, 1949, pp. 271-77.
M The writings of Kosambi generally give an idea of his perception of the changes in early
Indian society. Cf. his * Early Stages of the Caste System in Northern India ', JBBBAS ,
XXII, 1946, pp. 33-48; ' Ancient Kosala and Magadha ' ibid., XXVII 1951, pp,
180-213; • The Basis of Ancient Indian History', J AOS LXXXV, 1955, pp.* 35-45,
226-37 ; An Introduction to the Study of Indian History , Second revised edn.
Bombay, 1975; The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical
Outline , seventh edn.. New Delhi, 1982.
63 Cf. Sharma, R. S., « Historiography of the Ancient Indian Social Order, ' in Historians
nf India, Pakistan and Ceylon , ed. Ç. H. Philips, London, 1961, pp. 102-14 ¿
Perspectives in Social and Economic History of Early India% New Delhi, 1983,
chs. 9 and 10; Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India »
New Delhi, 1983, ch. 1.
61 Romila Thapar 's articles focussing on social changes in early India have been compile
in Ancient Indian Social History, Delhi ; 1973 ; also see her A History of India* I
Harmondswörth, Penguin, 1966.
65 Jaiswal, Suvira, The Origin and Development of Va/snavism, Delhi ; 1967.
66 Cf. Thakur, V. K., Urbanisatiön in A ncient India , New Delhi, 1981; Historio -
graphy of Indian Feudalism Towards a Model of Early Medieval Indian
Economy c, A.D. 600-1090 , Patna, Í989.
67 Kosambi, D. D., Myth and Reality , Bombay, 1962, p. 12f.; Thakur, V. K., Historio -
graphy of Indian Feudalismt pp. 110-11. Also see D. N. Jha's article on D. D.
Kosambi in Historians and Historiography ' in Modern India , ed. S. P. Sen,
Calcutta. 1973. o. 129.
61 For details, vide Urbanisation in Ancient India, DD. 261-91.
63 Sharma, R. S., • Decay of Gangetic Towns in Gupta Times', Proceedings of the
Indian History Congress , 33rd Session, Muzaffarpur,. 1972, pp. 92-104 ; also
sec his Urban Decay in India (c. 800-1000), New Delhi, 1987,
( Continued :on the next page. )
4 [ Annals [ BORI ]

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26 Annals BORI LXXVII (1996)
the theory of urban decay in the Gupta age. Romila Thapar

the classicism of the Gupta period to northern India alone.
For historians writing in the early twentieth century

age ' had to be a utopia set in the distant past, an
chosen by those working on the early history of Ind
which Hindu culture came to be firmly established. H
classicism of the Gupta period was restricted to n
alone, since in the Deccan and South India it was th
period that saw the evolution of a high level of civiliza
Among Marxist historians it is D. N. Jha, whose vi

particularly analysed here, who has expressed grave, doubts i
of the popular notion that the Gupta period was the golden
ancient Indian history quite explicitly. 7J In his general evaluati
period he argues that the Gupta age cannot be called the go
Indian history especially because, in his opinion, the prosperity
progress of the period did not reach most sections of societ
of the country. He argues that the eulogy of the Gupta rule
in their epigraphs, especially in the Prayãga Prosasti of Sam
points out that in the nineteenth century, when Prinsep
epigraphists and historians studied these epigraphs, nationali
berately made use of them to prove that the Gupta period w
of Indian history. He states :
The Gupta emperors, with the exception of the 1 ign

gupta, are also credited with a revival of nationalism
because they fought against the Shakas and the Hu
court drama or Sanskrit poetical work directly refers
( Continued from p. 25. )

It is beyond the scope of the present chapter to discuss Sharma's
decay. However, here it may be remarked that in ancient period ne
buildings were constructed with the help of the debris of the olde
fore, it will be hazardous to postulate a decline of urban centres on th
logical evidence alone. Further, the literary data throws ample l
centres of the Gupta age. And, lastly, the existence of urban centre
period is not in consonance with the theory of urban decay in t
Thakuť, V, K., ' Urban Centres in Early Medieval Bengal : An Ar
pective a paper submitted to the Seminar on Socio -Econo mie Form
Middle Ages of Indian History, organised by the Department of
Culture and Archaeology. University of Allahabad, Allahabad, De
*° Thapar, Romila, A History of India, I, p. 136.
71 Jha, D. N., Ancient India - An Introductory Outline , N. W. Del

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ruler. The only contemporary reference to them is found in the

Puranas, Which contemptuously group them with many petty kings
described as " barbarous ( mlechchhapraya ), impious, dishonest ( or
liars), niggardly and highly irascible." The praise showered on
the Guptas is found in their own inscriptions, Samudragupta's eulogy
being the longest. Soon after their fall they joined the legion of the
forgotten, and their memory was not revived until the nineteenth
century when their records were deciphered. The documents were
seized upon by the nationalist Indian scholars, who used them justi-
fiably as counterargument to the persistent British imperialist propa-
ganda : " India has no history, except conquest by a continuous
succession of foreign invaders. '7-
Jha approvingly quotes Kosambi to support his view : It has been

rightly remarked that " far from the Guptas reviving nationalism, it
was nationalism that revived the Guptas. "73
Jha also raises objections on the question of accepting Gupta culture

as ' Hindu '. He argues :
The period of the imperial Guptas is described in most standard

works on Indian history as one of Hindu renaissance. This is far
from true. The highest achievements of the Gupta sculpture are
the Buddhist images from Sarnath ; the best contemporary paintings
from Ajanta have Buddhist themes. Progress in astronomical
knowledge as represented in the writings of Aryabhata and Varaha-
mihira owed, only in part, to indigenous tradition. One of the five
astronomical systems dealt with by Varahamihira was the Romaka-
siddhanta, which evidently referred to the Roman system ; another
the Paulishasiddhania is explained as a recollection of the name of
the classical astronomer Paul of Alexandria. The main evidence for
the so-called Hindu renaissance theťefore lies in the writings of
Kalidasa, the composition of some of the Puranas, and in the coins
and inscriptions which indicate that the Gupta kings patronised the
two brahmanical sects, Vaishnavism and Shaivism. But the works
of Kalidasa are not indicative of an intellectual rebirth or revival of
literary activity ; they merely imply a further devèlopment of the
literary forms and styles which were evolving in the earlier period.
The Puranas had existed much before the time of the Guptas in the
w Ibid.. o. 115. T3 Ibid.

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form of bardic literature ; in the Gupta age they were fin

plied and given their present form. Nor does the growin
rity of Vaishnavism and Shaivism mean any religious res
The basic tenets of the two religions go back to earlier t
in the context of emerging feudal conditions they could
greater following. The use of the term Hindu is equally err
Jha's choicest barbs are levelled against the social and religio
tions of the age. He argues that it was á period of decentralisat
characterised by a decline of urban centres, increase in the varie
emergence of new castes of which some were administrative func
a more evident presence of untouchables.75 It will be worthwhile
at some length on this point. According to him in the Gupta
certain parts of the country the positton of independent peasant
mined, and they were reduced to serfs or semiserfs. ,,?ô " The
subinfeudation therefore reduced the permanent tenants to the
tenants-at-will. "77 u The position of peasants was also undermin
Gupta period onwards on account of the imposition of for
( vishti ) and several new levies and taxes."75 "Languishing tr
the decline of urban centres at least in the Gangetic plains, which
heartland of the Gupta empire."79 " The status of women conti
line ... They themselves came to be regarded as property which co
or loaned to anybody. " 60 " The practice of Sat i ( self-immola
funeral pyre of the husband ) gained approval of the jurists."91
varna distinctions in various spheres of life can be seen in the wr
Gupta period ... A Puranic text compiled in Gupta times associat
colours : white, red, yellow and black, with brahmana, kshatriy
and shudra ^respect i vely. This shows the relative status of the
The writings of the period emphasise that a brahmana should no
from a shudra because it reduces his spiritual strength ... All t
the class bias of law and justice." 2 <s The practice of untouchab
more intense than in the earlier period."33 " The best poets and
often found their richest pasture in man's passionate physical l
Î4 Ibid., pp. 114-15.

76 Jha also argues that many of these changes were due to the emerging fe
However, according to some, emergence of serfdom, slavery and feudali
much earlier, in the Maurya period.
76 Op. Cit., p. 101. 77 Ibid.
Ibid. IbidĚ , p. 101.
8° Ibid.. D. 103. " Ibid.. DD. 103-04.
8a Ibid., pp. 104-05. 83 Ibid.. p. 106.

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Goy al : Historiography of the Imperial Guptas : Old and New Í9
man."84 u The uneducated masses could have hardly understood and much
less appreciated the ornate court literature. Not surprisingly therefore the
leading male characters of high social status in the contemporary plays speak
polished Sanskrit, and those of low status and all women speak Prakrit. ,,8S
" Some Indian historians have been so enamoured of the Guptas as to
tirelessly speak of their rule as representing a golden age in Indian history. In
an emotionally surcharged multivolume work we are told in a vein of romantic
lamentation : ť Life was never happier ' Yet it was during the period of the
Guptas that in certain parts of the country serfdom appeared leading even-
tually to the economic bondage of the peasantry. Women became an item of
property and came to live in the perpetual tutelage of man, notwithstanding
their idealisation in art and literature. Caste distinctions and caste rigidity
became sharper than ever before ; law and justice showed a definite bias in
favour of the higher castes. Fa-hsien, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim-scholar
who came to India during the reign of Chandragupta II, tells us that the
people were generally happy. True, the upper classes were happy and pros-
perous, and lived in comfort and ease, as can be judged from the contemporary
art and literature. But this could have been hardly true of the lower orders ;
... Social tensions continued. But religion was used as an instrument for
maintaining the varna divided society. For the upper classes all periods in
history have been golden ; for the masses none. The truly golden age of the
people does not lie in the past, but in the future. " 93
Thus Jha's observations go against the view that the Gupta age was the
golden or classical age of India. However, to us it seems that he has not
followed a clear concept of the ' classical ' or 4 golden ' age. He apparently
does not use the term 'golden' or ' classical ' age in the generally accepted
sense of an age where literature, architecture, and the fine arts reach a high
level of excellence to form a standard for later times. He uses it in the sense
of * revival ' or ' resurgence ' in order to prove that the Gupta age was not the
age of ' revival ' or ' resurgence '. This is apparent from his observation that
" the works of Kalidasa are not indicative of an intellectual rebirth or revival
of literary activity ; they merely imply a further development of the literary
forms and styles which were evolving in the earlier period. The Puranas had
existed much before the time of the Guptas in the form of bardic literature ;
in the Gupta age they were finally compiled and given their present form.
Nor does the growing popularity of Vaisnnavism and Šaivism mean any
religious resurgence. The basic tenets of the two religions go back to earlier
w ibid. p. 114. 88 ibid.

w Ibid., pp. 115-16.

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âÒ Annals BORI, LXXVII ( 1996 )
times ; now in the context of emerging feudal conditions they could attract a
greater following."87
The main purpose of Jha in propounding the thesis that the Gupta age
was not an age of revival ' or ' resurgence ' is obviously to circumvent the
logical conclusion which emerges from his own observations that the Gupta
culture represents the culmination of earlier tendencies and in several spheres
became a standard or norm for the subsequent ages, which is what one means
by the term ' classical age ' Jha is quite aware of the fact that in several
fields great achievements were made in the Gupta age which became ideal or
norm for the subsequent ages. For example, he concedes that " In litera-
ture, as in art and architecture, the Gupta period witnessed an efflorescence
... >' 58 that "The Guptas issued the largest number of gold coins in ancient
India ... " 89 that *' Prosperous town dwellers seem to have lived in comfort
and ease ... "90 that "Gatherings were held where poetic recitations, compo-
sitions and music were* heard ..." 91 that " The courtesan was not looked
down upon. She was a normal feature of city life..." 92 that " Earlier develop-
ments in plastic arts seems to have culminated in the Gupta period ... The
crowning achievement of the Gupta sculpture is noticeable in the numerous
seated and standing images of the Buddha and bodhisattvas from Sarnath..."93
that " Painting was a developed art ... The Ajanta artists displayed consum-
mate skill in delineating human and animal figures ... Decorations in ceil-
ings, pedestals of columns and door- and windowframes speak of the artists'
extraordinary powers of conception and technique..."'-11 that "The Gupta
period may be said to be a landmark in the development of philosophical
ideas ... 9S and that " Sanskrit language and literature, after centuries of evo-
lution, through lavish royal patronage reached what has been described as a
level of classical excellence."90 He also quotes Fa-hsien's statement that " the
people were generally happy."97 In view of these facts one should have no
hesitation in concluding that the Gupta age was the golden or classical age of
ancicnt India, provided one is ready to follow the generally accepted definition
of such an age. But Jha apparently believes that in golden age all the sec-
tions of society throughout the length and breadth of the country should be
happy. That is why he asserts that in the Gupta age, though " the upper
classes were happy and prosperous, and lived in comfort and ease, as can be
8* Jha. D. N.. ob. cit.. DD. 114-15.

» Ibid., p. 112. 89 Ibid., p. 102.
«° Ibid., p. 103. 91 Ibid.
» Ibid. »3 Ibid., p.lU.
•* Ibid., p. 112. 96 Ibid., p. 110.
»6 Ibid., p. 112. " Ibid., p. 115-16.

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judged from the contemporary art and literature " 08 u this could have been
hardly true of the lower orders "90 and laments that " for the upper classes all
periods in history have been golden; for the masses none. 100
Jha has also tried to side-track the issus in another way. He raises
objection against the use of the term ť Hindu ' for Indian culture of the Gupta
period; for, he argues, " The highest achievements of the Gupta sculpture are
the Buddhist images from Sarnath ; the best contemporary paintings from
Ajanta have Buddhist themes. Progress in astronomical knowledge as
represented in the writings of Aryabhatta and Varahamihira owed, only in
part, to indigenous tradition. One of the five astronomical systems dealt
with by Varahamihira was the Romakasiddhanta , which evidently referred to
the Roman system ; another the Paulishasiddhanta is explained as a recollec-
tion of the name of the classical astronomer Paul of Alexandria. " 101 But if
one will be guided by this approach there will remain nothing which one would
be able to call ' Indian ', what to talk of * Hindu ' As has been emphasised
countless times even by the most orthodox ť Hindu ' scholars, Indian culture
has been, and is, a composite culture and so was the Hindu culture of ancient
period. To differentiate between ' Hindu ', 4 Jaina ' and ' Buddhist ' cultures
in the ancient period of our country's history is, to say the least, a futile exer-
cise, and against the beliefs and psychology of our ancestors. They never
thought in terms of separate Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina cultures ; to believe
in such an absurdity would be believing that, to quote only one example,
Paramãdityabhakta Prabhãkaravardhana, the Pusyabhüti ruler of Kanauj,
and his sons Paramasaugata Rãjyavardhana II and Paramamähesvara Harsha
belonged to three different cultures As regards the contribution of the Greeks
and Romans to ancient Indian astronomy, and the acceptance of this contri-
bution as part of Indian astronomical lore, is it a proof of the inherent assi-
milative strength of Indian culture or a proof of the presumption that the
Gupta culture was not ' Hindu ' ? Historians, who give such arguments criti-
cise the Hindus of the Rajput age for not being able to assimilate foreign
elements, but in the present case they cite the assimilation of the Greek and
Roman astronomical schools in Indian astronomy only to pròve that the
Gupta culture was not Hindu.102
D. N. Jha's views on the Gupta age have been severely criticised by
98 l bid., p. 116. °9 Ibid .

100 Ibid. 101 Ibid., p. 114.
iça For a detailed exposition of Goyal's views in this regard, see his Gupta Sãmrã^a
kã Itihãs , Meerut, 1987, pp. 419-26.

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32 Armais BORI , LXXVll ( 1996 )
S. R. Goyal and he has been fully supported by T. P. Verma.103 L

Gopal has also vehemently criticised the theory of economic decline i
Gupta age.104 Goyal is deeply concerned with the growing gross misr
sentation and distortion of Indian history due to the bias and sub
approach of some of our historians during the last three decades. He
cularly criticises the Marxist and communal analyses of Indian histor
concedes that a historian cannot be completely free from his own perce
and ideas and there should be nothing to prevent him from suggesting
factors and results of any event which do not find explicit mention i
sources but, he argues, he is expected not to draw conclusions on the
of pre-concei ved notions. This can be achieved only through an objec
look at the events and their background. Goyal is, therefore, highly cr
of the deliberate misinterpretation of the Gupta age by D. N. Jh
others. Raising his voice against the argument of Jha that the prospe
of the golden age was not evenly distributed, he asks, when did it ha
that the fruits of a classical or golden age were enjoyed by all section
society throughout the length and breadth of a country?105 It hap
neither in Athens nor in Rome and nor England. According to Goy
Jha has viewed the Gupta age with the eyes of a 4 sanitary inspector'10
whilt evaluating it as a golden age he looks upon only those aspects w
appear to htm defective. India is a country of caste system with its d
backs quite well-known. But is it fair to ignore the great achievement
our ancestors of a particular period on this plea? Does it mean tha
period of Indian history may be called 'golden' or 'classical*, becau
caste system existed in India in the Vedic age and exists even now ? G
agrees that the literature of the Gupta age does not contain the eulog
the Gupta emperors. But does it not mean, he argues, that they were
given that importance in Indian society which was given to Alexander
Caesers in Europe ? Does it not prove that the contemporary literatur
not * royal ' in inspiration ? Does it not make Indian classical age
glorious and relevant for our times ? If Jha criticises the inscriptions
Guptas for being eulogies of these rulers, then he should admire the
literature for not giving such an importance to them. But he criticis
epigraphic eulogies of the Guptas for being ' royal ' or ' official ' in na
103 Verma, T. P., « Goyal's Contribution to Gupta History' S. R. Goyal ; His M

dimensional Historiography eds. Jagannath Agrawal and Shankar Goyal, pp.
107-22.
104 Gopal, L., • Economic Decline in the Golden Age (? ) : Reappraising Gupta History
for S. R. Goyal, eds B. Ch. Chhabra et al New Delhi, 1992, pp. 263-70.
105 Goyal, S. R.( Gupta Samrajya ka Itihas , p 425.
106 IM- P. 424.

143.107.8.141 on Thu, 10 Aug 2023 19:40:16 +00:00
and at the same time argues that the Gupta rulers were not much important,
for they are not admired in the literature of their own period. It hardly
sounds logical and fair.
Jha commits another illogicality also. He laments that there is no

description of common man in the eulogies of the Gupta emperors. This
lamentation is misplaced, for such a description cannot be found in royal
edicts. Do we find the description of the activities of ' common man ' in the
royal edicts of any ancient culture ? If we want to reconstruct the life
of common man, we should study folk literature, folk life as depicted in
the Jãtakas , Kathã literature, Purãnas etc., folk songs, festivals, popular
celebrations, folk art in the form of terracottas, the gateway reliefs of Sañchl,
the vedikã reliefs of Bharhut etc., and not the royal edicts or court literature
or court art. V. S. Agrawala, for example, used such material for the recon-
struction of ancient Indian folk religions, and not the Vedas, Upaniçads
Gita and other religio-philosophical texts.107 Jha evidently expects material
for the study of common man at a wrong place,103
l0T Agrawala, V. S., Frachtn Bharatiya Lok a Dharma , Ahmedabad, 1964.

103 Also see my paper , entitled * A Critique of Professor D. N. Jha's Evaluation of the
Classicism of the Gupta Age,' B eapraistng Gupata History for S. R. Goyal , eds. B.
Ch. Chhabrá, P. K. Agrawala, Ashvipi Arawal and Shankar Goyal, New Delhi, 1992,
pp. 61-73. This edited volume of B. Ch. Chhabra and others is probably the first
work in which some attempt has been made to face the challenge of the critics of thç
classicism of the Gupta age.
$ [ Annals BoRl ]

143.107.8.141 on Thu, 10 Aug 2023 19:40:16 +00:00

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HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE IMPERIAL GUPTAS: OLD AND NEW

Author(s): Shankar Goyal

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41702162

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VOL. LXXV1I ] 1996 [ Parts I-IV

HISTORIOGRAPHÝ OF THE IMPERIAL GUPTAS :

Beginnings of Historiography of the Gupta Age

1 The Gupta inscriptions have been edited and translated by J. F. Fleet i

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Gupta monarchs from Chandraguptä I to Skandagupta anci the ach

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the field of political history, though historiography of the cultural trends is

Early Western Historians

It may be doubted if any equally efficient foundation was to be seen

3 Quoted in H/G, pp. 28-29. 4 Ibid p. 29.

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great Ašoka, whose teaching still bore such wholesome

6 Smith, Vincent A., Early History of India , p. 296.

8 Ibid., p. 306. 10 Ibid., p. 301.

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Early Indian Historians

It was mainly in the twentieth century that Indian scholars directed

In the Introduction to his small volume he summarizes his ideas on the

14 For a detailed study of Poussin's historical outlook, vide Basham, A. ť Modern

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In dealing with all these materials one should procee

Before admitting the narrative contained in any work to be histori-

Many Indian historians of pre-1947 period followed Bhandarkaťs

16 Collected Works of Sir R. G. Bhandarkar , Volume I, p. 4.

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shit to the extinction of the Gupta Dynasty. In so many respects it is still

In general, Raychaudhuri is cautious and restrained, a historian of the

However, Raychaudhuri never intended his work to be a comprehensive

Like most early historians of ancient India, Raychaudhuri betrays no

Other monographs that appeared immediately after Raychaudhuri, and

>8 Raychaudhuri, H. C, PHai, preface to the first ed., p. v.

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1933 saw another significant work on political history

It should be noted that he did not over-do militarism. He was fully

Further, he opines that during the reign of Samudragupta :

81 Jayaswal, K. P., HI, p. 204. Ibid., pp. 205-06.

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He ( Samudragupta ) destroyed the Mãlavas and the Yaudheyas,

He, therefore, concluded :

In 1934 R. G. Basak, who held an eminent position in the field of

»3 ibid., pp. 210-11. 24 Ibid., p. 211.

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In 1939 B. S. Upadhyaya brought out his book entitled Gupta

However, the most important work on the Gupta age that ap

The above survey of the features and achievements of our

Apart from these monographs, numerous articles and chapt

25 Altekar, A. S. and Majumdar, R. C., The Vãkataka-Gupta Age> 2nd ed

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Thus the pre-independence historiography of the age of the Guptas

Classical or Golden Age Model

In the early years of the independence era Indian historians generally

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more purticularly to a Greek or Roman author of that character. T

the conventional definition of a classical age is one where liter