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Hindus themselves prefer, however, to-day to identify Indian nationalism with the period when from another long interval of darkness, which followed the downfall of the Kushan kingdom, Indian history emerges into the splendour of what has been called "the golden age of Hinduism" in the fourth and fifth centuries of our era under the great Gupta dynasty, who ruled at Ujjain.
He had inherited the blood of the Gupta emperors from his mother, though his father was only a small Raja of Thanesvar, to the north of Delhi. The tragic circumstances in which he succeeded him made a man of him at the early age of fourteen.
Though nothing is known of the fortunes of Pataliputra, the ancient imperial city of the Mauryas, during the first three centuries of our era, it continued to exist. In 320 a local Raja known as Candragupta I increased his dominions and celebrated his coronation by the institution of the Gupta era.
For Indrajala they read Indrakila which is as unknown as the other. The Vaitarani is the fabulous river that separate this world from the next. In the first line of the 5th, for 'rajna' of the Bengal texts the Bombay text reads 'gupta'. I follow the Bengal reading which is better. In the second line of the 6th, for sasars sena the Bombay reading is sena mahogra which is better. I adopt it.
The Guptas were not bigots. It was probably in their time that the oldest Puranas, the laws of Manu and the Mahabharata received their final form. These are on the whole text-books of Smârta Hinduism and two Gupta monarchs celebrated the horse sacrifice.
".....more ornate, less self-evident, served to reflect the new and elaborate pretensions of the priesthood." * To whose book India through the Ages, I am indebted for these facts concerning the Gupta Age. It is summed up, says Mrs.
"Do not fear," consoled the kind lady. "Your master will take good care of you." "Go you must," she continued in a firm tone. "There is no one except you who knows his ways and can see to his comfort. Now get ready quickly." "Oh, Ma-ji," he sobbed like a child, "I obey, but my heart is heavy." Mr. Gupta had to travel through the night.
Indeed we know that there was a Hindu reaction against the Buddhism of Asoka about 150 B.C. But, on the whole, from the time of Asoka onwards Buddhism had been the principal religion of India, and before the Gupta era there are hardly any records of donations made to Brahmans. Yet during these centuries they were not despised or oppressed.
His son Samudra Gupta continued his conquests and in the course of an extraordinary campaign, concluded about 340 A.D., appears to have received the submission of almost the whole peninsula.
The palki shook, and the bearer's piteous cry "Babu-ji, Babu-ji, I told you" filled the forest, and echoed and echoed again as the tiger bore him away. Then all became still. Gupta realised what had happened. He lay back sick with horror, and felt as if he were the guilty one. For many a day the old man's dying wail rang in his ears. Through the Roof
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