Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v2.c16.322

v2.c16.322

“The dominions under the direct government of Samudragupta thus comprised all the countries of Northern India. It extended from the Hooghly on the east to the Jamunā and Chambal on the west; and from the foot of the Himalayas on the north to the Narmadā on the south. Beyond these wide limits, the frontier kingdoms of Assam and the Gangetic delta, as well as those on the southern slopes of the Himalayas, and the free tribes of Rajputana and Malwa, were attached to the empire by bonds of subordinate alliance, while almost all the kingdoms of the south had been overrun by the emperor’s armies and compelled to acknowledge his irresistible might. The empire thus defined was by far the greatest that had been seen in India since the days of Aśoka. He maintained diplomatic relations with the Kushan kings of Gandhara and Kabul, and the greater sovereign of the same race, who ruled on the banks of the Oxus, as well as with Ceylon and other distant islands.”¹