A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c12.2

c12.2

The rise in A. D. 320 of the Imperial Gupta dynasty, with its capital at Pātaliputra (Patna), the ancient seat of empire, marks the beginning of a new epoch. Under a succession of able and long-lived monarchs the Gupta dominions rapidly increased, until in the first quarter of the fifth century they comprised in modern terms Central and Western Bengal, Bihār, the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, part of the Central Provinces, and the whole of Mālwa and Gūjarāt, with the peninsula of Surāshtra or Kāthiāwār. We know from the contemporary testimony of the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien that the compact empire thus formed was then well governed by Chandragupta II, surnamed Vikramāditya.