The Coinage of the Gupta Empire and its Imitations c6.40

c6.40

The elimination of the Hūṇa power from Madhyadeśa and Mālwā did not prolong the life of the Gupta empire. Yaśodharman of Mālwā, who had co-operated with Bālāditya, eventually turned against him. He invaded the Gupta empire and was successful in penetrating right up to the Brahmputrā. Yaśodharman's invasion was only a raid, but it showed the weakness of the Gupta empire and encouraged fissiparous tendencies. The Maukharis of Kanauj rebelled and founded an independent kingdom in Oudh and northern U. P. And in their home province of Magadha, the descendants of Bālāditya were ousted by a new Gupta family descended from Kṛṣṇagupta, who was probably sprung from a collateral branch. Kṛṣṇagupta, his son Harshagupta and grandson Jivitagupta, were probably loyal feudatories of Budhagupta, Bhānugupta and Bālāditya II. When the Maukharis under Īśānavarman attempted to invade and annex Magadha, we find that it was Kumāragupta III, the son of Jivitagupta, who came forward to oppose the invasion. Neither Bālāditya, the victor over the Hūṇas, nor any of his successors, is ever mentioned in the Maukharī records as the opponent of the imperial expansion of that rising dynasty. It is clear that the imperial Gupta family had died down by c. 540 A. D. and was by that time replaced by Kumāragupta of that dynasty, which for convenience sake is described as the family of the Later Guptas of Magadha.