The Age of the Imperial Guptas c4.2

c4.2

What was the condition of Magadha when under the leadership of Candragupta I the people of that country attained independence and later on suzerainty? Magadha had been annexed to the Kuṣāṇa empire in the first century A.D., by the generals of Kāniṣka I and the venerated alms-bowl of the Buddha taken away from Vaiśālī to Puruṣapura or Peshawar. In the year 3 of the era of Kāniṣka, *i.e.*, in 81 A.D., a Kuṣāṇa Great-Satrap (*Mahākṣatrapa*) named Kharapallana was ruling over North Eastern India and under him there was a governor or Satrap (*Kṣatrapa*) named Vanaspara,¹ probably in charge of the provinces of the extreme North East, extending from Benares to Eastern Bengal. It is, therefore, quite probable that even in the opening decades of the fourth century A.D., North Eastern India was being ruled by a Scythian Great Satrap and Magadha by a Satrap. The coinage, both gold and copper, of the Later Great Kushans is still extremely abundant in the markets of Patna, Gaya and Benares and on this evidence alone, in the absence of others, it would be pertinent to assume that the Later Great Kushans continued to rule over North Eastern India. The foundation of an independent kingdom in Magadha by Candragupta I, therefore, amounted to the liberation of the people of Magadha from the thraldom of the hated Scythian foreigner.