History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s1.34

c16.s1.34

117. Guptas in Exile and their Moral Transformation. The years 340 A.D. to 344 A.D., the period of exile of the Guptas from Bihar was not very long but it was full of consequence and future, which produced entirely a new history—a new history not only for Bihar but for the whole of India. It turned the Guptas from outlandish usurpers into a dynasty of the Hindu of Hindus, Magadhan, and protectors and upholders of the Dharma, Brahmin and cow, literature and sculpture, national culture and national civilisation of Hindu India. Beginning as a feudatory ruler under the Vākāṭakas with their imperial insignia of the goddess Gaṅgā on his coin and the title of Rājā only and with no marks of royalty on his person (as portrayed on his Tiger-type coin), Samudra Gupta ended with a proud satisfaction as recorded on his imperial gold coins marked with his Garuḍadhvaja, a satisfaction which is a rare luck of a king in history: on his coins which he published after he had built up his empire, he registered the realisation of the ideal of Hindu hero and Hindu king that he after winning the whole country governed it so well that he won the heaven thereby (p. 112). He made Sanskrit, after the fashion of the Vākāṭaka Emperor, his court language; he undertook and performed aśvamedhas, having made good his restoration to the imperial throne of Pāṭaliputra.