History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s1.35

c16.s1.35

A. Chandra Gupta I who was dying either of wounds or of a broken heart on his expulsion from Pāṭaliputra, addressed Samudra Gupta, one of his younger sons, with tears in his eyes, and with the tacit consent and approval of his Council of Ministers,—'you now, my noble sir, be the king ("protect the kingdom"),' and expired.¹ The death must have taken place on the other side of the Ganges, in the territory of his relations, the Lichchhavis. As a Lichchhavi subordinate and relation, his son at this moment would have obtained the province of Sāketa, i.e. the adjoining territory of Oudh, where at Ayodhyā we find in the next reigns the Gupta Emperors residing as at their second and favourite capital. It was a centre of culture. Ayodhyā had been the home of the poet Aśvaghosha, the Kālidāsa of the preceding epoch. To Ayodhyā belonged the great scholar Sikhara Svāmin who became the Prime Minister of Rāma Gupta and Chandra Gupta II.² Ayodhyā had the orthodox imperial tradition of Rāma's name, a name which was given to the eldest son of Samudra Gupta,³ a name which embodied the whole of the past Hindu civilisation. Samudra Gupta fully imbibed that tradition. Hindu learning became a part of the political cult of Samudra Gupta and his descendants. The rājasa (kingly) bhakti in Viṣṇu moulded their national actions and their political character. Like Viṣṇu they stood solidly to support the kingdom of India. Their bhakti (faith) is intense. They think of Viṣṇu and they think in Viṣṇu. Samudra Gupta and Chandra Gupta II become practically one with their God. Any one who has seen the Viṣṇu image enshrined by Samudra Gupta at Eran, would be reminded of Samudra Gupta himself and see the King's figure and dress in that statue. One who would see the Viṣṇu-Varāha at the Chandra Gupta Cave at