History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c18.s1.7

c18.s1.7

§ 208. The field, however, had been prepared by the Bhāraśivas and more so by the Vākāṭakas. Sanskrit had been employed by the Śuṅga kings in their official inscriptions. It was employed by Rudradāman, again, about 150 A.D., but the Kāvya style, as evidenced by the Champā (Cambodia) inscription which anticipates Samudra Gupta’s style, is referable to the Vākāṭaka period. The Vākāṭakas had already created an All-India Empire. They had driven the Kushans to a corner. They had raised the military tradition of the people. They had brought back the Śāstras to their rightful throne. Samudra Gupta took full advantage of it and kept up the continuity of history initiated by the Bhāraśivas and fostered by the Vākāṭakas. They had paved the road through which the Shāhānushāhis and the Śaka lords could be brought to Ajodhyā or Pāṭaliputra to bend their heads before the Hindu throne. The renaissance had begun before 248 A.D. The Hindus had freed themselves already from the Kushan social tyranny and their political rule. They had already rejected Buddhism as a system unfit for their society tending to make people weak and passive. It had been, however, left for Samudra Gupta to give a constructive faith, and he gave it in the form of his bhakti in Viṣṇu. The