History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c18.s1.9

c18.s1.9

Bhāraśivas had adopted Gaṅgā and Yamunā as the symbols of freed Āryāvarta, and rightly hooded Nāgas were put over the figures of the river goddesses, translating politics into the language of the chisel. The Guptas duly took over those motifs though they removed the Nāgas from their heads. The sombre Śiva of the Bhāraśivas and the Vākāṭakas makes room for the constructive Viṣṇu who stands with His hands erect upholding Hindu society, with a vigour which knows no lessening. Solid, not elegant, become the homes of Hindu gods. Square-built, rock-cut and rock-like temples are preferred to pinnacles. Self-confidence is the breeding spirit of the time. The Hindu has faith in himself: the Vākāṭaka, the Gaṅga and the Gupta speak of their manly beauty moulded by swords and arrows; deities are compared with men and to the advantage of men. Faith in the great God Viṣṇu, to whom the Gupta dedicated all his deeds and in whom he merged himself, was transmitted to the whole nation and even to Further India. This unity of man and his God was reflected in the sculptures they wrought by fashioning them after the devotees. The lofty spiritual tone reached the very zenith. Vindhyaśakti whose strength grew in great battles and whose valour could not be overcome even by gods, was yet a man exerting himself to gain spiritual merit. Mādhav I of the Gaṅga kings, whose decorations were wounds received on battlefields, declared that kingship existed only for rendering good government to the people. Śiva Skandavarman, the performer of proud sacrifices, was after all a Dharma-Mahārājādhirāja. Samudra Gupta the rampart of religion, the path of the sacred hymns, worthy of study by others, was practising royalty and his duty in a way that gave him the satisfaction that he was winning his heaven and hereafter thereby. Man was made for society, and by performing his duties he was winning the kingdom of heaven. Revivalist piety thus spiritualized politics, even conquest, and left passive pietism and inert quietism of the pre-revival days to bury its past. Buddhist celibacy had lowered the position of woman. Now once more woman became the object of high honour and a political partner. In coins and inscriptions she is given equality. Wife was never so honoured as Samudra Gupta honoured Dattadevi. In the greatest moment of his triumph at Eran the Emperor of All-India proudly remembered his life-partner and the day of his marriage when her dowry consisted of only the manliness of her lord, and whose grandeur now consisted in being the ideal Hindu woman, the kula-vadhū and the Hindu mother surrounded by sons and grandsons.