The Vakataka–Gupta Age (circa 200–550 A.D.) c7.1

c7.1

The Vākāṭaka-Gupta age (*c.* 200 A.D. to *c.* 550 A.D.), which is covered by the present volume of the *New History of the Indian People*, is undoubtedly a very important epoch in Indian history. A new political consciousness was created in the country and national solidarity was restored after the lapse of nearly four centuries of political disintegration and foreign domination. At the commencement of our period (*c.* 200 A.D.) the Kuṣāṇas and the Western Kṣatrapas were the leading political powers, more powerful than any other state in the country. It is true that they had become completely Hinduised at this time and were as zealous champions and admirers of Hindu religion and Sanskrit literature as any other indigenous dynasty. But probably it was still felt that they were ethnically different; at any rate the local states and powers whom they had subdued a century earlier were not prepared to reconcile themselves with their domination. As the third century advanced the Kuṣāṇas were gradually ousted from the U.P. and the eastern Punjab where the Maghas, the Nāgas, the Yaudheyas and the Kuṇindas re-established their own independence. The rise of the Sassanians in Iran further weakened the Kuṣāṇa power, till eventually it sank into insignificance towards the end of the 3rd century A.D.