Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c26.10

c26.10

The causes of the decline of the early Gupta Empire are not far to seek, though a detailed presentation of facts is impossible in view of the paucity of contemporary records. The broad outline of the story is, however, perfectly clear. The same causes were at work which proved so disastrous to the Turki Sultanate of Delhi in the fourteenth century, and to the so-called Mughtal Empire in the eighteenth, *viz.*, outbreak of rebellions within, devastating invasions from without, the growth of a class of hereditary governors and other officials who commanded enormous influence in local centres, and assumed the titles of *Mahārāja* and *Mahārājādhirāja*, and dissensions in the imperial family itself.