The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.65

c29.65

Samudragupta, although not able to undertake the conquest of the west, had received an embassy from the son of another Rudradāman, the satrap Rudrasena, who must have been deeply impressed by the emperor's triumphant march through India. Chandra-gupta II, strong in the possession of the territory and treasure acquired by his father, resolved to crush his western rival, and to annex the valuable provinces which owned the satrap’s sway. The motives of an ambitious king in undertaking an aggressive war against a rich neighbour are not far to seek; but we may feel assured that differences of race, creed, and manners supplied the Gupta monarch with special reasons for desiring to suppress the impure foreign rulers of the west. Chandra-gupta Vikramāditya, although tolerant of Buddhism and Jainism, was himself an orthodox Hindu, specially devoted to the cult of Vishnu, and as such cannot but have experienced peculiar satisfaction in ‘violently uprooting’ foreign chieftains who probably cared little for caste rules. Whatever his motives may have been, he attacked, de-throned, and slew the satrap Rudrasinha, son of Satyasinha, and annexed his dominions. Scandalous tradition affirmed that ‘in his enemy’s city the king of the Śakas, while court-ing another man’s wife, was butchered by Chandra-gupta, concealed in his mistress’s dress’;¹ but the tale does not look like genuine history. The last notice of the satraps refers to the year A. D. 388, and the incorporation of their dominions in the Gupta empire must have been effected soon after that date.