The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c29.68

c29.68

There are indications that Pātaliputra, although it may have been still regarded as the official capital, ceased to be the ordinary residence of the Gupta sovereigns after the completion of the extensive conquests effected by Samudra-gupta. The Maurya emperors, it is true, had managed to control a dominion very much larger than that of the Guptas from the ancient imperial city, but, even in their time, its remoteness in the extreme east must have caused inconvenience, and a more central position for the court had obvious advantages. Ajodhya, the legendary abode of the hero Rāma, the ruins of which have supplied materials for the building of the modern city of Fyzabād in Southern Oudh, enjoyed a more favourable situation, and appears to have been at times the head-quarters of the government of both Samudragupta and his son, the latter of whom probably had a mint for copper coins there. There is reason to believe that during the fifth century Ajodhya, rather than Pātaliputra, was the premier city of the Gupta empire.