An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c9.4

c9.4

The history of India during the third century is a blank, but in A.D. 320 the family of the Guptas arose, and soon created an empire which recalled the glory of the old Mauryas, and gave North India a century and a half of strong, enlightened government. The peace and prosperity of these years provided the conditions in which religious literature and culture could do their best. It was then that the philosophic texts already mentioned, the early Purāṇas and a great series of Buddhist Mahāyāna Sūtras were written.