The Guptas and After: Harsha and the Kingdoms of the South

The Gupta age (c. 320–550 CE) is often called "classical" because so much that later India took as standard was settled in it: Sanskrit as the language of court and learning, the Nagara temple, the decimal place-value arithmetic of Aryabhata, the Puranic gods, and the plays of Kalidasa. After the Guptas the centre of gravity drifted. Harsha held the north from Kanauj, but the Deccan and the south now produced empires of their own — Chalukyas, Pallavas, Rashtrakutas and, greatest of all, the Cholas, whose navy crossed the Bay of Bengal. Read this chapter for two things: the names that pair (king and inscription, king and temple, traveller and court), and the long change from a land of empires to a land of regional kingdoms and land grants that historians call the early medieval.

The Gupta Empire: Rise and Rulers

The family began modestly with Sri Gupta and Ghatotkacha. Its fortunes turned with Chandragupta I (c. 319/320–335 CE), who took the title Maharajadhiraja, married the Lichchhavi princess Kumaradevi — gold coins show the royal couple together — and whose accession marks the start of the Gupta era in 319–320 CE. The alliance gave the Guptas the prestige of an old republican clan and a firm hold on the middle Ganga plain.

📖 An emperor who wrote his conquests on Ashoka’s pillar
Samudragupta (c. 335–375 CE) had his court poet Harishena compose a eulogy in Sanskrit — the Prayag Prashasti — and carved it on the same Allahabad pillar that bears Ashoka’s edicts, five and a half centuries apart. It describes a careful policy: nine kings of Aryavarta were uprooted and their lands annexed; twelve kings of Dakshinapatha, among them Vishnugopa of Kanchi, were captured and then released and reinstated (grahana-moksha-anugraha); the forest chiefs (atavika) were made servants; frontier kingdoms and distant rulers sent tribute and homage. A Chinese source adds that Meghavarman of Sri Lanka sought his permission to build a monastery at Bodh Gaya. V. A. Smith called him the "Napoleon of India". His coins show him performing the Ashvamedha and playing the veena, and the Prashasti praises him as Kaviraja, king of poets.
  • Chandragupta II "Vikramaditya" (c. 375/380–415 CE) — defeated the last Western Kshatrapa, Rudrasimha III, and so won Gujarat and Malwa with the western sea-ports; struck silver coins for the conquered west and made Ujjayini a second capital. Marriage diplomacy again: he married the Naga princess Kuberanaga, and their daughter Prabhavatigupta married the Vakataka king Rudrasena II, ruling the Deccan as regent after his death. The Chinese monk Faxian travelled in India in his reign. The Mehrauli iron pillar in Delhi, famous for not rusting, carries an inscription of a king Chandra, usually identified with him. Later legend gives him a court of "nine gems" (navaratna), Kalidasa among them.
  • Kumaragupta I (c. 415–455 CE) — a long, peaceful reign; the Nalanda monastery is traditionally said to have been founded by him (Xuanzang’s "Shakraditya", identified with Kumaragupta, who bore the title Mahendraditya). His coins show Kartikeya on his peacock.
  • Skandagupta (c. 455–467 CE) — beat back the first Huna invasion (his Bhitari pillar inscription) and, according to his Junagadh inscription, had the Sudarshana lake repaired once more, by Chakrapalita, son of the governor Parnadatta.
  • Decline — under weaker successors the Hunas returned under Toramana and Mihirakula; Mihirakula was defeated by Yashodharman of Malwa (Mandasor inscription) and by Narasimhagupta Baladitya. Feudatories broke away — the Maitrakas of Valabhi, the Maukharis of Kanauj, the later Guptas of Magadha — and the empire was gone by the mid-6th century.
⚠️ The "nine gems" contain a man born a century too late
The navaratna list — Kalidasa, Amarasimha, Dhanvantari, Varahamihira, Vararuchi, Kshapanaka, Shanku, Vetalabhatta, Ghatakarpara — is a later legend, not a court register. Varahamihira lived in the 6th century (c. 505–587), long after Chandragupta II. And Aryabhata is not in the list at all. A statement that places either of them at Chandragupta II’s court is wrong.
The Gupta centuries (approximate)
  1. 319–320 CE
    Chandragupta I; Gupta era begins
  2. c. 335–375 CE
    Samudragupta — Prayag Prashasti by Harishena
  3. c. 375/380–415 CE
    Chandragupta II — Western Kshatrapas defeated; Faxian in India
  4. c. 415–455 CE
    Kumaragupta I — Nalanda founded
  5. c. 455–467 CE
    Skandagupta repels the Hunas
  6. 499 CE
    Aryabhata writes the Aryabhatiya
  7. 510 CE
    Eran inscription of Bhanugupta — first epigraphic record of sati

Gupta Administration, Economy and Society

Gupta kings took grand titles — Maharajadhiraja, Parameshvara, Paramabhattaraka — and were praised as godlike, yet their government was less centralised than the Mauryan. Much of the empire was held by feudatory kings, and officials were increasingly paid by grants of land rather than in cash. High offices could become hereditary: the poet Harishena was at once Sandhivigrahika (minister of war and peace), Kumaramatya and Mahadandanayaka.

Gupta administrative units and terms
TermMeaning
BhuktiProvince, under an uparika
VishayaDistrict, under a vishayapati
VithiA smaller unit within the district
GramaVillage, under a gramika with village elders
SandhivigrahikaMinister of war and peace (foreign affairs)
MahabaladhikritaCommander-in-chief
DandapashikaChief police officer
Bhaga, bhoga, udranga, uparikaraLand revenue and related levies; the share was traditionally one-sixth
VishtiForced labour owed to the state — not a tax in cash or kind
AgraharaTax-free land granted to Brahmanas
🎯 Why land grants matter for the whole period
From the Satavahanas onwards, and on a large scale from the Guptas, kings gave villages to Brahmanas, temples and monasteries, often with the right to collect taxes and settle disputes. Historians such as R. S. Sharma read this as the beginning of Indian feudalism: a weakening centre, a class of landed intermediaries, peasants tied to the land and declining trade and towns. Others, such as B. D. Chattopadhyaya, see instead an integrative process in which grants carried agriculture and state authority into new regions and tribal areas. Know both readings; examiners set the debate, not a verdict.

The Guptas issued the largest number of gold coins in ancient India, called dinaras, though their purity fell in later reigns; silver coins served the west after Chandragupta II. Long-distance trade with Rome had faded but that with South-East Asia and China grew. Society hardened: the Smritis of Yajnavalkya, Narada, Brihaspati and Katyayana elaborated law, and the Puranas took their final form. Untouchability deepened — Faxian records that Chandalas lived outside villages and struck a piece of wood to warn others of their approach. The position of women declined, and the Eran inscription of Bhanugupta (510 CE) gives the first epigraphic evidence of sati, recording that the wife of the general Goparaja burnt herself on his pyre.

ℹ️ What Faxian saw — and what he never mentions
Faxian (Fa-hien) left China in 399 CE and returned by 414 CE, spending some six years in India collecting Buddhist texts; his account is the Foguoji ("A Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms"). He describes a prosperous, peaceful Madhyadesha, mild punishments (mostly fines), free hospitals at Pataliputra, and people who avoided killing living things and eating onions or garlic — except the Chandalas. Remarkably, he never names the reigning king: the link to Chandragupta II comes from dating, not from his text.

The Classical Age: Literature, Science and Art

Authors and their works — the pairs that are tested
AuthorWorksNote
KalidasaPlays: Abhijnanashakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, Vikramorvashiyam; poems: Meghaduta, Raghuvamsha, Kumarasambhava, RitusamharaShakuntala was translated into English by William Jones (1789); Malavikagnimitram’s hero is the Shunga prince Agnimitra
VishakhadattaMudrarakshasa, DevichandraguptamPolitical dramas — Chanakya’s plot; a Gupta succession story
ShudrakaMrichchhakatika ("The Little Clay Cart")A play about a poor Brahmana, a courtesan and city life
AmarasimhaAmarakoshaSanskrit lexicon (thesaurus)
VishnusharmaPanchatantraAnimal fables, carried westward as the tales of Kalila and Dimna
Aryabhata (b. 476 CE)Aryabhatiya (499 CE), written at Kusumapura (Pataliputra)Earth rotates on its axis; true cause of eclipses; π ≈ 3.1416; place-value notation
Varahamihira (c. 505–587)Pancha Siddhantika, Brihat Samhita, Brihat JatakaSummarised five astronomical systems, including Greek (Romaka, Paulisha) ones
Brahmagupta (598–668)Brahmasphuta Siddhanta (628 CE)Rules for arithmetic with zero and negative numbers
🧠 Three astronomers in a century and a half
Line them up by birth: Aryabhata (476) → Varahamihira (c. 505) → Brahmagupta (598) — "A-V-B", one per generation. Aryabhata gives the spinning earth, Varahamihira the encyclopaedia (Brihat Samhita), Brahmagupta the zero rules. India’s first satellite, launched in 1975, was named after Aryabhata.

The Gupta period is where the free-standing stone temple begins. The earliest are small, flat-roofed shrines with a square sanctum (garbhagriha) and a pillared porch — Temple 17 at Sanchi, and the temple at Tigawa in Madhya Pradesh. Then comes the decisive step, a tower over the sanctum: the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh (Lalitpur district, Uttar Pradesh), with an early shikhara and a panchayatana plan, and the brick temple at Bhitargaon near Kanpur. Other shrines of the age stand at Nachna-Kuthara (the Parvati temple) and Bhumara (a Shiva temple). In sculpture, the Sarnath school produced the serene seated Buddha turning the wheel of the law, the Udayagiri caves near Vidisha the great Varaha panel, and Sultanganj a two-metre copper Buddha now in Birmingham.

ℹ️ Ajanta, Bagh and the great monastery
The Ajanta caves on the Waghora river in Maharashtra — about 30 rock-cut chaityas and viharas — were made in two phases: c. 2nd–1st century BCE and the 5th century CE, when the Vakataka king Harishena and his ministers sponsored the finest work. The paintings on prepared plaster — the Padmapani Bodhisattva in Cave 1, the "dying princess" in Cave 16, scenes from the Jatakas — are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Bagh caves in Madhya Pradesh carry related paintings. And Nalanda grew into the greatest monastic university of Asia, where Xuanzang and Yijing would later study.
⚠️ Exam trap
Prayag Prashasti = Harishena (for Samudragupta); Aihole inscription = Ravikirti (for Pulakeshin II); Harshacharita = Banabhatta (for Harsha). Three court writers, three patrons — the options will almost always offer the other two as distractors. Likewise, Mudrarakshasa is a Gupta-age play about the Mauryas, by Vishakhadatta, not a Mauryan text.

After the Guptas: Harsha and His Age

📖 A younger brother who inherited a war
The Pushyabhutis (Vardhanas) of Thanesar rose as the Guptas fell. When King Prabhakaravardhana died, his son Rajyavardhana marched to avenge his sister Rajyashri, whose husband, the Maukhari king of Kanauj, had been killed — and was himself murdered by Shashanka, king of Gauda (Bengal). The younger brother, Harshavardhana, came to the throne in 606 CE (the start of the Harsha era), rescued his sister, and made Kanauj his capital. Buddhist accounts paint Shashanka as an enemy of their faith who cut down the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya.
  • Reign: 606–647 CE. Harsha controlled much of the north, but his advance south was stopped on the Narmada by the Chalukya Pulakeshin II, a defeat recorded in the Aihole inscription (634 CE); the exact year of the battle is debated.
  • Writer-king — Harsha himself wrote three Sanskrit plays, Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda. His court poet Banabhatta wrote the Harshacharita (a prose biography of Harsha) and the romance Kadambari.
  • Administration — revenue was about one-sixth of the produce; officials and priests were paid increasingly by land grants, as his Banskhera and Madhuban copper plates show (the Banskhera plate bears what is taken to be his own signature). Harsha also exchanged embassies with the Tang court of China.
  • Religion — a Shaiva by family who came to favour Mahayana Buddhism, Harsha held a great assembly at Kanauj in 643 CE in honour of Xuanzang, and every five years a quinquennial assembly at Prayag where he gave away his treasure.
ℹ️ Xuanzang, the "prince of pilgrims"
Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang) left China in 629 CE and returned in 645 CE. He studied at Nalanda under its head, Shilabhadra, travelled as far south as Kanchi, and recorded everything in the Si-yu-ki ("Records of the Western World"). He calls Harsha Shiladitya. A generation later Yijing (I-tsing), who travelled between 671 and 695 CE, spent about ten years at Nalanda and described its discipline and curriculum.
⚠️ Exam trap
Faxian → Chandragupta II → Foguoji; Xuanzang → Harsha → Si-yu-ki. The books are swapped in statement questions, and so are the dates: Faxian is around 400 CE, Xuanzang around 630–645 CE. And remember that Harsha was defeated by Pulakeshin II — not the other way round.

The Deccan and the South: Chalukyas, Pallavas and Rashtrakutas

From the 6th to the 8th century the peninsula was dominated by a long duel between the Chalukyas of Badami (Vatapi) in the western Deccan and the Pallavas of Kanchi in the Tamil plain, fought over the fertile land between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra. Pulakeshin II (c. 610–642), the greatest Chalukya, stopped Harsha on the Narmada and is celebrated in the Aihole inscription (634 CE) composed in Sanskrit by the Jaina poet Ravikirti. But in 642 CE the Pallava Narasimhavarman I took and sacked Vatapi, Pulakeshin died, and the victor took the title Vatapikonda ("conqueror of Vatapi"). A century later the Chalukya Vikramaditya II returned the blow by occupying Kanchi.

Three southern dynasties at a glance
DynastyCapitalKey rulersMonuments and letters
Chalukyas of BadamiVatapi (Badami)Pulakeshin I (founder), Pulakeshin II, Vikramaditya IIAihole ("cradle of Indian temple architecture" — Ladh Khan, Durga temple), Badami caves, Pattadakal (Virupaksha temple built by queen Lokamahadevi); Aihole inscription
PallavasKanchipuramSimhavishnu, Mahendravarman I, Narasimhavarman I (Mamalla), Narasimhavarman II (Rajasimha), Nandivarman IIMamallapuram — Pancha Rathas, Descent of the Ganga / Arjuna’s Penance, Shore Temple; Kailasanatha and Vaikuntha Perumal temples at Kanchi; Mahendravarman’s farce Mattavilasa Prahasana
RashtrakutasManyakheta (Malkhed)Dantidurga (founder), Krishna I, Dhruva, Govinda III, Amoghavarsha I, Krishna IIIKailasa temple, Ellora (Cave 16, carved from a single rock) under Krishna I; Kavirajamarga, the earliest Kannada work on poetics, linked with Amoghavarsha I
  • Mahendravarman I (c. 600–630) — called Vichitrachitta ("curious-minded"); began Pallava rock-cut temples (Mandagapattu); by tradition converted from Jainism to Shaivism under the saint Appar.
  • Narasimhavarman I "Mamalla" (630–668) — conqueror of Vatapi; the port city Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) is named after him, and the monolithic rathas belong to his age. Xuanzang visited Kanchi during his reign.
  • Narasimhavarman II "Rajasimha" (c. 700–728) — the move from rock-cut to structural temples: the Shore Temple at Mamallapuram and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchi. The poet Dandin (Dashakumaracharita, Kavyadarsha) is associated with the Pallava court.
  • Rashtrakutas — Dantidurga overthrew the Chalukyas of Badami in the mid-8th century; Amoghavarsha I (c. 814–878) built Manyakheta as his capital, patronised the Jaina teacher Jinasena, and wrote (or patronised) the Kannada Kavirajamarga; Krishna III defeated the Cholas at Takkolam in 949 CE. The Arab traveller Al-Masudi counted the Rashtrakuta king — the "Balhara" (Vallabharaja) — among the four greatest kings of the world.
ℹ️ The tripartite struggle for Kanauj
After Harsha, Kanauj became the symbol of power in the north, and for some two centuries (8th–10th) three dynasties fought over it: the Palas of Bengal, the Gurjara-Pratiharas of western India and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan. The Palas — Gopala, chosen king around 750, and his son Dharmapala, who founded the Vikramashila monastery and the Somapura vihara at Paharpur — were great patrons of Buddhism. The Pratiharas held back the Arabs of Sindh; their king Mihira Bhoja called himself Adivaraha, and the Arab merchant Sulaiman (851 CE) praised their cavalry. In the end the Pratiharas held Kanauj longest, and all three were exhausted by the struggle.
⚠️ Exam trap
Shore Temple = Narasimhavarman II (Rajasimha), not Narasimhavarman I. Mamalla gave his name to the town and its rock-cut rathas; the structural Shore Temple is two generations later. Likewise the Kailasa temple at Ellora is Rashtrakuta (Krishna I), while the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchi is Pallava (Rajasimha) — near-identical names, different dynasties.

The Imperial Cholas and Early Medieval Society

The Cholas of the Sangam age had long faded when Vijayalaya captured Thanjavur from the Muttaraiyars around 850 CE. His successors built the most powerful state the south had seen. Parantaka I extended it to Madurai, though his son was killed when the Rashtrakutas won at Takkolam. Rajaraja I (985–1014) conquered the Pandyas and Cheras, the northern half of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, carried out a land survey, and built the Brihadeshvara (Rajarajeshvara) temple at Thanjavur, completed around 1010. His son Rajendra I (1014–1044) completed the conquest of Sri Lanka, led an army to the Ganga — defeating the Pala king Mahipala and taking the title Gangaikonda — founded the new capital Gangaikondacholapuram, and sent a naval expedition against Srivijaya in South-East Asia around 1025, earning the title Kadaramkonda. A later king, Kulottunga I, sent an embassy of 72 merchants to China in 1077.

Chola local government
Unit or bodyWhat it was
Mandalam → valanadu → nadu → urProvince → division → district → village
UrGeneral assembly of an ordinary village
Sabha (Mahasabha)Assembly of a brahmadeya — a village granted to Brahmanas
NagaramAssembly of merchants in a trading town
VariyamCommittees of the sabha — for tanks, gardens, justice and so on
📖 Elections by pot and palm leaf
Two inscriptions of Parantaka I at Uttaramerur (near Kanchipuram), dated 919 and 921 CE, describe how the sabha of a brahmadeya chose its committees. Each ward wrote names on palm leaves and dropped them into a pot (kudavolai); a young boy drew the lots. Candidates had to own taxable land and a house, be between 35 and 70, know the Vedas, and have a clean record — anyone who had served on a committee in the previous three years was barred, and so was anyone who had failed to render a committee’s accounts, together with his relatives. It is the most detailed picture of village self-government from ancient India.

Chola art reached its peak in the Dravida temple — a towering vimana over the sanctum, pillared mandapas and, increasingly, great gateway towers (gopurams) — and in bronze, cast by the lost-wax method, above all the dancing Nataraja. The Great Living Chola Temples — Thanjavur, Gangaikondacholapuram and the Airavateshvara temple at Darasuram — are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In literature, Kamban wrote the Tamil Ramavataram (Kambaramayanam) and Sekkilar the Periyapuranam, the lives of the Shaiva saints.

ℹ️ What "early medieval" means
Historians use the term for roughly 600–1200 CE and point to a cluster of changes: the multiplication of land grants and landed intermediaries; the rise of many regional kingdoms and new ruling lineages such as the Rajputs (whose Agnikula legend in the Prithvirajaraso traces four clans — Pratihara, Chalukya, Paramara and Chahamana — to a fire at Mount Abu); the proliferation of jatis; the growth of regional languages and scripts; the temple as an economic and social centre; and the spread of Bhakti devotion. The philosopher Shankaracharya — traditionally dated 788–820 CE, though many scholars place him earlier — taught Advaita Vedanta and is credited with four mathas: Sringeri, Dwarka, Puri and Jyotirmath. In 712 CE the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Dahir and conquered Sindh. And in Kashmir Kalhana wrote the Rajatarangini (1148–49), often called the first true work of history in Sanskrit.

Travellers, Inscriptions and Quick Revision

Foreign visitors to ancient and early medieval India
VisitorRuler or periodAccount
Megasthenes (Greek)Chandragupta MauryaIndica
Deimachus (Greek)Bindusara—
Faxian (Chinese)Chandragupta II, c. 399–414 CEFoguoji
Xuanzang (Chinese)Harsha (and Pallava Kanchi), 629–645 CESi-yu-ki
Yijing (Chinese)Nalanda, 671–695 CERecord of Buddhist practices
Sulaiman (Arab merchant)Palas, Pratiharas, Rashtrakutas, 851 CESilsilat-ut-Tawarikh
Al-Masudi (Arab)Rashtrakutas, 10th centuryMuruj-ul-Zahab ("Meadows of Gold")
Inscriptions of this chapter — who, where, why
InscriptionRuler / authorRemember for
Prayag Prashasti (Allahabad pillar)Samudragupta / HarishenaConquests; Dakshinapatha policy
Mehrauli iron pillar"Chandra" — usually Chandragupta IIRust-resistant iron
Bhitari pillarSkandaguptaHuna wars
Eran inscription (510 CE)BhanuguptaFirst epigraphic evidence of sati
Mandasor inscriptionYashodharmanVictory over Mihirakula
Aihole inscription (634 CE)Pulakeshin II / RavikirtiDefeat of Harsha
Uttaramerur (919, 921 CE)Parantaka IVillage sabha elections
💡 Think of it like this
Think of the six centuries in this chapter as a relay race in which the baton is the idea of empire. The Guptas run the first leg from Pataliputra; Harsha carries it briefly from Kanauj; then the baton passes south — to Badami, Kanchi, Manyakheta — and finally to Thanjavur, where the Cholas run the last and fastest leg, out across the sea. When a chronology question confuses you, ask where the baton was.

Key takeaways

  • Chandragupta I began the Gupta era (319–320 CE) and married the Lichchhavi Kumaradevi; Samudragupta’s conquests are in Harishena’s Prayag Prashasti on the Allahabad pillar ("Napoleon of India", veena coins).
  • Chandragupta II defeated the Western Kshatrapas, issued silver coins, and ruled when Faxian (Foguoji) visited; Kumaragupta I founded Nalanda; Skandagupta repelled the Hunas (Bhitari).
  • Gupta administration: bhukti–vishaya–vithi–grama, land grants and vishti (forced labour); the Eran inscription (510 CE) is the first epigraphic evidence of sati; the land-grant evidence underlies the Indian feudalism debate.
  • Classical culture: Kalidasa, Vishakhadatta, Shudraka, Amarasimha; Aryabhata (Aryabhatiya, 499 CE — rotating earth), Varahamihira, Brahmagupta (zero); Deogarh Dashavatara temple (early shikhara); Ajanta (Vakataka phase).
  • Harsha (606–647), capital Kanauj; Banabhatta’s Harshacharita; Xuanzang (Si-yu-ki, Nalanda under Shilabhadra); defeated on the Narmada by Pulakeshin II (Aihole inscription by Ravikirti, 634 CE).
  • South: Narasimhavarman I took Vatapi (642) — Mamallapuram rathas; Rajasimha built the Shore Temple and Kanchi’s Kailasanatha; Rashtrakuta Krishna I carved Ellora’s Kailasa; Amoghavarsha I — Manyakheta, Kavirajamarga; the tripartite struggle for Kanauj (Palas, Pratiharas, Rashtrakutas).
  • Cholas: Rajaraja I — Brihadeshvara, Thanjavur (c. 1010); Rajendra I — Gangaikondacholapuram, Ganga expedition, naval raid on Srivijaya; Uttaramerur inscriptions (919, 921) on village sabha elections by lot (kudavolai).

Practice questions (16)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

  1. The Prayag Prashasti, inscribed on the Allahabad pillar and describing the conquests of Samudragupta, was composed by:

    1. Ravikirti
    2. Harishena
    3. Banabhatta
    4. Vishakhadatta
    Show answer

    Answer: B — Harishena

    Harishena, Samudragupta’s court poet and minister of war and peace, composed the Prayag Prashasti. Ravikirti wrote the Aihole inscription for Pulakeshin II and Banabhatta wrote the Harshacharita — both are court writers of other kings, which is why they appear as distractors.

  2. Which Chinese Buddhist pilgrim travelled in India during the reign of Chandragupta II?

    1. Xuanzang
    2. Yijing
    3. Faxian
    4. Song Yun
    Show answer

    Answer: C — Faxian

    Faxian travelled between 399 and 414 CE, in the reign of Chandragupta II, though his account never names the king. Xuanzang came more than two centuries later, under Harsha, and Yijing later still, in the late 7th century.

  3. Consider the following statements about Aryabhata:
    1. His Aryabhatiya was composed in 499 CE.
    2. He held that the earth rotates on its axis.
    3. He was one of the "nine gems" at the court of Chandragupta II.
    Which of the statements given above are correct?

    1. 1 and 2 only
    2. 2 and 3 only
    3. 1 and 3 only
    4. 1, 2 and 3
    Show answer

    Answer: A — 1 and 2 only

    Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 is wrong: Aryabhata, born in 476 CE, is not among the legendary navaratnas at all, and he lived after Chandragupta II. The list does include Varahamihira, which is itself an anachronism.

  4. The earliest epigraphic evidence of the practice of sati comes from:

    1. the Mandasor inscription of Yashodharman
    2. the Bhitari pillar inscription of Skandagupta
    3. the Eran inscription of Bhanugupta
    4. the Mehrauli iron pillar
    Show answer

    Answer: C — the Eran inscription of Bhanugupta

    The Eran inscription of Bhanugupta (510 CE) records that the wife of the general Goparaja burnt herself on his pyre. The Bhitari pillar records Skandagupta’s wars against the Hunas, and the Mandasor inscription Yashodharman’s victory over Mihirakula.

  5. The defeat of Harshavardhana by the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II is recorded in:

    1. the Banskhera copper plate
    2. the Nashik inscription
    3. the Uttaramerur inscription
    4. the Aihole inscription
    Show answer

    Answer: D — the Aihole inscription

    The Aihole inscription of 634 CE, composed by the Jaina poet Ravikirti, celebrates Pulakeshin II and his victory over Harsha. The Banskhera plate is Harsha’s own land grant, the Nashik inscription praises the Satavahana Gautamiputra Satakarni, and Uttaramerur is a Chola record.

  6. The structural Shore Temple at Mamallapuram was built in the reign of:

    1. Mahendravarman I
    2. Narasimhavarman I
    3. Narasimhavarman II (Rajasimha)
    4. Nandivarman II
    Show answer

    Answer: C — Narasimhavarman II (Rajasimha)

    The Shore Temple, like the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchi, belongs to Narasimhavarman II Rajasimha. Narasimhavarman I "Mamalla" is the trap: the town is named after him and the monolithic rathas date from his time, but those are rock-cut, not structural.

  7. The Kailasa temple at Ellora, carved out of a single mass of rock, was built under the patronage of:

    1. Krishna I
    2. Amoghavarsha I
    3. Pulakeshin II
    4. Narasimhavarman II
    Show answer

    Answer: A — Krishna I

    The Kailasa temple (Cave 16) was carved under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I in the 8th century. Narasimhavarman II is the near-miss because he built a temple with almost the same name — the Kailasanatha at Kanchi — but that is a Pallava structural temple.

  8. The Uttaramerur inscriptions of the Chola king Parantaka I are important as a source on:

    1. the Chola naval expedition to Srivijaya
    2. the selection of village committees by lot
    3. the building of the Brihadeshvara temple
    4. the Chola victory over the Rashtrakutas
    Show answer

    Answer: B — the selection of village committees by lot

    The inscriptions of 919 and 921 CE describe how a brahmadeya sabha chose its committees by drawing palm-leaf lots from a pot (kudavolai), with rules on age, property and learning. The Srivijaya expedition and the Brihadeshvara temple belong to later kings, and at Takkolam it was the Rashtrakutas who won.

  9. Consider the following statements about the Chola king Rajendra I:
    1. He founded the city of Gangaikondacholapuram.
    2. He sent a naval expedition against Srivijaya in South-East Asia.
    3. He built the Brihadeshvara temple at Thanjavur.
    Which of the statements given above are correct?

    1. 1 only
    2. 1 and 2 only
    3. 2 and 3 only
    4. 1, 2 and 3
    Show answer

    Answer: B — 1 and 2 only

    Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 is wrong: the Brihadeshvara temple at Thanjavur was built by his father Rajaraja I. Rajendra did build a great temple, but at his own new capital, Gangaikondacholapuram.

  10. Arrange the following events in chronological order:
    1. Accession of Harshavardhana
    2. Capture of Vatapi by Narasimhavarman I
    3. Composition of the Aryabhatiya
    4. Battle of Takkolam
    Select the correct answer using the code below.

    1. 3 – 1 – 2 – 4
    2. 1 – 3 – 2 – 4
    3. 3 – 2 – 1 – 4
    4. 3 – 1 – 4 – 2
    Show answer

    Answer: A — 3 – 1 – 2 – 4

    The Aryabhatiya dates to 499 CE, Harsha’s accession to 606, the fall of Vatapi to 642 and Takkolam to 949. The trap 3–2–1–4 puts Vatapi before Harsha, but the Pallava capture of Vatapi came after Pulakeshin II had already stopped Harsha on the Narmada.

  11. The "tripartite struggle" of the 8th to 10th centuries for control of Kanauj was fought among:

    1. the Cholas, Pallavas and Chalukyas
    2. the Guptas, Vakatakas and Hunas
    3. the Maukharis, Pushyabhutis and Gaudas
    4. the Palas, Gurjara-Pratiharas and Rashtrakutas
    Show answer

    Answer: D — the Palas, Gurjara-Pratiharas and Rashtrakutas

    The Palas of Bengal, the Gurjara-Pratiharas of western India and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan fought over Kanauj after Harsha. The Maukharis, Pushyabhutis and Gaudas are the tempting set, but their rivalry belongs to the early 7th century, before Harsha made Kanauj his capital.

  12. Consider the following statements about Xuanzang:
    1. He studied at Nalanda under Shilabhadra.
    2. He attended Harsha’s assembly at Kanauj.
    3. His account of India is known as the Foguoji.
    Which of the statements given above are correct?

    1. 1 only
    2. 2 and 3 only
    3. 1 and 2 only
    4. 1, 2 and 3
    Show answer

    Answer: C — 1 and 2 only

    Statements 1 and 2 are correct. Statement 3 swaps the books: the Foguoji is Faxian’s record of his journey around 400 CE, while Xuanzang’s account is the Si-yu-ki.

  13. The Kavirajamarga, the earliest known work on poetics in Kannada, is associated with which ruler?

    1. Pulakeshin II
    2. Krishna III
    3. Mahendravarman I
    4. Amoghavarsha I
    Show answer

    Answer: D — Amoghavarsha I

    The Kavirajamarga is linked with the Rashtrakuta Amoghavarsha I, who either wrote it or patronised its author. Mahendravarman I also wrote, but his work is the Sanskrit farce Mattavilasa Prahasana, not a Kannada text.

  14. The Dashavatara temple at Deogarh is significant in the history of Indian architecture because it is:

    1. one of the earliest Nagara temples with a shikhara over the sanctum
    2. the largest monolithic rock-cut temple in India
    3. a Dravida temple with a towering vimana
    4. a brick stupa built by Ashoka
    Show answer

    Answer: A — one of the earliest Nagara temples with a shikhara over the sanctum

    The Gupta-period Dashavatara temple at Deogarh is one of the first stone temples with a tower (shikhara) over the garbhagriha, on a panchayatana plan. The largest monolithic rock-cut temple is the Kailasa at Ellora, and the towering vimana belongs to later Dravida temples such as Thanjavur.

  15. Consider the following pairs relating to Gupta administration:
    1. Bhukti — province under an uparika
    2. Vishaya — district under a vishayapati
    3. Sandhivigrahika — minister of war and peace
    4. Vishti — land revenue fixed at one-sixth of the produce
    Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

    1. 1 and 2 only
    2. 1, 2 and 3 only
    3. 2, 3 and 4 only
    4. 1, 2, 3 and 4
    Show answer

    Answer: B — 1, 2 and 3 only

    Pairs 1, 2 and 3 are correct. Pair 4 is wrong: vishti was forced labour owed to the state, not a tax on produce; the king’s share of the crop was the bhaga, traditionally one-sixth.

  16. Which one of the following pairs of foreign visitor and the ruler in whose reign he came is NOT correctly matched?

    1. Faxian — Chandragupta II
    2. Xuanzang — Harshavardhana
    3. Al-Masudi — the Rashtrakutas
    4. Megasthenes — Bindusara
    Show answer

    Answer: D — Megasthenes — Bindusara

    Megasthenes was the envoy of Seleucus Nicator to Chandragupta Maurya; the Greek envoy at Bindusara’s court was Deimachus. The other three pairs are correct, including Al-Masudi, who counted the Rashtrakuta king among the four great rulers of the world.