About the Book
"The Gupta Empire" by Radhakumud Mookerji provides an in-depth analysis of the Gupta dynasty's rise and fall, its administration, social and economic conditions, art, literature, and scientific achievements. The book highlights the period's cultural and intellectual renaissance, known as the Golden Age of India. Key figures like Chandragupta I, Samudragupta, and Chandragupta II are discussed, emphasizing their contributions to the empire's expansion and prosperity.
Preface
This work was written in the last days of my teaching at the Lucknow University and suggested by its needs. Its title indicates its scope and limits. It deals only with imperial Gupta history, and not with that of the later Guptas. It seeks to bring together in a concise and condensed form all the facts and data which are derived from different sources, literary, epigraphic or numismatic, but are treated in separate specialised works. It will thus be found useful to both students and teachers of its subject, who will find in one handy volume all its materials collected and utilised. A special feature of the work is its account of the moral and material progress of the country achieved in the spacious times of the Gupta Emperors, and of the various institutions social, economic, and administrative-in which that progress was embodied. It gives a picture of India's civilization in some of her best days, the days of her national freedom and planning, of the beginnings of her expansion, and intercourse with Indonesia and China. It is hoped that it will thus have a larger and more general appeal beyond the narrow circle of academic students of history. Another special feature of the work is its Illustrations, some of which, especially those of coins, are based on line-drawings to bring out more clearly their details which are somewhat obscure or defaced in the originals. The Illustrations will thus serve as useful aids to the study of the coins. Some of the line-drawings I owe to the distinguished Artists, Messrs Nanda Lal Bose, Asit Kumar Haldar, and P. Neogy, to whom I am grateful. There have been at places repeated citations of the same material where it had to be presented from different points of view, and in its various aspects. Such repetitions have not been ruled out.