DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

9.3 ] REVIVAL OF NATIONALISM ? 311
Sanskrit literature, a new development of the Gupta period,
foreshadowed under the Kuganas and Ksatrapas. It was necessary,
because of the upper class of ksatriya courtiers with their auxiliary
brahmins whom the artificial language and mannered literature
separated from the common herd that produced food and luxuries for
them.
Indian school texts now credit the Guptas with a ‘ revival of
nationalism’, a phrase piously repeated by all. Actually, no extant ‘golden
age 1 court drama or other literature mates direct reference 6 to any Gupta.
Ralidasa’s Malavikdgnimitra is related to the Sungas; the Mudraraksasa
of Visakhadatta purports to describe the masterly intrigue whereby
Canakya placed Candragupta Maurya securely upon the throne of
Magadha. Only the puranas among contemporary documents mention
the early Guptas, contempuously grouped with many other petty kings
: “The Ganges banks, Prayaga (Allahabad), Saketa (Fyzabad) and the
Magadhas — all these districts (janapadas) will be enjoyed by (kings of)
Gupta lineage.... All these kings will be contemporary, barbarous
(mleccha-prayas), unrighteous (or impious), dishonest (or liars),
niggardly, highly irascibe.” The dynastic name is derived from the
termination gupta of each king’s personal name, showing that the line
had no respectable origin as clan, tribe, or caste ; the idea of paying
brahmins to invent a genealogy, as happened so frequently later, does
not seem to have arisen. The first Gupta emperor (A. D. 319-20)
Candragupta I married a Lic-chavi princess, Kumaradevi not only did
he issue coins jointly with her but the son, great conqueror Samudragupta,
boasted of his mother’s family. Samudragupta had “exterminated” all
Naga kings, and the surviving Nagas were but little distant from savagery
except for a few royal families, soon to be extinct. That such high famiies,
perhaps ennobled by help of the brahmins like some of the Ahom and
Gond rajas of recent times, did exist is dear. For, Samudragupta’s son
Candragupta II (also known as Devagupta and under many glorious
titles like Vikramaditya and Sfihasanka which he was apparently the
first to assume and bear with great distinction) married a Naga princess
Kuberanaga. The daughter of this union was Prabhavatigupta,