Indian History Quiz: Gupta Empire

Gupta imperial rule is conventionally dated from about 320 CE, the epoch of the Gupta era that begins with the accession of Chandragupta I, and it faded out by about 550 CE after the Huna invasions.

Gupta gold coins were called dinaras, a name borrowed from the Roman denarius that had already reached India through trade and through Kushana coinage.

The first two members of the family, Sri Gupta and Ghatotkacha, used only the modest title Maharaja, which historians read as a sign that they were subordinate rulers.

Harishena was the court poet and a high officer of Samudragupta, and he composed the Prayag Prashasti in ornate Sanskrit, partly in verse and partly in prose.

He ended the long rule of the Shaka Kshatrapas over Gujarat, Kathiawar and Malwa, took the title Shakari meaning enemy of the Shakas, and is also known by the title Vikramaditya.

Fa-Hien came to India in search of Buddhist texts and travelled through the Gupta dominions during the reign of Chandragupta II.

Kumaragupta I, who bore the title Mahendraditya, is credited with founding the Nalanda Mahavihara in present-day Bihar. Later rulers, including Harshavardhana and the Palas, endowed it further, and it grew into the largest residential centre of Buddhist learning in Asia before it was destroyed in the late twelfth century.

The Sudarshana lake near Girnar in Saurashtra was an artificial reservoir first built in Mauryan times and repaired more than once.

Aryabhata completed the Aryabhatiya in 499 CE at the age of twenty-three.

The Gupta empire was divided into provinces called bhuktis, each placed under a governor called an uparika who was often a prince of the royal family.

Built in the early sixth century, it is one of the first stone temples to carry a shikhara over the sanctum, the feature that defines the Nagara style, and its panels of Vishnu reclining on Shesha and of Nara-Narayana are standard illustrations of Gupta sculpture.