The GUPTA EMPIRE  was an ancient Indian empire which existed from

approximately 320 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian

Subcontinent. Founded by Maharaja Sri Gupta, the dynasty is a model of

a classical civilization. The peace and prosperity created under the leadership of

the Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors.This period is

called the Golden Age of India and was marked by extensive inventions and

discoveries in science.

Technology, engineering, art, dialectic, literature, logic, mathematics,astronomy, re

ligion and philosophy that crystallized the elements of what is generally known

as Hindu culture. Chandra Gupta I, Samudra Gupta the Great, and Chandra Gupta

II the Great were the most notable rulers of the Gupta dynasty.The 4th century

CE Sanskrit poet Kalidasa, credits Guptas with having conquered about twenty one

kingdoms, both in and outside India, including the kingdoms

of Parasikas (Persians), the Hunas, the Kambojas tribes located in the west and east

Oxus valleys, the Kinnaras, Kiratas etc.

The high points of this cultural creativity are magnificent architecture, sculptures

and paintings. The Gupta period produced scholars such

as Kalidasa, Aryabhata, Varahamihira, Vishnu Sharma and Vatsyayana who made

great advancements in many academic fields. Science and political administration

reached new heights during the Gupta era. Strong trade ties also made the region

an important cultural center and set the region up as a base that would influence

nearby kingdoms and regions in Burma, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia.

RELIGION DURING GUPTA PERIOD

The decline of the Mauryan Empire was followed by a long period of chronic

violence and inter-state warfare, which lasted for almost five centuries. Indians

continued to face the threat of outside attacks and invasions from various outsiders

in the north. During this period of political turbulence, Indians found stability at

the local level of the village and based on the rigid social structure sustained by the

caste system. Continuity for Indians was found in village life, traditional caste

duties and laws, and the understanding provided by their religious beliefs. Over

these five centuries of political violence, the caste system became even more

harshly defined; the number of sub-castes or ‘jati’ increased dramatically.

Brahmanism or Hinduism also evolved during this period which incorporated

beliefs and practices from Jainism and Buddhism thereby solidifying the

connection between religious as well as social duties. Close connections between

religious duty and the social obligations of the caste system secured the

continuation of traditional relationships and behaviors. Although Indians

experienced turbulence at the political level of statecraft and war, the villages, the

caste system, and religion provided a stable framework for the coming centuries.

Around 320, an ambitious and politically talented leader called Chandra Gupta I

emerged. From his power base near the Ganges River Valley, Chandra Gupta I

slowly began to extend control over neighboring territories which was

subsequently carried forward by his son as well as the successor to the throne

Samudra Gupta whereas the final touches of a unified northern empire were

established by his grandson Chandra Gupta II .Apart from the various

accomplishments of the Gupta Empire in diverse fields like astronomy, arithmetic,

medicine etc was the re-establishment of state policy based on religious tolerance,

following the successful precedent set by Ashoka Maurya. 

While Hinduism was clearly the religion favored by the empire's rulers, Buddhism

still flourished; Buddhist pilgrims and scholars from throughout Asia came to India

- to study and visit the heartland of this influential religion was actually a product

of Gupta society. The Gupta Period was marked by great transformation in

Hinduism and Buddhism. Gupta rulers themselves were very sophisticated and

benevolent. Though they were patrons of Brahmanism, yet the Guptas were highly

tolerant towards the other creeds. Both Buddhism and Hinduism were widely

prevalent. The characteristic features of Hinduism enabled it to survive till today;

whereas the new features of Buddhism led to its final decline. Although Buddhism

still appealed in matters of ritual making it to be regarded as a sect of the latter.

Jainism escaped from this fate. It remained unchanged; and there fore it continued

to be supported by the merchant communities of western India. Added to this in

some areas of the Deccan royalty patronized Jainism although it ceased in the 7th

century A.D.

HINDUISM DURING GUPTA AGE

REVIVAL OF HINDUISM

The Gupta is considered as the era of the Brahmanical revival. The Brahmanical

religion had been eclipsed by the dominance of Buddhism and Jainism since the

days of the Mauryas. It regained much of its splendor under the Imperial Guptas.

The Gupta monarchs were staunch supporters of Brahmanism and they gave a

strong impetus to the restoration and enhancement of their religion. Sanskrit, the

sacred language of the Hindus, was revived and the Guptas liberally encouraged its

use. The old forms of worship gave place to the worship of images placed in

beautiful temples which were built in large numbers. Temples were dedicated to

the various deities of the Hindus, such as Vishnu and Shiva. Worship of the images

of these Gods, with its elaborate ritual, became popular. The followers of the

Brahmanical faith or Hinduism were divided into two main sects – Vaishnavas and

Shaivas – the worshippers of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. Brahma was another

deity worshipped by both the Vaishnavas and Shaivas. Importance was given to

Devi worship also.The most distinguishing feature of the religion of the Gupta

period was the emergence of the Bhakti cult which gave importance to intense

devotion and love for a personal God. Worship of God became an individual

concern. Worship gained importance in religion, whilst sacrifice was not

considered an essential part of the religious rites. Man is linked with the Absolute

by intense devotion.Under the Gupta rulers there was religious freedom. Fahien,

the Chinese pilgrim, in his writings has mentioned the religious toleration of the

Gupta rulers.

The Gupta period had witnessed the synthesis of Brahmanical Hinduism with

heterodox creeds. The integration of various heterodox creeds like Saivism,

Vaishnavism and Shakti cult with Brahmanical Hinduism, had marked the

culmination of the Gupta period. The synthesis of heterodox creeds gave rise to

Neo-Hinduism or Puranic Hinduism, the flavour of which is still found in

contemporary Hinduism. The ideal of Neo-Hinduism had almost changed the

concept of Vedic Brahmanism, but the form however remained unchanged.

NEO-HINDUISM AND ITS CONCEPT OF MULTI-CULT CREATORS

The concept of three gods connected with life, death and destruction united

together as "Trinity" or "Trayi" had first materialised during the Gupta Period.

According to neo-Hinduism, the three gods Brahma-Vishnu-Maheswar were united

in the trinity concept or Trayi. According to scholars, due to religious admixture of

heterodox creeds, the concept of "monism" or the doctrine of different schools of

thought had evolved during the Gupta period. Gradually Brahma, considered the

God of creation, passed into oblivion. Only Siva and Vishnu dominated the neo-

Hindu doctrine of the Gupta period. The Puranas were rewritten in order to

accommodate Siva and Vishnu as the chief Gods. Not only they were considered

the chief Gods, but were also attributed with extraordinary powers. Most of the

Vedic Gods passed into oblivion and were replaced by new Gods according to the

concept of neo-Hinduism. Gods like Siva, Vishnu, Kartikeya, and Ganesha who

belonged to the heterodox creeds formerly replaced all the Vedic Gods. Thus due

to religious movements during the Gupta Period, Hinduism became the vast

mosaic of various religious patterns, combining religious ideas of both the old and

the new. 

WIDE PREVALENCE OF WORSHIP OF `SHAKTI` OR MOTHER GODDESS .

`Tantricism`, or the cult of Tantra that preached the worship of female deities, had

initiated the fertility cult. Hinduism, prevalent in the contemporary Gupta Period

could not escape the influence of the Shakti cult. Henceforth it gave rise to worship

of several female gods, who themselves were considered the wives of the chief

gods. The cult of mother Goddess became very popular. Originally "Shakti" was

worshipped as the goddess of force in the form of Kali, Chamunda and Bhima. In

the "Markandeya Purana" Chandi is described as a destroyer of Mahishasura, the

symbol of evil. Gradually the character and concept mellowed down into goddess

Shakti, who was considered the wife of Siva and mother of Kartikeya, Ganesha

etc. The concept of Siva and Durga was very popular. Durga was the new form of

Shakti. Two opposite cults were ascribed to the concept of Shiva-Shakti. Their

violent aspect came to be known as Rudra or Ghora or Chamunda respectively. In

their graceful manifestation they came to be known as Aghora Mahadeva and

Uma. Uma, Haimavati, Durga, Kali were worshipped as the various manifestations

of the wife of Shiva. Lakshmi was worshipped as the wife of Vishnu. Puranas were

re-written to accommodate the new Gods and Goddesses in Hindu temples. The

Puranas described the cult of neo-Hinduism and narrated the mutual relationship of

various gods and goddesses, worshipped according to the concept of neo-

Hinduism. 

Devi worship - the cult of the mother goddess the oldest of all religious - also

seems to have received the imprimature of orthodoxy during this period. We have

the avidence of Gunadhya that tantric forms of worship were prevalent in the first

century B.C. Kalidasa himself seems to have been a worshipper of the Devi. His

name itself proclaims it as it is obviously an assumed one which means the servant

of Kali. Besides the benedictory verse in Raghuvamsa clearly states the Sakta

doctrine of the indivisibility of Siva and parvati. The God Mahakala of Ujjain

whose worship the poet describes with manifest devotion was as we known from

Gunadhya's story incorporated in Kathasarit Sagara adorned with tantric rites. In

fact not only the different modes of Devi worship but the ceremonials of the tantric

system in their various forms were well-known in the Gupta period.

PREVALENCE OF IDOL WORSHIP was another feature of Puranic Hinduism of the

Gupta period.. Specification of images of different gods and goddesses were

incorporated from Puranas. The cult of Kartikeya and Ganesha was also very

prominent during that period. The Kartikeya cult was popular among the Kushanas

is evident from the figure of Kartikeya on the coins of Hubiskha, a Kushana chief.

Kartikeya was originally considered the war God. Later he was included in the

family of Shiva-Parvati. Ganesha was also unknown before the 300 A.D. In the

Gupta period he became a popular God. Many images of Ganesha made of stone

and terracotta, belonging to the Gupta period has been found. The concept of

Goddess Lakshmi underwent an evolutionary change during the Gupta Period.

Lakshmi was originally Gaja-Lakshmi and a solitary goddess. Later, according to

the concept of neo-Hinduism, goddess Lakshmi was considered the wife of Lord

Vishnu and the Puranas delineated the story of her birth from the ocean. Various

virtues were added to her character and she was popularised as the goddess of

wealth. 

In the Gupta era, Worship of God became personal matter of the

worshipper. Priests became irrelevant due to the decline of yajna or sacrifice.

the Vedic form of worship by performance of yajna did not survive much. In

order to make a synthesis with Vedic Hinduism, `yajna` or sacrifice was retained

along with idol worship. Yajna lost its prominence in the form of image worship.

The first is the worship of images which superseded sacrifices. The sacrifices of

the olden days were transformed into symbolic sacrifices into the images in the

poojas. This naturally led to the decline of the priests who were dominant in

sacrifices. Worship of god indeed became the concern of the individual but

regulating individual social behaviour still remained the concern of the Brahmin

Bhakti or the devotion of the worshipper became more important. Still priests

were needed to perform the worship, but the concept of priesthood lost its

dominance due to the emergence of Bhakti cult. Therefore Almighty became a

much more concern for the individual. Men started believing that he had four

fold objects in life- Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.  Man-made traditions of

the past began to be treated as sacred laws. Orthodoxy attempted to maintain its

power by rigid rules of exclusion. However seeing the difficulty of enforcing the

sacred laws a more broad frame of difference came to be evolved as the four

ends of man-religion and social law (dharma) economic welfare. (artha) pleasure

(kama) and salvation of the soul (moksha). Then onwards it is being maintained

that a correct balance of the first three could lead to the fourth.

Along with these developments the ground was prepared for the concept of

svataras also. Hindu thinkers evolved the concept of cyclical theory of time.

The cycle was called a kalpa. The kalpa itself is divided into fourteen periods. At

the end of each period, the universe re-emerges with Manu, the primeval men.

Each of these kalpas is further divided into great intervals and ultimately into

Yugas or periods of time. As per the concept of this theory of time we are in the

fourth of the Yugas, that is, the Kaliyuga with which the world will its end. The

Kaliyuga is also associated with which the world will reach its end 10 the 10th

incarnation of Vishnu.

All these developments in Hinduism were associated with disputations between

Buddhists and brahmins. These debates centred around six systems of thought

which came to be known as the six systems of Hindu philosophy - Nyaya or

analysis based on logci, Vaisheshika or brood characteristics according to which

the universe is composed of atoms as distinct from the soul' sankhya or

enumeration recognizing dualism between matter and soul or athemeis, yoga or

application relying on control over the body in order to acquire knowledge of the

ultimate law of the Vedas as opposed to pose-Vedic thought, and Vedanta to

refute the theories of non-Vedas. As known from the above analysis the first four

schools are empirical in nature, whereas, the latter two are metaphysical. In later

ages mimamasa and Vedanta gained over the others.

Among those who practiced religion in a serious manner two sects came into

existence - Vaishnuvism and Shaivism. Broadly speaking the first was mostly

prevalent in northern India while the second in southern India. One of the facts

about the Gupta kings was that that they were a group dedicated Vaishnavas or

devotees of Vishnu, the role played by this religion in their ideology though has

not received much attention from scholars. It is from the coins, inscriptions and

literature of the Gupta age, that the fact can be laiddown. They were active

participants in the bhakti devotional movement which was centered on Lord

Vishnu. As a matter of fact, the rapid spread of Vaishnavism in Gupta times was

due to a large extent to their patronage.In formulating their views of kingship, it is

clear that they drew upon many of the concepts and ideas about kingship which are

woven into India's great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.A close

analysis of religion and political power in the Gupta age, the role played by myth

and symbol, especially Vaishnava mythology, in the government of the empire was

a crucial one. Like for instance, the goddess Sri Laksmi and the figure of Garuda,

the family symbol of the Gupta dynasty. 

All those considerations lead to the main question of the relationship which was

supposed to exist between the king and God in Gupta religion or whether the

Gupta dynasty was a theocratic form of government with the king acting as the

incarnation of Lord Vishnu on earth? Although the king was purposefully

associated with Vishnu in the inscriptions as well as on the coins so produced, it

cannot be said with certainty that the Guptas were not claiming to be incarnations

of Vishnu in the same sense as Rama and Krishna were believed to be the

incarnations. 

Instead they claimed that their authority to rule the land came to them from Lord

Vishnu. They expressed their allegiance to their god through their devotional

activities, service to the poor, as also through their royal patronage of the temple

movement. Thus, they were kings but also servants and this pattern of kingship

were found in different periods of Indian history aswell.

The existence of Shaivism and its two subsects in the Gupta period is amply borne

out by the sources. Shiva is extolled as the highest god in some of the Puranas.

Like vaishnavism , shaivism also received royal support. At least two Shiva

temples of the period have survived, one at Nachna Kuttara and the other at Nagod

(both places in Madhya Pradesh). A sculture from Mathura shows a devotee

offering his head to Shiva. Perhaps some extreme subsects of the cult preached

such practices as self-sacrifice. The extreme character of shaivism explain why it

was less popular then vaishnavism, and whatever success it achieved in the Gupta

period may have been largely owing to the doctrines it shared with the Vaishnava

system.

BUDDHISM DURING GUPTA AGE

Apart from Hinduism, Buddhism also underwent transformation during the

Gupta Period. Since Gupta rulers were tolerant towards other religious creeds, all

religions flourished during that period. Nalanda received patronage from the

Guptas. However the typical change that entered the folds of Buddhism, was the

rise of Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism. Buddhism adopted worship of mother

goddesses like Tara. Although Buddhism gradually declined with in the country

it spread beyond the frontiers of India first to central Asia and then to China and

also to South-East Asia.

A far more important development of the 5th century was the emergence of a

curious cult associated with the worship of women deities and fertility cults.

These became the nucleus of a number of magical rites which later came to be

known as tantricism Buddhism too came under this influence leading to the

evolution or a new branch of Buddhism in the 7th century called vajrayana of

Thunderbolt Vehicle Buddhism. In this Buddhism female counterparts came to

be added to the male figures known as taras. This particular cult exists even tody

in Nepal and Tibet.

Buddhism also accepted the theory of incarnation of Buddha and thus prepared the

way for assimilation by Hinduism. Jainism however remained much original in its

creed. It received the patronage of the merchant community of western India.

Jainism continued to flourish in south and western India, while neo-Hinduism

became a dominating creed of north India. Buddhism had already split into two

sects, Hinayana and Mahayana, each with a number of subsects. Sri lanka ,

Myanmmar, Cambodia, and China had by now developed into centres of

Hinayana. Fa-hsien noticed the existence of the Hinayana following in Lobnor,

Darada, Udayana, Gandhra, Bannu, Kanauj, and Kashmir. But the Mahayanist

branch had also come to stay. Nagarjuna, Aryadva, Asanga, Vasubandhu, and

Dignaga, all exponents if the Mahayana sect, flourished in the Gupta period.

Through its emphasis on bhakti and female deities, Mayanism came closer to

brahmanical religion; under its influence Buddhism seems to have lost much of its

original heretical fervour. Fa-hsien met Mahayana monks in Afganistan, Bhida

(Punjab), Mathura, and Patliputra; in Khotan, we are told, all monks were

Mahayanists. With the decline if trade, however much of the support that

Buddhism had received earlier from the mercantile class ceased in the subsequent

period and its establishments became increasingly dependent on the grants of land

and villages in course if time.

JAINSM DURING GUPTA AGE

Jaininsm largely remained conservative but by the gupta period seems to have

developed icond. Two Jaina councils wire summoned simultaneously at Mathura

nad Valabhi in AD313. The jaina canonical texts were standardised and were later

commited to writing at another council in AD 453 at Valabhi. Mathura and

Valabhi seem to have strongholds of Shvetambara Jainism and Pundravardhna in

north Bengal was a centre of the digambara sect. in certain areas of the Deccan and

south India jaininsm received support from the local ruling houses, though much of

this patronage ceased in the later period. Christianity remained mainly restricted to

Malabar. Here a Syrian Christian church continued to exist, and Kalyana near

Bombay is said to have received a bishop from Persia. Several prominent Indian

citizens belong to this order even today.

CONCLUSION

NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY, BHOPAL

HISTORY

RELIGION DURING GUPTA PERIOD

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Meenal Choubey

Fifth trimester

NLIU,Bhopal 2011BALLB 96