The Cultural Revival under the Guptas

The Cultural Revival under the

Guptas

Whether or not the theory stands that during the six centuries from the fall of the Mauryas to the rise of the Guptas early in the fourth century A.D., Sanskrit learning had almost been extinct in India, there can be no questioning the fact that the Gupta era ushered in a national revival, a golden age, so to say, of arts and letters comparable with very few of subsequent kindred movements of which history keeps any record. Political power and abundant wealth combined to provide the most powerful incentive for varied creative expressions of the national soul. Indeed the fund of energy that found release in those intellectual activities presupposes many centuries of patient preparation and strenuous though silent exercise of the brain. The evidences advanced by Pandit Hara Prasad Shastri in refutation of Max Muller's theory about the intellectual inactivity of the Brahmins in pre-Gupta times very clearly prove that many authoritative Sanskrit works are the products of that period and that the Brahmins did not sleep but kept alive the lamp of Sanskrit learning, however dimmed, by the indifference and frequent incursions of the foreigners who held political sway over India in those days, and encouraged the spread of Buddhism in total disregard for the original culture of which the Bahmins were the sole and trusted custodians. The Indo-Parthian and the Kushan kings were possibly inclined to apprehend that any patronage to the Brahmanical learning might be detrimental to their political interest and that the Brahmins might again, through the revival of their racial culture, organize opposition to their suzerainty, and re-assert through the intellectual, their political supremacy as well. Nevertheless, the Brahmins, in spite of such difficulties, had all along been true to their traditional virtues, and seized the opportunities offered by the very favourable conditions in the Gupta period when the kings, inspired by the unique ideal of kingship, enunciated in the Kautilya's Arthashastra that the "ruler has been made by Brahma as servant of the people" were deeply anxious to resuscitate the ancient culture of the Indo-Aryans and evinced utmost enthusiasm for everything that might cater to the intellectual and aesthetic needs of the people. For, not only literature and art, but the study of philosophy, logic, politics, law, mathematics, astronomy and other sciences was widely encouraged and best attention was given to each of those departments of human knowledge with the result that treatises were written which are held authoritative even to this day. The ancient fire that had so long been smouldering under the ashes of imperial neglect, was rekindled in the soul of the nation, and the new idealism moulded the entire fabric of national life into a unity of aspiration and forged it ahead on the path of self-conscious development based on the heritage of the past. The whole country became vibrant with the breath of a new life, a new joy of self-finding which it had long been eagerly seeking all through the days of its travail under hostile kings and untoward circumstances.

The rebirth of Indo-Aryan culture as is witnessed in the Gupta era is not a reaction of Buddhism in the sense that Buddhism is a revolt against the priestly obscurantism in the early days of its formulation as a religious creed. Buddhism came in response to the call of the Time-spirit and having served its purpose became merged in the ocean of Indian thought. But the Gupta ‘Renaissance’–if we may use the phrase–came as a matter of course, since the religion and culture of the land cannot long remain suppressed under the weight of any of its offshoots; neither can the nation tolerate the inculcation by foreign rulers of the tenets of a religious creed which is only a fragment in different form, of the vast structure of the Vedic thought. A short resume of the brilliant records of the cultural activities of the Gupta era will unravel to our view the picture of a happy and contented India, free from any alien excrescence, with her arts and letters developed to a very high degree of excellence, nay almost to the very acme of perfection.

Being an ardent lover of Buddhistic culture, Fa-Hien's interesting account does not throw any light on the revival of Brahmanical learning, but his mention that the people were rich, prosperous and virtuous lends support to the fact that the Gupta emperors must have been benevolent benefactors of the people aspiring to live up to the ideal type of Kingship as defined by Manu in his theories of Indo-Aryan policy. The King-must be a personification of justice, a friend of the people, a patron of arts and letters, and a faithful believer in Aryan traditions of laws and institutions which it should be his duty to establish by up-rooting from the racial mind the effects of any baneful influence, as was conceived by Manu and so clearly depicted in the Mahabharata. The Gupta Kings, as we have seen them in all their aspirations and achievements, fulfilled in a far greater degree than the Mauryas, all those noble functions of Kingship. They looked to the welfare of their subjects as a dutiful father looks to his son's. The administration was very liberal and at the same time highly efficient, and it was based on well-regulated organisations all of which were so manipulated that the interests of the subjects could be served in the best possible way. It was love that governed every act of the State. The taxes were very light, cruel punishments, so much in vogue in the Maurya times, were abolished, and harassing rules and regulations like registration and passports were unknown. The king was bound to consult his Councillors on questions of peace and war, military, naval and financial matters, on things concerning the protection of the people, and on the proper use of the royal revenues. Fa-Hien says that dharmasalas were built along the roads where travelers found shelter, food and drink and were supplied with all necessaries. Even Buddhist pilgrims were entertained at public expense, though separate provision was made for them. As in the case of the King, so also in respect of society, the authority of the code of Manu was freely acknowledged, and the King exercised the whole force of his royal prerogative so that the people did abide by the social laws adumbrated therein, and in no case, break with these ancient moorings of human conduct. Buddhism though absorbed in Hinduism from an earlier phase of which it had evolved, left on the mind of the people the impress of a new form of social regeneration. Its beneficial effect is perceived in the Gupta period in that the people, notwithstanding their being reinitiated in Brahmanical cult, did not indulge in animal killing, in drinking intoxicating liquors, an excess of which was the characteristic of the Hindus in the early days of Buddhism. Orthodox Hindus as they were, the Gupta Kings were never miserly in rendering assistance to those among their subjects who were yet inclined to admire and worship Lord Buddha. And under the patronage of the King and his subjects the Buddhist art developed to the stage of its classical excellence in the Gupta era. This tolerance of the Hindu Kings for other faiths, more specially for Buddhism which denounced the authority of the Vedas, reflects the incomparable nobility of their soul which had possibly been permeated with the spirit of the Gita–a portion of the great epic Mahabharata–the very centre of inspiration for all intellectual activities of the people in this particular period of Indian History. Problems of military skill, of metaphysical speculations, ethical standards, social idealism, everything finds its consummate solution in this master-epic of India, "in the characters of which" according to Shri Aurobindo, "nothing is more remarkable than a kind of puissant intellectualism."

It is under the direct patronage of the Gupta Kings that the recension of this magnum opus of Hindu ideals of human conduct was completed, and that its doctrines were propagated in all parts of India in Bengal, Southern India, in the Punjab and throughout the Deccan where its existence today in almost the same form may be traced to the noble efforts of the Gupta emperors for spreading its tenets with the express object of co-ordinating the whole of India under the banner of Aryan supremacy. The Gupta Kings saw the vision of the United Empire of India, broad-based on the cultural traditions of the past, and became impatient to see a practical replica of their mighty dream. Sister Nivedita, famous for her psychological studies of Indian history, wrote: "The Mahabharata is in good sooth a monarch's dream of an imperial race. The Gupta Emperor of Pataliputra who commissioned the last recension of the great work, was as conscious as Asoka before him or Akbar after of making to his people the magic statement, ‘India is one.’" As an unfailing manual of Brahmanical religious teaching, the redaction of the Mahabharata gave the Brahmins an opportunity of asserting their supreme position in the Hindu society. But the most vigorous appeal it made to the Kshatriya youths of the country "to fulfill their religious duties by warlike deeds rather than by meditation" proves the national and intellectual rather than the moral and religious value of the Mahabharata at least as it was assessed by the Gupta kings who did surely realize the hindrance to the building up of a healthy society caused by enforced monasticism so much emphasised by the religion of the Tathagata. It is not improbable that the intellectual element in the Mahabharata furnished in some measure the stimulus for the tremendous revival of literature, science and art which we are going to relate now.

Nalanda whose fame as the greatest culture-centre of the time, spread beyond the confines of India, proves the most glowing evidence of the Gupta achievement in the realm of education. This university was at this time at the zenith of its powerful influence, and attracted scholars not only from different parts of India but from such a distant place as China. About ten thousand students were permanent residents of the University which "carried on researches in a dozen branches of knowledge in Sanskril" The court of the Guptas sanctioned grants for its maintenance; and it is believed that a greater portion of its architectural work was completed by a Gupta King. It is interesting to note in this connection that during this period of a most brilliant intellectual revival "book-learning was not considered a criterion of literary culture, and an oral method of education was preferred as more exact and more mentally efficient than text-books."

Kalidasa, one of the greatest poets the world has ever produced, was the court-poet of Chandragupta II, Vikramaditya. This prince of poets and dramatists stands as an epitome of the poetic genius of India. His Raghuvamsa and Kumarasambhava form the best type of Kavya, or epic-literature; Shakuntala is his dramatic masterpiece, and Meghduta, the gem of Sanskrit lyric poetry. Goethe's famous poem on Shakuntala is a striking proof of how deeply he was touched by Kalidasa. It is significant that he introduced in his Faust the prologue system of Shakuntala. Bharavi's Kiratarjuniya is a short but fine epic-poem of the Gupta age. Dinnaga is the name of a poet who is said to have been an opponent of Kalidasa. Bhatrimentha was a man of poetic gifts, and was associated with Vikramaditya by the compilers of anthologies who ascribe a certain verse to their joint authorship. The Mricchhakatika is a remarkable drama of the fifth century whose author is not known. Visakhadatta is a dramatist assigned to the reign of Chandragupta II whose Mudra-Rakshasha deserves special mention because of its singular character in being a play of political intrigue unknown in previous dramatic works. The revival of Brahmanism made it necessary for its sponsors to revise and re-arrange the various Sanskrit texts as also their commentaries so as to give them a popular shape and make them meet the wants of an increased number of followers. Smritis, Puranas, and Bhashyas began, therefore, to be written and "this general literary impulse was communicated to other branches of learning." We have already mentioned that the recension of the Mahabharata is the work of this period. The Manu Smriti (the Laws of Manu) was evolved into its present form in the Gupta age. Its unmistakable influence in the social and political administration of the country as we have already shown, might presuppose a re-shuffling of it to suit the changed conditions of the time. According to Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, several works on the sacrificial ritual and specially the Bhashyas or great commentaries on the Sutras of the several Vedas or Sakhas must have begun to be written about this time. The Vayu Purana, one of the oldest of the eighteen Puranas, is attributed in its existing form to the first half of the fourth century. The Vishnu, Linga and Markandeya Puranas were also recast in this period to meet the growing religious needs of the people. The disquisitions on Jaimani’s system of Mimansa philosophy elaborated by Sarvaswami in the fifth century, set at naught the Buddhistic doctrines of the Yoga-chara School and re-established the authority of the Vedas. The Sankhya philosophy also was revived by Isvarakrishna in this time who wrote the Sankhya-Karika in its present form. The sciences of Mathematics and Astronomy made great progress in this period, the former having its authority in Aryabhatta whose advanced theories of the cosmos, repeated by Copernicus a thousand years later, are yet the accepted laws of that branch of science; and the latter in Varahamihira who wrote special treatises on the five Siddhantas which describe various aspects of Astronomy and Astrology. These two as also those others we have already mentioned in connection with our description of the literary and philosophical revival of this period, are only luminaries–the pioneers so to say, famous for their original contributions in their respective spheres, who had evidently behind them a number of ‘lesser gods’ whose service collaboration work must always be recognised.

Let us now turn our eyes to the most splendid of creative achievements of this glorious period. In literature and philosophy the Gupta epoch cannot be said to have excelled their pristine original sources–the Upanishads and the epics and kindred other products of the ancient brain of India. Though the Gupta masters tried with success to give a more popular shape, an ornate cast, to the eternal truths of Aryan thought, it cannot yet be said that the fruits of such efforts are as clearly suggestive of the profound spiritual instinct of the race vivified by creative inspiration, as the sublimities of art, plastic and pictorial–those revelations of a deeper endeavour to realize the unity of life in diverse forms of artistic symbology. According to Dr. Coomaraswamy, the outstanding characteristic of the art of India at this time is its classical quality. The technique is perfected and used as a language without conscious effort; it becomes the medium of conscious and explicit statement of spiritual conceptions–the keynote of the classical virtue of all art-expressions of the Gupta period. Painting sculpture and architecture are the three prominent forms through which the artists communicated their aesthetic emotions.

Typical examples of the painting of this period are the frescoes preserved in Caves 16, 17 and 19 of Ajanta–that famous centre of art-culture of ancient India. The subjects of these paintings deal with Buddhist legends and events of contemporary life. The very clever manipulation of line plastered with an equally effective colour-scheme render these frescoes unique specimen of the Indian art of drawing pictures. The bold freedom of the brush strokes seems to show that all the work was freehand. It is difficult to understand how the work could have been done in those dimly-lighted halls. The universal appeal of the art of Ajanta is proved by its being the pilgrimage of all lovers of beauty of all countries and all ages. The technique and tradition of Ajanta can be mistaken in almost all subsequent developments of Indian painting. A group of wall-paintings in Cave 4 at Bagh in Gwalior State has been assigned to the Gupta period. Ajantan influence is very clear in these paintings which as also those at Ajanta are not only masterpieces of ancient Indian painting, but, both in their vivid imagination and in their realistic portrayal of contemporary life, they give a striking impression of the masterful creative impulses which were then stirring the mind of India. The frescoes at the rock-palace at Sigiriya in Ceylon are classified as the work of the Gupta artists. Ravages of time and man have despoiled many beautiful works of art of this period including paintings. Hence there is left to us only a very small number of relics of art, specially of painting. A separate treatment of sculpture is not possible without reference to architecture which being the synthesis of all arts and crafts, include the plastic figuration as an invaluable feature of its decorative scheme. A short description may, however, be given of the more typical of the sculptural art of the Gupta revival. "The Buddha figure in the early Gupta period is fully evolved and this classical type is the main source of all later forms both in and beyond the Indian boundaries." One of the most exquisite examples of this figure is furnished by the seated Buddha in Saranath which is called "the very treasure-house of Gupta figures." For its refined definition, dynamic pose, and the distinctive quality of suggesting a divine mood, this figure seems to represent the highest skill of the Gupta sculptor.

Saranath also built a tradition in technique which is descernible in the standing Buddha figure in the Mathura Museum and in the unique copper colossus of Buddha now in Birmingham Museum, which was discovered from the ruins of a monastery in the Sultanganj District. Among the Brahmanical sculptures mention may be made of a group of them–justly held to be examples of a more elaborate construction–which describe Shiva and Parvati. These were unearthed from Kosam in the Allahabad District, and are now in Indian Museum, Calcutta. Beautiful modelling and tasteful pose characterise the images of Shiva as an ascetic with another Yogi and of various heavenly beings hovering over the air, which adorn the panels of a temple at Deogarh in Lalitpur Sub-division of the Jhansi District. Of exceptional good quality are the images of Vishnu as Eternal reclining on the serpent Ananta, which form the subject of another panel of the same temple. In the Gupta period were evolved some of the best forms of the sacred architecture of India. Leaving aside the high religious significance of the Stupa symbolism, a consideration of the salient features of the beautiful cave-cathedrals, the apsidal and the flat-roofed temples, and the Shikhara shrines will show what a mastery the Gupta builder achieved over the complex science of construction. Cave architecture of this period is typified by Chaitya hall of Cave 19, by the Vihara or pillared hall of Caves 16 and 17 at Ajanta, by the famous Visvakarma Chaitya hall at Ellora, remarkable for its unique facade.

Of the surviving examples of apsidal temples, those at Tagara in the Sholapur District are considered to be of the Gupta era. Interest attaches to the Chaitya cave planning of these temples which include one Brahmanical. According to Mr. O. C. Ganguly the most tangible example of the earliest form of the Hindu temple is the flat rectangular shrine at Sanchi dating about 400 A. D. Here we have for the first time the nucleus of a Hinda temple,. viz., a cuble cell (garva griha) with one entrance and the porch (mandapa). Thus the Gupta era gives birth to a very typical form of the Indian order of Architecture. Other examples of the flat-roofed temples of the same period occur at Bhumara in the Nogooh State, and at Nachna Kotari in Ajaigarh, Bundelkhand. In Aihole in Deccan stands a very interesting example of this type of temple. Its Gupta character is proved by the figures of river goddesses on the pillars of its porch which are introduced in architectonic decoration and favoured by the Gupta artists. The dispute about the foreign influence on Shikhara type of temple has now been definitely settled in favour of India being its origin. This characteristic form of Indian temple architecture found its well-defined expression in the Dasavatara temple in stone at Deogarh near Lalitpur the sculptures of which have already been referred to, in the stone and brick towers in Bankura District, and in the very beautiful brick temple in Bhitargaon, in Cawnpur District which is remarkable also for its vigorous and well-designed terra cotta decoration. Gupta influence is discernible in the architecture of various other temples. The iconoclasm of Islam is responsible for the destruction of many beautiful works of the Gupta architect of which the most notable is the great brick temple at Nalanda erected by the Gupta King Narsinha Baladitya. Hiuen Tsang describes this temple as 300 feet in height with a tower resembling that of the Maha-Bodhi temple at Gaya, most exquisitely decorated and magnificently furnished. The Asokan practice of erecting monumental columns was revived by the Gupta emperors. Skanda Gupta's stone pillar in Bhitarie in the Ghazipur District, the monolithic pillar 43 feet high at Eran in the Sagar District are mentionable. The celebrated pillar at Delhi, made of wrought iron in the time of Samudra Gupta is a marvel of metallurgical skill. An account, however brief, of the art of the Gupta period cannot be complete without a reference to the Shilpa Shastras-the grammatical treatises on art which were formulated in that creative epoch. The Vishnudharmottaram, an authentic treatise on Indian painting is the work of this period. Vatsayana's Kamasutra wherein painting requisites are mentioned as the ordinary furniture of a gentleman's chamber is also assigned to the Gupta era. Of the five vidyas or shastras referred to by Hiuen Tsang in the late Gupta period, the second is said to be the Shilpa-sthanavidya. Stray canons of art are also found in some religious literature of the same period.

In concluding this brief review may we repeat that the creative endeavours of the Gupta age were inspired by the eternal motive of India's soul that quickened the national intellect into varied forms of cultural activity embracing every phase of human knowledge which was exalted and illumined by new ways and new light? And this orientation came to stay as original and permanent contribution towards the enrichment of Indian, and there through, of human culture. The Kshatriya gave his intellect and sword, the Brahmin his religion and spirituality, and the Shudra his service and sacrifice. Thus was evolved a powerful State and a vigorous society broad-based on the solid rock of cultural and national solidarity. Once again India realized her own self and became the queen within her own inviolate lands, administering her own high laws, controlling her own wide wealth, imparting her own rich culture, defending her own vast frontiers. Her old ideals are born again in a myriad-hearted multiform energy and shine afresh in the revival of her national learning, in the renewal of her national arts, in the restoration of her manifold secular and spiritual activities, in the brave and virile manhood of her sons, and in the bold and passionate attempts at national reconstruction. Great in war, greater in peace, the Gupta emperors built an India which is still a pride with us.