Cont...>>967141
Part 4 The Golden Age
The unprecedented period of stability and economic growth spread throughout Gupta Empire its old Kushan and Saka foes in the north began to crumble and their facade of a united nation could only be maintained for so long as the collapsed Saka nation and the collapsing Kushan were suddenly beset by the erstwhile allied nomadic tribes that inhabited the north and west of their respective lands and this unrest led to a number of tribes to cause instability and conflict to rage throughout the borders of the Gupta Empire.
Raids began increasingly frequent as tribes began to migrate toward the propering lands of central india, into the heart of the Gupta Empire. Seeing the obvious danger that was the migration Emperor Chandragupta II Vikramaditya once more gathered his vast armies now numbered at half a million men and tens of thousands of horsemen with thousands of elephants set about to counter these raids.
What followed was a series of wars that saw the nomads and old kingdoms of the Saka completely disintegrate as the massive forces under Vikramaditya began to destroy the various bands of nomadic tribes that faced him, the primary reason for the defeat of the swift cavalry of the nomads may have been the effective use of foot archers defended by armoured infantry.
The archers are said to have outranged the enemy horse archers and raiders and were shot down before they could get in range, their cavalry was met with Guptas own horsemen armoured like the Kushan Noble they had fought, and hundreds of charging armoured elephants to boot simply shattered any hope of victory, the combined arms and tactics found in the ancient military manual named the Siva-Dhanur-Veda (Knowledge of Weapons) were followed during this period and produced enormously advantageous strategic results, local tribes and chieftans flocked to the Gupta banner and the borders of the Empire stretched further westward past the Indus and north toward Afghanistan...
>>971215
This was soon followed by a general retreat by the nomadic forces and being the war hungry Emperor like his father Vikramaditya pursued them into their homelands.
According to one of his coutiers named as the infamous Kalidasa claims in his 4th century text the Raghu Vamsa that Vikramaditya had conquered some 21 kingdoms in this manner and set about northward and conquered the Kambojas, Parasikas, Huna tribes gathering in western and northern Amu Darya(Oxus) Valleys.
Another source called The Brihatkathamanjari( Bree-Hath-Kathaa-Munn-jaree) authored by Kshmendra(shea-men-drah) stated Charkavartin(Emperor) Vikramaditya had "unburdened the sacred earth of the Barbarians like the Sakas(Scythians), Mlecchas(Pagans), Kambojas(Steppe Nomads), Yavanas(Indo-Greeks), Tusharas(Tocharians), Parasikas(Indo Kushans), Hunas(yeuzhi), etc. by annihilating these sinful Mlecchas completely".
This led to a sort of Pax-Imperium situation were all the foes were defeated in the north and the south was secured by matrimonial and alliance while the east submitted to peace treaties and trade. The Gupta Empire flourished ever greater as scholars from china and further afield travelled to study Buddhism and Jain temples were being built as art and literature once more took precedence over warfare.
It was around this time 399-401 AD that Faxian, an ancient chinese buddhist scholar arrived in india and left the accounts of his journey to india which was previously mentioned >>967141 and according to him there was an absence of capital punishment, the lack of a poll-tax and land tax and people did not eat onions, garlic, meat, or wine.
>>971215
Saka's are a Persian tribe right? Sort of like the Scythians?
>>971506
Sakas are Scythians, in reference to my posts they are Indo-Scythians who settled in the indus valley and gujrat during the early second and third century AD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saka
>>971391
Part 6
Around 414-415AD the Great Chandragupta II Vikramaditya the Third and one of the most succesful Emperor's of the Gupta Empire passed away, but he did not take the Imperial power with him and had appointed his firstborn Kumaragupta as his Heir and the Fourth Emperor succeeded the Gupta Throne in Pataliputra.
Kumaragupta's reign saw the political strains of ruling such a vast and diverse empire afflict the massive empire. For years Kumaragupta had to contend with rival courtiers, temples, cities, traders, commaders and ministers placate the wishes while declining others, for decades Kumaragupta worked hard to maintain his father's legacy and empire, but alas a series of unfortunate events led to the rebellion in central India.
This was the beggining of the end of the Guptas as everything that reaches its zenith will eventually meet the nadir.
A people only known as the Pushyamitra( Push-Ya-Mith-ra) {Friends of Stars?} began to rebel toward the last decade of Kumaragupta's reign and he was forced to make violent moves against the alliance of clans under the Pushyamitras who sought to overthrow the yoke of Gupta dominion, this led to a war against the Rebel Alliance by the Imperials.
The Guptas marched out to war in full panoply and according to the few remaining records the Pushymitras were throughly subdued and as was the nature of Gupta Emperors culling of the population that rebelled was not too hard to believe.
Once the rebel threat was put down, a new threat arose in the north west as from the ashes of the dying Kushan Empire rose the fearsome and oft dreaded Sveta Huna, aka Hepathlites/White Huns.
>>971887
The White Huns or more often known as the Hepathlites were a group of nomadic tribes and horsemen that swept into the northern frontiers of the Gupta empire and completely overran the Kushan Empire which at that stage was near death, most of the takeover may have been peaceful as the warlike Kushan may have looked for a powerful figure to follow. They possibly found this want to be ruled under Khingila the Chief White Hun and they gathered under his banner, and the yearly raids not seen since the time of Vikramaditya began once more.
Back in the Gupta Empire the throne had passed from the illustrous Kumaragupta and his mostly peaceful rule to the hands of the most able of his sons Skandagupta (Skun-dha-Goop-ta) (Skanda is also the name of a hindu war god) there is a brief mention in historical records to his ascension "goddess of sovereignty, of her own accord, selected him as her husband, having in succession discarded all other princes."
So there may have been a small scale civil war, now this assumption has to be made since the old foes named the Pushyamitras had supposedly reemerged after the death of Kumaragupta and several migratory invasions were launched into central india toward Ujjain by the White Huns.
The kind of instability required for large scale population movement into an established empire could happen due to lack of central oversight, this lack can be bought about by a varierty of factors including lazy institutions and traitorous governors, but the cause for that to happen may lie in the lack of a central figure to hold it all together and as it was in those days intrigue that led to civil war would have been inevitable. Thus an assumption of some unrecorded civil war could be a plausible explanations to the sudden challenges that Skandagupta faced.
Either way once Skandagupta took the throne he had to act immediately on behalf of his people and the Empire and immediately mustered his army and went out to crush the Pushyamitras.
Any thoughts on the genetic impact of all these Eurasian nomads wandering into India? Seems like the ANI is more of several distinct groups coming in at different times.
>>971944
Part 8
Around 455 AD traditionally accepted as the starting year of Skandagupta, the Fourth Emperor's reign was not like the gloried reign of his father or grandfather, but one that was marked by incessant warfare against foreign invaders, but though he did not inherit an empire at peace from his father he did receive the boon of being an adept warrior from his grandfather.
In a lightning campaign Skandagupta drove into central india at the head of his vast forces and utterly defeated the Pushyamitras and crushed any future chances of rebellion. Skandagupta immediately turned his attention to the northwest at the crumbling frontier of his grandfathers conquests, he immediately set about to fight the White Huns.
Skandagupta at this stage had warred with the Sveta Huna during the reign of his father Kumaragupta and knew how the nomads fought and marched, he used this knowledge to devise a series of maneuvers in which he managed to defeat the highly mobile enemy forces who were one of the best horsemen the Empire had seen.
Great battles were said to be fought as the White Huns were expelled from the north western parts of the empire as the Guptas inexorable advance stemmed the tide of the invading Hepathlites.
Skandagupta drove the White Huns on until they were thrown back toward the Oxus from where they had launched the attack and the satisfied Skandagupta retired back to his lands.
But the Plagues of the Huna invasion had not stopped as soon as the Hunas regains their strength the attacked again, and once more they were repulsed, then again, a year later and this continued on for sometime, overtime however the Emperor slowly came to realize that he was fighting a society centered around war and plunder and the only defeat to them is to outlast them.
Thus Skandagupta oversaw the construction of defenses and strengthening of his forces to maintain the tide of war from turning against him as far in the west the Roman Empire fell to Huns...
>>972003
Well it is an interesting subject, it depends on which part of india you are talking about, there is evidence of Eurasian nomad blood existing all the way in South of India in the state of Kerala, within the Nairs who represent some 13-14% of the population and are genetically distinct as they were originally a eurasian tribe possibly related to Scythians or Saka from the steppes who had slowly infiltrated into india over the period of some 300-400 years, they eventually were invited between 9th and 11th centuries down south along the coast by the Chera Perumals who then ruled Kerala to supplement their near extinguished forces against the unstoppable expansion of the Imperial Cholas.
When the situation normalized around 12th and 13th century they settled into the land and began to show their unique cultural and racial traits for example the mother is the head of the family, something that was oft written about the Sarmatians by Herodotus who were basically Scythians due to the shared cultural traits, last names are passed through the mother and the fact that a system called Marimakhatayam (Ma-ri-ma-kha-tha-yum) where the women would often go out socialise pick a guy sleep with him and if she likes him invites him over as a friends with benefits occasionally otherwise he is ejected from the house never to return unless another lady of the House chooses him, the children from such unions never know their father and that role is fulfilled by the maternal uncles.
Similar instances occur in the origin of the Rajputs, Jats, Gurjaras, Pratiharas, Marathas.
Most of the so called 'martial races' that the British categorized are mostly of eurasian nomad origin, hell most of indian culture is derived from there due to the Aryan Migration in 1500 BC.
>>971506
Saka are Iranians, like the Persians.
>>972115
Was matrilineal descent a thing in Saka culture?
>>972115
Being a Nair myself, I always thought it was weird that my cousin had blue eyes(black hair). No europeans around for cucking, and some other family members have it(albeit rarely).
>>974679
Nvm there was cucking.
>>974659
I dont know for sure, but much of what I have read leads to that conclusion, for example the Sarmatae or sarmatians whose name means led by women and were the western most division of the Scythian steppes, so the culture existed within the Scythian nobility atleast>
>>974679
What a coincidence I am a Menon (Maternal) and my dad is a Nair, my maternal grandad had dark skin and blue eyes, his mother my great grandma was white as sin and had grey eyes, both of them were some sort of court royalty or some such, so cucking would have been in the blood, if you look at keralite history it is pretty evident that we have mixed often than not with foreign traders and other explorers.
>>972037
Cont...
For around a decade between 455-465 AD Skandagupta was occupied with keeping the Hepathlite marauders out in a series of raids, battles and full scale wars, they were described as locusts who kept appearing all throughout the north western frontier and began pouring out of the Hindu Kush and riding into central India.
Everytime they did break through Skandagupta repulsed them, and everytime he did this the coffers of his kingdom decreased, for every territory he liberated another was raided or besieged.
For every horde he destroyed another two appeared this led to desperation on the part of Skandagupta as more and more of his resources were going into an ever expanding war, this can be postulated by the currency recovered by archaeologists dated to his era and they notice the debased and low quality state of it leading many to believe the cause to be financial strain caused by an extended war.
Since the power of the Gupta Army was of no doubt since they repulsed most invasions, the toll it took on the army should also be accounted for, much of the task of raising and equipping the forces alone would have been enormous and the drain on manpower would lead to decreased production and economic activity.
This led to civil and social unrest as people were being taxed on a steady incline and many were loosing faith with the Guptas and their empire.
The wars yet raged right until the final year of Skandagupta's reign approximately 467 AD can be marked as the moment when the Guptas began to decline.
>>976233
Part 9 The Fall
Around late 467 AD Skandagupta had breathed his last breath and the White Hun chiefs launched another invasion into the Gupta empire, this was met with resistance on the part of Purugupta the new successor of Skandagupta who was his half brother.
But this period saw the disintegration of the southern provinces under a resurgent Kalinga who over threw the Imperial Governors and established their own kingdom, the vassal kings subdued a century ago by Samudragupta broke away.
The increase in taxes due to the cost of maintaining the Empire and the war in the North West caused immense hardships to the people, the Golden Age disintegrated into a dark nightmare and comfort that the peoples had so long enjoyed vanished.
This led to a crisis in confidence of the Emperor and the system created around him by the Gupta Dynasty, to the south the Vakatakas were on the verge of dying out and replaced by the Kadambas and many of the feudatories in the east and north began to abandon the Guptas, Kashmir became an independent kingdom around this time and the borders began to shrink.
As the many provinces began abandoning the empire, the Imperial Army fought a desperate war against the Hepathlite invaders. Within six years of his wartorn rule Purugupta was supposedly killed in battle against a Hepathlites.
This allowed his brother crowned as Kumaragupta II to come to power over a crumbling empire, He tried to maintain the Empire by once again increasing taxes and recruiting heavily to supplement the failing forces. Not much is known about his reign other than the fact that he was trying to hold a Empire long past its due together and died just three years later in battle.
Things looked grim as the White Huns broke through the North Western marches and invaded india proper.
The end was nigh.
