I’ve moved to more modern military history now. I do want to write about a couple of battles in Sri Lanka, Kargil, and the 90s Kashmir insurgency
Gupta-Hunnic Wars
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Azaad
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If you need guidance in plotting wars on to the writing sheet along with appropriate maps, none better equipped to guide you than @AUSTERLITZ
He's a veteran of this genre of history - wars.
GaudaNaresh
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Hepthalite, as usual, is a western corruption of the word 'Abodolo' - the Persian sources refer to them consistently as the 'Abdal' confederation. The Durranis of Afghanistan ( Abdalis), until the rise of Ahmed Shah Abdali, were known as 'Abdals'.
So there is your connection.
GaudaNaresh
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Also, the reason the Gupta Empire ultimately lost their wars vs the Huns was due to (lack of) horses and (lack of) army mobility.
The Huns pioneered the tactic used by subsequent Turks & Mongols to attack India : come in as exclusively cavalry, pillage & raze everything in sight & move on or retreat, avoiding main army of the Guptas, which were considerably slowed due to the reliance on war elephants.
Once the local landscape is sufficiently devastated and the army pulled apart in the 'running around like headless chickens', exhausting its supplies, then the Huns give battle.
This tactic works like a charm in the vast plains of Northern India, where its extremely difficult to pin down an exclusively cavalry based force that does not want to give pitched battle but only destroy & plunder.
This is why both Toraman and Mihirkul were defeated in Malwa - where it is relatively easier to 'trap' an army & screen your movements, due to hilly, broken ground nature of the landscape and not on the vast gangetic plains - where it is much easier for an exclusively cavalry force to see approaching enemy and run away.
The double-whammy of this Hunnic wars, that ultimately cost the Guptas, was the financial cost of the wars.
Remember, beyond Delhi, Guptas didn't directly hold lands, but instead had vassals towards the north.
With repeated Hunnic ravaging of the landscape, Guptas were forced to pay not only for the astronomical costs of army logistics ( due to reliance on war elephants) but also the considerably higher cost of rebuilding the vassal lands.
This is often overlooked in the Feudal history of Asia, where lieges were obligated to protect their vassals & failing that, to help them rebuild, barring which, the vassals often rebelled or defected.
Considering that the Guptas had considerable vassal terriories to the west ( pretty much all of Haryana, Punjab-Pak & Ind, Sindh, Rajasthan, Assam,Nepal,Himachal, Kashmir, Bangladesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh & Andhra Pradesh were vassal lands of the Guptas),they risked their empire either dissolving due to dissatisfied vassals or worse, a rival branch of the family vying for the throne (by promising to rebuild the devastated lands of Punjab & Gandhara).
It is THIS cost - the repeated cost of rebuilding the lands - that drained the gupta coffers, which suffered a significant revenue blow with the Gupta empire due to the decline of the Roman Empire under Honorius ( 390s-420s CE) & Theodosius II ( 410s-450s CE), in the west & east respectively.
This is the period of continuous warfare with the Huns, where we see significant coordination between Atilla & the Kidarites, attacking the Roman & Gupta/Sassanid Empire along the exact same year and using similar 'ravage & retreat, give battle after exhausting the chasing enemy' model.
Since Roman Empire was a huge importer of resources from India & we were earning a huge quantity of gold from the Romans,this drying up of the trade routes due to decline of the Romans is what hurt the Gupta ability to rebuild the empire the most.
IMO, the Gupta coffers were most likely exhausted during the final years of Kumargupta through to the end of Skandagupta's reign, where we see significant debasement of Skandagupta's gold coins.
This is around 470 CE.
So if i were to speculate, the period of 440s-470 CE saw the Guptas defend & rebuild the frontiers of Punjab & Gandhara, at the expense of exhausting their coffers, then abandonment of Gandhara & western punjab by the reign of Kumargupta the 2nd, with subsequent loss of vassals in the south by the reign of Buddhagupta ( at this stage, the Gupta empire looked much like Harsha's empire, which is pretty much India-Pakistan border to India-Bangladesh border & north of the Vindhyas, south of the Himalayas) and being fatally weakened by the invasions of Toraman Shahi Jaula of the Alkhan Huns.
The Huns pioneered the tactic used by subsequent Turks & Mongols to attack India : come in as exclusively cavalry, pillage & raze everything in sight & move on or retreat, avoiding main army of the Guptas, which were considerably slowed due to the reliance on war elephants.
Once the local landscape is sufficiently devastated and the army pulled apart in the 'running around like headless chickens', exhausting its supplies, then the Huns give battle.
This tactic works like a charm in the vast plains of Northern India, where its extremely difficult to pin down an exclusively cavalry based force that does not want to give pitched battle but only destroy & plunder.
This is why both Toraman and Mihirkul were defeated in Malwa - where it is relatively easier to 'trap' an army & screen your movements, due to hilly, broken ground nature of the landscape and not on the vast gangetic plains - where it is much easier for an exclusively cavalry force to see approaching enemy and run away.
The double-whammy of this Hunnic wars, that ultimately cost the Guptas, was the financial cost of the wars.
Remember, beyond Delhi, Guptas didn't directly hold lands, but instead had vassals towards the north.
With repeated Hunnic ravaging of the landscape, Guptas were forced to pay not only for the astronomical costs of army logistics ( due to reliance on war elephants) but also the considerably higher cost of rebuilding the vassal lands.
This is often overlooked in the Feudal history of Asia, where lieges were obligated to protect their vassals & failing that, to help them rebuild, barring which, the vassals often rebelled or defected.
Considering that the Guptas had considerable vassal terriories to the west ( pretty much all of Haryana, Punjab-Pak & Ind, Sindh, Rajasthan, Assam,Nepal,Himachal, Kashmir, Bangladesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh & Andhra Pradesh were vassal lands of the Guptas),they risked their empire either dissolving due to dissatisfied vassals or worse, a rival branch of the family vying for the throne (by promising to rebuild the devastated lands of Punjab & Gandhara).
It is THIS cost - the repeated cost of rebuilding the lands - that drained the gupta coffers, which suffered a significant revenue blow with the Gupta empire due to the decline of the Roman Empire under Honorius ( 390s-420s CE) & Theodosius II ( 410s-450s CE), in the west & east respectively.
This is the period of continuous warfare with the Huns, where we see significant coordination between Atilla & the Kidarites, attacking the Roman & Gupta/Sassanid Empire along the exact same year and using similar 'ravage & retreat, give battle after exhausting the chasing enemy' model.
Since Roman Empire was a huge importer of resources from India & we were earning a huge quantity of gold from the Romans,this drying up of the trade routes due to decline of the Romans is what hurt the Gupta ability to rebuild the empire the most.
IMO, the Gupta coffers were most likely exhausted during the final years of Kumargupta through to the end of Skandagupta's reign, where we see significant debasement of Skandagupta's gold coins.
This is around 470 CE.
So if i were to speculate, the period of 440s-470 CE saw the Guptas defend & rebuild the frontiers of Punjab & Gandhara, at the expense of exhausting their coffers, then abandonment of Gandhara & western punjab by the reign of Kumargupta the 2nd, with subsequent loss of vassals in the south by the reign of Buddhagupta ( at this stage, the Gupta empire looked much like Harsha's empire, which is pretty much India-Pakistan border to India-Bangladesh border & north of the Vindhyas, south of the Himalayas) and being fatally weakened by the invasions of Toraman Shahi Jaula of the Alkhan Huns.
