Chandrgupta Vikramaditya
Chandragupta II the Great, very often referred to as
Vikramaditya or
Chandragupta Vikramaditya in
Sanskrit; was one of the most powerful emperors of the
Gupta empire. His rule spanned 375–413/15 CE, during which the Gupta Empire achieved its zenith. The period of prominence of the
Gupta dynasty is very often referred to as the
Golden Age of
India. Chandragupta II the Great was the son of the previous ruler,
Samudragupta the Great. He attained success by pursuing both a favorable marital alliance and an aggressive expansionist policy. In this his father and grandfather set the precedent.
Chandragupta II the Great controlled a vast empire, from the mouth of the
Ganges to the mouth of the
Indus River and from what is now North
Pakistan down to the mouth of the
Narmada.
Pataliputra continued to be the capital of his huge empire but
Ujjain too became a sort of second capital. The large number of beautiful gold coins issued by the
Gupta dynasty are a testament to the imperial grandeur of that age. Chandragupta II also started producing silver coins in the Shaka tradition.
Faxian (Wade-Giles Fa-hsien) was the first of three great Chinese pilgrims who visited India from the fifth to the seventh centuries AD, in search of knowledge, manuscripts and relics. He arrived during the reign of Chandragupta II and gave a general description of North India at that time. Among the other things, he reported about the absence of capital punishment, the lack of a poll-tax and land tax. Most citizens did not consume onions, garlic, meat, and wine.
Culturally, the reign of Chandragupta II marked a
Golden Age. This is evidenced by later reports of the presence of a circle of poets known as the
Nine Gems in his court. The greatest among them was
Kalidasa, who authored numerous immortal pieces of literature including
The Recognition of Shakuntala. The others were the Sanskrit grammarian
Amara Sinhaand the astronomer-mathematician
Varahamihira.
The next day after the Hindu festival
Diwali is called Padwa or Varshapratipada, which marks the coronation of King Vikramaditya. The Hindu
Vikram-Samvat calendar was apparently started on this day and this day is celebrated as New Year's Day in Nepal where Vikram Sambat is the official calendar there, and some places in India. But, Vikram-Samvat calender is from 57 BCE. So, there was someother king by name Vikram, who started this calender.
Shak-Samvat is synchronised with the
Shak-Samvat calendar, which starts around April. This calendar was initiated by Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Saka king Vikramaditya, thus starting the Shalivahana era or Shaka Calendar
This iron pillor erected by him still stands tall in Delhi.
Close to the
Qutub Minar is one of
Delhi's most curious structures, an iron pillar, dating back to 4th century CE. The pillar bears an inscription which states that it was erected as a flagstaff in honour of the Hindu god
Vishnu, and in the memory of Chandragupta II (A derivation of the play by Vishakadata states that the pillar had been put up by Chandragupta himself after defeating the Vahilakas who had once defeated Alexander the Great.After this great feat,he put up this pillar as a memory of this victory) . The pillar also highlights ancient
India's achievements in metallurgy. The pillar is made of 98% wrought iron and has stood more than 1,600 years without rusting or decomposing. This iron pillar is similar to the
Pillars of Ashoka found mostly in northern
India. From Chandragupta II kings were known as Parama Bhagavatas, or
Bhagavata Vaishnavas. The
Bhagavata Purana entails the fully developed tenets and philosophy of the Bhagavata tradition wherein Krishna gets fused with
Vasudeva and transcends Vedic Vishnu and cosmic Hari to be turned into the ultimate object of
bhakti.
India has many interesting stories about King Vikramaditya, his guru named 'Manva-Patwa' and his queen(s).
Chandragupta continued issuing most of the gold coin types introduced by his father
Samudragupta, such as the Sceptre type (rare for Chandragupta), the Archer type, and the Tiger-Slayer type. However, Chandragupta also introduced several new types, such as the Horseman type and the Lion-slayer type, both of which were used a lot by his son
Kumaragupta. In addition, Chandragupta was the first Gupta king to issue silver coins, such as the one illustrated at right. These coins were intended to replace the silver coinage of the
Western Kshatrapasafter Chandragupta defeated them, and were modeled on the Kshatrapa coinage. The main difference was to replace the dynastic symbol of the Kshatrapas (the three-arched hill) by the dynastic symbol of the Guptas (the mythic eagle
Garuda). Further, Chandragupta also issued lead coins based on Kshatrapa prototypes and rare copper coins probably inspired by the coins of another tribe he defeated, the
Nagas.
