Skandagupta

Skandagupta (Sanskrit: स्कन्दगुप्त) (died 467) was a Gupta Emperor of northern India. He is generally considered the last of the great Gupta Emperors.

Rule

Skandagupta's antecedents remain unclear. Later official genealogies omit his name, and even the inscriptions of his own age omit the name of his mother. Another contemporary record notes that the "goddess of sovereignty, of her own accord, selected him as her husband, having in succession discarded all other princes." This has been interpreted as suggesting that Skandragupta was the son of a junior wife. It may even be that he was simply a successful general who promoted himself into the ruling Gupta clan.

He certainly faced some of the greatest challenges in the annals of the empire having to contend with the Pushyamitras and the Hunas (a name by which the "White Huns" were known in India). He defeated the Pushyamitras, a tribe who were settled in central India but then rebelled. He was also faced with invading Indo-Hephthalites or Hunas, from the northwest. Skandagupta had warred against the Huns during the reign of his father, and was celebrated throughout the empire as a great warrior. He crushed the Huna invasion in 455, and managed to keep them at bay; however, the expense of the wars drained the empire's resources and contributed to its decline. In particular, coinage issued under SkandaGupta is seriously debased.

Jaishankar Prasad

Jaishankar Prasad (30 January 1890 – 15 November 1937), one of the most famous figures in modern Hindi literature as well as Hindi theatre In her glowing tribute to Jai Shankar Prasad, the poet- critic Mahadevi Verma says: “Whenever I remember our great poet, Prasad a particular image comes to my mind. A fir tree stands on the slope of the Himalaya, straight and tall as the proud mountain peaks themselves. Its lofty head braves the assaults of the snow, the rain, and the blazing heat of the sun. Violent storms shake its spreading branches, while a thin stream of water plays hide-and-seek amongst its root. Even under the most heavy snowfall, the most fierce heat, and the torrential rain, the fir tree holds its head high. Even in the midst of the worst thunderstorm and blizzards, it remains steady and unflinching.”

This compliment from a younger contemporary of Prasad summarizes in a condensed from the literary genius of one of the leading lights of chhayavad movement in Hindi literature. It recognizes Prasad’s place among his peers as well as his relevance to modernity. As author of a classic epic of the human psyche, his magnum opus Kamayani, Prasad had acquired early eminence. But later his multifaceted personality burgeoned in his contribution to diverse fields of literature in spite of countless storms of personal tragedies, and national social and political upheavals. Since brought up in the affluent family of a tobacco merchant, Prasad was a man of personal charm and of romantic disposition. By temperament a reformer and humanitarian, through his devotion to literature he became a lyric poet, a dramatist, a story writer, and essayist. Thus Prasad emerged as a literary genius. It would be no exaggeration if we rank him with such literary stalwarts as Kalidas, Tulsidas, Shakespeare, Dante, and Goethe in view of his vision and aesthetic consciousness.

Hephthalite Empire

The Hephthalites, Ephthalites, Ye-tai, White Huns, or, in Sanskrit, the Sveta Huna, were a confederation of nomadic and settled people in Central Asia who expanded their domain westward in the 5th century. At the height of its power in the first half of the 6th century, the Hephthalite Empire controlled territory in present-day Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India and China.

Earlier history

The stronghold of the Hephthalites was Tokharistan on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, in what is present-day northeastern Afghanistan. By 479, the Hephthalites had conquered Sogdia and driven the Kidarites westwards, and by 493 they had captured parts of present-day Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin in what is now Northwest China.

The Hephthalites invaded India for the first time in the 5th century and were defeated by Emperor Skandagupta of the Gupta Empire. By the end of the 5th century, the Hephthalites overran the part of the Gupta Empire that was to their southeast and conquered Central and North India. Emperor Bhanugupta of the Guptas defeated the Huns under Toramana in 510. Later the Hephthalites were defeated and driven out of India by the Indian kings Yasodharman and Narasimhagupta in the early 6th century.

Gupta Empire

The Gupta Empire (Sanskrit: गुप्तसाम्राज्य, Gupta Sāmrājya) was an ancient Indian empire, founded by Maharaja Sri Gupta, which existed at its zenith from approximately 240 to 550 CE and covered much of the Indian Subcontinent. The peace and prosperity created under the leadership of the Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavours. 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, religion, and philosophy that crystallized the elements of what is generally known as Hindu culture.Chandra Gupta I, Samudra Gupta, and Chandra Gupta II 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, the Hunas, the Kambojas, tribes located in the west and east Oxus valleys, the Kinnaras, Kiratas etc.