The Gupta Empire The Gupta empire came into power in 320 CE when India was numerous fragmented kingdoms. The first ruler, King Srigupta I (r. 270-290 CE), was able to unify these kingdoms and established a petty state. During this time period, the government began restoring respect for Brahmanism, an earlier version of Hinduism, through building temples. Concurrently, he was religiously tolerant and allowed Buddhism to spread. Additionally, the rulers during this time referred to the Arthashastra, which teaches rulers how to hold a vast empire together. It stayed this way until the reign of the third king, Chandragupta I (r. 320-335 CE). He started rapid expansion and established himself as the first sovereign ruler of the empire. Through military conquest and marriage of Kumaradevi, a Licchavi princess, he created the foundation of the empire. The foundations were Pataliputra as the capital, most of Bihar than the eastern half of Uttar Pradesh for the rest of the empire. They had armored cavalry forces that attacked with lances or swords. Gupta also used war elephants and have a navy to control coast. …show more content…
335-337 CE) used his military intelligence to bring the larger part of the northern heartland under his direct administration. He annihilated the nine kings of Aryavatar which allowed the empire to spread to the northern heartland of the subcontinent. He took over five other monarchical states, then created a ring of tributary states as a buffer zone between the neighboring empires and groups. He issued coins picturing the Vedic Ashvamedha ritual and figures of Lakshmi, which represents wealth in the Vedic text. One advancement the Gupta military made they made in archery was creating the steel