Vedic Rites
Vedic rites which Samudra Gupta made attempts to revive after a long period of abeyance in certain areas, had their staunch advocates in the Purva Mimamsa or Karma Mimamsa school represented by Savarasvamin, Prabhakara and Kumarila. Savara’s acquaintance with the Great Vehicle may point to a date later than Nagarjuna of the Kushan-Satavahana period. Prabhakara is later than Savara but earlier than Kumarila, who is probably an elder contemporary of Sankara. In spite of the teaching of the Mimamsakas, the Karma-marga, or the way of deliverance by the performance of Vedic rites, does not seem to have attained amongst the masses of the Hindus the same popularity as the Bhakti marga professed by the ardent sectaries devoted to the cults of Siva, Vishnu and associated deities. It is significant that the ancient rite of Asvamedha tends to fall into disuse after the age of the Guptas and the early Chalukyas.
Literary Activity
Buhler observed long ago that during the Gupta age court poetry was zealously cultivated in India. Samudra Gupta took delight in the title of Kaviraja or king of poets. He associated with learned people and is said to have put an end to the war between good poetry and prosperity. There can hardly be any doubt that many poets who were none too wealthy received his patronage. The most notable poet of his court was Harishena, the writer of the Allahabad panegyric. Chandra Gupta II, Vikramaditya, son of Samudra Gupta, followed in the footsteps of his father, and counted among his high ministers a poet named Virasena-Saba. Tradition associates the name of Kalidasa, the greatest of Sanskrit poets after the immortal writers of the two ancient epics, with king Vikramaditya and the acharya Dignaga, who probably flourished during this time. The fame of Kalidasa and Bharavi is well attested by Bana and Ravikirti who adorned the courts of Harsha and of Pulakesin II respectively. The rulers of Valabhi extended their patronage to the famous author of the Bhattikavya. To the Gupta period have also been assigned the celebrated dramatists who wrote the Mrichchhakatika, the Mudra Rakshasa and the Devi Chandra Guptam but the matter is not free from doubt. The seventh century AD saw the composition of the works of Bana, ,Mayura, Bhartrihari, Subandhu and the royal poets, Sri Harsha and Mahendravarman. The portions of the Puranas dealing with the so-called future kings were apparently compiled during the Gupta age, and it is probable that the Mahabharata received its latest accretions during the same epoch. In the domain of science the Gupta period produced the celebrated astronomers, Aryabhata and Varahamihira. Even before Varahamihira’s time Indians had invented the decimal notation. The law-books of Narada and Brihaspati are also reckoned by several scholars as products of the same age.
In the post-Gupta period we have in addition to male writers a number of poetesses, among whom Silabhattarika deserves special mention. The Kaumudi mahotsava is also ascribed by some scholars
to a female dramatist, but her identity and date are uncertain. Among writers of the opposite sex, Bhavabhuti stands preeminent. Both he and Vakpatiraja enjoyed the patronage of Yasovarman of Kanauj. Towards the end of the ninth century the court of Kanauj was adorned by Rajasekhara.
Epic poetry and the drama in the period after the Great Guptas did not always reach the level of Bharavi and Bhavabhuti. But the later age still produced poets and playwrights of ability like Magha, Sri Harsha, Bhattanarayana, Kshemisvara, and Krishna Misra. Lyric poetry flourished long after Bhatrihari, and the twelfth century saw the composition by Jayadeva of the Gita Govinda, one of the sweetest of the Sanskrit song-books. Works of merit continued to be produced in other fields of learning and literature. The prose romance of Dandin, the later versions of the didactic fables of the Panchatantra, the ethical compositions of Santideva and treatises on polity written by Kamandaka and Somadeva may be mentioned in this connection. In one domain, that of historical literature, the post-Gupta period produced works the like of which had not been seen in earlier ages. The most notable among them were the Harsha-charita of Bana, the Ramacharita of Sandhyakara, the Vikramanka-charita of Bilhana and the Rajatarangini of Kalhana. Sankara, Ramanuja and other eminent philosophers of the epoch under review do not suffer by comparison with the great masters of the days of Kanishka and the Satavahanas. In astronomy, the period of Yadava rule produced the great Bhaskara. We have towards the close of the age under review a number of polymaths like Bhoja of Dhara, Somesvara III of Kalyana and Kshemendra of Kashmir who showed their interest in such diverse subjects as poetry, rhetoric, polity, philosophy,, astronomy, architecture, medicine, alchemy, music and painting.
