Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/304

 262 THE GUPTA EMPIKE been ruled for centuries by the Saka dynasty, known to European scholars as the western satraps. The campaigns which added these remote provinces to the empire must have occupied several years, and are known to have taken place between 388 and 401 A. D. A HILL -TOP PAGODA. The year 395 may be assumed as a mean date for the completion of the conquest, which involved the incor- poration in the empire of the territory held by the Malavas and other tribes, who had remained outside the limits of Samudragupta's dominion. The annexation of Surashtra and Malwa not only added to the empire provinces of exceptional wealth and fertility, but