Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/54

 24 HISTORY OF INDIAN ARCHITECTURE. stupa at Sanchi in the year A.D. 412, and recorded on the rail of that Monument, but their other inscriptions, on the lats at Allahabad, Junagadh, and Bhitari, show a decided tendency towards Hinduism of the Vaishnava form, but which was still far removed from the wild extravagances of the Puranas. There seems little doubt that the boar at Eran, and the buildings there, belong to this dynasty, and are consequently among the earliest if not the very oldest temples in India, dedicated to the new religion, which was then raising its head in defiance to Buddhism. From their coins and inscriptions, we may feel certain that the Guptas possessed, when in the plenitude of their power, the whole of northern India with the province of Gujarat, but how far the boasts of Samudragupta (3/0-380) on the Allahabad pillar were justified is by no means clear. If that inscription is to be believed, the whole of the southern country as far as Ceylon, together with, or up to the borders of Asam and Nepal, were subject to their sway. However brilliant it may have been, their power was of short duration. Gujarat, with Kathiawar, from about A.D. 500, was held by the Maitrakas of Valabhi, at first as feudatories of the Guptas, but, as the paramount power declined, the Valabhi chiefs gradually assumed independence, and founded a separate kingdom, which sometimes included western Malwa, and lasted into the middle of the 8th century. Although it was evident in the time of the Guptas that a change was creeping over the religious belief of India, it was not then that the blow was struck which eventually proved fatal, but by a dynasty which succeeded them in Central India. THE SIXTH CENTURY AND AFTER. The Gupta power seems to have given way before the inroads of Sakas or Huns, chiefly under Toramana and his son Mihirakula, who succeeded him about 515, and was a bitter persecutor of the Buddhists in the North- West. A coalition was formed against him, and under Ya^odharman of Ujjain he was totally defeated about 530. At this period the ' Raja- tarangini' describes Vikramaditya-Harsha of Ujjain as sole sovereign of India, the destroyer of the Sakas, and patron of poets, who placed Matrigupta on the throne of Kashmir. It is possible that this Yajodharman and Vikramaditya are only birudas or titles of the same sovereign, who may have ruled till 550 or thereabouts. 1 Further, the period seems to suggest 1 Taranitha states that Vikramaditya- I Mlechchhas, massacring them ai Multan, Harsha abolished the teaching of the | and was succeeded by ilia. The Man-