Origin of The Guptas
According to many historians, the Gupta Empire was a Vaish dynasty. Historian Ram Sharan Sharma asserts that the Vaish Guptas "appeared as a reaction against oppressive rulers". A.S. Altekar, a historian and archaeologist, who has written several books on Gupta coinage, also regarded the caste of the Guptas as Vaish on the basis of the ancient Indian texts on law, which prescribe the name-ending with Gupta for a member of the Vaish caste. According to historian Michael C. Brannigan, the rise of the Gupta Empire was one of the most prominent violations of the caste system in ancient India.
Fa Xian was the first of the Chinese pilgrims who visited India during the reign of Gupta emperor Chandragupta II. He started his journey from China in 399 CE and reached India in 405 CE. During his stay in India up to 411 CE, he went on a pilgrimage to Mathura, Kanauj, Kapilavastu, Kushinagar, Vaishali, Pataliputra, Kashi and Rajgriha and made careful observations about the empire's conditions. Fa Xian was pleased with the mildness of administration. The Penal Code was mild and offences were punished by fines only. From his accounts, the Gupta Empire was a prosperous period, until the Rome-China trade axis was broken with the fall of the Han dynasty, the Guptas' did indeed prosper.
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