The Gupta Polity

by V.R. Ramachandra Dikshitar

This book on Gupta Polity is a companion volume to the author`s earlier work The Mauryan Polity. The sources of information for a study of the subject are not as many as in the case of the later book. The author firmly believes that Kalidasa was not a protege of the Gupta Court but lived in second century b.c. and so his prolific works cannot be taken to throw any light on the Gupta empire. One has therefore to depend mainly on the Kamandakiya Nitisastra, the inscriptions and coins of the Gupta rulers and the accounts of the Chinese traveller Fa-hien for a knowledge of the Gupta Polity. V.R. RAMACHANDRA DIKSHITAR belonged to avant-garde historians who introduced a new methodology into the study of Indian history. He contributed innumerable research papers to scholarly journals in India and abroad. He was General Editor of Madras University Historical Series. His works covering various dimensions of Indian history include original treatises, translations and volumes edited by him.