The undefeated Gupta conqueror who also played the veena
Samudragupta, the second Gupta emperor, is credited with a hundred battles and a hundred wounds worn like badges of glory, never once losing. His gold coins tell a gentler story too: they show a ruler who wrote poetry and played the veena, a stringed instrument, suggesting a warlord with an artist's hands.
The son of Chandragupta I and a Licchavi princess, Kumaradevi, Samudragupta inherited a kingdom and turned it into an empire. His father apparently gave up the throne in old age and named him heir before the court, praising his devotion and valour. An inscription notes that others of equal birth looked melancholy at the choice, which may point to rival princes, and his mother's prestigious family may have tipped the balance.
Our main window onto his wars is the Allahabad Pillar inscription, a eulogy written by his courtier Harisena. It claims he beat numerous kings of northern India and absorbed their lands, then marched down the southeastern coast as far as Kanchipuram. At its height his directly ruled territory ran from the Ravi River in the west to the Brahmaputra in the east, and from the Himalayan foothills to central India, with coastal rulers paying tribute. Historians suggest several motives: a dream of becoming a universal ruler, or a wish to control trade with Southeast Asia. To proclaim his sovereignty he performed the Ashvamedha, an ancient horse sacrifice.
Dating him is tricky. Gupta inscriptions count years from an era beginning around 319 CE, but nobody is sure whether he or his father founded it. Scholars place the start of his reign anywhere from about 319 to about 350 CE, partly depending on disputed dates for a Sri Lankan king, Meghavarna, who was his contemporary.
A further puzzle involves coins of a ruler called Kacha, praised as the destroyer of all kings, which look very like Samudragupta's own. Some think Kacha was his earlier name, and that he adopted Samudra, meaning ocean, once his rule reached the sea. Others see Kacha as a separate king, possibly a rival. His son Chandragupta II carried the expansion forward.
Source: Samudragupta
