The Rise of the Guptas

The Gupta dynasty seizes control of the ancient region of Magadha and begins to aggressively conquer the Gangetic Plains. Building on earlier innovations in courtly Sanskrit and adapting the naturalistic style of Kushan art and some elements of their coinage, the region’s cultural and political idiom lays the basis for developments through the early medieval period, rapidly spreading into the Brahmaputra River valley, the east coast of present-day India, and through trade, into present-day Myanmar and other locations in Southeast Asia.