Empire320 CE – 550 CE · 230 years

Gupta Empire

India's "classical age" — when the decimal system, chess, and most of Hindu temple architecture were codified.

What it was

The Gupta Empire (~319–550 CE) ruled most of north India during a period of political stability that allowed extraordinary cultural and scientific output. The mathematician Aryabhata, the playwright Kalidasa, and the systematization of the Puranas all date from this era.

Why it mattered

The Indian numeral system — including the concept of zero — was developed under Gupta patronage; it reached the Islamic world around 800 CE and Europe by 1200.

From Wikipedia

The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire during the classical period of the Indian subcontinent which existed from the mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE. At its peak, the dynasty ruled over an empire that spanned much of the northern Indian subcontinent. This period has been considered as the Golden Age of India by some historians, although this characterisation has been disputed by others. The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by Gupta.

Wikipedia: Gupta Empire·CC BY-SA 4.0

Borders & accuracy

Reconstructed borders

Solid borders are reconstructed from canonical historical-basemap data or hand-crafted from scholarly atlases.

  • SOURCEaourednik / historical-basemaps
  • DETAILhistorical-basemaps
  • SNAPSHOT400 CE
  • POLITY TYPEstate

Wars of this empire3

Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.

Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 320 CE and fits the map to these borders.

68.1°,13.0° → 93.8°,33.7°WARS-ATLAS / EMPIRE / GUPTA-EMPIRE

Cite as: Gupta Empire (320 CE – 550 CE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/gupta-empire · Sources & methodology