Dr. A.

Gangatharan
Department of History
Banaras Hindu University
Gupta Empire, 4th -7th centuries
spread across Northern India.
Sri Gupta, Chandra Gupta I, Samundra
Gupta, Chandra Gupta-II and Kumar
Gupta were the leading kings of this
dynasty.
Gupta rule is depicted as the Golden Age
of the Hindu classical civilization.
Sanskrit become the
prominent language of the
time.
Science, Technology, Poetry and Art reached their
zenith.
The great Indian scientists like Aryabhatta,
Varahamihira, Braham gupta seemed to have lived
around this period of historical time.
The iron pillar established by a
Gupta ruler called Chandra
was the achievement of the
development of metallurgy
during this period.
The pillar is about 7.16 m
made up of 99.7% wrought
iron with less Sulphur and
more Phosphorous making it
rust resistant at all times.
Aryabhatta had written
Aryabhatiya and Aryabhata-
siddhanta of which the latter in
only known by name.
Aryabhatiya argued in favour
of geocentric theory of the
universe.
The idea of zero seemed to
have developed much before
this time and it was used in
Chhanda sutra by Pingala,
with a “dot” (.) in the 2nd
century B.C.E.
Later it was developed by
Sphujidhvaja in Yavanajataka.
Varahamihira, Brahama gupta
and Mahavira were well known
mathematician who developed
the basic ideas of arithmetic and
basic rule of algebra.