NCERT Solutions for Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 7 The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity
Updated on 2026-09-05
About this chapter
A new power fills the gap left by the Kuṣhāṇas. By the 3rd century CE the Kuṣhāṇa Empire weakened and new kingdoms appeared. The Guptas , believed to have begun as regional rulers near present-day Uttar Pradesh , rose to become the strongest of them, with their capital at Pāṭaliputra (present-day Patna). Their empire flourished from the 3rd to the 6th century CE. Three rulers to remember. Chandragupta I — coins showing him with his queen Kumāradevī , and strategic alliances. Samudragupta — the warrior king of the prayāga praśhasti , whose ambition Harisena calls dharaṇi-bandha , ‘to unify the Earth’; his coins show him playing the veena . Chandragupta II ‘Vikramāditya’ — a devotee of Viṣhṇu, in whose reign the rust-free Iron Pillar at Mehrauli was set up. Rule throu
- Chapter opening
- Why Chandragupta II carries a ‘II’ after his name
- Fig. 7.5, an inscription by Harisena
- Fig. 7.8
- A Traveller’s Account of Indian Society in the Gupta Age
- The codification of Āyurveda in the Gupta period
- –166End-of-chapter exercise
Exercises
- Chapter opening — The Big Questions Page 145
- Why Chandragupta II carries a ‘II’ after his name — DON’T MISS OUT Page 149
- Fig. 7.5, an inscription by Harisena — THINK ABOUT IT Page 150
- Looking back at the Grade 6 chapter ‘Timeline and Sources of History’ — LET’S EXPLORE Page 151
- Fig. 7.8 — LET’S EXPLORE Page 151
- A Traveller’s Account of Indian Society in the Gupta Age — LET’S EXPLORE Page 153
- Fig. 7.10, an artist’s reimagination of Prabhāvatī Gupta sitting in her court — LET’S EXPLORE Page 155
- Meeting Āryabhaṭa and Varāhamihira with Bhavisha and Dhruv’s time machine — LET’S EXPLORE Page 159
- The codification of Āyurveda in the Gupta period — DON’T MISS OUT Page 160
- Fig. 7.15.1 and 7.15.2, ‘Various aspects of Gupta art’ (page 162) — LET’S EXPLORE Page 160
- The chapter in three points, with the timeline of Fig. 7.19 (page 164) — Before we move on … Page 165
- –166End-of-chapter exercise — Questions and activities Page 165