3rd glorious epoch of India

This part of the book is about the period after Mauryas, which saw menace by Saka-Kushans. And then the rise of an Bhartiya empire which took then out completely. 

After the fall of Mauryas and Sungas. There were again multiple small kingdoms. Taking advantage of which, the Sakas started capturing Indian territories. 

When Sakas expanded further, they got resistance from Andhra's Satavahana kingdom. At that very time they started getting resistance from Youdheyas and Malavas. At the same very time the Kushans started attacking from North add they were themselves pushed by Huns from today's China. Their empire broke. 

But the largest benefit went to Kushans. They captured huge part of India. 



kushan empire was under emperor Kanishka. He proclaimed himself as king of Kushan empire after death of Wina Kadphises. His aim to build a strong empire. He marched on Sakas who captured Malva to Sindh. Going forward he was defeated by Andhra and had to acknowledge their paramountcy. Kanishka embraced Buddhism. Kanishka spread Buddhism to huge parts of Chinese territory. He first conquered these territories by war then sent Baudh Bhikkus to those areas. Without arms victory religious victory was not possible. The grand son of Kanishka abandoned Buddhism and took Vedic religion. He changed his name to Samrat Vasudeo. 

This period saw continuous wars and oh was this time that Patliputra got independent and this laid to foundation of Gupta empire about 320 AD. Started by Chandragupta, a staunch adherent to Vedic religion. His son Samudragupta, planned to conquer all independent Indian states ans bring it under one nation. He was called "Indian Napoleon". Samudragupta conquered territories in South India and returned to patliputra and performed the Ashwamedh, horse sacrifice to establish his kingdom. 

He also captured all Kushan territories, like Gandhar and all other North West kingdoms. 

Samudragupta son Ramagupta was a week link. The remaining kingdoms of Sakas in Sindh, began to expand. Their terror was so high that Ramagupta was about to send his young and beautiful wife, Grhdevi to Saka Satrap. So his younger brother Chandragupta, defied him and took hey under his protection. He wore a female attire and went Saka Satrap as Grhdevi. Killed the Saka king  Rudrasingh to end the kingdom of last Sakas in India. 

Samrat Chandragupta took a new name, Vikramaditya. 

Vikramaditya was one of most renowned, with the satisfied people and prosperity through out the empire. He himself followed Vedic religion, but Jainism and Buddhism also flourished. 

This reign of Vikramaditya, and throwing out of all foreign invaders then kings the Sakas and Kushans is called by Savarkar as the third glorious epoch. 

Samrat Vikramaditya:

Going away from the book, some articles share the expense of his empire as follows: