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I would like to apologize in advance to those readers of Indian history as I have taken the liberty of giving an origin story to the Gupta's , the story for the most part reflects the politics and socio cultural aspects of those times but the story is " invented " the reason for this because the period from 225 -319 ad is a cultural dark ages of Indian history and only unreliable purana are present to give us a picture on the general economic and social political conditions. But as years progress in this alternate history you will find events and circumstances based on reliable historical records . So before judging this a work of fiction I would like the readers to bear in mind that early part of the story takes place in a cultural dark ages. As for the origin of the Gupta dynasty it is assumed that they were brahmins although The Pune and Riddhapur inscriptions of the Gupta princess prabhavati gupta the daughter of chandragupta II State that she belonged to the Dharana gotra(clan).An alternative reading of Prabhavati-gupta's inscriptions suggests that Dharana was not her gotra, but the gotra of her mother Kuberanaga so due to the inconclusive nature of the main piece of evidence and large number of experts having an opinion that Gupta's were brahmins this timeline begins with the premise that they were Brahmins



A young Brahmin man aged about 18 years of age by name of sri gupta stands outside his home is ready to move to the village temple which is situated just outside the city of pataliputra to participate in the festivities of the Diwali . He expects to take part in debates amongst the Brahmanas which usually centers around rituals , philosophy or metaphysical matters and he expects nothing to change this year too . The young man makes his way to the temple walking on the grand trunk road which connected the city of Kabul or kapsia to modern day chittengong or as it was known back then as chatiagao but this fact was not known to the people back then, the Mauryan empire , the empire which had comissioned and built the long road had long disappeared from peoples memories and the roads were in a state of total disrepair save for the few segments such as the one that the young man was walking on , he came across a huge craved out stone but he could not make out what was written on it 450 years ago as weather eroded what was written on it and moreover the script in which it was written was no longer in use , the people of the region knew that in distant past a splendid empire which ruled over a vast territory but people have largely forgotten on the name of the rulers or the events . The young man stood there and looked at the stone pillar and then proceeded to make his way to the temple .
In the temple the festivities were truly underway and our young man made his way to the place where the Brahmanas were having their debate , usually the debate centered around religions and its related matter but this time the mood was different, they were talking about politics . In 225 Ad the kushana power began to divide into eatstern and western empires and the empires central control with numerous chieftons fighting amongst themselves from the empire but by 224 Ad there was a scene of civil war in the area around pataliputra as that region broke off from the central rule and there was a need for a strong central authority in the region as the kushanan power was non existent beyond mathura

As soon he entered in he heard his friend vishnugupta was arguing with another brahmin by name of Padmanabha
"Are you crazy ?!, a brahmin to be a King ? " , " Why not its not unthinkable? There has been precedent before " said padmanabha with that vishnugupta became silent, another brahmin by name of Hiranya Bhatta " Well the Kshatriya have foresake their duties , I see there would not be any arguments against such an idea of a brahmin becoming a king , this is a time of great anarchy and in my humble opinion I think only a brahmin can restore Dharma and let's not forget our history is full of examples of Brahmins who have become kings " " Name one " vishnugupta shot a response " " well you have Ravana " said Hiranya Bhatta , vishnugupta a bit enraged said " of all the kings you had mention that villan " " why not , he is brilliant knew the Vedas and followed dharma " said Hiranya Bhatta just then Sri Gupta interjected and said " our real enemies are those nastikas and malichas ,any one who destroys them deserves to rule " all present there nodded in agreement , the pitamaha of the temple said " wise words only a saruta can make such wise statement " shri Gupta continued " once the celebration are over and month of Āśvinaḥ is over war season will begin we need to prepare for it soon " with that statement everyone present was made aware of the prevailing state of anarchy . The festivities ended and people began to make preparation for the wars .

Sri Gupta belonged to the srauta school of Hinduism but he had good knowledge of ethics , politics and economics which he persued in his spare time. His wife and his only son had passed away in the typhoid epidemic and sri Gupta barely survived the disease , times were tough even though sri Gupta lived better off than the rest of the population he was actually a Prince although not called as such since his father Brahmagupta together will other prominent brahmin clans and also other Kshatriya clans had siezed control of area in and around the city of pataliputra while his father was not declared as king he was heading the government of that city and its surrounding regions . Although a orthodox vedic Hindu he and other tolerated the Buddhists in the locality while privately hated them as Corruptor's of social life but Buddhists were influential in socioeconomic and political system and as such couldn't be persecuted . A military junta was formed which composed of military leaders and other important personalities of the locality and the junta was headed by Sri Gupta's father Brahmagupta , the junta wasted no time in expanding the power into saketa , prayag, anuganga and of course magadha where the power was based however the hold onto power was at best weak and was under threat by infighting and external aggression . Brahmagupta through intrigue and political posturing have secured himself the head of military junta and talks that he wanted to seize power and crown himself as king were rife further adding to the internal rift .

Sri Gupta wanted power and encouraged his father to consolidate the power and one way to increase the power is to gain access to funds and to seek alliance with parties both inside and outside the sphere of influence , the family made alliance with kingdoms and tribal confederation of kosala and banga and with regards to funding the family' s caste background would take care of that since temples in India held the most wealth . Though Hinduism's emphasis has shifted from the elaborate vedic rituals ,which shri Gupta was a part of , to upanishad the family was pragmatic enough to allow other schools of Hinduism like yoga , Vedanta, mimamsa and other astika schools to join in the growing political movement for the restoration of old vedic religion . With alliance with powerful clans and tribes and access to funding almost unlimited events are bound to accelerate.
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