Classical age
Topic: Gupta Empire and the Classical Age · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 7 "The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity"
Meaning
"Classical age" is a label that some historians give to the Gupta period, c. 300–600 CE. In these years there was a long spell of peace and stability. Earlier knowledge was gathered and given final shape in texts. Sanskrit poetry, mathematics, astronomy, medicine (Ayurveda), metallurgy, art and early temple-building all reached high standards, and later India copied them for centuries. The label is debated. Our main sources are prashastis (poems written to praise kings). The traveller Faxian also saw chandalas, who were treated as outcastes, made to live outside cities. So the label should be weighed against the evidence, not simply accepted.
Example
Around c. 500 CE, Aryabhata wrote the Aryabhatiya at Kusumapura, near Patna. It explained that the Earth spins on its axis and gave the correct cause of eclipses. In the same era Kalidasa wrote the Meghadutam, and the Charaka and Sushruta Samhitas were given their final form.
Don't confuse with
- "Golden age": this is a stronger claim that everyone was well off. "Classical" mainly means that the period set lasting standards in learning and art.