Limited attention seems to have been paid in Indian historical work to the Hūṇas (Huns) except for the general assumption that they played a very destructive role in Indian history. There is need for a fresh appraisal of the Hūṇa polity in the light of the Schūyen copper scroll, and further work on the numismatic evidence, while the details of their conflict with the Guptas need to be properly worked out. Finally, the objective behind their deep intrusion into central India (especially Malwa) has to be located in a broader context.
The Gupta Empire (fourth–fifth centuries ad) succeeded in subjugating a series of local forest chiefs and tribal territories. The Allahabad prashasti not only enumerates the conquests of the Gupta king Samudragupta, but also lays out the hierarchy of the kings equal in status and such as were subordinate to him, in his eyes. The political integration of dispersed political elements under the Guptas was linked with the changing contours of the Gupta authority in central India, on the one hand, and the process of transition from pre-state to state-society, on the other. This process is studied here mainly on the basis of epigraphic evidence.
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