Pataliputra The Largest Jewel in India’s Crown Part.VII

       What happened to the city? There are several theories. Its final destruction was probably caused by the catastrophic flood in the area in about 575. But it seems that a huge fire may have already played a major part in its collapse- archaeologists have found ash during excavations. 

      Geologists have speculated that the fire may have been started by an earthquake, because the city is near the edge of a tectonic plate that carriers the Indian subcontinent. But the ashes may have been left by invaders. For more than a century, the Guptas and their neighbors were threatened by a tribe from central Asia – the Hepthalites, or White Huns, who invaded northern India during the reign of Skanda Gupta. A retaliatory attack on the invaders in the early 6^th century brought devastation to Pataliputra when the Huns sacked the city –perhaps they put it to the torch. By the middle of the 6^th century, the Huns controlled most of the Gupta’s territory.

     Their mere presence north of the city would have greatly disrupted the flow of trade on which the empire’s wealth was based. The resulting loss of financial power may have ignited social and political tensions among the empire’s rulers, perhaps leading to fierce internal disputes among the different factions.

    

    After the death of Skanda Gupta, several different lines of succession developed, which suggests that the royal family fell out over who should take power. If so, this magnificent city may have received its death wound in the chaos of a civil war. Pataliputra may, in fact, have died by its own hand, leaving only shattered pottery and a few scorched stones in the dust to mark its passing.