Religion
The Gupta age is usually regarded as an era of Brahmanic revival. There can be no doubt thathinduism Brahmanism enjoyed imperial patronage. 
Some of the rulers make a pointed claim to have revived orthodox rites that had been in abeyance for a long period. But the claim need not be taken too literally. It has been rightly pointed out by a shrewd observer that the period of the Guptas is one of culmination, of florescence rather than of renaissance. The recrudescence of Brahmanism in the Ganges valley is as old as the time of Pushyamitra, while in the south we have a long succession of dynasties that counted it as their proud boast to have repeatedly performed Vedic rites like the Vajapeya and the Asva-medha. Some of the ablest among the foreign potentates and statesmen of the north, who dominated the stage of Indian history during the period that supervened between the age of the Sungas and that of the Guptas, were the adherents of two great Hindu sects, namely, Saivas and Bhagavatas or Vaishnavas, if not of the Vedic sacrificial religion itself.
The most noticeable features in the religious life of the people during the Gupta age were the growing importance of Bhakti (loving faith in God)and the love of fellow-beings which found expression in benevolent activities and toleration of the opinions of others. Bhakti, that is, intense devotion to god conceived of as personal,
a Saviour worthy of trust and ready to be gracious, is an important element of Vaishnavism and Saivism as expounded in the Gita and the Svetasvatara Upanishad. “He who with unwavering practice of devotion (bhakti yoga) does God service has crossed beyond the strands” and is fit for salvation. Bhakti to Sambhu, that is Siva, led to the hollowing out by a minister of Chandra Gupta II of a cave at Udayagiri. Devotion to other Adorable Beings found vent in the construction by various sections of the community, royal personages, officials, priests, guilds, etc., of lofty pillars, beautiful gateways, awe-inspiring images and splendid temples in honour of Vishnu, Karttikeya, the Sun, the Tirthankaras and the Buddha. The wide prevalence of a feeling of toleration is well illustrated by epigraphic and literary references to the employment by Vaishnava kings of Saivite and Buddhist officials and the affection felt by Jainas for Brahmanas and by Brahmanas for the Tirthankaras and the Buddha. Fa Hien testifies to the benevolence and righteousness of the people of the Ganges valley, who not only directed their attention to the ceremonial side of religion, e.g. the celebration of processions of images, but also to the practice of charity. He remarks that “throughout the whole country the people do not kill any living creature, nor drink intoxicating liquor, nor eat onions or garlic. The only exception is that of the Chandalas.”
A list of the important religious sects that flourished at the close of the Gupta age is given in Bana’s Harsha-charita. We find mention in that work of Jainas, both Digambaras (skyclad, that is naked) and Svetambaras (white-robed), Vaishnavas, both Bhagavatas and Pancharatras, Saugatas or Buddhists, Mashkarins, possibly identical with the Ajivikas, and adherents of various schools of philosophy including the Sankhya, the Lokayatika, the Vaiseshika, the Vedanta, and the Nyaya.
Buddhism had powerful exponents during the Gupta age in the famous sages and philosophers Asanga, Vasubandhu, Kumarajiva and Dignaga. In the succeeding centuries it gradually lost ground. The Hun invasions must have led to the destruction of numerous monastic establishments in the north-west as well as in the east of India. With the deification of the Buddha and his admission into the Vishnuite pantheon as an incarnation of Narayana-Vishnu, there was little to distinguish the Buddhist laity from their Brahmanical neighbours. Intermarriages between Buddhists and Saiva or Vaishnava royal families illustrate the absorption and assimilation of the votaries of the reforming cult by the followers of more orthodox creeds. Brahmana councillors begin to figure as prominently in Buddhist courts as in the darbars of Brahmanical princes. The growth of Tantricism made the distinction between the Vajrayana type of Buddhism and certain forms of and Saivism purely nominal. The advent of saintly poets and zealous reformers who sang the praise of Vishnu and Siva and vigorously combated the heretical doctrines of the Great Vehicle must have weighted the scale in favour of Orthodox Hinduism. With the destruction of the last remnants of the great Buddhist establishments that once covered the entire face of Hindustan by a new race of conquerors in the twelfth and succeeding centuries, Buddhism almost vanished from the land of its birth.
Jainism seems to have enjoyed popularity for a long time in Bengal, certain regions in the United Provinces and the Kanarese country in South India. Hiuen Tsang found the religion flourishing in Bengal in the seventh century. But it was in Western India that it had its most important stronghold. The canon of the white-robed Jainas was reduced to writing in the fifth or sixth century AD as a result of the deliberations of a council held at Valabhi in Western India. The Digambara sect attained eminence during the rule of the Chalukyas of Vatapi and the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed. The Chalukya king, Vinayaditya (AD 680-696), had for his spiritual adviser a famous teacher of the Digambaras. Amoghavarsha (AD 815-877), one of the greatest of the Rashtrakutas, liberally patronised the sect. Jainism also received the homage of Bijjala Kalachurya of Kalyana (1156-1107) and of Kumarapala Chalukya of Anhilvara (1143-1172). The last-mentioned monarch was a patron of the famous Jaina Acharya Hemachandra. To Vimala, Vastupala, Tejahpala, ministers of Gujarat, we owe some of the splendid shrines at Abu, Girnar, Satrunjaya and other places.
Both Jainism and Buddhism had eventually to yield the palm to the more orth
