In a few generations, a family of north Indian kings presided over an explosion of mathematics, poetry, sculpture, and philosophy so rich that India still measures its classical age by it. Zero — the number that makes modern mathematics possible — was born here.
Pataliputra ★ Punjab Greatest extent — stylized map 320 Chandragupta I takes the throne 380 Chandragupta II — the flowering 499 Aryabhata writes — zero 550 Empire fragments Rise · zenith · fall The rise Chandragupta I took the throne around 320 and married into the powerful Licchavi clan — the classic alliance-builder's move. His son Samudragupta then conquered or subordinated most of northern India, campaigning from the Punjab to the deep south; a later British historian called him the “Napoleon of India,” though Samudragupta wrote his own press releases on stone pillars.
