India Map 409: Who Ruled India Then?

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Faxian travels through northern India

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India Map 409 CE — Historical Map & Timeline

Gupta influence in the north; dynamic trade and kingdoms across the peninsula.

The interactive map shows the atlas’s nearest drawn reconstruction (c. 375 CE). Frontiers moved in between, so use the list of powers below for 409 CE.

Who ruled India in 409 CE?

In 409 CE, power in the subcontinent was shared among 5 major states and dynasties. Dates are conventional estimates.

Gupta Empire — Chandragupta II (380 CE–415 CE)
Northern India; capital Pataliputra. The dynasty of Chandragupta I, Samudragupta and Chandragupta II. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica — Gupta dynasty · Read: The Gupta Empire
Pallava dynasty
Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra; capital Kanchipuram. Builders of the Shore Temple and rock-cut monuments of Mamallapuram. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica — Pallava dynasty
Western Satraps (Kshatrapas)
Gujarat, Saurashtra and Malwa. Shaka rulers of western India, ended by the Gupta conquest under Chandragupta II. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica — Shaka satrap
Vakataka dynasty
Vidarbha and the northern Deccan. Deccan dynasty allied by marriage to the Guptas; patrons associated with Ajanta. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica — Vakataka dynasty
Kadamba dynasty
Karnataka and Goa; capital Banavasi. Early Kannada-speaking dynasty of the western Deccan. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica — Kadamba family

What happened in India around 409 CE?

375 CE: Gupta influence broadens
c. 399–414 CE: Faxian records a pilgrim’s India. The Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian travelled through northern India seeking monastic texts and observing sacred sites. His account is invaluable but selective, shaped by the interests of a pilgrim rather than a complete survey of society. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Faxian
405 CE: Faxian travels through northern India
Around 500 CE: A changing northern landscape. The museum’s chronology presents Gupta control as a period with changing regional relationships, rather than an enduring uniform state. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art — South Asia, 1–500 CE
606 CE: Harsha takes power at Thanesar
630 CE: Harsha and Pulakeshin II clash

Historical Events & Sourced Records (409 CE)

Samudragupta and Chandragupta II broaden Gupta influence

Samudragupta’s Allahabad pillar inscription presents conquest, tribute and negotiated submission as a hierarchy of relationships. Chandragupta II later expanded influence westward and presided over a flourishing court culture.

Calling this a uniform territorial state would overstate the evidence. Some rulers paid tribute or acknowledged prestige while retaining local authority, producing an empire with different levels of control.

Source: Britannica: Gupta dynasty

Faxian records a pilgrim’s India

The Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian travelled through northern India seeking monastic texts and observing sacred sites. His account is invaluable but selective, shaped by the interests of a pilgrim rather than a complete survey of society.

Travel writing reveals routes, monasteries and practices that inscriptions may omit. It must be read alongside archaeology and Indian texts because silence about a subject is not evidence that it did not exist.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Faxian

409 ईस्वी में भारत का नक्शा: गुप्त काल और शास्त्रीय भारत

409 ईस्वी का यह इंटरैक्टिव नक्शा गुप्त काल और शास्त्रीय भारत के समय का भारत दिखाता है। उत्तर भारत में गुप्त साम्राज्य का प्रभाव; दक्षिण में व्यापार और कई शक्तिशाली राज्य।

409 ईस्वी में भारत पर किसका शासन था? गुप्त साम्राज्य, पल्लव वंश, पश्चिमी क्षत्रप, वाकाटक वंश, कदंब वंश।

409 mein Bharat ke pramukh rajya: Gupta Empire (Chandragupta II), Pallava dynasty, Western Satraps (Kshatrapas). Ye Gupta Kaal ka daur tha.