STD-6-7-8 NA SHIXAKO NA PAGAR MA VADHARO KARVA BABAT MAHTVAPURN RAJUAAT LETTER.
The Kshatrapa dynasty was replaced by theGupta Empire with the conquest of Gujarat byChandragupta Vikramaditya. Vikramaditya's successor Skandagupta left an inscription (450 AD) on a rock at Junagadh which gives details of the governor's repairs to the embankment surrounding Sudarshan lake after it was damaged by floods. The Anarta and Saurashtra regions were both parts of the Gupta empire. Towards the middle of the 5th century, the Gupta empire went into decline. Senapati Bhatarka, the Maitraka general of the Guptas, took advantage of the situation and in 470 AD he set up what came to be known as the Maitraka state. He shifted his capital from Giringer to Valabhipur, near Bhavnagar, on Saurashtra's east coast. The Maitrakas of Vallabhi became very powerful with their rule prevailing over large parts of Gujarat and adjoining Malwa. A university was set up by the Maitrakas, which came to be known far and wide for its scholastic pursuits and was compared with the noted Nalanda University. It was during the rule of Dhruvasena Maitrak that Chinese philosopher-traveler Xuanzangvisited in 640 AD along the Silk Road.[28]
Gujarat was known to the ancient Greeks and was familiar with other Western centers of civilization through the end of the EuropeanMiddle Ages. The oldest written record of Gujarat's 2,000-year maritime history is documented in a Greek book titled The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century.
