ABSTRACT
The beginning of Gupta rule marked the onset of the first truly brahmanical Hindu empire in India. From the Gupta era until the fall of the area to Muslim forces in the late sixteenth century, Hindu rulers reigned over Kalinga almost wholly uninterrupted. Thus, Bhubaneswar's reputation as a devoutly Hindu town should rightly begin with Samudra Gupta's conquest of the area around 335. The Gupta era in Kalinga did not last long, however. Within sixty years, Kalinga was under the independent rule of the Mathara Dy nasty. Little is known about the Mathara Dynasty or their successors, the Vāsistha Dynasty, except that these indige nous Hindu rulers reigned from the end of the fourth until the beginning of the seventh century.
