The Battle of the Oxus occurred in 399, when Chandragupta II defeated the Hunas at the banks of the Oxus river.

Background Submission of Varahran After the (Persian) Sasanians faced defeat in the Battle of Sistan, which demoralized the Persian contingents in present-day Afghanistan. As the Gupta Army marched northwards to Kapisa, Varahran was quick to grasp the political realities and offered his submission to the Gupta Emperor, Chandragupta II.

Battle Gupta cavalry's arrival by the Oxus river Bactria was under the Huna occupation in the last quarter of the fourth century AD." Taking Kālidāsa to be a contemporary of Chandragupta II, we can conclude that the Hūṇas had occupied Bactria in the last quarter of the fourth century AD. " The sudden attack into the Oxus valley caught the Transoxiana alliance off-guard. The Pamir Tocharians were unable to combine with the Hunas (Hephthalites). On hearing the news of the Gupta Empire advance, the Hephtalites resorted to a tactical retreat to the north of the Oxus River into the plains of Southern Uzbekistan. When the Gupta cavalry arrived by the Oxus river on the southern banks, they camped there. Kalidasa poetically described how the cavalry camped on the banks of the river Vankshu in the midst of saffron fields in a verse of his Raghuvamsa:

Historians studied this as a description of the Gupta cavalry camping on the banks of the Oxus during Chandragupta II's expedition.

Aftermath

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