Explanation:

The famous Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta (335–375 A.D.) is the most important historical document of the classical Gupta age. Its detailed list of conquered and allied dynasties and kingdoms contains not only a unique “state of the art” or “who is who” of contemporary South Asia.
It also depicts the concentric structure of the emerging Gupta empire with its dynastic core area, extended by annexed neighbouring kingdoms and surrounded by a circle of tributary “vassals” and by powerful allies at the periphery the Gupta “mandala”. The list of twelve rulers whom Samudragupta “captured and released out of favour” on his expedition to the South (daksinapatha) provides an indispensable source of our knowledge of late fourth-century eastern and southern India.
The inscription is written in excellent Sanskrit and its author Harisena rightly calls it a poem (kavya). He was a princely minister of war and peace and a military commander and praised Samudragupta as a God, living on earth only for performance of rituals and conventions.