Post-Mauryan Political Fragmentation
The Basics
After the Mauryas, no single large empire ruled India between c. 200 BCE and 300 CE.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsAncient India · Topic 8 of 17
Post-Mauryan North India
Shunga, Indo-Greek, Shaka and Kushana rule and Central Asian contact
Shunga Dynasty
The Basics
Pushyamitra Shunga, a Brahmana general, killed Maurya king Brihadratha around 187 BCE and founded the Shunga dynasty.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsKanva Dynasty
The Basics
The Kanva dynasty ruled Magadha after the Shungas.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsIndo-Greek Kingdoms
The Basics
Bactrian Greeks broke from the Seleucid Empire under Diodotus I, mid-3rd century BCE.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsShakas and Shaka Kshatrapas
The Basics
The Shakas were Scythian pastoralists who originally lived near the Syr Darya river in Central Asia. In the 3rd century BCE, the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang consolidated his empire. This set off chain migrations of Central Asian tribes. In the 2nd century BCE, the Great Yueh-chi displaced the Shakas. The Shakas moved into Bactria and Parthia. They then crossed the Hindu Kush into north-western India, following the same route the Indo-Greeks had used.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsIndo-Parthians
The Basics
Parthians ruled north-west India after the Shakas and before the Kushanas.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsKushana Empire
The Basics
The Kushanas were one of five clans of the Yueh-chi, a nomadic people of north Central Asia who had themselves driven the Shakas out of Bactria. In the early 1st century CE, Kujula Kadphises (Kadphises I) united the five clans and founded a single Kushana kingdom. His coins, found south of the Hindu Kush, show that Kushana movement into India had begun. His son Vima Kadphises (Kadphises II) conquered Kandahar from the Parthians, pushed Kushana control to the Indus and Mathura, issued large numbers of gold coins, and worshipped Shiva, calling himself Mahishvara.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsCentral Asian Contact: Political and Cultural Impact
The Basics
Central Asia from the 2nd century BCE onward was a world of nomadic pastoralists who gradually came to rule settled societies. The Chinese emperor Shi Huang Ti built the Great Wall against the Hsiung-nu, Wu-sun and Yueh-chih. This set off a chain reaction of migrations in Central Asia. Displaced groups moved west, and the Parthians, Shakas and Yueh-chih arrived in India one after another. This long wave of conquest, migration and trade, stretching from the Indo-Greeks through the Shakas to the Kushanas, is remembered as the period of Central Asian contact in Indian history.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsGandhara and Mathura Schools of Art
The Basics
Gandhara and Mathura flourished as twin art centres under the Kushanas, 1st to 3rd centuries CE.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsOrigin and Growth of Mahayana Buddhism
The Basics
In post-Mauryan times, Buddhist monks and nuns lived on alms. Growing trade along the Silk Route brought large cash donations from traders and artisans in towns. Monasteries at places like Nagarjunakonda have yielded hoards of coins from this period. Buddhism welcomed foreigners, including non-vegetarians. Many Central Asian settlers with no organised religion of their own turned easily to it.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsPost-Mauryan Coinage
The Basics
Indo-Greek kings issued die-struck coins, mostly silver, with their own name and portrait.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsPost-Mauryan Trade: Rome and the Silk Route
The Basics
Overland Silk Route linked China to Rome, passing through Kushana-controlled Central Asia and Afghanistan.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQsDharmashastra Literature: Manusmriti and Social Norms
The Basics
Dharma means righteous conduct, one of the four purusharthas along with artha, kama and moksha. A special class of Sanskrit texts called the Dharmashastra laid down rules for dharma. They fall into three groups: the Dharmasutras (c. 600 to 300 BCE), the Smritis (c. 200 BCE to 900 CE), and later commentaries and digests written between the 9th and 19th centuries. These texts recognised three sources of dharma: the Vedas (shruti), the Smriti texts themselves, and sadachara, the custom of learned people. A person's dharma depended on gender, age, varna and ashrama, the four life-stages of brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa prescribed for dvija (twice-born) males of the Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya varnas.
Sign up free for the full concept, practice MCQs and PYQs