Kingdoms after the Mauryas

The empire breaks up

Very little is known about the emperors who came after Ashoka. Around 185 BCE the last of them was killed by his commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga, and the Maurya empire fell apart only about half a century after Ashoka’s death. Many kingdoms appeared across the subcontinent, often the old tributary kingdoms that had once accepted Maurya overlordship. Rulers tried to gain land through marriage alliances with neighbouring royal families or through war, and the borderlands were always contested, since holding them kept a kingdom safe from attack.

The Shungas

Pushyamitra founded the Shunga dynasty, which ruled parts of north and central India. To show that he was a mighty ruler, he performed the ashvamedha yajna: a horse, followed by soldiers, roamed from land to land, every territory it crossed unchallenged counted as his, and anyone who stopped it had to fight. His kingdom was smaller than the Maurya empire, but he protected it from invaders and, after an early campaign against the Greeks, kept friendly relations with them. A century later the dynasty was gone.

Vedic rituals revived under the Shungas, though other schools of thought continued to thrive. Sanskrit became a preferred language for philosophy and literature, and Patanjali compiled the Yoga Sutras in this period. The Shungas also supported art: at the Bharhut stupa in Madhya Pradesh, probably begun in Ashoka’s time, they added railings and reliefs carved with scenes from the Buddha’s life, counted among the earliest Buddhist art.

The Satavahanas

To the south of the Shungas, the Satavahanas, sometimes called the Andhras, held much of the Deccan, beginning in the 2nd century BCE: roughly today’s Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra, with capitals that changed over time, the most famous being Amaravati and Pratishthana (Paithan). Farming in the Krishna–Godavari river system kept the kingdom stable, and trade made it rich. Their coins, found from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh, show two-masted ships; spices, textiles, sandalwood, gold-plated pearls and ivory went as far as the Roman Empire, while glass and perfumed ointments came in. Caves such as Naneghat near Pune, on a busy trade route, served as toll posts and rest houses for traders.

Satavahana princes were often named after their mothers. Gautamiputra Satakarni means Satakarni, son of Gautami; his mother, Queen Gautami Balashri, granted land to Buddhist monks, and an important inscription at Nashik was carved on her orders. Inscriptions at Naneghat describe another queen, a widow, who performed Vedic rituals, even the ashvamedha, and gave land, cows, horses and silver coins to priests, scholars and monks. These inscriptions also contain early Brahmi numerals, some shaped much like ours. The Satavahanas worshipped Vasudeva (Krishna) yet granted land to Vedic scholars and to Jaina and Buddhist monks, and they supported the Buddhist caves at Karla. Their empire broke up in the 3rd century CE, weakened by loose central control and economic decline.

Kharavela of the Chedis

After the Mauryas, Kalinga, the land of Ashoka’s famous war, became strong again under the Chedi kings. Kharavela, the most famous of them, followed Jain teachings and was sometimes called the monk-king, yet he respected every school of thought. His Hathigumpha inscription, in Brahmi script in a cave near Bhubaneswar, records his deeds year by year: his victories, his works for his people, and a council of sages and ascetics drawn from a hundred regions. The rock-cut rooms, panels and statues of the Udayagiri–Khandagiri caves show the craftsmen’s skill.

Why it matters

These kingdoms show how India was rebuilt after a great empire fell, and how rulers took pride in protecting every belief. Life in the far south is in Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas, and the rulers who came from outside are in Indo-Greeks, Shakas and Kushanas. Answers to every question are in the NCERT solutions for Chapter 6; see also the full Chapter 6 notes.