In the last chapter you read about the Mauryan Empire, which spanned much of the Indian subcontinent and incorporated Kandahar into modern Afghanistan. Around 187 a. C., the Mauryan Empire came to an end. In this section we will study the political and cultural developments in the Indian subcontinent from the end of the Mauryas to the rise of the Guptas, that is, from 200 to 300 BC. C. In these five hundred years we have not only seen the emergence of multiple political forces in different parts of the subcontinent, but we have also introduced new features in art, architecture and religion.
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| ChandraGupta Maurya |
North Indian Political History
The secession of the Mauryan Empire gave rise to many regional states in different parts of the country. At the same time, we have seen invasions by various groups located in Central Asia and western China. These were Indo-Greeks, Scythians or Saka, Parthians or Pahelvas and Kushnas. It was through such political processes that India came into contact with the politics and culture of Central Asia.
Shungao The last king of Mauryan was assassinated by his commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga, who established his own dynasty in northern India. It became known as the Shunga dynasty. When the Shungas ruled in northern India, the Indo-Greek people, also known as the Yavanas, whom we will study in a little more detail later, emerged as an independent power in Bactria (Burqa) and soon northwest and He began to extend his dominance in the northern parts. From India. There are indications that Pushyamitra Shungakamem did not inflict much political damage in the conflict with the politically minded Greek ruler Demetrius. An inscription carved on a pillar at Besnagar (now Vidisha) refers to a Heliodorus, a native of Taxila near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, as an envoy of the Indo-Greek ruler Antalkidas at the court of Bhagbhadra, one of whom is most identified late as the ruler Shunga. According to the inscription, he was a devotee of Lord Krishna.
Around the second quarter of the 1st century BC. C., the last of the rulers of Shunga was betrayed by his minister Vasudev, who then laid the foundations of the Kanava dynasty. We really don't know anything about the canvas except superficial references to them in later texts. Bactrians or Indo-Greeks, after Alexander's death in 32 BC. C., many Greeks settled in the borders of the northwest of India with Bri Katria (an area to the northwest of the present Hindu Kush mountains). Northern Afghanistan Day) as a major center. Bactria's rulers became known as the Bactrian-Greeks due to their Hellenistic (Greek) ancestry. As mentioned earlier, one of the rulers of the line called Demetrius came into conflict with Pushyamitra. However, the most famous Indo-Greek ruler was Menander.
His empire included southern Afghanistan and Gandhara, west of the R. Indus. Milinda identifies with King Milinda mentioned in the famous Milindapanho Buddhist treatise with philosophical questions asked by Nagsena (the Buddhist author of the text) and impressed by the answers telling us that the King accepted Buddhism as his religion. It is believed that Menander 155 a. C. and 130 a. C.
Saka Shaak is an Indian word used for so-called Scythians, originating from Central Asia. Defeated by their neighbors, the Yuh-Cheez (tribal part that contained the Kushnas) gradually spread to north-western India in the 1st century BC. C. He came to settle around Taxila. BC. Under the successive rulers of Shaka, their territories extended to Mathura and Gujarat. The most famous of all Shaka rulers was Rudradaman, who ruled in the middle of the 2nd century AD. C. His empire spread over almost all of western India. His achievements are only known from the inscription that he was carved from a rock at Girnar or Junagat. This inscription is said to be the first royal inscription of early India composed in pure Sanskrit.
Contact with Central Asia
The invasions
of the Bactrian Greeks and the Saka-Pahilavas in India and their subsequent
political contact with Central Asia under the Kushanas resulted in an immense
cultural mix between the two regions. These foreign groups gradually lost their
foreign identity and joined lower-grade Brahmanic society as kshatriyas. Many
of them adopted Buddhism. We have already referred to the Indo-Bactrian ruler
Menander, who was converted to Buddhism by a monk named Nagasena. Central Asian
contacts also brought new methods of coin making to India. The crude punctured
coins that were used before gradually gave way to refined Greek-style coins
containing legends and the ruler's bust. This new format became the model for
later coinage in India. Furthermore, the Indians also borrowed from Central
Asians, particularly the Greeks, the knowledge of astronomy. Early Indian
literary works on astronomy frequently cite Greek astronomers who are called
yavanacharya. The Indians also learned the art of making horoscopes from the Greeks.
Central Asian contacts brought a new wave in the art of sculpture. The Buddhist
sculptures of the Gandhara school, as explained below, evolved as a result of
the fusion of the Indian and Greek styles.
Emergency of Early States in Orissa and the Decan
We know that the Deccan, as well as eastern India, were parts of the Ashoka empire. He had conquered Kalinga through a violent battle in which the loss of men and property was enormous. As a result of the Mauryan rule in these regions, after their decline, we note the appearance of kingdoms in Kalinga and Deccan for the first time in the history of India. Kalinga After Ashoka, Kalinga (today Orissa) became prominent under the kings of the Chedi dynasty. Their achievements are recorded in an inscription, known as the Hathigumpha inscription, located in the Udayagiri Hills near Bhuvaneshvar in Orissa. The inscription is so named because the image of an elephant is carved in stone next to the rock that bears the inscription. The inscription tells us that he was a follower of Jainism and that he had fought many successful battles against his neighbors. Probably lived in the 1st century BC ...
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