The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History c7.49

c7.49

Aśōka died about 226 B.C.,² and after him the Maurya Empire gradually broke up. The Eastern Provinces were ruled by his grandson Daśaratha, and the Western by another grandson Samprati, but very little is known about them. The last known Maurya King Brihadratha was assassinated by his commander-in-chief Pushyamitra about 184 B.C., who established a new and short-lived dynasty, that of the Sungas. From 184 B.C., therefore, though we hear of Maurya princes for several centuries more as ruling fragments of the country, especially in the South, the Maurya Empire ceased to exist. As an instance of these small principalities it may be noted that as late as the seventh century A.D. one of them in the Konkan, ruled by Maurya chiefs, was subdued by the Chāḷukya sovereign Pulakēśin II.