[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.bhandarkar-1884) › c11.2 # Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c11.2 Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c11.2 - **Language:** English ### [c11.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.bhandarkar-1884.c11.2) No clue to the political history of Mahârâshṭra in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era is now available The Purâṇas contain lists of kings and dynasties whose chronology has been to some extent determined by their known connection with the successors of Alexander the Great, but clear traces of their occupation of the south have not yet been found Chandragupta, who founded the Maurya dynasty in about B C 320, ruled over Northern India as far as Kâṭhiâvâḍ, and his grandson Aśoka, who reigned from B C 263 to B C 229, retained possession of the province¹ The rock-inscriptions of the latter, which were evidently planted in the countries which owned his sway, show that his empire extended to Kaliṅga or the Northern Circars in the east and Kâṭhiâvâḍ in the west But stray edicts have been discovered farther south, a fragment of the eighth being found at Supârâ and three minor ones on the northern frontier of Mysore In the second rock-edict he speaks of his own dominions as "the conquered countries" and mentions Chola, Pâṇḍya, Ketalaputta, and Satiyaputta down to Tambapanni or Ceylon as outlying provinces These therefore did not own his sway But in the fifth edict he mentions the Râshṭikas, Petenikas and Aparântas and a few more provinces as those for the benefit of which he appointed religious ministers If these were as much a part of his dominions as the many others which are not named, there is no reason why they should be named Again he includes most of these in the thirteenth edict among countries which received his moral teaching, along with Chola, Pâṇḍya and others, and the territories ruled over by Antiochus and four other Greek princes It would thus appear that though the countries of the Râṣṭikas, Bhojas, Petenikas, and Aparântas were not outlying provinces like those of the Cholas, the Pâṇḍyas, and Ketalaputtas, they enjoyed a sort of semi-independence , and only owned allegiance to him as suzerain The appearance of fragments of his inscriptions at Supârâ and on the confines of Mysor is to be accounted for by this fact, or by the supposition that his dominions extended up to Supârâ on the western coast and along a strip in the centre of the peninsula to Mysor, leaving the western countries of the Râṣṭikas, the Bhojas, and Petenikas, and the southern coast in a state of semi-independence And there is some - [Previous: c11.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.bhandarkar-1884.c11.1) - [Next: c11.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.bhandarkar-1884.c11.3) - [Up: c11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.bhandarkar-1884.c11) ## Linked texts (1) - [Purāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.bhandarkar-1884.c11.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.bhandarkar-1884.c11.2) · Pramāṇa