The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c20.10.3

v1.c20.10.3

and we learn that both Pushyamitra and the Andhra king, Çātakarṇi, performed the famous ‘horse-sacrifice,’ in accordance with the ancient Vedic rite, thus challenging all opponents of their authority. The son of this Pushyamitra was Agnimitra, who conquered Vidarbha (Berār), then a province of the Andhra Empire of S. India, and the grandson, who guarded the horse, was Vasumitra. These names, as also the re-establishment of the ‘horse-sacrifice,’ are highly significant in that they show a renascence of the Vedic religion and a consequent decline in Buddhism. The same thing is indicated by the fact that Khāravela, a king of Kaliṅga, who boasts of having invaded the Andhra dominions as well as Northern India, was a Jain. Sumitra, the son of Agnimitra, was, according to Bāṇa’s historical romance, the *Harshacharita*, miserably slain by Mitradeva, who may perhaps have been a Brāhman of the Kaṇva family which eventually gained the chief power in the state. The account given by the Purāṇas states that the minister Vasudeva slew the tenth and last of the Çuṅga kings and inaugurated a new dynasty, called the Kaṇva dynasty, which lasted for about half a century;