The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c30.17

v1.c30.17

But, while the invaluable testimony of the edicts thus enables us to estimate the character and the extent of Maurya rule at its height, we have no such trustworthy guide for the period of its decline¹. Its end, according to the Purāṇas, came about through a revolt which placed the Çuṅgas on the imperial throne. It seems certain, however, that the Çuṅgas succeeded to a realm already greatly diminished. The history of India at this time is still confined to the regions which were once known as 'the king's dominions' and 'the border peoples'; but these are no longer under the immediate rule or under the indirect control of any one power. Political conditions in the 2nd and 1st centuries b.c. were extremely complicated. The causes of this complication were twofold—internal strife and foreign invasions; and both of these were the natural and inevitable results of the downfall of imperial rule. In Central India and in the land of the Ganges the supremacy of the later Mauryas and of their successors, the Çuṅgas, was disputed by the Andhras of the Deccan and the Kaliṅgas of Orissa; and, now that the frontiers could no longer be held securely against hostile pressure from without, torrents of invasion burst into North-Western India through the channels which led from Bactria and from Eastern Irān.