[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923) › c19.s3.27 # Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s3.27 Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s3.27 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s3.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.27) Rapson points out that from A.D. 295 to \*c.\* 340 there was no \*Mahākshatrapa\*. The elder branch of the family came to an end after 305 and passed by an obscure transition to a new line of Satraps and Great Satraps. The rulers from A.D. 295 to 332 held only the subordinate title of Satrap, and the higher title was not revived till a few years before A.D. 348, when Rudrasena III styled himself \*Rājā Mahākshatrapa\* and \*Mahārāja Kshatrapa\*. Now, it is precisely during the period when the old line passed away in obscurity, and the office of \*Mahākshatrapa\* remained in abeyance, that we find Śakasthāna and portions of Hind annexed to the Sassanian empire and dominated by Sassanian viceroys. The Sassanian conquest began before the end of the reign of Varhrān (Bahrām) II (A. D. 293) and the Sassanian suzerainty was maintained till the early part of the reign of Shāpūr II (A.D. 309-79). The hold of the Persians on the distant Indian provinces became weak in the middle of the fourth century A.D. when Rudrasena III assumed the title of \*Mahārāja\*, and Samudra Gupta, the prototype of the Raghu of Kālidāsa, forced the foreign potentates of the north-west borderland to do him homage. - [Previous: c19.s3.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.26) - [Next: c19.s3.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.28) - [Up: c19.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.raychaudhuri-1923.c19.s3.27) · Pramāṇa