Tribes in Ancient India c50.145

c50.145

Aśoka was succeeded by Daśaratha who was followed by a succession of weak Maurya kings who had only a vestige of the great power that Aśoka wielded. Bṛhadratha, the last of the Maurya dynasty, was treacherously murdered by his commander-in-chief, Puṣyamitra Śuṅga, who established himself upon the throne of his master and set up the Śuṅga dynasty. The Divyāvadāna (p. 434) tells us that the emperor continued to reside in Pāṭaliputra. Puṣyamitra ruled over Magadha for thirty-six years from about 185 to 149 B.C. During his reign the Mantripariṣad (Assembly of Councillors) continued to be an important element of the governmental machinery. The viceregal princes were assisted by pariṣads.² The historical events worth mentioning during Puṣyamitra’s reign were the Vidarbha war and the Greek invasion. The former resulted in the splitting up of the kingdom of Vidarbha into two States, between which the river Varadā formed the boundary. The latter is referred to in Patañjali’s Mahābhāṣya and Kālidāsa’s Mālavikāgnimitra. Unfortunately, the name of the Greek invader is not given in either of these works. Historians differ as to the identity of the invader, but they agree that he was a Bactrian Greek. Dr. Ray Chaudhuri ³ adduces strong evidence to identify Demetrius with the Yavana invader referred to by Patañjali and Kālidāsa. Puṣyamitra died in or about 149 B.C., as the Purāṇas affirm. He was followed by nine kings who ruled for 76 years. The Śuṅga dynasty probably lasted for 112 years. The last of the Śuṅga monarchs was Devabhūti who was a young and dissolute prince. The Purāṇas state that he was overthrown by his Minister, Vāsudeva Kāṇva. Rapson ⁴ says that the Śuṅgas were a military power, but in later times they became puppets in the hands of their Brahmin councillors. They probably ruled originally as feudatories of the Mauryas at Vidiśā, the modern Besnagar, on the Vetravatī (Betwa) near Bhīlsā, and about 120 miles east of Ujjain. The Śuṅga dynasty probably came to an end about 73 B.C., and was succeeded by the Kāṇva dynasty which lasted till 27 B.C., when the Andhras came into power. For some time, Pāṭaliputra may have acknowledged their supremacy, but later on, it must have re-asserted its independence. After the period of the Andhras, the history of Pāṭaliputra passes into oblivion.