The Post-Mauryan Age: Shungas, Satavahanas, Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Kushanas and the Sangam Kingdoms

After the Mauryas: Five Powers and a Southern Age

When Pushyamitra Shunga killed the last Mauryan king Brihadratha around 185 BCE, north India did not pass to a single successor. For the next three centuries power was shared among home-grown dynasties and invaders from the north-west. The Shungas and Kanvas held Magadha, the Satavahanas rose in the Deccan, and the Indo-Greeks, Shakas and Kushanas came through the passes one after another. Far to the south, the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas ruled the Tamil country of the Sangam age.

This block looks crowded, but exams ask it as matching: ruler to dynasty, inscription to king, art school to material, era to year. Learn one identifying tag for each name and most questions become simple recognition. The cards below give those tags in order, from Pushyamitra to the Sangam poets.

1. Who founded the Shunga dynasty after killing the last Mauryan king?

2. The Junagarh (Girnar) rock inscription, the first long inscription in chaste Sanskrit, belongs to which ruler?

3. The Saka era, used in India's national calendar, begins in which year?

4. Where was the Fourth Buddhist Council held under Kanishka?

5. The Satavahanas issued most of their coins in which metal?

6. Which text records the dialogue between the Indo-Greek king Menander and the monk Nagasena?

7. Sculptures of the Gandhara school were mainly carved in which stone?

8. In the Sangam age, which royal emblem belonged to the Cholas?