12/14/2022
➤ The empire was established by Pushyamitra Shunga.
Pushyamitra Shunga ruled for 36 years and was succeeded by his son Agnimitra. There were ten Shunga rulers. However, after the death of Agnimitra ,the second king of the dynasty, the
empire rapidly disintegrated.
The Shunga dynasty was a Brahmin dynasty, established in 185 BCE, when the emperor Brihadratha Maurya, the last ruler of the Maurya Empire, was killed by his General Pushyamitra Shunga during a milatry parade and ascended the throne.
Some ancient sources however claim a greater extent for the Shunga Empire: the Asokavadang account of the Divyavadana claims that the Shungas sent an army to persecute Buddhist monks as far as Sakala (Sialkot) in the Punjab region in the northwest.
Pushyamitra intending to destroy the Buddhist religion, he went to the Kukkutarama (in Pataliputra).... Pushyamitra thereforedestroyed the sangharama, killed the monks there, and departed.... After some time, he arrived in Sakala, and proclaimed that he would give a... reward to whoever brought him the head of a Buddhist monk.
> Pushyamitra died after ruling for 36 years (187-151 BCE). He was succeeded by son Agnimitra.
>This prince is the hero of a famous drama by one of India's greatest playwrights, Kalidasa.
Later Shunga emperors were seen as amenable to Buddhism and as having contributed to the building of the stupa at Bharhut
SANCHI STUPA(MP)
has been suggested that Pushyamitra may have destroyed the original stupa, and his son Agnimitra rebuilt it. The original brick stupa was covered with stone during the Shunga period.
The Indo-Greeks, called Yavanas in Indian sources, either led by Demetrius I or Menander I, then invaded India, possibly receiving the help of Buddhists. Menander in particular is described as a convert to Buddhism.
Attack of the Indo-Greeks on the Shunga capital Pataliputra an account of a direct battle between the Greeks and the Shunga is also found in the Malavikagnimitram, a play by Kalidasa which describes a battle between a squadron of Greek cavalrymen and Vasumitra, the grandson of Pushyamitra, accompanied by a hundred soldiers on the "Sindhu river", in which the Indians defeated a squadron of Greeks and Pushyamitra successfully completed the Ashvamedha Yagna
The last ruler Devbhuti (83 BC-75 BC) killed by his own minister Vasudev Kanva laid the foundation of Kanva dynasty from 75 BC-30 BC The Magadh empire has diminished almost to an end as North west region is under Greeks and part of Gangetic plains under different rulers
The last Kanva king SUSARMAN was killed by Satvanah king (AP)
