Evidence185 BCE ±5

Pushyamitra ends the dynasty

Name: Pushyamitra ends the dynasty
Start: -0185
End: -0185
Location: Pataliputra (Patna), Bihar

Pataliputra (Patna), Bihar

Gajalaxmi - Medallion - 2nd Century BCE - Red Sand Stone - Bharhut Stupa Railing Pillar - Madhya Pradesh - Indian Museum - Kolkata 2012-11-16 1837 Cropped. Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The general Pushyamitra kills the last Maurya, Brihadratha, at a review of the army and founds the Shunga dynasty.

Bana's Harshacharita, written some eight centuries later, says Pushyamitra struck down his master while parading the army before him. The Puranas give the Mauryas 137 years, which from a start around 321 BCE puts the end near 185.

Half a century after Ashoka the empire had shrunk to its Gangetic heartland. The north-west fell to the Indo-Greeks and the Deccan to the Satavahanas; that plural map is where the next chapter begins.

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