Post-Mauryan Kingdoms and the Sangam Age

Prerequisites: The Mauryan Empire and Ashoka’s Dhamma · Chapter overview

The Hook: Why India’s Calendar Starts in 78 CE

The Core Concept

After the Mauryas there was no single empire for about five centuries. That political fragmentation coincided with booming trade, new art forms, and the meeting of Indian, Greek and Central Asian cultures.

Indian dynasties of the north and east

The Satavahanas of the Deccan

• Called Andhras in the Puranas; founder Simuka; capital Pratishthana (Paithan) on the Godavari.
• Gautamiputra Satakarni — the Nashik inscription of his mother Gautami Balashri praises him as destroyer of Shakas, Yavanas and Pahlavas; he defeated the Shaka ruler Nahapana.
• Yajna Sri Satakarni — coins with a ship motif, pointing to maritime trade.
• Features: matronymics (kings named after their mothers, e.g. Gautamiputra), though succession passed through sons; the earliest known tax-free land grants to brahmanas and Buddhist monks; official language Prakrit in Brahmi script; coins mostly of lead and copper alloys.
• Culture: King Hala’s Prakrit anthology Gathasaptashati; Buddhist rock-cut chaityas and viharas at Karle, Bhaja, Nashik and Kanheri; the stupa at Amaravati was enlarged and sculpted in this era.

The foreign dynasties

Kanishka’s court included Ashvaghosha (Buddhacharita), Vasumitra, and — by tradition — the physician Charaka. The Mahayana philosopher Nagarjuna belongs to the same broad period. The Rabatak inscription (Afghanistan, found in 1993), in the Bactrian language, gives Kanishka’s genealogy.

Cultural impact of the newcomers: cavalry techniques, the tunic, trousers and boots; the title devaputra (“son of god”) for kings; gold coinage on a large scale; and new forms of sculpture.

The three schools of sculpture

Which school made the first image of the Buddha is debated — both Gandhara and Mathura have claims.

The Sangam age (south India)

• The Sangam texts are usually dated between roughly the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE; dates are debated. Tradition speaks of three Sangams (assemblies of poets) under Pandya patronage at Madurai; works only of the third survive.
• Texts: Tolkappiyam (grammar, by Tolkappiyar); Ettuttogai (Eight Anthologies) and Pattuppattu (Ten Idylls); the Eighteen Minor Works, including the Tirukkural of Tiruvalluvar on ethics, wealth and love (aram, porul, inbam).
• Twin epics (post-Sangam): Silappadikaram by Ilango Adigal (the story of Kannagi and Kovalan) and Manimekalai by Sittalai Sattanar (Buddhist in outlook).
• Five landscapes (tinai) — kurinji (hills), mullai (pastoral forest), marutam (farmland), neital (coast), palai (arid land) — each with its own way of life and poetic mood.

Indo-Roman trade: pepper, spices, pearls, fine cloth and precious stones went west; Roman gold and silver coins came east — hoards are found mostly in south India. Arikamedu (near Puducherry) has Roman pottery. The anonymous Greek Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE) describes Indian ports, and the Roman writer Pliny complained of Roman gold draining to India.

graph TD
    A[Fall of the Mauryas c. 185 BCE] --> B[North: Shungas and Kanvas]
    A --> C[North-west: Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Parthians, Kushanas]
    A --> D[Deccan: Satavahanas]
    A --> E[Far south: Chera, Chola, Pandya]
    C --> F[Gandhara and Mathura art]
    D --> G[Amaravati art, rock-cut chaityas]
    E --> H[Sangam literature, Roman trade]

Memory Anchors

Schools by stone: “Grey Gandhara, Red Mathura, White Amaravati.”

Foreign arrivals, in order: “Great Scythians Played Kabaddi” → Greeks (Indo-Greeks), Shakas, Parthians, Kushanas.

Sangam emblems: “Chera Bow, Chola Tiger, Pandya Fish” — think of a bowman, a tiger and a fish on three flags.

For Prelims

For Mains

• Dimensions: cultural synthesis with Greek and Central Asian peoples; growth of trade and guilds; rise of Mahayana and devotional (Bhagavata) religion; the three schools of art; Sangam literature as secular poetry; the Deccan as a bridge between north and south.
• Keywords: Indo-Greek coinage, Bhagavatism, Mahayana, Silk Route, Gandhara, tinai, Indo-Roman trade, land grants.
• Value-addition: the Heliodorus pillar (a foreign envoy turned Bhagavata); Rudradaman’s Sanskrit inscription; the Saka era in the national calendar; Arikamedu and Muziris as evidence of global trade.

Common Traps

Practice

Prelims

Mains

Quick Revision

Key Takeaways

Related Topics

• The Gupta Age
• Post-Mauryan and Gupta Age — quick revision
• Post-Mauryan and Gupta Age — practice questions
• The Mauryan Empire and Ashoka’s Dhamma
• Indian Art and Architecture