Post Mauryan Period of India Study Materials

2018-12-12

Post Mauryan Period of India Study Materials

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POST-MAURYAN PERIOD

Following the downfall of the Mauryan Empire in the Second Century BC, the region of south Asia became a collage of regional powers India’s north-western border again was left unguarded, attracting a series of invaders between 200 BC and 300 AD. The absence of any strong resistance paved the way for various foreigners to come to India one after the other. They were the (i) Indo-Greeks (Bactrians); (ii) Indo-Parthians (Pahlavas); (iii) Indo- Scythians (Sakas) and (iv) Kushans (Yu-chi tribe). As the Aryan had done, the invaders became ‘Indianised’ in the process of their conquest and settlement. Also, this period witnessed remarkable intellectual and artistic achievement inspired by cultural diffusion and syncretism. The Indo-Greeks, or the Bactrians, of the north-west contributed to the development of numismatics; they were followed by another group from the steppes of central Asia, the Shakas (or Scythians), who settled in western India. Yet another nomadic tribe, the Yuezhi, who were forced out of the Inner Asian steppes of Mongolia, drove the Shakas out of north-western India and established the Kushana Kingdom (first century BC to third century AD).