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Kanva (Kanvayana) dynasty

The Kanvas were a brahmana family of ministers who replaced the Shungas. Four kings ruled for forty-five years, by the Puranas, before the Satavahanas ended the line.

  1. Vasudevac. 73–64 BCE
  2. Bhumimitrac. 64–50 BCE
  3. Narayanac. 50–38 BCE
  4. Susharmanc. 38–28 BCE
Period: c. 73–28 BCERegion: Magadha and parts of central IndiaCapitals: Pataliputra
Photo: SpeakingArch · CC BY-SA 4.0

01From minister to king

Vasudeva, of the Kanva gotra, was minister to the last Shunga, Devabhuti. When Devabhuti was killed, Vasudeva took the throne himself. The Puranas call the new kings Shungabhrityas, servants of the Shungas, which suggests the Shunga name may have continued for a while in some places beside them. Their kingdom was smaller than Pushyamitra’s; the Greeks held the northwest and new powers were rising in Kalinga and the Deccan.

02Four kings, forty-five years

The Vayu, Matsya and Vishnu Puranas agree on four kings: Vasudeva for nine years, Bhumimitra for fourteen, Narayana for twelve and Susharman for ten. Copper coins with the name Bhumimitra have been found in north India. The Puranas say the line ended when Simuka of the Andhra (Satavahana) house killed Susharman and took what was left of the Kanva kingdom. The dates here follow the common reading of the Puranic totals; the Satavahana chronology they depend on is itself debated.

Pataliputra
Place · Fortified by Ajatashatru, made capital by Udayin, 5th century BCEPataliputraCapital of Magadha, of the Nandas, the Mauryas and the Guptas, on the Ganga where the Son once joined it. Under modern Patna lie the timber palisade Megasthenes described and the pillared hall of the Mauryas.Read →

03The end of Magadha’s primacy

With the Kanvas, Magadha stopped being the centre of Indian power for three centuries. The Satavahanas ruled the Deccan from Pratishthana, the Kushanas came down into the north from Bactria, and Kharavela of Kalinga had already marched to Rajagriha. Pataliputra waited until the Guptas, in the 4th century CE, to become an imperial capital again.

The rulers

  1. 1VasudevaMinister who replaced the Shungasc. 73–64 BCE
  2. 2BhumimitraKnown from coins bearing his namec. 64–50 BCE
  3. 3Narayanac. 50–38 BCE
  4. 4SusharmanKilled by Simuka, by the Puranasc. 38–28 BCE

What they left

  • The last dynasty of the old Magadha empire before the Guptas
  • Coins of Bhumimitra, the line’s one surviving object
  • A precise king list in the Puranas

Places

PataliputraExcavated
The Maurya Empire

Pataliputra

Capital of Magadha, of the Nandas, the Mauryas and the Guptas, on the Ganga where the Son once joined it. Under modern Patna lie the timber palisade Megasthenes described and the pillared hall of the Mauryas.

On the timeline

  • c. 73 BCE

    The Kanvas replace the ShungasPolity

    Vasudeva Kanva, minister of the last Shunga king Devabhuti, took power at Pataliputra. His line ruled about 45 years.