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Shunga dynasty

Pushyamitra Shunga, the Maurya senapati, took the throne about 185 BCE and revived the Vedic horse sacrifice. His house held back the Bactrian Greeks and ruled central India for over a century; the Heliodorus pillar at Vidisha was raised in its reign.

  1. Pushyamitra Shungac. 185–149 BCE
  2. Agnimitrac. 149–141 BCE
  3. Vasujyeshthac. 141–131 BCE
  4. Vasumitrac. 131–124 BCE
  5. Andhraka (Bhadraka)c. 124–122 BCE
  6. Pulindakac. 122–119 BCE
  7. Ghoshac. 119–108 BCE
  8. +3
Period: c. 185–73 BCERegion: Magadha and central India, from Pataliputra to VidishaCapitals: Pataliputra, Vidisha (Besnagar)
Photo: Biswarup Ganguly · CC BY 3.0

01Two horse sacrifices

An inscription found at Ayodhya, set up by Dhanadeva, a descendant, calls Pushyamitra dvir-ashvamedha-yajin, performer of two Ashvamedhas. Patanjali’s Mahabhashya, the great commentary on Panini, gives as an example of the present tense the sentence iha pushyamitram yajayamah, here we are sacrificing for Pushyamitra, which places the grammarian at his court. For the first time since the old janapadas, a king of Magadha was declaring his sovereignty the Vedic way.

02Holding the Greeks

The Bactrian Greeks were pushing down the Ganga plain; Patanjali mentions a Yavana siege of Saketa and of Madhyamika. Kalidasa’s play Malavikagnimitram, about Pushyamitra’s son Agnimitra, preserves a scene from this war: the sacrificial horse, guarded by the prince Vasumitra, was seized by Yavana horsemen on the bank of the Sindhu river, and Vasumitra defeated them and brought it back. Agnimitra was viceroy at Vidisha and fought Vidarbha to the south. The western frontier held.

Sanchi
Place · 3rd century BCE, Samrat Ashoka; enlarged under the Shungas and SatavahanasSanchiThe Buddhist hill of Sanchi, a few km from Vidisha, with the Great Stupa begun by Ashoka and four carved gateways of the 1st century BCE. It is the most complete early Buddhist site in Bharat.Read →

03Vidisha, Bharhut and Sanchi

At Besnagar, outside Vidisha, stands a stone column with an inscription in Brahmi. It says that Heliodorus, son of Dion, a Greek from Taxila and envoy of King Antialcidas, raised this Garuda-dhvaja to Vasudeva, god of gods, in the fourteenth year of King Bhagabhadra, and that he was a Bhagavata. A Greek ambassador had become a devotee of Vasudeva. The gateway of the Bharhut stupa is inscribed as made in the reign of the Shungas, and the stone railings and enlargement of the great stupa at Sanchi date to the same century. The Buddhist Divyavadana, written centuries later, accuses Pushyamitra of killing monks; these monuments show Buddhist building went on under his house.

04Ten kings in 112 years

The Puranas give the Shungas ten kings and 112 years. After Pushyamitra’s long reign of thirty-six years came Agnimitra, Vasujyeshtha and Vasumitra, then a run of shorter reigns. The last, Devabhuti, was given to pleasure. Bana writes that his minister Vasudeva had him killed by a slave girl dressed as a queen, and Vasudeva founded the Kanva line, about 73 BCE.

Vidisha (Besnagar)
Place · Ancient city at the meeting of the Betwa and Bes; a Shunga seat in the 2nd century BCEVidisha (Besnagar)The old city on the Betwa where a Greek envoy raised a Garuda pillar to Vasudeva around 113 BCE, with Sanchi and the Udayagiri caves in sight. Its great Paramara temple, the Vijaya Mandir, was pulled down on Aurangzeb’s orders in 1682.Read →

The rulers

  1. 1Pushyamitra ShungaTwo Ashvamedhas; Patanjali at his courtc. 185–149 BCE
  2. 2AgnimitraHero of Kalidasa’s Malavikagnimitramc. 149–141 BCE
  3. 3Vasujyeshthac. 141–131 BCE
  4. 4VasumitraBeat the Yavanas on the Sindhu riverc. 131–124 BCE
  5. 5Andhraka (Bhadraka)c. 124–122 BCE
  6. 6Pulindakac. 122–119 BCE
  7. 7Ghoshac. 119–108 BCE
  8. 8Vajramitrac. 108–94 BCE
  9. 9BhagabhadraHeliodorus pillar raised in his 14th yearc. 94–83 BCE
  10. 10DevabhutiKilled at his minister Vasudeva’s instigationc. 83–73 BCE

What they left

  • The Heliodorus pillar, early stone proof of Bhagavata worship
  • The Bharhut stupa gateway and railings
  • The stone casing and railings of the Great Stupa at Sanchi
  • Patanjali’s Mahabhashya

People

Pushyamitra ShungaRuler
Reigned c. 185–149 BCE

Pushyamitra Shunga

Founder of the Shunga dynasty

Maharshi PatanjaliRishi
c. 2nd century BCE (time of Pushyamitra Shunga)

Maharshi Patanjali

Author of the Yoga Sutras and Mahabhashya

Mahakavi KalidasaPoet
c. 4th–5th century CE

Mahakavi Kalidasa

Greatest poet and playwright of Sanskrit

Places

SanchiStanding
The Maurya Empire

Sanchi

The Buddhist hill of Sanchi, a few km from Vidisha, with the Great Stupa begun by Ashoka and four carved gateways of the 1st century BCE. It is the most complete early Buddhist site in Bharat.

Vidisha (Besnagar)Standing
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Vidisha (Besnagar)

The old city on the Betwa where a Greek envoy raised a Garuda pillar to Vasudeva around 113 BCE, with Sanchi and the Udayagiri caves in sight. Its great Paramara temple, the Vijaya Mandir, was pulled down on Aurangzeb’s orders in 1682.

Bharhut StupaExcavated
Shungas, Satavahanas, Kharavela and the Sangam Kingdoms

Bharhut Stupa

A Buddhist stupa in Satna district whose carved railing, with the names of every scene cut beside it, is the oldest labelled picture-book in Indian art. The stupa itself is gone; most of the railing is in the Indian Museum, Kolkata.

Evidence

Heliodorus pillar, BesnagarInscription
c. 113 BCE

Heliodorus pillar, Besnagar

A stone Garuda-dhvaja raised to Vasudeva by Heliodorus, a Greek envoy from Takshashila, at the court of King Bhagabhadra.

Ayodhya inscription of DhanadevaInscription
c. 1st century BCE

Ayodhya inscription of Dhanadeva

A short Sanskrit record of Dhanadeva, lord of Kosala, who set up a memorial to his father at Ayodhya.

On the timeline

  • c. 2nd century BCE

    Pushyamitra performs two AshvamedhasFaith

    An inscription of his descendant Dhanadeva at Ayodhya calls Pushyamitra the performer of two horse sacrifices, the first great Vedic yajnas of a king in centuries.