Emergence of Regional Powers

Introduction

• After the disintegration of the Mauryan Empire, the period starting from 200 BCE became historically significant due to widespread cultural contacts with Central Asia and the assimilation of foreign elements into Indian society.

• In both north and north-west India, a number of polities emerged, including the Sungas, Indo-Sythians, Indo-Parthians, and Kushanas, which were covered in an earlier unit.

• During this period, the regions of the Deccan and south India were also undergoing change.

• The beginning of territorial states in north India was marked by the sixteen mahajanapadas, which originated in the 6th-5th centuries BCE.

• Magadha built a formidable state that covered almost the entire Indian subcontinent in the following centuries.

• In the Deccan and peninsular India, the emergence of the state institution had to wait until the rise of the Satavahanas in the first century BCE.

Antecedents

• The spread of Chalcolithic settlements in the western Deccan occurred in the second millennium BCE.

• The eastern Deccan was occupied later in the second half of the first millennium BCE by iron-using communities.

• These settlements were primarily villages inhabited by many tribes.

• The Epics and the Puranas mention several tribes such as the Andhras, Sabaras, Pulindas, etc., who lived in the Deccan.

• Ashokan inscriptions also mention these tribes.

• The process of change in the region began with the Mauryan expansion into the Deccan.

• The Mauryas were interested in exploiting the rich mineral resources of the Deccan, including gold, diamonds, and gems from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

• Land and coastal routes were used to transport these resources to Magadha.

• Prosperous settlements such as Dharnikota (on the banks of the Krishna in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh) and Karad (in Satara district, Maharashtra) became significant.

• Many chiefs, such as the Maharathis, controlled scattered pockets of the region.

• The Satavahana family was related by marriage to the Maharathis, and with their rise to power, they laid the foundations of the first state in the Deccan.

• Before the emergence of the Satavahanas, local kings and important families, such as the Maharathis, started minting their own coins from around the second century BCE.

• The first organized state under the Satavahanas emerged, accelerating changes in the political and social structures of the Deccan.

• The Satavahanas are significant as they highlight the emergence of the state institution in the Deccan.

Indo-Greeks

• Under Alexander, the Greeks settled in Bactria (Bahlika), which is present-day northern Afghanistan, southern Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

• The Seleucid Empire, formed in Bactria and the adjoining areas of Parthia by Alexander’s general after his fall, was overthrown by Diodotus I (c. 250-230 BCE), who established an independent Bactrian Greek kingdom.

• The ideal geographical location of Bactria, connecting West Asia and Central Asia with South Asia, played a key role in the rise of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom.

• The Bactrians expanded their control into other areas, including south of the Hindukush.

• Around 145 BCE, they lost control over Bactria but continued to rule parts of north-west India.

• The rulers of Bactrian Greeks in north-west India between the 2nd century BCE and early 1st century CE are known as the Indo-Greeks or Indo-Bactrians.

• The history of the Indo-Greeks is largely reconstructed through their coins, which were dynastic issues and marked the sovereign authority of the rulers.

• Bactria was the first region south of the Hindu Kush to experience die-struck coinage, portraiture, and legend.

• A few rulers are also known from Greek and Latin sources, with the most detailed account of Bactrian events coming from the Latin Philippic Histories of Pompeius Trogus, preserved only in an abridged form.

• A few passages on Bactrian history are preserved in the works of Diodorus, Polybius, or Strabo.

• The large number of rulers in a short span of time suggests that some ruled concurrently.

• Demetrius I, Demetrius II, Appollodotus, Pantaleon, and Agathocles extended rule south of the Hindukush into north-western India.

• Out of 42 Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kings, 34 are only known through their coins.

• The sequence of kings is based on hoards, overstrikes, monogram patterns, geographical distribution of coins, and stylistic features.

• Coins of the Graeco-Bactrians circulating north of the Hindu Kush were made of gold, silver, copper, and nickel and followed the Attic weight standard.

• These coins carried Greek legends, royal portraits, and Greek deities, along with the king’s name and title.

• Coins of the Indo-Greeks circulating south of the Hindukush were mostly made of silver and copper.

• The conquest of Indian territories led to the issue of bilingual and bi-inscriptional coins.

• Some coins, like that of Agathocles, have legends written in Brahmi script in Prakrit on the obverse and in Greek on the reverse.

• These coins followed an Indian weight standard and carried Indian religious symbols.

• Menander I Soter stands out among the Indo-Greek kings for several reasons.

• He surpasses all other Indo-Greek kings by the number of coins and different dies and monograms for both silver and bronze coins.

• His coins are far superior in quantity compared to any other Greek contemporary in public and private collections, as well as recent coin hoards.

• Menander I was the only Greek king represented in Indian literature.

• He is mentioned by Pompeius Trogus and Strabo, with Trogus indicating him as a Bactrian king and referring to his ‘Indian activities’.

• Strabo, citing Apollodorus of Artemita, writes that more Indian tribes were subdued by the Bactrian Greeks than by Alexander.

• By the time of Menander Soter, the Kathiawar peninsula and the Indus Delta were under Indo-Greek control.

• The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea refers to the circulation of drachms of Apollodotus and Menander in Barygaza.

• The historical background of Menander can be reconstructed from Milindapanha (‘The Questions of Milinda’, datable to the second-first century BCE), which contains his discussions with the Buddhist monk Nagasena, and the coins.

• The Pali version of Milindapanha suggests that Menander was born in a place called Kalasigama (possibly Begram, in the Kavisi region).

• The Milindapanha states that Menander’s capital was Sagala, generally identified with Sialkot in Pakistan.

• Menander’s first series of coins were minted and found in the western part of the Indo-Greek kingdom, suggesting that he, like his predecessors Antimachus II and Apollodotus I, ascended the throne in Alexandria of the Caucasus.

• The date of Menander’s accession to the throne is generally taken to be c.155 BCE, though an alternative date of c.165 BCE is also suggested.

• Menander I expanded his power base and inaugurated new mints to strike his numerous coinages with new monetary types and systems.

• He became the monarch of the whole Indo-Greek kingdom, integrating several areas of the north-west under a single rule.

• There is no concrete evidence suggesting that Menander converted to Buddhism, though he must have patronized the religion to a great extent.

• Agathocleia, believed to be Menander’s queen, and her son Strato I (c.135–125 BCE) ruled in the Gandhara region.

• Agathocleia acted as a regent to her minor son Strato I after the death of Menander.

• After Menander’s death, three near-contemporary rulers emerged: Lysias (c.120-110 BCE), Antialcidas (c.115-95 BCE), and Heliocles II (c.110-100 BCE), alongside Strato I.

• Antialcidas is mentioned in the Besnagar Pillar Inscription of Heliodorus as the king of Taxila, whose ambassador was Heliodorus.

• Heliodorus visited Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the king of Vidisa (in Madhya Pradesh).

• Since all the monograms used by Strato I were also used by Heliocles II, it appears that he took control of Strato’s mints and territories.

• These rulers must have ruled simultaneously in different pockets of north-west India.

• The succeeding Indo-Greek rulers had a very short span of rule, with ten rulers within a small span of fifteen years, indicating political instability.

• The Indo-Greek rule over Gandhara came to an end due to conflicts with the Parthians and Sakas.

• Their control over the area to the east of the Jhelum ended in the late 1st century BCE or early 1st century CE with their defeat by the Kshatrapa ruler Rajuvula.

• The last Indo-Greek stronghold was in eastern Punjab before they withered away.

The Saka-Kshatrapas of Western India

• The Scythio-Parthians ruled through their Kshatrapas (viceroys or subordinate rulers) over parts of western India during the Kushan period.

• A group of rulers who ruled in Gujarat, Saurashtra, and Malwa during the post-Mauryan times are known as Western Kshatrapas.

• Two important lines of Kshatrapa rulers were the Kshaharatas and Kardamakas.

• Until recently, only two members of the Kshaharata family were known: Bhumaka and Nahapana.

• Aghudaka or Abhedaka is now also known from coins, and he also bears the family name Kshaharata on his coins.

• Bhumaka originally owed allegiance to Kanishka. His coins, with legends in Brahmi and Kharosthi, have been found in coastal Gujarat, Malwa, and the Ajmer area.

• Bhumaka was succeeded by Nahapana, as his copper coins were of the same type as those issued by Bhumaka.

• Nahapana is known from his coins and several inscriptions recording endowments and benefactions by his son-in-law Usavadata and one of his ministers Ayama.

• The Nambanus of the Periplus and king Naravahana of the Jaina sources are identified with Nahapana.

• Nahapana’s coins have been found in the Ajmer area of Rajasthan and Nasik area of Maharashtra.

• In earlier inscriptions, Nahapana uses the title Kshatrapa, and in later ones, Mahakshatrapa and Rajan.

• Nahapana likely ruled more or less independently.

• Nahapana’s kingdom seems to have included Malwa, Gujarat, Saurashtra, northern Maharashtra, parts of Rajasthan, and the lower Indus valley.

• The capital Minnagara was midway between Ujjain and Broach and could be identified with Doha.

• Epigraphic and numismatic evidence suggest that control over areas, especially those giving access to the western sea board, frequently changed between the Sakas and the Satavahanas, a powerful force in the Deccan during the post-Mauryan period.

• Nahapana was gaining political control at the expense of the Satavahanas, as seen from the distribution of his records in areas that had formed the core of the Satavahana realm.

• Three inscriptions from Nasik, and one each from Karle and Junnar (both near Pune, Maharashtra), show Nahapana’s control over regions like Bhrigukachchha (Broach, Gujarat), Dasapura (Mandasore, western MP), Surparaka (Sopara, a suburb of Mumbai), and Govardhana (Nasik).

• Soon after, Nahapana was killed, likely by the Satavahana ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni, who took control of the southern territories of the Kshaharata kingdom.

• During the later years of Nahapana, a new Kshatrapa ruler, Chashtana, appeared, belonging to the Kardamaka family.

• The Kardamaka family name is found in an inscription at Kanheri, where the daughter of Rudradaman (Chashtana’s grandson), who was the queen of Vashisthiputra Satakarni, mentions herself as having been born in the Kardamaka family.

• Chashtana assumed the title ‘kshatrapa’ on his earlier coins and ‘mahakshatrapa’ on his later ones, while ‘rajan’ remained throughout.

• Chashtana probably began his rule in 78 CE.

• Chashtana ruled in western India conjointly with his grandson, Rudradaman I, in Saka Era 52 (130 CE), as known from the Andhau inscription from Kutch, Gujarat.

• Chashtana’s son was Jayadaman. The rarity of his coins suggests that he probably ruled for a brief period and predeceased his father.

• Chashtana is referred to as Tiastenes in Ptolemy’s Geography, and he is said to have had his capital at Ujjayini in Avanti, indicating the loss of Ujjayini in western Malwa by the Satavahanas.

• Rudradaman I was the most important ruler of the Kardamaka family.

• During Rudradaman I’s reign, the Saka power expanded significantly. His famous inscription from Junagarh, dated Saka Era 72 (150 CE), bears testimony to this.

• Rudradaman I assumed the title of Mahakshatrapa, signaling his more exalted political position than that of an ordinary Kshatrapa.

• By 150 CE, Rudradaman I likely became independent from the Kushanas.

• Rudradaman I established his power over Akaravanti, Anarta (northern part of Kathiawad), Saurashtra (Kathiawad peninsula), Svabhra (on the banks of the Sabarmati), Kaccha (Kutch), Sindu-Sauvira (lower Indus valley), Kukura, Aparanta, and Nishada (between the Vindhya and Paripatra mountains).

• Some of these areas were once under the Satavahanas but were now conquered by Rudradaman.

• According to the Junagarh prasasti, Rudradaman I defeated Satakarni twice, the lord of the Deccan, but spared him due to their relation, which brought him glory.

• An inscription from Kanheri informs that Vasishthiputra Satakarni, a Satavahana king, married the daughter of Mahakshatrapa Ru.. (likely Rudradaman I). This suggests that despite being defeated, Satakarni was not uprooted by his Saka adversary due to his connection with Rudradaman.

• The Junagarh prasasti provides insights into the diversified revenue demands of the state.

• The inscription describes that Rudradaman I’s treasury overflowed with gold, silver, and gems due to the collection of lawfully levied taxes like rent on land (bali), share on agricultural produce (bhaga), and tolls and customs (sulka).

• The terms bali and bhaga as revenue demands date back to the time of Ashoka and were levied on peasants.

• The collection of sulka (tolls and customs) indicates taxes from commercial transactions.

• The successors of Rudradaman I could not keep his entire territory intact but retained their independent position in western Malwa, Gujarat, and Kathiawar until the early fifth century.