Ancient Indian History

 

5.3 Shishunaga Dynasty

It is founded by a minister Shishunaga who was succeeded by Kalashoka. The dynasty lasted for two generations only. Their greatest achievement was the destruction of the power of Avanti and its final incorporation into the Magadhan Empire. The most famous event was, the capital was shifted to Vaishali.

 

5.4 Nanda Dynasty

It is considered first of the non-Kshatriya dynasties. It was founded by Mahapadma Nanda who added Kalinga to his empire from where he brought an image of the Jina as a victory trophy. He claimed to be the Ekarat – the sole sovereign who destroyed all the other ruling princes. That the Nandas controlled some parts of Kalinga (Orissa) is borne out by the Hathigumpha Inscription of King Kharavela, assigned to the middle of the first century B.C. Alexander attacked India during the reign of Dhana Nanda who was called Agrammesor Xandrammems by Greek writers, in 326 B.C.

The Nandas were fabulously rich and extremely powerful; maintaining an infantry of 2, 00,000 soldiers, 60,000 cavalry and 6,000 war elephants which supposedly checked Alexander’s army from advancing towards Magadha. They had developed an effective taxation system, built canals and carried out irrigation projects and had a strong army. Nandas are described as the first Empire builders in India. The first Nanda king is described in Puranas as the “destroyer of all Kshatriyas and a second Parasurama or Bhargava etc”. The Nandas were overthrown by the Maurya Dynasty under which the Magadhan Empire reached the apex of its glory.

 

Foreign Invasions and Persian Conquests of India

During 6th century B.C. northwestern India had been isolated from the developments in the rest of India and closer connections with Persian Civilization, being politically a part of the Achaemenied Empire. A little before 530 B.C., Cyrus (the Achaemenid emperor of Persia) crossed the Hindukush mountains and received tributes from the tribes of Kamboja, Gandhara, and the trans-Indus region. During the lifetime of Buddha, the powerful Achaemenian emperor of Persia Darius I (522-486 B.C.) captured a portion of Punjab and Sindh. The Behistun Inscription of 519 B.C. states that Gadara (Gandhara) was a province which sent teak. Herodotus, the famous Greek historian, considered as father of history, mentions Gandhara as the 20th satrapy or province, counted amongst the most populous and wealthy in the Achaemmenid Empirre.

  • The Indian provinces provided mercenaries for the Persian armies’ fighting against the Greeks in the years 486-465 B.C.
  • Alexander came to India in order to reach the easternmost parts of Darius’s empire, to the ‘problem of ocean’; the limits of each were a puzzle to Greek geographers and to add this fabulous country to his list of conquests.
  • Herodotus mentions about a naval expedition dispatched by Darius under Skylax (517 B.C.) to explore the Indus. Herodotus says: “the population of the Indians is by far the greatest of all the people that we know; and they paid a tribute proportionately larger than the rest”.
  • Xerxes utilized his Indian provinces to secure an Indian contingent to fight his battles in Greece.
  • There were ‘Gandharians’ as well as ‘Indians’ in his contingent. The former bore bows of reed and short spears for fight at close quarters, while the latter, clad in cotton also bore similar bows and arrows tipped with iron. These Indian troops were the first Indians to fight in Europe.
  • The Persian Empire set the model for Mauryas as far as Imperial pretensions are concerned. The prevalence in the North-West of Kharosthi script which is only a localized adaptation of Aramaic and written from the right was perhaps a vestige of Persian rule.