Mauryan Period And Post Mauryan Period In Himachal Pradesh

||Mauryan Period And Post Mauryan Period In Himachal Pradesh|| Mauryan Period And Post Mauryan Period In HP||

MAURYAN PERIOD AND POST-MAURYAN PERIOD

Mauryan period In Himachal Pradesh

Sikandar's Invasion : Around 326 BC Sikandar attacked India and reached the river Beas. Sikandar's soldiers refused to go beyond the Beas River. Most prominent in this was his commander 'Coenus'. Alexander constructed twelve stupas as a sign of his India campaign on the banks of the Beas river, which has now been destroyed.
Chandragupta Maurya: Chandragupta Maurya, along with the king Parvatak and his Prime Minister Chanakya, took steps towards the establishment of the Maurya Empire. The treaty between Parvatak and Chanakya is found in Vishakhadatta's Mudrarakshasa and Jain Granth Parivishthapavaran. According to Mudrarakshasa, Chandragupta recruited Kirat and Khasho in his army. Pravatak must have been a Trigarta king. Among the hill kings, only King Chitravarma of Kulut and King Pushkaraksa of Kashmir opposed Chandragupta. With the help of Chanakya, in 323 BC, Chandragupta destroyed the Nand dynasty and sat on the throne and established the Maurya Empire. The kingdom of Kulind was called Shirmourya in the Mauryan period as the Kulind state was situated at the apex of the Maurya Empire. Over time, it became Sirmaur.
Ashoka: Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, sent Majjhima and 4 Buddhist monks to propagate Buddhism in the Himalayas. According to Hiuentsang, Ashoka had built Buddhist stupas at Kullu and Kangra. Stupas built of Ashoka are located in Kalath of Kullu and Chaintadu of Kangra. Ashoka period inscriptions have been found in Kalsi (Uttarakhand). In the promotion of Buddhism in the Himalayas, Majjhima was supported by 4 Buddhist monks - Kappapagota, Dhundibhisara, Sahadeva ard Mulakdev. Buddhism had entered in 242 BC in Himachal Pradesh. The decline of the Mauryan Empire began around 210 BC, which was completed by the establishment of the Shunga dynasty in 185 BC.

(ii) Post Mauryan Period (Shunga, Kushan dynasty) In Himachal Pradesh: After the fall of the Mauryas, the Shunga dynasty could not keep the hill republics under them and they became independent. The Shakas invasion began around the first century BC. In the reign of Kanishka, the most prominent king of the Kushanas after the Shakas, the hill states surrendered and accepted Kanishka's subjugation. 40 Kushan coins have been found on the Kalka- Kasauli road. A coin of Kanishka is found at Kanihara in Kangra. The hill kings were free to run their coins with the Kushanas. In the late second and early third centuries, when the power of the Kushans weakened, the Yudhayas, the Arjunayans (Punjab) and the Kulindas, pushed the Kushanas across the Sutlej and carried coins as a symbol of their independence.