The Magadha Empire

The Magadha Empire was founded in 684 BC by the Haryanka dynasty.

During the Shishunaga dynasty, two major religions appeared in India. Gautama Buddha founded the Buddhism, while Mahavira established the basis of the Jainism.

The Nanda dynasty was formed by an illegitimate son of the king Mahanandin of the previous Shishunaga dynasty.

As the Hellenistic sphere declined, the exiled general Chandragupta Maurya swept back through the country from Magadha and conquered his way well into Afghanistan.

This was the beginning of one India’s greatest dynasties, the Maurya.

Influenced by the jainacharya Bhadrabahu, Chandragupta Maurya adopted Jainism and spread it in the southern India.

After Chandragupta’s death, his son, Bindusara, succeeded to the throne and expended the kingdom over the most of present day India, except Kalinga and the extreme south and east. Bindusara’s empire was inherited by his son, Ashoka the Great.

Under the great king Ashoka the Mauryan Empire conquered nearly the entire subcontinent, extending itself as far south as Mysore. However, when Ashoka conquered Orissa, his army shed so much blood that the repentant king gave up warfare forever and converted to Buddhism. The Mauryan dynasty under the Ashoka was responsible for the proliferation of Buddhist ideals across the whole of East Asia and South – East Asia.

His rule marked the height of the Maurya Empire and it collapsed only 100 years after his death.

In 185 BC, the last of the Mauryan rulers, king Brihadratha, was murdered by the commander – in – chief of the Mauryan armed forces, Pusyamitra Sunga. After the murder, he ascended the throne and established the Sunga dynasty.

The last ruler of the Sunga dynasty was overthrown by Vasudeva of the Kanva dynasty. Four Kanva kings ruled over Magadha until the southern power conquered the empire and the province of Eastern Malwa.

*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "History of India".