Ancient Indian Dynasties

Indian history dynasty is a very extensive history that has seen the rise and fall of the various ancient Indian empires. During the ancient time, many dynasties reigned over India. Some of the popular and important ancient Indian dynasties are the Nanda Dynasty, Maurya Dynasty, Pandya Dynasty, Chera Dynasty, Chola Dynasty, Pallava Dynasty, Chalukya Dynasty etc. These dynasties ruled for a long period of time in India. In this article, we will study all the dynasties of Indian history and rulers of ancient India. The ancient region of India was spread in small Mahajanapadas. Famous rulers ruled these areas and contributed to their dynasty which has become a part of the Indian history dynasty.

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Mahajanapadas (600 BC – 325 BC)

The word Mahjanpadas is a combination of two words: Maha which means "great”, and janapada "people’s foot".  These are the sixteen kingdoms of Ancient India. The Aryans were the most powerful tribes in ancient India. They were called ‘janas’. The word Janapada came from ‘Janas’. where the meaning of Jana is ‘people’ and Pada refers to ‘foot’. With the passage of time, the Janapadas became more powerful and turned into Mahajanapads. The following is the list of all six Mahjanpadas along with their geographical locations.

List of Indian Dynasty

The following are the details of ancient Indian dynasties and their contributions that took place in India.

• Haryana Dynasty (544 BC- 492 BC)

The Haryana Dynasty rulers of India in chronological order are given in the list with their contributions to the dynasty.

• Shishunaga Dynasty

The Shishunaga Dynasty was founded by Shishunagat. He was the Minister of king Nag-Dasak of the Haryanka dynasty. The greatest incidents that happened during this period was the destruction of Avanti and the convention of the second Buddhist Council in Vaishali (383 BC) during Kalashoka reign.

• Nanda Dynasty

Mahapadma was the founder of the Nanda Dynasty. He is also known as Sarvakshatrantak. The meaning of  Sarvakshatrantak is Uprooter of all the Kshatriyas. The Puranas gave him the title of Ekrat that means the sole Monarch. Alexander invaded the northwest part of India in 326 BC during the rule of Dhanananda.

• Maurya Dynasty

• The Indo-Greeks

Menander was a very famous king among Indo-Greeks. He is also called Milinda

According to the Pali texts, Millindapanho, he was converted to Buddhism by Nagasena The gold coins were issued in India first time by Greeks and were the first to issue gold coins in India. He introduced Hellenistic art during his rule.

• The Shakas

The first king of this dynasty was Moga who established Saka power in Gandhara and Indus Valley. Rudradaman I who ruled during 130-150 AD repaired Sudarshan Lake in the Kathiawar region.

• The Kushan Dynasty

Kanishka was the greatest ruler of the Kushan Dynasty. He started the Saka Dynasty in 78 AD. Many scholars were found in his court like Parsva, Vasumitra, Asvagosha, Nagarjuna, Charak (Physician) and Mathara.

• The Sunga Dynasty

The Sunga Dynasty was established by Pushymitra Sunga who was a Brahmin Commander-in-Chief of the last Maurya Ruler. The famous author of ‘Mahabhasya’, Patanjali was born at Gonarda in Central India. He was the priest of two Asvamedha Yajnas performed by Pushymitra Sunga. The most famous monument of the Sunga period is Bharhut Stupa.

• The Kanva Dynasty

The Kanava Dynasty was founded by Vasudeva who was Minister of the Sunga Dynasty. He killed Devabhuti, last ruler of the Sunga Dynasty.

• The Satavahanas Dynasty

The dynasty was founded by King Simuka. Under the Satavahanas different construction work was done such as worship halls and Monasteries were constructed from rocks. 

• The Pandayas

This dynasty was mentioned by Megasthenese. The Pandayas traded with the Roman Empire and sent embassies to Augustus.

• The Chola Dynasty

It is also called Cholamandalam which is situated to the North-East of the Pandya Kingdom between the Pennar and Vellar rivers. Kaveripattinam or Puhar was the capital city of the Chola Dynasty.

• The Chera Dynasty

Vanji was the capital city of the kingdom. The dynasty contributed to trade relations with the Romans.

• Sangam Age

This dynasty corresponds to the Post-Mauryan and pre-Gupta periods. The dynasty contributed in literary aspects. It was an assembly of Tamil poets, held under royal patronage. Kural written Tiruvalluvar is also called the ‘Fifth Veda’ or ‘the Bible of Tamil Land’.

• Gupta Dynasty

The list of the rulers of the Gupta Dynasty and their contributions is given below.

• Pushyabhuti Dynasty

Harshavardhan was the greatest ruler of this dynasty. He shifted the capital of the kingdom to Kannauj.  Hieun Tsang visited India during his period. His contribution is in establishing a large monastery at Nalanda.

• Rashtrakutas Dynasty

This dynasty was founded by Dantidurg. Some of the contributions of this dynasty are the construction of the Kailasha temple at Ellora by Krishna I. The first Kannada poetry Kaviraj Marg was composed and written by Amogvarsha. Rashtrakutas are famous for constructing the cave temple Elephanta that was dedicated to Lord Shiva.

• Gangas Dynasty

Several famous temples were built during the Gangas Dynasty. The Sun Temple at Konark was constructed by Narsimhadeva. Jagannath Temple at Puri was built by Anantvarman.

Kesaris built a temple at Bhubaneswar called the Lingaraja Temple.

• Pallavas Dynasty

Pallavas Dynasty was founded by Simhavishnu. Narsimhavarman was the greatest King of the Pallava dynasty. He founded the town of Mamallapuram and constructed rathas and pagoda from rocks.

Conclusion

Ancient India was a civilization that has had powerful incidents in Indian history and gave great rulers. It started around the 25th century BC and ended around the 17th century BC. The dynasties fell due to invasions from other civilizations but the monuments and the construction works, inscriptions are witnessing the glory of ancient India.