SHUNGA EMPIRE
According to Dr. Hemchandjra Raychaudhari, Sunga Dynasty took their surname from a tree. He further gave the example of Indian dynasties like Kadamba (a tree name) of Banavasi, Pallava(Sanskrit word for "branch and twig") of Kanchi and Narikela-Kramukanvaya (Narikela a Sanskrit word for the Coconut) of Champa. The meaning of "Sunga" is the fig tree in Sanskrit. So according to him, Sungas took their dynastic name from the fig tree
Pushyamitra Shunga was the founder and first King of the Shunga Dynasty in Northern Bharatavarsha.
The "BRAHMIN KING"
Pushyamitra Shunga was originally a Senapati (General) of the Maurya empire. In 185 BCE he assassinated the last Maurya Emperor (Brhadrat) during an army review, and proclaimed himself King. He then performed the Ashwamedh Yajya and brought much of Northern Bharatvarsh under his rule. Inscriptions of the Shungas have been found as far as the Jalandhar in the Punjab, and the Divyavadan mentions. Actually ancestors of Ashoka were not spreading Buddhism as Ashoka did. Their way of conversion was like forcing and imposing the principles of Buddhism.
Sanchi Stupa
Rise of legend
When the extreme violence has been happening and the eternal land of India became a stronghold of Buddhist monks and Buddhist monasteries, which were operated from Bamiyan and Magath in Afghanistan. Vrihadratha, the ninth emperor of the Maurya dynasty, sat on the throne of Magadha, by that time Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, Kashmir, Punjab and almost the whole of northern India had become Buddhist. Apart from this, many other nations like Bhutan, China, Burma, Thailand etc. had also come under the flag of Buddhism, but the rule of Vrhadrath remained limited to this side of the Indus. In India, there were only a few kings who were called Hindu kings. Most of them were also the kings of South India, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
When the ninth Buddhist ruler Vrhadratha was ruling in Magath, India, the Greek king Meinender had reached the Indus river, battling with his ally Demetrius (Dimitra). Across the Indus, he planned to attack India. This meander or mininder is called milind in Buddhist literature. According to legend, he joined some Buddhist monks from the border region. He said that if you will support me in the victory of India, I will embrace Buddhism after victory. However, in Milandpanho, Milind accepted Buddhism on no terms as a result of the debate between Milind and Buddhist monk Nagasen.
According to another aspect of history, soldiers of Mininder disguised as Buddhist monks started coming to the monasteries. Thousands of monasteries have soldiers as well as weapons hidden. This mechanism was known to Pushyamitra Sunga, the commander of the Buddhist emperor Vrhadrath.
Pushyamitra asked the emperor Vrhadrath to search the monasteries, but the Buddhist emperor Vrhadrath refused, saying that you suspected the vain. But Pushyamitra Sung searched the monasteries without obeying the edict and captured all the monks and confiscated a large amount of weapons, but Vrhadratha did not like the violation of the command.
It is said that when Pushyamitra Sunga returned to the capital, the Emperor Vrhadrath was carrying out an army parade. At the same time, there was confusion in Pushyamitra Sunga and Vrhadrath. The saying increased so much that Vrhadrath tried to kill Pushyamitra Sung with a sword, but the army trusted Pushyamitra Sung more than Vrhadrath. There were Buddhists in the army as well as Hindus. Pushyamitra Sunga killed Vruddrath and then he himself became the emperor. During this time, Milind attacked the border.
Pushyamitra then formed his army and attacked Mininder, who had reached the middle of India. One of the Greek soldiers did not stand in front of the Indian soldiers. Eventually, Pushyamitra Sung's army chased the Greek army and pushed it across the Indus.Magadha Empire gained a lot of strength when Pushyamitra became king. According to the Puranas, Pushyamitra reigned for 36 years (185–149 BC). However Pushyamitra Sung was followed by 9 more rulers - Agnimitra, Vasujyeshtha, Vasumitra, Andhrak, the three unknown rulers, Bhagavata, Devabhuti.
Here are some points those shows the good face of Pushyamitra Shunga:-
1)the non-persecution of other religions, claimed here for Ashoka against the very evidence under discussion, was not unique at all: it was the rule among Hindu kings throughout history, and the Buddha himself had been one of its beneficiaries.
2)Ashoka belongs to the writer's own Buddhist camp, whereas Pushyamitra is described as an enemy of Buddhism.
3)For their assurance, Aryarakshit permitted Pushyamitra to roam for sometime in the region frequented by the Buddhist mendicants.
4)On observing Pushyamitra's systematic dhyana sadhana, the Buddhist monks and other admirers found their reservations all resolved.
5)Once some Buddhist mendicants expressed reservations about Pushyamitra's dhyana sadhana.
6)The story (which surfaces over 3 centuries later) about Pushyamitra's offering money for the heads of monks is rendered improbable by historical facts of his allowing and patronising monasteries and Buddhist universities in his domains.
7)Pushyamitra Shunga, of whom it is unreliably said by a very non-contemporary source that he had Buddhist monks killed, allowed Buddhist universities to flourish in his kingdom.
8)This single reference has sufficed for presenting Pushyamitra as the harbinger of a “Brahmanical reaction” which “culminated in the age of the Guptas.” The fact that the famous Buddhist stupas and monasteries at Bharhut and Sanchi were built and thrived under the very nose of Pushyamitra is never mentioned.
9)Pushyamitra, who was a believer in Hinduism, did not ill-treat the Buddhists. He however, did not patronize Buddhism to the extent that Asoka did.
10)During this period, the Brahmanas collected all the legends of Vaishnavitic and Saivitic stamp into one large work, translating them, at the same time, from Prakri.
Art and culture
Art, education, philosophy, and other forms of learning flowered during this period including small terracotta images, larger stone sculptures, and architectural monuments such as the stupa at Bharhut, and the renowned Great Stupa at Sanchi. Shunga rulers helped to establish the tradition of royal sponsorship of learning and art. The script used by the empire was a variant of Brahmi script and was used to write Sanskrit.
The Shunga Empire played an imperative role in patronising culture at a time when some of the most important developments in Hindu thought were taking place. Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya was composed in this period. Artistry also progressed with the rise of the Mathura art style.
War with the Yavanas (Greeks)
The Indo-Greeks, called Yavanas in Indian sources, either led by Demetrius I or Menander I, then invaded India, possibly receiving the help of Buddhists. Menander in particular is described as a convert to Buddhism in the Milindapanha.
The Hindu text of the Yuga Purana, which describes Indian historical events in the form of a prophecy, relates the attack of the Indo-Greeks on the Shunga capital Pataliputra, a magnificent fortified city with 570 towers and 64 gates according to Megasthenes,and describes the impending war for city:
"Then, after having approached Saketa together with the Panchalas and the Mathuras, the Yavanas, valiant in battle, will reach Kusumadhvaja.Then, once Puspapura [another name of Pataliputra] has been reached and its celebrated mud[-walls] cast down, all the realm will be in disorder." (Yuga Purana, Paragraph 47–48, 2002 edition)
However, the Yuga Purana indicates that the Yavanas (Indo-Greeks) did not remain for long in Pataliputra, as they were faced with a civil war in Bactria.
Western sources also suggest that this new offensive of the Greeks into India led them as far as the capital Pataliputra.
Battle on the Sindhu river
An account of a direct battle between the Greeks and the Shunga is also found in the Mālavikāgnimitram, a play by Kālidāsa which describes a battle between a squadron of Greek cavalrymen and Vasumitra, the grandson of Pushyamitra, accompanied by a hundred soldiers on the "Sindhu river", in which the Indians defeated a squadron of Greeks and Pushyamitra successfully completed the Ashvamedha Yagna. This river may be the Indus river in the northwest, but such expansion by the Shungas is unlikely, and it is more probable that the river mentioned in the text is the Sindh River or the Kali Sindh River in the Ganges Basin.
Family tree
1) Agnimitra (149 – 141 BC) was the second king of the Shunga dynasty of northern India. He succeeded his father, Pushyamitra Shunga, in 149 BC. The Vayu Purana and the Brahmanda Purana have assigned 8 years as the length of his reign. He was not cruel to Buddhists like his father.
2) Vasujyeshtha (141 – 131 BC) was the third king of the Shunga Dynasty of Northern India. His reign is not well documented, thus little is known about him. He is credited with successfully completing his grandfather's Ashvamedha and for defeating forces of the Indo-Greek Kingdom along the banks of the Sindhu River. His achievements are mentioned briefly in the "Malavikagnimitra", which was composed during the later Gupta era by Kalidasa.
3)Vasumitra (131 – 124 BC; died 124 BC), was the fourth ruler of the Shunga Empire of North India. He was the son of Agnimitra by his queen Dharini and brother or half-brother of Vasujyeshtha.In the Mālavikāgnimitram, act 5, verse 14, Kālidāsa tells us that Vasumitra guarded the sacrificial horse let loose by his grandfather Pushyamitra Shunga and he defeated a cavalry squadron of the Yona (Indo-Greeks) on the banks of the Indus River
4)Bhagabhadra - He ruled in north, central, and eastern India around 110 BC Although the capital of the Shungas was at Pataliputra, he was also known to have held court at Vidisha. It is thought that the name Bhagabhadra also appears in the regnal lists of the Shungas in the Puranic records, under the name Bhadraka, fifth ruler of the Shungas.
5)Devabhuti (r. 83 – 73 BCE) also known as Devbhomi, was the last king of the Shunga Empire in ancient India.
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