What filled the power vacuum after the Mauryan decline — from the Sungas in the north to the Satavahanas in the Deccan and the Kushans in the northwest.
After the assassination of the last Mauryan emperor around 185 BCE, his general Pushyamitra Sunga founded the Sunga dynasty in Magadha. The Sungas are remembered for patronising Brahmanical revival and for the Bharhut stupa's sculpted gateways — an early landmark of Indian art.
The Satavahanas built the first major state to unify the Deccan plateau, controlling trade routes between north India and the peninsula's western and eastern coasts. They issued lead and coin currency, patronised both Brahmanical and Buddhist institutions (funding the Buddhist caves at Nasik and Karle), and are considered the founding dynasty for early Andhra polity — the Satavahana capital at Amaravati/Dharanikota is central to Andhra's ancient history.
The Kushans, originally Central Asian nomads, built an empire stretching from Central Asia to the Gangetic plains. Under Kanishka, their greatest ruler, the empire controlled a key stretch of the Silk Route, generating immense wealth from trans-continental trade. Kanishka patronised Buddhism and convened the Fourth Buddhist Council, during which Mahayana Buddhism gained formal doctrinal shape. Kushan-era Gandhara art blended Greek, Persian and Indian styles.
APPSC tests the geographic spread of each dynasty (Sunga = north, Satavahana = Deccan, Kushan = northwest/Central Asia), their patronage of art and religion, and Kanishka's role in Buddhism's Fourth Council.
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