Why 'reorganisation'?

Bhavisha and Dhruv use Itihāsa again and land in a new period. They find art pieces that all look different from each other. Could they come from many kingdoms, not one? Yes!

We know little about Aśhoka's successors. But it's generally accepted that around 185 BCE the last Maurya emperor was killed by his own commander-in-chief, Puṣhyamitra Śhunga. The empire broke up, barely fifty years after Aśhoka.

Many new kingdoms appeared. Often these were the old tributary kingdoms the Mauryas had held together; now they became independent again. The north-west grew weak, which left it open to invaders from outside the subcontinent.

Some scholars call this the 'age of reorganisation': regions were being rearranged into new kingdoms, each competing to grow strong. The map of India changed a lot, and so did people's lives.

How did kingdoms gain control?

• peacefully, by matrimonial alliances: a marriage between two royal families (often a king's daughter marrying into a neighbour's family) to make the two kingdoms allies
• or by force, in war

Border areas were fought over all the time, because holding them kept a kingdom safe from attack.

Put the dynasties on one map, in two groups:

Along with all this politics came a burst of art, architecture and literature, and rich exchange between cultures.