After the Mauryas: Indo-Greeks, Shakas, and Kushanas

The centuries between the Mauryas and the Guptas are often called the post-Mauryan period, but they were not a dark age. North-western India was ruled in succession by Indo-Greek kings, Shaka chiefs, and the Kushanas, while the Shungas and then the Satavahanas held power further east and south. These kingdoms kept trade moving, issued abundant coinage, and mixed Greek, Iranian, Central Asian, and Indian artistic traditions.

The Indo-Greek king Menander, who ruled in the second century BCE, is remembered in the Buddhist text Milindapanha, the Questions of Milinda, which presents a dialogue between the king and the monk Nagasena. Whether the dialogue records a real conversation is uncertain, but the text shows how Greek rulers were drawn into Indian religious debate. The Shakas, nomadic groups from Central Asia, followed, and their western Indian rulers, the Western Kshatrapas, governed parts of Gujarat and Malwa for centuries.

The Kushanas, who came from Central Asia, built the largest of these empires. Their greatest king, Kanishka, is now generally dated to about 127 to 150 CE, following the work of scholars such as Harry Falk; older books that place his accession in 78 CE and link him to the start of the Saka era are no longer accepted by most historians, though the Saka era itself does begin in 78 CE. Under Kanishka, Buddhism was supported, the Gandhara school of art flourished in the north-west, and trade along the routes to Central Asia and China expanded.

This period's importance lies in connection. Indian goods, ideas, and art travelled west to the Roman world and east along the Silk Routes, while new coin types, the use of Sanskrit in inscriptions, and the blending of artistic styles reshaped Indian culture. The era also shows why dating matters: a single inscription, the Rabatak inscription found in Afghanistan, rewrote the order of Kushana kings and forced scholars to revise Kanishka's date.