ancient dynasty of India

Brief questions on ancient dynasties of Indian history are discussed here. Number one questions in ancient dynasty of India history are discussed here.

In ancient times, most kingdoms were ruled by kings. The king ruled the state. The king was the head of state. The king had all the powers of the kingdom. The king's son was called Yuvraj. Yuvraj would become king if the current king died. in genealogy in ancient times, the king's son became the king. In this way a dynasty was ruled for a long time. If a weakly king of the dynasty took over the ruler of the kingdom then the fall of the kingdom was inevitable. On this occasion, a new dynasty would have been begun.

All the dynasties we know of in history, There was no fixed rule of succession to them. According to the custom, the eldest son of the king will be the next king. But a king of a dynasty had many sons. They used to fight over who would sit on the throne of the dynasty. that son of the king is cleverer and strong , he was ascended the throne of the dynasty. Sometimes the king made his favorite son the prince. Later this beloved son sat on the throne of the dynasty. the son was ascended the throne of the dynasty by imprisoning or killing his father.

The earliest dynasties of Indian history is between is Continuous description are available from the Harshanka dynasty. Even before this time, different states or countries were ruled by different dynasties. But their serial description is not clear.

The rise of Magadha in ancient times from Harshanka dynasty to Maurya dynasty was very important. Because depends on Magadha the first time, all-India empire in ancient time was build up.

We know from the Buddhist Mahavamsa and the Buddhacharita written by Asvaghosa that Bimbisara was a notable king of Magadha in ancient times. Bimbisara was the son of Harshanka dynasty in ancient times. The rise of Magadha started from Bimbisara's reign in ancient time. Bimbisara ascended the throne of Magadha at the age of 15 year. At that time Magadha was centered around Patna and Gaya districts of Bihar. His first task was to reorganize and strengthen the army. Because in ancient times, if the army is not developed, the kingdom cannot be expanded. He was established of in neighboring important states matrimonial relations. As a result, those states became relatives.

Ajatashatru was the son of Bimbisara second wife Lichchhavi princess Chellana. After killing his father ascended the throne of the Haryanka dynasty. Before ascended the throne he was the ruler of Chamba. Ajatshatru was an imperialist ruler. He took various measures to expand the empire. fought with dynasties like Prasenjit of Kosala Raja, Avanti Raja, Licchavi etc. At first he was against Buddhism, Later he embraced Buddhism. During the Ajatashatru period, the first Buddhist Sangati (Buddhist Ceremony) was held in Rajgriha. Ajatshatru contributed a lot of money on this occasion. Apart from this, he renovated several Buddhist monasteries. Ajatashatru was the greatest ruler of this dynasty.

According to Buddhist and Jain texts, Udayini ascended the throne of Magadha after Ajatashatru. He ruled for 16 years. Udayin established its capital at a place called Pataliputra.

Shishunaga was a sabhasad(servant of the king) of the Harshanka dynasty. The weak king Nagadasaka of Harshanka dynasty was killed by Sisunaga and Sisunaga sat on the throne of Magadha. Shishunaga founded the Shishunaga dynasty on the throne of Magadha. It is believed that the kingdoms of Avanti, Vatsa, Kaushal etc was captured by Sisunaga. And came into the kingdom in Magadha. Shishunaga shifted the capital from Patliputra and established it permanently at Vaishali.

Kalashok is the son of Sisunaga. He ascended the throne of Magadha after his father's death. Kalashok shifted the capital of the kingdom to Pataliputra. Kalashok organised the second Buddhist ceremony in Vaishali. According to the Harshacharita of Banabhatta and the Greek writer Curtius , a person called Mahapadma killed Kalashok and his 10 sons and destroyed Shishunaga dynasty.

It can be known from various books Mahapadma Nanda was a son of Shradra clan. (Shudra clan means low caste people in India in ancient times.) Killed Kalashok and his sons and established the Nanda dynasty. this is important no lower caste king had ruled in Indian history before this. Sitting on the throne, he focused on expanding the kingdom. He expanded the Magadha empire by conquering several kingdoms. According to the Puranas conquered the kingdoms Ikshvaku, Panchal, Kalinga, Asmak, Kashi etc. R.K. Mukherjee said that "Mahapadma is the first great historical emperor of Northern India."

Dhanananda was a contemporary of the ancient great hero Alexander. During the reign of Dhanananda, the size of the Magadha army was huge. According to the accounts of Greek historians, his army consisted of twenty thousand cavalry, two thousand chariots, Two hundred thousand foot soldiers, three thousand elephants. This shows understands the size of his army many big. Having a large army, Alexander was afraid to attack Dhanananda. The tax burden on the people was increased to meet the expenses of the huge army. Because of this the anger of the people against the king arose. Brahmins and Kshatriyas did not respect the king because they were Shudras. (King is a Shudra caste) A learned Brahmin named Kautilya was insulted by Dhanananda inside the palace. The Nanda dynasty was destroyed by defeating and killing the Nanda king Dhananand in battle with the help of the shrewd diplomat Brahmin Kautilya, Chandragupta Maurya.