Logo

The work is meant, primarily, for undergraduate and postgraduate students, who have offered courses in ancient Indian numismatics and epigraphy. Teacher and student, alike, often find is difficult to locate coins and inscriptions, in their true the historical perspective, without some knowledge of the political history of the period of their issue. Unfortunately, in the present day scenario of history writing, where political history has lost ground to socio-economic history, there are few up-to-date works, dealing with the political history of the successors of the Mauryas, up to c 319 AD.

The present work is divided into seven chapters, and has three appendices. Chapter 1 is introductory in nature, Chapter 2 deals with the history of the Sungas, Kanvas, and their successors, Chapter III, with that of the Mahameghavahanas of Kalinga, the Satavahanas, and their succesors, Chapter 4 of the Indo-Greeks, Chapter 5 of the Saka-Pahlavas, and other rulers of Saka extraction, mainly the Western Kshatarapas, Chapter VI, of the Kushana Kings, and their successors, and Chapter VII, Of the two predecessors of Chandragupta I.

Appendix 1 presents a brief account of the three major Tamil powers—the Cholas, Pandyas, and Cheras, as also the Tondaiyar and Pallavas, who cannot technically be called the succssors of the Mauryas, but played an important role in the history of the period. The general features of the coins of significant successors of the Mauryas, and a brief introduction of the significant epigraphs of the period, have been dealt with in Appendices 2 and 3, respectively. This is followed by a Select bibliography.