Following the death of Emperor Ashoka, the Mauryan state began to disintegrate, with central authority weakening and regional powers increasingly acting autonomously—setting the stage for succession disputes and territorial losses.
Dasharatha Maurya, commonly identified as Ashoka’s grandson, assumed imperial rule. Ancient and modern reconstructions generally place him as the next ruler in the main Magadhan line during a period of accelerating decline.
Inscriptions in Dasharatha’s name at the Nagarjuni hill caves (part of the Barabar/Nagarjuni complex) record royal dedications to the Ajivikas. These epigraphic acts show continued state patronage even as imperial power was contracting.
Dasharatha’s reign is conventionally dated to end in the mid-3rd century BCE, after which Samprati is typically listed as the next Mauryan ruler. Traditions differ on exact family relations, reflecting the era’s murky succession politics.
Shalishuka is placed after Samprati in standard king lists. Literary traditions depict an increasingly unstable court environment, consistent with continued erosion of Mauryan reach outside the core Magadhan region.
Devavarman is listed as a later Mauryan ruler in the succession sequence preserved in Puranic-derived reconstructions. His short reign is commonly taken as part of the rapid turnover that characterized the late dynasty.
Shatadhanvan appears next in widely used late-Mauryan regnal lists. The rapid succession of rulers is frequently treated by historians as both symptom and driver of weakening central governance and provincial drift.
Brihadratha is commonly identified as the final Mauryan emperor. By this stage, the Mauryan realm had contracted markedly from Ashoka’s peak, leaving a vulnerable center at Pataliputra.
According to later historical tradition summarized in major reference works, the general Pushyamitra Shunga killed Brihadratha during a military parade/review and seized power—an abrupt end to the Mauryan dynasty’s Magadhan line.
Pushyamitra’s takeover is conventionally dated to about 185 BCE, marking the political transition from Mauryan to Shunga rule in the former imperial heartland (with broader authority varying over time).
At Sanchi, the earlier Mauryan-period stupa associated with Ashoka was later enlarged during the Shunga era. This continuity in monumental Buddhist construction helps illustrate that religious and civic patronage could persist despite dynastic rupture.
In the decades following the Mauryan fall, northern India saw heightened conflict involving Indo-Greek (Greco-Bactrian/Indo-Greek) forces and successor states such as the Shungas—often discussed under the umbrella of the Shunga–Greek War.
Decline, succession crises, and collapse of the Mauryan Empire (c. 232–185 BCE)
