Age of reorganisation
Topic: Post-Mauryan India: Shungas to Kushanas · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"
Meaning
The "age of reorganisation" is a name scholars give to the period from c. 185 BCE to c. 300 CE in India, after the Mauryan empire broke up. Old regions were rearranged into new kingdoms. These kingdoms kept competing for power through wars and matrimonial alliances, which means marriages between royal families. Some kingdoms were Indian, like the Shungas, Satavahanas and Chedis. Others were set up by rulers from outside, like the Indo-Greeks, Shakas and Kushanas. It was not a dark age. Trade, towns, coinage, art and Sanskrit literature all grew in this period.
Example
In c. 185 BCE, the commander Pushyamitra Shunga killed the last Maurya emperor and started his own dynasty in north and central India. At about the same time, the Satavahanas rose in the Deccan, and Indo-Greek kings took over the northwest.
Don't confuse with
- Dark age: this idea means a time of decline. The age of reorganisation was a time of political breakup, but also of strong trade and culture.