The Fall of the Mauryas and the Intermediate Period

The Mauryan Empire declined rapidly after Ashoka's death around 232 BCE: his successors proved considerably weaker rulers, the vast territory fragmented among rival branches of the dynasty, and the northwestern provinces fell to the advancing Indo-Greek kingdoms of Bactria. In 185 BCE, the last Mauryan emperor, Brihadratha, was assassinated by his own commander-in-chief, the brahman Pushyamitra Shunga, who seized the throne and founded the Shunga dynasty, bringing to a definitive end the empire founded by Chandragupta a century and a half earlier.