Brihadratha Maurya – The Last Mauryan ruler
One of the largest and greatest empires of ancient India, the Mauryan Empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya, was gradually moving towards its end. Brihadratha Maurya was the last ruler of the Mauryan Empire who witnessed the downfall with his own eyes. Brihadratha succeeded Shatadhanvan Maurya, and his reign lasted for about seven years i.e., 187 BCE-180 BCE.
Brihadratha was the last ruler who took the great legacy of the Mauryan Empire and tried to accomplish it. The decline of the Mauryan Empire had already started after the death of Ashoka when many of the territories of the empire announced their independence and separated from the Mauryan Empire. The size of the Mauryan Empire eventually kept decreasing after each succession. But still, Brihadratha got a vast Empire to administer. The Mauryan Empire during the time of Brihadratha extended from the Jalandhar in the North to the Narmada River in the South.
Invasion of Demetrius I
As the Mauryan empire could be seen declining by the rest of the world, the Greeks were the ones that sought this as an opportunity by which they had the chance to once again win the territories occupied by Alexander the Great before the rise of the Mauryas. The attack was made on the North-Western border of the subcontinent by the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius in 186 BCE despite the Greeks and Mauryas having diplomatic alliances for a very long period. Also, there have been mentions in the inscriptions about Brihadratha being the son-in-law of Demetrius.
The reason behind the Greco-Bactrian invasion can be derived as – first was their ambition to protect the Greek population in the region, while second was that they might have been pushed out of their land by Scythians, who settled in Bactria after their long migration from China. Therefore, they established their rule around the Kabul valley and the region around Punjab.
The Yuga Purana mentions the Yavana (Indo-Greek) invasion of Patliputra around the same period.
The overthrow of Mauryan rule
Pushyamitra Shunga was the commander-in-chief of the Mauryan Empire during Brihadratha’s reign. In 185 BCE, Pushyamitra assassinated Brihadratha, took over the throne, and established the Shunga Empire. Hence, the great Mauryan Empire collapsed in 185 BCE with the death of Brihadratha.
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