Middle kingdoms of India refers to the political entities in India from the 2nd century BCE marked by the waves of invasions of various central asian people and the spread of Buddhism through to the Islamic conquest of the Indian subcontinent.

North-Western Invasions

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In the wake of the disintegration of the Mauryan Empire during the 2nd century BCE, South Asia became a collage of regional powers with overlapping boundaries. The Indus Valley and gangetic plains attracted a series of invaders between 200 BCE and CE 300. The puranas speak of many of these tribes as foreigners and impure barbarians and first the Satavahanas and later the Gupta Empire, successor states to the Mauryan Empire attempt to contain their expansion before eventually crumbling to pressure exerted by them.

The invading tribes are influenced by and adopt Buddhism which countinues to flourish under the patronage of both the invaders and the Satavahanas and Guptas and provides a cultural bridge between the two cultures. Overtime the invaders became "Indianized" as they heavily influence society and philosophy across the gangetic plains and are conversely influenced by it. This period is marked by both intellectual and artistic achievements inspired by cultural diffusion and syncretism as the new kingdoms straddle the Silk route.

The Indo-Greek Yavanas

Main article:Indo-Greek Kingdom, Yavanas
From 180 BCE, the Indo-Greeks, from neighbouring Bactria, set up the Indo-Greek Kingdom and were known to the Indic cultures as Yavanas. They contributed to the development of visual arts, religion and numismatics.

The Indo-Scythian Sakas

Main:Indo-Scythians, Sakas

The Sakas (or Indo-Scythians), came from the steppes of Central Asia to the Indus river.

The Indo-Parthian Pahlavas

Main:Indo-Parthian Kingdom, Pahlava

With the rise of the Parthians, the Indus valley was once again brought under the influence of the Persia as they conquered the Indo-Scythians. The Indo-Parthian Kingdomwas founded by Gondophares around 20CE when he declared his Independence from the Parthians. This Kingdom last only briefly until its conquest by the Kushans in 75 AD.

The Western Kshatrapas

Main:Western Kshatrapas, Sakas

The Western Kshatrapas or Satrapies dynasties retained control under the Parthians and eventually ruled sizeable regions on their own competing with the Kushans and Satavahana.

The Kushanas

Main:Kushan Empire

The Yuezhi were yet another nomadic people forced from their homes in the Inner Asian steppes of Mongolia, slowly took over the Scythian lands and founded their own kingdom based from Afghanistan before considerably expanding into the gangetic plains. The Kushan Empire was the crucible of trade among the Indians, Persians, Chinese, and Roman and controlled a critical part of the legendary Silk Road. Kanishka, who reigned for two decades starting around 78 CE, was the most noteworthy Kushan ruler. He converted to Buddhism and convened a great Buddhist council in Kashmir. The Kushanas were patrons of Gandharan art, a synthesis between Greek and Indian styles, as well as Sanskrit literature. They initiated a new era called Shaka in 78 CE, and their calendar was formally recognized by India for civil purposes starting on March 22, 1957.

They lost considerable amount of lands in central asia in conflict with the Sassanid Empire who set up the Kushanshahs, and then in the gangetic plain to the rising Gupta Empire. The remnant was then usurped by a vassal establishing the Kidarite Kingdom.

The Indo-Sassanian Kushanshahs

Main:Indo-Sassanian

The rise of a new Persian dynasty, the Sassanids saw them re-exert their influence into the Indus region and conquer lands from the Kushans setting up the Kushanshahs around 240 AD. They were to maintain their influence in the region until they were overthrown by the rising Caliphate. They lost control of the region briefly during the White Hun invasion before recapturing it.

The Kidarite Kingdom

Main:Kidarite Kingdom

The Kidarite Kingdom was established by Kidara who considered himself a Kushan replacing the old dynasty. Thereby the Kushan standard continued to fly and resist both the Gupta Empire and the Sassanid Empire until the White Hun invasion.

The Hephthalite Huna

Main:Hephthalite, White Hun, Huna
The Hephthalite were another Central Asian nomadic tribe to invade. They are also linked to the Yuezhi who founded the Kushan Empire. From their capital in Bamiyan, Afghanistan they extended their rule across the Indus and Northern India thereby pressuring the collapse of the Gupta Empire. They were eventually defeated by the Sassanid Empire in alliance with other Turkic tribes.

The Gandharan Kambojas

Main:Gandhara, Kamboja, Kambojas, Shahi

After the collapse of the Sassanid Empire to the Caliphate the Gandharan Satrapy became an independent Kingdom based from Afghanistan and vied with the Tang dynasty, Tibet, the Caliphate and other Turkic tribes for domination in the region.

Gandhara was ruled by the Turk-Shahi dynasty for two centuries until 843 when the dynasty changed to the Hindu-Shahis, who ruled form almost another two centuries before being conquered by the Ghaznavid Empire.

The Gangetic Plains and The Deccan

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Following the demise of the Mauryan Empires the Satavahanas rose as the successor state to check and contend with the influx of the Central Asian tribes from the Northwest. The Satavahanas straddling the Deccan plateau also provided a link for transmission of Buddhism and contact between the Northern Gangetic plains and the Southern regions even as the Upanishads were gaining ground. Eventually weakened both by contention with the northwestern invaders and internal strife they broke up and gave rise to many smalled nations around Deccan and central India regions even as the Gupta Empire arose in the gangetic plains and ushered in a "Golden Age" and rebirth of Empire as decentralized local administrative model and the spread of Indian culture until collapse under the Huna invasions. After the fall of Gupta Empire the gangetic region broke up into smaller states temporarily reunited under Harsha then giving rise to the Rajput dynasties.

In the Deccan, the Chalukyas arose forming a formidable nation marking the migration of the centers of cultural and military power long held in the gangetic plains to the new nations forming in the southern regions of India.

The Satavahana or Andhradesa

Main:Satavahana
The Sātavāhanas also known as Andhradesa started out as feudatories to the Mauryan Empire but declared independence soon after the death of Ashoka (232 BCE). They were the first Indic rulers to issue coins struck with their rulers embossed and are known for their patronage of Buddhism resulting in buddhist monuments from Ellora to Amaravati. They formed a cultural bridge and played a vital role in trade and the transfer of ideas and culture to and from the gangetic plains to the southern tip of India.

The Satavahanas had to compete with the Sunga and the Kanva dynasty of the Mauryan Empire to establish first their independence then to expand their rule. Later they had to contend in protecting their domain from the incursions of Sakas (Western Kshatrapas), Yavanas (Indo-Greeks) and Pahlavas (Indo-Parthians). In particular their struggles with the Western Kshatrapas weakened them and the kingdom split into smaller states.

The Gupta Empire

Main:Gupta Empire
The Classical Age refers to the period when most of North India was reunited after the Mauryans under the Gupta Empire (ca. 320CE–550). This period is called the "Golden Age" and was marked by extensive cultural achievements that crystallized the elements of what is generally known as hindu culture. These classical patterns began to spread south only much later after the end of the empire. The high points of this cultural creativity are magnificent and creative architecture, sculpture, and painting. The poet Kalidasa was the greatest write of the time. Strong trade ties also made the region an important cultural center and set the region up as a base that would influence nearby kingdoms and regions in Bengal, Burma, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.

The Gupta period marked a watershed of Indian culture: the Guptas performed Vedic sacrifices to legitimize their rule, but they also patronized Buddhism, which continued to provide an alternative to Brahmanical orthodoxy. The military exploits of the first three rulers—Chandragupta I (ca. 319–335), Samudragupta (ca. 335–376), and Chandragupta II (ca. 376–415)—brought all of North India under their leadership from capital at Pataliputra. They successfully resisted the North-Western Kingdoms until the arrival of the Hunas.

The Vakatakas

Main:Vakataka

Contemporaries of the Gupta Empire and the successor state of the Satavahanas they formed the southern boundaries of the north and ruled over today's modern day states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra during the 3rd and 5th centuries. They were eventually overrun by the Chalukyas.

Harshavaradana

Main:Harsha

After the collapse of the Gupta Empire, the gangetic plains fractured into numerous small nations. Harsha of Kannauj was able to briefly bind them together under his rulership. Only a defeat at the hands of the Chalukyas prevented him from expanding his reign south of the Narmada river. This unity did last beyond his reign and his empire fractured soon after him.

The Vishnukundinas

Main:Vishnukundina

The Vishnukundina ruled over the Eastern Deccan and the state of Kalinga in today's Orissa during the 5th and 6th centuries carving land out from the Vakataka realm until being absorbed themselves by the Chalukyas.

The Chalukyas

Main:Chalukya

The Chalukyas began to exert their independence during the time of the Satavahanas. Their kingdom extended between thePallavas in the south and upto Narmada River in the north and incorporated the realm of Vishnukundina in the west.

The rise of the Rashtrakutas brought about their decline and the rise of the Chola dynasty of the south led to a ongoing contention over Vengi.

The Rajputs

Main:Rajput

The Rajput were a Hindu clan who rose to power across a region stretching from the gangaetic plains to the Afghan mountains, and refer to the various dynasties of the many kingdoms in the region in the wake of the collapse of the Sassanid Empire and Gupta Empire and marks the transition of Buddhist ruling dynasties to Hindu ruling dynasties.

The Pratihara-Gurjars

Main:Pratihara

A Rajput that clan ruled the Gurjar region of Rajasthan and Kannauj.

The Solankis

Main:Solanki

A Rajput that clan ruled the Gujrat region.

The Paramaras

Main:Paramara

A Rajput that clan ruled the Malwa region.

The Chauhans

Main:Chauhan

A Rajput that clan ruled the Rajasthan region.

The Pala Empire

Main:Pala Empire

The Pala Empire were a Buddhist dynasty ruled over land in today's West Bengal and played an important part in the spread of Buddhism to Tibet, Bhutan and Myanmar. They word Pala means protector and under their patronage a resurgence was seen in Buddhism. They eventually gave way to Sena dynasty

The Sena Dynasty

Main:Sena dynasty

The Hindu Sena dynasty replaced the Pala dynasty and its founder was part of the Pala Empire before he seized power when the empire weakened.

The South

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In the first half of the millennium the South saw various smalled kingdoms rise and fall mostly independent to the turmoil in the gangetic plains and the spread of the Buddhism and Jainism to the southern tip of India. During the second half of the millennium after the fall of the Gupta Empire we see a gradual shift of the balance of power both military and cultural from the northern states to rise of large southern kingdoms.

In fact, from the mid-seventh to the mid-thirteenth centuries, regionalism was the dominant theme of political or dynastic history of South Asia. Three features, as political scientist Radha Champakalakshmi has noted, commonly characterize the sociopolitical realities of this period.

• First, the spread of Brahmanical religions was a two-way process of Sanskritization of local cults and localization of Brahmanical social order.
• Second was the ascendancy of the Brahman priestly and landowning groups that later dominated regional institutions and political developments.
• Third, because of the seesawing of numerous dynasties that had a remarkable ability to survive perennial military attacks, regional kingdoms faced frequent defeats but seldom total annihilation.

Peninsular India was involved in an eighth-century tripartite power struggle among the Chalukyas (556–757), the Pallavas (300–888) of Kanchipuram, and the Pandyas. The Chalukya rulers were overthrown by their subordinates, the Rashtrakutas (753-973). Although both the Pallava and Pandya kingdoms were enemies, the real struggle for political domination was between the Pallava and Chalukya realms.

The emergence of the Rashtrakutas heralded a new era in the history of South India. The idiom of a Pan-Indian empire had moved to south. South Indian kingdoms had hitherto ruled areas only upto and south of the Narmada River. It was the Rashtrakutas who first forged north to the Gangetic plains and successfully contested their might aginst the Palas of Bengal and the Rajput Prathiharas of Gujarat.

Despite interregional conflicts, local autonomy was preserved to a far greater degree in the south where it had prevailed for centuries. The absence of a highly centralized government was associated with a corresponding local autonomy in the administration of villages and districts. Extensive and well-documented overland and maritime trade flourished with the Arabs on the west coast and with Southeast Asia. Trade facilitated cultural diffusion in Southeast Asia, where local elites selectively but willingly adopted Indian art, architecture, literature, and social customs.

The interdynastic rivalry and seasonal raids into each other's territory notwithstanding, the rulers in the Deccan and South India patronized all three religions—Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. The religions vied with each other for royal favor, expressed in land grants but more importantly in the creation of monumental temples, which remain architectural wonders. The cave temples of Elephanta Island (near Mumbai or Bombay, as it was known formerly), Ajanta, and Ellora (in Maharashtra), and structural temples of Pattadakal, Aihole, Badami in Karnataka and Mahaballipuram and Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu are enduring legacies of otherwise warring regional rulers.

By the mid-seventh century, Buddhism and Jainism began to decline as sectarian Hindu devotional cults of Shiva and Vishnu vigorously competed for popular support.

Although Sanskrit was the language of learning and theology in South India, as it was in the north, the growth of the bhakti (devotional) movements enhanced the crystallization of vernacular literature in all four major Dravidian languages: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada; they often borrowed themes and vocabulary from Sanskrit but preserved much local cultural lore. Examples of Tamil literature include two major poems, Cilappatikaram (The Jewelled Anklet) and Manimekalai (The Jewelled Belt); the body of devotional literature of Shaivism and Vaishnavism—Hindu devotional movements; and the reworking of the Ramayana by Kamban in the twelfth century. A nationwide cultural synthesis had taken place with a minimum of common characteristics in the various regions of South Asia, but the process of cultural infusion and assimilation would continue to shape and influence India's history through the centuries.

The Sangam Era Kingdoms

Main Article: Sangam, Chera, Early Cholas, Pandya

Farther south were three ancient Tamil kingdoms—Chera (on the west), Chola (on the east), and Pandya (in the south)&mdash. They were involved in internecine warfare seeking regional supremacy. They are mentioned in Greek and Ashokan sources as important Indian kingdoms beyond the Mauryan Empire. A corpus of ancient Tamil literature, known as Sangam (academy) works, provides much useful information about life in these kingdoms in the era 300 BCE to 200 CE. There is clear evidence of encroachment by Aryan traditions from the north into a predominantly indigenous Dravidian culture in transition.

Dravidian social order was based on different ecoregions rather than on the Aryan varna paradigm, although the Brahmans had a high status at a very early stage. Segments of society were characterized by matriarchy and matrilineal succession—which survived well into the nineteenth century—cross-cousin marriage, and strong regional identity. Tribal chieftains emerged as "kings" just as people moved from pastoralism toward agriculture sustained by irrigation based on rivers by small-scale tanks (as man-made ponds are called in India) and wells, as well as maritime trade with Rome and Southeast Asia.

Discoveries of Roman gold coins in various sites attest to extensive South Indian links with the outside world. As with Patliputra in the northeast and Taxila in the northwest (in modern Pakistan), the city of Madurai, the capital of the Pandyan Kingdom (in modern Tamil Nadu), was the center of intellectual and literary activity. Poets and bards assembled there under royal patronage at successive concourses to composed anthologies of poems and expositions on Tamil grammar. By the end of the first century BCE, South Asia was crisscrossed by overland trade routes, which facilitated the movements of Buddhist and Jain missionaries and other travelers and opened the area to a synthesis of many cultures.

The Kalabhras

Main Article: Kalabhras

Little is of their origins or the time during which they ruled is known beyond that they ruled over the entirety of the southern tip of India during the 3rd to the 6th century, overcoming the Sangam era kingdoms. The appear to be patrons of Jainism and Buddhism as the only source of information on them is the scattered mentions in the manyBuddhist and Jain literature of the time. They were contemporaries of the Kadambas and the Western Ganga Dynasty. They were overcome by the rise of the Pallavas and the resurgence of the Pandyan Kingdom.

The Kadambas

Main Article: Kadambas

The Kadambas were an ancient royal dynasty of Karnataka, who ruled from their capital at Banavasi in present day Uttara Kannada district. Their sovereignty lasted between (345-525AD) after which they continued to rule as feudatories of the Chalukyas and the Rashtrakuta for over 500 years. They were contemporaries of the Western Ganga Dynasty and the Kalabhras.

The Western Ganga Dynasty

Main Article: Western Ganga Dynasty

The Western Ganga Dynasty of Talkad ruled a large part of ancient Karnataka alongside the Kadambas in India, during 350-550 CE. They continued to rule until the 10th century as feudatories of the Rashtrakutas and Chalukyas.

The Pandyan Kingdom

The Pallavas

The Rashtrakuta

The Chola Empire

References

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• - India, Pakistan

History of medieval India | Iron Age | History of Pakistan