";s:4:"text";s:6090:" This work was composed by Kalidasa in the later Gupta period, and romanticised the love of Malavika and King Agnimitra, with a background of court intrigue. Many scholars believe that this is a human error in the text and Brihadratha was confused with Pushyamitra. This is particularly believable because the Asokavadana states that Pushyamitra declared reward for killing Buddhist monks in present day Sialkot which was the stronghold of the Indo-Greek rulers.Few historians are also of the opinion that Pushyamitra’s extreme hatred toward the Buddhists was an exaggeration and fabrication by the Buddhist scholars of the age because he did not extend royal patronage to them.For example, the reward for killing Buddhist monk as announced by Pushyamitra was in a currency form called Dinara which did not come into existence until the next century.Several other inconsistencies have been also noted in the Sri Lankan Buddhist text called Mahavamsa which states that several monasteries existed during the rule of Pushyamitra that had not been demolished.This can mean two things – either they miraculously survived the lashes of Pushyamitra’s hatred or they were never attacked by Pushyamitra.After the fall of the Mauryan empire, the Buddhists lost their massive control they enjoyed at the Mauryan court and were extremely dissatisfied with Pushyamitra’s Brahminical actions and thoughts.As a result of this discontent, they have elaborated vastly exaggerated and fabricated accounts of Pushyamitra being a persecutor of the Buddhists.Agnimitra Shunga, the son of Pushyamitra Shunga succeeded the throne in 148 B.C.E. The Later however, it seems the city of Mathura was retaken from them, if not by the Shungas themselves, then probably by other indigenous rulers such as the Very little can be said with great certainty. Pushyamitra Shunga (185 – c. 149 BCE) was the founder and first ruler of the Shunga Empire in East India. Jha,"Early India: A Concise History"p.150, plate 17"Pushyamitra equipped a fourfold army, and intending to destroy the Buddhist religion, he went to the "For any scholar engaged in the study of the presence of the Indo-Greeks or Indo-Scythians before the Christian Era, the "Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins in the Smithsonian institution", "tatha Yavana Kamboja Mathuram.abhitash cha ye./ ete ashava.yuddha.kushaladasinatyasi charminah. Later, he went so far as to announce a reward of one hundred gold coins for anyone who would behead a Buddhist monk and bring the head to him.It is also recorded in those texts that when, however, he went to the Bodhi tree at Gaya, the deity of that tree took the shape of a beautiful woman and killed him.There are several other texts which corroborate this incident, the principal of which is the Shariputrapariprichha which had been translated into Chinese.There are medieval era texts like the Arya-Manjushri-Mula-Kalpa that describes a wicked King that had a face resembling a bull that annexed territories and killed monks. The existence of Buddhism in Bengal in the Shunga period can also be inferred from a terracotta tablet that was found at "(the gift of Kurangi, the wife of Indragnimitra and the mother of living sons), "to the caitya (cetika) of the noble temple", taking the word raja before pasada as an epithet on ornans, distinguishing the temple as a particularly large and stately building similar to such expressions as rajahastin 'a noble elephant', rajahamsa `a goose (as distinguished from hamsa 'a duck'), etc. Pushyamitra Shunga was the army commander of Brihadratha's army. The highlight of Shunga art was construction of railings and Toranas ( Gateways ), for Sanchi and Vidisa stupas. .The majority of the reign of Pushyamitra has been focused in the persecution of Buddhists as many historians theorize from the written accounts we have till date. Pushyamitra Sunga was the founder king of Sunga dynasty in North India. It is also noted for its subsequent mention in the Malavikaagnimitra. Pushyamitra tried destroying the stupas which Asoka had erected.He also tried destroying the Kukkutarana monastery but it was saved miraculously. Even Pushyamitra ministers advised him that Asoka’s popularity would out shadow his if he doesn’t uproot the entire religion. The third and most famous commentary on compilation of grammatical rules of Sanskrit language which was written by an ancient acharya named Panini, was done by an acharya known as Patanjali during Shunga's rule. Achievements of Pushyamitra shunga:-. 2nd–1st century BCE. He was a follower of Brahmanism. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. Singh, based upon this above fact put forward the theory that a Shunga person had two gotras, with their families belonging both to the lineage of Bharadvaja and Vishvamitra. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra Shunga, after the fall of the Maurya Empire. He was extremely unhappy with the way
