Which dynasty ruled Magadh (Bihar) after Shishunag dynasty ?

Question

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Correct — C, Nanda Vansh. Magadha's dynastic order is Brihadratha, then Haryanka, then Shishunaga, then NANDA, then Maurya, and this question asks for the fourth link in that chain. The Shishunagas came to power around 413 BCE when Shishunaga, an official of the Haryanka court, displaced the last of Bimbisara's line; their greatest achievement was the destruction of the Pradyota dynasty of Avanti, which removed Magadha's last serious rival in the north, and under Kalashoka the capital returned permanently to Pataliputra. That last point is worth holding as a sequence rather than a single fact: Udayin of the Haryankas founded Pataliputra and moved the capital there, Shishunaga then shifted it to Vaishali, and Kalashoka brought it back for good. Around 345 BCE Mahapadma Nanda overthrew them and founded the Nanda dynasty. The Puranas describe him in extraordinary terms — ekarat, the sole sovereign, and sarva-kshatrantaka, the destroyer of all kshatriyas — and record that he was of low birth, which makes the Nandas the first non-kshatriya imperial dynasty of the Ganga plain. Their army was the largest India had yet seen: Greek accounts of the force facing Alexander's men on the Beas in 326 BCE speak of tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry with thousands of chariots and elephants, and it was the report of that army that persuaded the Macedonians to turn back. The last Nanda, Dhana Nanda, was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya with Chanakya's help around 322 BCE. So the Mauryas are two steps after the Shishunagas, not one — and the Sungas come later still, after the Mauryas ended in 185 BCE.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The right sequence but the wrong step. The Mauryas do follow the Shishunagas eventually, but the Nandas intervene for roughly a quarter of a century between them — Chandragupta Maurya took the throne around 322 BCE by displacing Dhana Nanda, not a Shishunaga king. This is the option that catches a candidate who remembers only the famous dynasties and skips the one in between.  (b) Far out of place. The Sungas were founded around 185 BCE by Pushyamitra Sunga, who assassinated the last Mauryan ruler Brihadratha — they belong to the POST-Mauryan period, more than two centuries after the Shishunagas fell, and are separated from them by both the Nandas and the whole Mauryan empire.  (d) The question asks which dynasty came immediately after the Shishunagas, and only one dynasty can occupy that position — successors are not shared. Apply the standing test for this option: it is correct only when two of the listed items are simultaneously true, and here the Mauryas and the Sungas are each in a different place in the same single chain.

Concept: The dynastic chain of Magadha is the backbone of ancient Indian political history and needs to be held as a sequence with approximate dates and one identifying fact per dynasty. BRIHADRATHA — the epic line of Jarasandha, seated at Girivraja. HARYANKA, from about 544 BCE — Bimbisara who annexed Anga, Ajatashatru who broke Vaishali and patronised the First Buddhist Council, Udayin who moved the capital to Pataliputra. SHISHUNAGA, from about 413 BCE — Shishunaga who destroyed Avanti's Pradyota dynasty, and Kalashoka under whom the Second Buddhist Council met at Vaishali. NANDA, from about 345 BCE — Mahapadma Nanda, low-born, called the destroyer of all kshatriyas, with the vast army that deterred Alexander's troops. MAURYA, from about 322 BCE — Chandragupta, Bindusara and Ashoka, the first pan-Indian empire. Then, after 185 BCE, the post-Mauryan sequence begins: SUNGA under Pushyamitra, KANVA under Vasudeva, and the Satavahanas. Notice the recurring mechanism: in this chain power changes hands by a minister or a commander displacing his king, which is how the Shishunagas, the Nandas, the Mauryas, the Sungas and the Kanvas all began.

State PCS 2024 Q89 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q89 — History PYQ with Answer