BHARAT NU BHUGOL IMP FOR ALL
The
early history of Gujarat reflects the imperial grandeur of Chandragupta
Maurya who conquered a number of earlier states in what is now Gujarat.
Pushyagupta, a Vaishya, was appointed governor of Saurashtra by the
Mauryan regime. He ruled Giringer (modern day Junagadh) (322 BC to 294
BC) and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Emperor Ashoka, the grandson
of Chandragupta Maurya, not only ordered engraving of his edicts on the
rock at Junagadh, but asked Governor Tusherpha to cut canals from the
lake where an earlier Mauryan governor had built a dam. Between the
decline of Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of the
Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain, there was a Indo-Greek incursion into
Gujarat led by Demetrius. In the first half of the 1st century AD there
is the story of a merchant of King Gondaphares landing in Gujarat with
Apostle Thomas. The incident of the cup-bearer killed by a lion might
indicate that the port city described is in Gujarat.
For
nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century AD, Saka rulers
played a prominent part in Gujarat's history. The weather-beaten rock at
Junagadh gives a glimpse of the ruler Rudradaman I (100 AD) of the Saka
satraps known as Western Satraps, or Kshatraps. Mahakshatrap Rudradaman
I founded the Kardamaka dynasty which ruled from Anupa on the banks of
the Narmada up to the Aparanta region which bordered Punjab. In Gujarat
several battles were fought between the south Indian Satavahana dynasty
and the Western Satraps. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty
was Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Western Satraps and
conquered some parts of Gujarat in the 2nd century CE.