kingdom · South Asia

Kuninda Kingdom

200 BCE – 300 CE (approx.)

A Himalayan kingdom of the upper Sutlej and Yamuna, known from its fine silver coins and mentioned by Ptolemy.

Origins

The Kunindas, or Kulindas, appear in the Mahabharata as a mountain people, and Ptolemy places a land called Kulindrine near the sources of the Beas, Sutlej, Yamuna and Ganges. They emerged as a state in the foothills of modern Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand around the 2nd century BCE, after the fall of the Maurya Empire.

Rule and society

The kingdom is known mainly from coins. The silver coins of King Amoghabhuti, modelled on Indo-Greek drachms, carry legends in both Brahmi and Kharoshthi with a deer and a goddess, possibly Lakshmi. Later copper coins show Shiva as Chatreshvara, lord of the parasol, suggesting a shift to Shaiva worship. The economy probably depended on trade in forest and mountain products with the plains.

Decline and legacy

Kuninda coinage seems to have stopped during the expansion of the Kushan Empire and resumed later. By the 4th century the Kunindas disappear from the record, possibly absorbed by the Yaudheya republic or by the Gupta Empire.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

Connections (1)

More states of South Asia →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Kuninda Kingdom. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kuninda-kingdom
MLA
“Kuninda Kingdom.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kuninda-kingdom. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Kuninda Kingdom.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kuninda-kingdom.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Kuninda Kingdom’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kuninda-kingdom (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻