Kshatrapas

The title given to local governors who administered territories in several parts of north-western, northern, western and central India during the first centuries of the common era. They were administrative feudatories — first of the Indo-Scythian rulers (first century BCE to first century CE) and, later, the Kushan dynasty (first century CE to third century CE) — who enjoyed considerable autonomy over their territories and are documented in several inscriptions and coins from the period. One such dynasty of rulers gained control in parts of northwestern, western and central India from the second to the fourth centuries CE and is known as the Western Kshatrapa dynasty.