The Maurya Age

The Maurya dynasty was founded by Chandragupta Maurya. According to the brahmanical tradition, he was born of Mura, a shudra woman in the court of the Nandas.

An earlier Buddhist tradition speaks of the Mauryas as the ruling clan of the little republic of Pipphalivana in the region of Gorakhpur near the Nepalese terai.

Chanakya, also known as Kautilya, helped overthrow the Nandas and establish the rule of the Maurya dynasty. These fragments have been collected and published in the form of a book entitled Indika, which throws valuable light on the administration, society, and economy of Maurya times.

The machinations of Chanakya against Chandragupta’s enemies are described in detail in the Mudrarakshasa, a play written by Vishakhadatta in the ninth century.

Chandragupta liberated north-western India from the thraldom of Seleucus, who ruled over the area west of the Indus.

In the war with the Greek viceroy, Chandragupta seems to have emerged victorious. Chandragupta thus built up a vast empire which included not only Bihar and substantial parts of Orissa and Bengal but also western and north-western India, and the Deccan.

Aside from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and parts of north-eastern India, the Mauryas ruled over virtually the entire subcontinent. The Mauryas also conquered the republics or samghas which Kautilya considered obstacles to the growth of the empire.

Imperial Organization

Seleucus sent Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador, to the court of Chandragupta Maurya. He lived in the Maurya capital of Pataliputra and wrote an account not only of the administration of the city of Pataliputra but also of the Maurya empire as a whole.

Megasthenes’s account can be supplemented by the Arthashastra of Kautilya.

The empire was divided into a number of provinces, and each of these was placed under a prince who was a scion of the royal dynasty. The provinces were divided into still smaller units, and arrangements were made for both rural and urban administration. Pataliputra, Kaushambi, Ujjain, and Taxila were the most important cities. Megasthenes states that numerous cities existed in India, but he considered Pataliputra to be the most important. He calls it Palibothra.

This Greek term means a city with gates. According to him, Pataliputra was bounded by a deep ditch and a wooden wall crowned with 570 towers, and had 64 gates. The ditch, timber palisades, and also wooden houses have been found in excavations. According to Megasthenes, Pataliputra was 9.33 miles long and 1.75 miles broad.

The Greek ambassador also refers to the administration of Pataliputra, the capital of the Mauryas. The city was administered by six committees, each of which consisted of five members. These committees were entrusted with sanitation, care of foreigners, registration of birth and death,regulation of weights and measures, and similar other functions.

According to Kautilya, the central government maintained about two dozen departments of state,which controlled social and economic activities at least in the areas that were in proximity to the capital. The most striking feature of Chandragupta’s administration was its maintenance of a huge army.

A Roman writer called Pliny states that Chandragupta maintained 600,000 foot soldiers, 30,000 cavalrymen, and 9000 elephants. Another source tells us that the Mauryas maintained 8000 chariots.

In addition to these, it appears that the Mauryas also maintained a navy. The administration of the armed forces, according to Megasthenes, was carried on by a board of thirty officers divided into six committees, each committee consisting of five members.

It seems that each of the six wings of the armed forces, the army, the cavalry, the elephants, the chariots, the navy, and the transport, was assigned to the care of a separate committee.

It appears that taxes collected from the peasants varied from one-fourth to one-sixth of the produce.

Those who were provided with irrigation facilities by the state had to pay for it. In addition, in times of emergency, peasants were compelled to raise more crops.

Tolls were also levied on commodities brought to town for sale, and they were collected at the gate. Moreover, the state enjoyed a monopoly in mining, sale of liquor, manufacture of arms, etc.

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Ashoka (273–232 BC)

Chandragupta Maurya was succeeded by Bindusara, whose reign is important for its continuing links with the Greek princes.

His son, Ashoka, is the greatest of the Maurya rulers. According to Buddhist tradition, he was so cruel in his early life that he killed his ninety-nine brothers to win the throne.

Mauryan empire 297-250BC kingdom of Magadha empire at death of Chandragupta Maurya 297 BC expansion under Ashoka

Ashokan Inscriptions

The history of Ashoka is reconstructed on the basis of his inscriptions, thirty nine, in number, that are classified into Major Rock Edicts, Minor Rock Edicts, Separate Rock Edicts, Major Pillar Edicts, and Minor Pillar Edicts.

The name Ashoka occurs in copies of Minor Rock Edict I found at three places in Karnataka and at one in MP. Thus, altogether, the name Ashoka occurs four times. It is significant that Ashoka’s name does not occur in any of his inscriptions from north or north-west India.

The inscriptions which do not carry his name mention only devanampiya piyadasi, dear to the gods, and leave out the name Ashoka.

The title devanampiya or ‘dear to gods’ adopted by Ashoka. Ashokan inscriptions have been found in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Altogether, they appear at forty-seven places, and the total number of versions is 182 including two edicts which are considered spurious.

It is significant that Ashokan inscriptions which were generally located on ancient highways, have been found at six places in Afghanistan Composed in Prakrit, they were written in Brahmi script in the greater part of the subcontinent.

However, in the north-western part of the subcontinent they appeared in Aramaic language and Kharoshthi script, and in Afghanistan they were written in both Aramaic and Greek scripts and languages.

He was the first Indian king to speak directly to the people through his inscriptions which carry royal orders. The inscriptions throw light on Ashoka’s career, his external and domestic polices, and the extent of his empire. Impact of the Kalinga War.

After his accession to the throne, Ashoka fought only one major war called the Kalinga war. According to him, 100,000 people were killed in the course of it, several lakhs died, and 150,000 were taken prisoners.

The war caused great suffering to the brahmana priests and Buddhist monks, and this in turn brought upon Ashoka much grief and remorse. He therefore abandoned the policy of physical occupation in favour of one of cultural conquest. In other words, bherighosha was replaced with dhammaghosha.

The officials appointed by Ashoka were instructed to propagate this idea among all sections of his subjects. The tribal peoples were similarly asked to follow the principles of dhamma (dharma).

He no longer treated foreign dominions as legitimate areas for military conquest. He took steps for the welfare of men and animals in foreign lands, which was a new thing considering the conditions in those times.

He sent ambassadors of peace to the Greek sections of his subjects. The tribal peoples were similarly asked to follow the principles of dhamma (dharma). He sent ambassadors of peace to the Greek kingdoms in West Asia and Greece. All this is based on Ashoka’s inscriptions.

If we rely on the Buddhist tradition, it would appear that he sent missionaries for the propagation of Buddhism to Sri Lanka and Central Asia, and there is inscriptional evidence to support Ashoka’s initiatives to propagate Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

Within the empire, Chandragupta Maurya appointed a class of officers known as the rajukas, who had the authority to reward and punish people when necessary.

Ashoka’s policy to consolidate the empire in this way bore fruit.

The Kandahar inscription speaks of the success of his policy with the hunters and fishermen, who gave up killing animals and possibly took to a settled agricultural life. Internal Policy and Buddhism Ashoka was converted to Buddhism as a result of the Kalinga war. According to tradition, he became a monk, made huge gifts to the Buddhists, and undertook pilgrimages to the Buddhist shrines.

His visits to Buddhist shrines is also suggested by the dhamma yatras mentioned in his inscriptions.

According to tradition, Ashoka convened the third Buddhist council (sangiti) and dispatched missionaries not only to south India but also to Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), and other countries with the aim of converting the people there.

Brahmi inscriptions of the second and first centuries BC have been found in Sri Lanka. Ashoka appointed dhammamahamatras to propagate dharma among various social groups,including women, and appointed rajukas for the administration of justice in his empire. His Kandahar Greek inscription preaches amity between the sects. Ashoka’s inscriptions are called dhammalipi, which cover not only religion and morality but also embrace social and administrative matters.

They can be compared to the Dharmashastras or law-books written in Sanskrit under brahmanical influence.

Although the dhammalipis were written in Prakrit under Buddhist influence, they attempt to regulate the social order similar to the Dharmashastras.

The Ashokan edicts can be also compared to the shasanas or royal edicts issued in Sanskrit by the brahmanized kings. The broad objective was to preserve the social order.

He ordained that people should obey their parents, pay respect to the brahmanas and Buddhist monks, and show mercy to slaves and servants.

Above all, the dhammalipi asks the people to show firm devotion (dridha bhakti) or loyalty to king. These instructions are found in both the Buddhist and brahmanical faiths.

Ashoka taught people to live and let live. Ashoka’s Place in History. He was certainly a great missionary ruler in the history of the ancient world. He enthusiastically worked with great devotion for his mission and achieved a great deal at home and abroad.

Ashoka brought about the political unification of the country. He bound it further by one dharma, one language, and virtually one script called Brahmi which was used in most of his inscriptions. In unifying the country he respected such non-Indian scripts as Kharoshthi, Aramaic, and Greek. Ashoka followed a tolerant religious policy, not attempting to foist his Buddhist faith on his subjects; on the contrary, he made gifts to non-Buddhist and even anti-Buddhist sects. Ashoka was fired with a zeal for missionary activity.

He deputed officials in the far-flung parts of the empire. He helped administration and promoted cultural interaction between the developed Gangetic basin and distant backward provinces. The material culture, characteristic of the heart of the empire, spread to Kalinga, the lower Deccan, and northern Bengal.

Ashoka is important in history for his policy of peace, nonaggression, and cultural conquest. He had no model in early Indian history for the pursuit of such a policy. Ashoka’s policy did not have any lasting impact on his viceroys and vassals, who declared themselves independent in their respective areas after the king retired in 232 BC.