Mauryan Empire

Before the Mauryas, India was a patchwork of kingdoms and republics. Magadha had already swallowed its rivals one by one, but it was Chandragupta Maurya who turned Magadha into the first empire that covered almost the whole subcontinent. Remember the reason behind the rise: Magadha had iron, rich Ganga plains, elephants and a strong army, and when Alexander's invasion (326 BC) left the north-west shaken and leaderless, a clever young man and a brilliant teacher saw the gap.

How do we know all this? Mauryan history is one of the best-documented periods of early India because we have every kind of source together: a book of statecraft, a foreigner's eyewitness account, a historical play, Buddhist and Jain chronicles, and Ashoka's own words carved in stone.

Chandragupta Maurya (c. 321-297 BC), guided by Chanakya, first removed the unpopular Nanda king Dhanananda, then turned to the north-west, where Alexander's satraps had been left. He drove them out and joined the Indus region to Magadha. The caste origin of Chandragupta is debated: Buddhist texts call him a member of the Moriya clan, a kshatriya clan of Pippalivana, while Brahmanical tradition links the name to a woman named Mura.

Around 305 BC Chandragupta faced Seleucus I Nicator, Alexander's general who ruled the eastern part of Alexander's empire and wanted the Indian lands back. The war ended with a treaty. Seleucus gave up Arachosia (Kandahar), Gedrosia (Baluchistan), Paropamisadae (Kabul) and part of Aria (Herat), and Chandragupta gave him 500 elephants. A marriage alliance is also reported. Seleucus sent Megasthenes as his ambassador to Pataliputra. Those 500 elephants later helped Seleucus win the Battle of Ipsus (301 BC).

Think of the Seleucus treaty as the first big diplomatic win of Indian history: a Greek ruler, successor of the world-conqueror Alexander, gave up territory up to the Hindukush and sent an ambassador to Pataliputra. That is why the Mauryan frontier in the north-west was the Hindukush mountains, a natural frontier.

Jain tradition says that in old age Chandragupta gave up the throne, became a Jain monk under Bhadrabahu, and went to Shravanabelagola (Karnataka), where he fasted to death in the Jain way (sallekhana). Bindusara, his son (c. 297-273 BC), was called Amitraghata ('slayer of enemies', the Greek 'Amitrochates'). He is said to have extended the empire in the Deccan down to about Mysore, and he was a follower of the Ajivika sect. Greek sources say he exchanged envoys with Antiochus I of Syria (Deimachus) and asked him for sweet wine, dried figs and a sophist; the king sent the first two and politely refused the third.

Ashoka (c. 268-232 BC) is the one Indian king whose own voice we can still hear. He did not leave a boastful list of victories; he left sermons on rocks. As a prince he governed Taxila and Ujjain, and after Bindusara's death there was a struggle for the throne of about four years, which is why his formal coronation is dated to about 268 BC. In his inscriptions he calls himself Devanampiya Piyadasi ('Beloved of the Gods, of pleasing appearance'); the name Ashoka appears only in a few Minor Rock Edicts (Maski, Gujarra, Nittur and Udegolam).

How was 'Piyadasi' proved to be Ashoka? James Prinsep read the Brahmi script in 1837 and found the name Devanampiya Piyadasi; the Sri Lankan chronicles (Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa) described a Mauryan king Ashoka with that title, and the Maski edict (found by C. Beadon in 1915) finally used the personal name 'Ashoka' together with Devanampiya.

The turning point was the Kalinga War in the eighth year after his coronation (261 BC). Kalinga (coastal Odisha, capital Tosali) controlled the sea route to the south and east and had stayed independent. In Rock Edict XIII Ashoka himself says that about one lakh people were killed, one and a half lakh were deported, and many more died. The sight of this suffering filled him with remorse (anutapa). Note the beautiful line of the edict: he says that even the loss of a hundredth or thousandth part of those people would now be a matter of great sorrow to him.

Dhamma (Sanskrit Dharma) in Ashoka's edicts is not a new religion and not simply Buddhism. It is a code of moral and social conduct meant for all sects. Ashoka's own Buddhism is clear from the Bhabru (Bairat) edict, where he expresses faith in Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, and from his visit to Bodh Gaya (Sambodhi) and Lumbini. But the Dhamma of the edicts is wider: obedience to parents and elders, respect for teachers, generosity to Brahmanas and Shramanas, kind treatment of servants and slaves, non-injury to living beings, truthfulness, and tolerance of all sects (Rock Edict XII).

Ashoka's Dhamma is a public code of conduct that the king wanted every sect to follow so that a huge, diverse empire could live in peace. A Buddhist monk would have spoken about nirvana and the Four Noble Truths; Ashoka's edicts never mention them. That is the proof that Dhamma and Buddhism are not the same thing.

Ashoka also spread Buddhism beyond India. His son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra went to Sri Lanka (king Devanampiya Tissa), where Sanghamitra took a branch of the Bodhi tree; Buddhism travelled to the Himalayan region, Suvarnabhumi (Southeast Asia), and the Greek kingdoms of the west. The Third Buddhist Council was held at Pataliputra (c. 250 BC) under the presidentship of Moggaliputta Tissa. Rock Edict XIII also records Dhamma conquests in the lands of the Greek kings Antiochus II (Antiyoka), Ptolemy II (Turamaya), Antigonus Gonatas (Antikini), Magas of Cyrene (Maka) and Alexander of Epirus (Alikasundara), and names the southern neighbours: the Cholas, Pandyas, Satiyaputras, Keralaputras and Tamraparni (Sri Lanka).

Ashoka's edicts are the oldest deciphered royal inscriptions of India and the best proof that he really existed. He chose rocks, polished pillars and cave walls, in the places where people travelled or gathered: trade routes, pilgrim centres and provincial capitals. The messages are in simple Prakrit, so that ordinary people could understand them, while the script changed with the region.

The Mauryan state was the first highly centralised bureaucratic state of India. The king stood at the top and decided all major matters, but he ruled through ministers, trained officials, spies and a huge standing army. Two sources let us look inside: Kautilya's Arthashastra, which tells us how a state should be run, and Megasthenes' Indica, which tells us what a foreigner saw. Ashoka's edicts add the names of real officers.

The Arthashastra is a Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, economy and law. It has 15 adhikaranas (books), about 180 prakaranas (sections) and about 6,000 shlokas. It was found by R. Shamasastry in 1905 in Mysore and published in 1909. Historians agree that it carries Kautilya's Mauryan-age ideas, although the text in the form we have may have been edited by later hands. Kautilya's central idea of the state is the Saptanga (seven limbs).

Kautilya also gives two foreign-policy ideas. The Mandala theory: your immediate neighbour is a natural enemy, and the neighbour's neighbour is a natural friend. The Shadgunya (six-fold policy): sandhi (peace), vigraha (war), asana (neutrality), yana (march), samshraya (seeking shelter) and dvaidhibhava (double policy: peace with one, war with another). A king who wants to conquer is called vijigishu.

Megasthenes says that the city of Pataliputra (Palibothra), at the meeting of the Ganga and the Son, was administered by six committees of five members each (30 members): (1) industrial arts, (2) care of foreigners, (3) registration of births and deaths, (4) trade and commerce, (5) supervision of manufactured goods, (6) collection of the sales tax (one-tenth). Military affairs were run by another six boards of five members: navy, transport and supplies, infantry, cavalry, chariots, elephants. Both counts are 6 x 5 = 30.

The Mauryan spy system was vast. The Arthashastra speaks of Gudhapurushas (secret agents) of two kinds: Sansthan (stationary, living in one place as monks, merchants, students) and Sanchari (wandering). Spies watched ministers, officials and even the royal family. In the judicial system there were two kinds of courts: Dharmasthiya (civil) and Kantakashodhana ('removal of thorns', criminal courts). Punishments were harsh in the Arthashastra, although Ashoka's Pillar Edict IV gave the condemned a three-day respite and made Rajukas independent in rewarding and punishing.

Why could the Mauryas afford a huge army and bureaucracy? Because they controlled the economy more closely than any earlier state. Agriculture in the rich Ganga plains was the base; the state owned crown lands, opened new villages with settlers, built irrigation works, owned mines and forests, and ran trade through officers. Iron tools, especially the ploughshare, had raised yields, and the characteristic pottery of the age was the shiny Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW).

Trade rode on two great roads: the Uttarapatha (from Taxila through the north to Pataliputra and on to Tamralipti on the Bay of Bengal) and the Dakshinapatha (from Pataliputra south through Ujjain and Pratishthana towards the southern peninsula). Important ports were Tamralipti in the east and Bharukachchha (Broach) and Sopara in the west. Guilds (shrenis) of craftsmen and merchants were strong, and the state took toll at checkpoints.

The standard Mauryan coin was the silver punch-marked coin (called pana or karshapana), stamped with symbols such as the sun, the six-armed wheel, hills, the crescent-on-arch and the peacock. Copper coins were used for small change. The Lakshanadhyaksha (mint master) supervised minting, and the Rupadarshaka tested coins. Gold coins were not a regular Mauryan currency.

The state kept monopolies over mines (Akaradhyaksha), salt, liquor (Suradhyaksha), weaving (Sutradhyaksha), shipbuilding, and forests. Superintendents (adhyakshas) ran these departments. In a famine, grain was distributed from state stores, as shown by the Mauryan Brahmi records of Sohgaura (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, a copper plate) and Mahasthan (Bogra, Bangladesh).

Society. Megasthenes listed seven classes (philosophers, farmers, herdsmen, artisans, soldiers, overseers, councillors), while Indian texts speak of the four varnas and many mixed castes. The Arthashastra regulates slaves (dasas) and bonded labourers (ahitakas) and lays down their rights (for example, a slave could earn and buy freedom). Women had limited public roles, but spies, guards and ganikas (courtesans, supervised by the Ganikadhyaksha) included women, and Ashoka appointed Stri-adhyaksha-mahamatras (Rock Edict XII). Taxila was the great centre of learning; Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism and the Ajivika sect all flourished.

A foreign traveller sees only part of a society and may misread it. Megasthenes was a Greek who did not know the language well, so historians use the Indica together with the Arthashastra and the inscriptions. This 'cross-check the sources' idea is something examiners like to test through statement-based questions.

Mauryan art has two streams. Court art was ordered by the state and made by skilled royal craftsmen: palaces, pillars, rock-cut caves and stupas. Popular art came from the people: Yaksha and Yakshi figures, terracotta toys and pottery. Remember the big change: before the Mauryas, Indian buildings were mostly of wood, bamboo and brick; with Ashoka, stone became a serious building material, and stone was given a mirror-like finish called Mauryan polish.

The best-known Mauryan monument is the Ashokan pillar: a tall, smooth, tapering shaft cut from a single piece of Chunar sandstone (a monolith), quarried at Chunar near Varanasi and dragged to distant sites. The shaft stands free, with no base, and carries an animal capital. The best capital comes from Sarnath: four lions seated back to back on a circular abacus decorated with a Dharmachakra (24-spoked wheel) and four animals (elephant, bull, horse, lion) separated by wheels, resting on an inverted lotus. The abacus and lions were cut from one block.

The Sarnath lion capital was adopted as the National Emblem of India on 26 January 1950. In the emblem only three lions are visible (the fourth is hidden), the wheel is in the centre of the abacus with a bull on the right and a horse on the left, and below it is the motto Satyameva Jayate taken from the Mundaka Upanishad. The 24-spoked wheel is placed in the middle of the National Flag.

Stupas. Ashoka is said to have built or enlarged 84,000 stupas over the Buddha's relics. The original brick stupa at Sanchi (Raisen, Madhya Pradesh) is credited to Ashoka; the stone casing, railings and the famous gateways (toranas) were added later under the Shungas and Satavahanas. Caves. The earliest rock-cut caves are the Barabar caves (Gaya, Bihar), cut in hard granite and given a mirror polish inside. Lomas Rishi has a carved doorway that copies a wooden hut with an arched roof and a frieze of elephants. Palaces. At Kumrahar (Patna) a pillared hall with polished stone pillars has been found, which suggests the palace Megasthenes compared to those of Susa and Ecbatana.

Sculpture. Mauryan stone figures of the Yaksha (male nature spirit) and Yakshi (female) show smooth polish and a massive, rounded body. The Parkham Yaksha (Mathura) and the Didarganj Yakshi (Patna), a chauri-bearer holding a fly-whisk, are the famous examples. The Dhauli elephant, carved out of a rock face in Odisha, is an early Mauryan rock sculpture. Terracotta figurines of mother goddesses, animals and toys, from Pataliputra and Mathura, belong to popular art.

A great empire seldom collapses for one reason. After Ashoka died (c. 232 BC) the Mauryan empire survived for only about fifty years. The successors were weak, the empire was so large that it depended on one strong person in the capital, and the cost of the army and bureaucracy was heavy. The last blow came in about 185 BC, when the army commander killed the king.

The last Mauryan king Brihadratha was killed in about 185 BC by his own commander-in-chief Pushyamitra Shunga while reviewing the army (the account is given in Banabhatta's Harshacharita). Pushyamitra took the throne and founded the Shunga dynasty in Magadha with Pataliputra as capital, and Vidisha as another seat. The Maurya dynasty had lasted about 137 years (321 to 185 BC).