Mauryan Empire: Difference between revisions

Pg.5  : In relation to his predecessors, he was the first Indian king to rule over an empire embracing much of India and its western borderlands, from Afghanistan to Orissa and towards the south as far as Karnataka. In relation to the rulers who followed him, it was his example which influenced thought-philosophical, religious, cultural-in Asia more profoundly than that of any other political figure of antiquity." {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bJ_XCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false|page=5|title=Ashoka in Ancient India|last=Lahiri|first=Nayanjot|date=2015-08-05|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-05777-7|language=en}}</ref>,[[Dougald J. W. O'Reilly]],<ref name="DOUGLE">" {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.nl/books?id=eyHTschgg50C&pg=PA178&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=maurya&f=false|title=Early Civilizations of Southeast Asia|last=O'Reilly|first=Dougald J. W.|date=2007|publisher=Rowman Altamira|page=178|isbn=978-0-7591-0279-8|language=en}}</ref>old archeologist :[[D.R. Bhandarkar]]<ref name="BHANDARKAR">" Pg.42-43 : We thus obtain a fairly accurate idea of the extent of Asoka's dominions. They included the whole of India except the southern extremity of the peninsula held by the Choda, Pandya, Satiya- putra and Keralaputra kings. This southern boundary is marked roughly by a line drawn from Pulicat near Madras in the east, to Gooty and Chitaldrug in the north where the four copies of Aśoka's Minor Rock Edicts have been discovered right up to the northern point of the South Canara District on the west. Let us now see what Greek princes have been mentioned by Aśoka as his contemporaries, and try to identify them. They have all been named in Rock Edict XIII. Of course, Amtiyoka is the first to be named as he was a neighbour of Asoka. Beyond his kingdom, we are told, were ruling the four princes Turamaya, Amtekina or Amtikini, Maga and Alikasumdra. Amtiyoka is, of course, Antiochus II. Theos (B.C. 261-246), king of Syria, and Turamaya, Ptolemy II. Philadelphos of Egypt (285-247). Amtekina or Amtikini, as Bühler has remarked, corresponds to the Greek Antigenes rather than to Antigonus."{{Cite book|page=42-43|url=http://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.35379|title=Asoka|last=Bhandarkar|first=D. R.|publisher=Central Archelogical Library|isbn=978-93-837-2346-1}}</ref>, [[Myra Shackley]]:<ref name="SHACKLEY">" Pg.67 - After Alexanderâs retreat from the Indus the Emperor Chandragupta Maurya established the first indigenous empire to exercise control over much of the subcontinent, and eventually, under his successors, this covered all but the tip of the peninsula. Asoka, the greatest of the Mauryan emperors, took power in 272 BC and extended the empire from Afghanistan to Assam and from the Himalayas to Mysore, leaving behind a series of inscriptions recording his edicts on pillars and rocks across the continent." {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/atlasoftraveltou0000shac|title=Atlas of travel and tourism development|last=Shackley|first=Myra L.|date=2006|publisher=Amsterdam ; Boston : Elsevier|others=Internet Archive|page=67|isbn=978-0-7506-6348-9}}</ref> modern historian : [[Robert W. Strayer]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/waysofworld0000robe|page=121|title=Ways of the World|last=Robert W. Strayer : Eric W. Nelson|date=2016|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-1-319-05448-9}}</ref>,[[Eric Nelson]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/waysofworld0000robe|page=121|title=Ways of the World|last=Robert W. Strayer : Eric W. Nelson|date=2016|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-1-319-05448-9}}</ref>, [[Upinder Singh]]<ref name="UPINDER"> Pg.740 : "Chandragupta and Seleucus Nikator, who had inherited the eastern provinces of Alexander empire. This may have occurred in about 301 BCE and was resolved by an agreement. Chandragupta obtained the territories of Arachosia (the Kandahar area of south-east Afghanistan), Gedrosia (south Baluchistan), and Paropomisadai (the area between Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent) and handed over 500 elephants in return. "

" Pg. 60 : Pliny admits to the loss of Greek territory: "The Indians afterwards held a large part of Ariane [a satrapy of the Persian Empire encompassing what is now eastern Iran, south-western Afghanistan and Baluchistan] which they had received from the Macedonians, entering into marriage relations with him, and giving in return five hundred elephants, of which Sandrakottos had nine thousand." "{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/ashokasearchfori0000alle/page/n1/mode/1up?q=Ashoka+Maurya%E2%80%94or|title=Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor|last=Allen|page=1 ,60 and his created map on pg. 12|first=Charles|date=2012-02-21|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-1-4087-0388-5|language=en}}</ref>, [[Neil MacGregor]]<ref name="GREGOR">" Pg.205 : Chandragupta, who had risen to the throne following a military campaign that created a huge empire reaching from Kandahar in modern Afghanistan in the west to Bangladesh in the east. This included the great majority of modern India, and was the largest empire in Indian history. In 268 BC Ashoka took his place on the throne but not without considerable struggle. Buddhist writings tell us that in order to do so he killed ‘ninety-nine of his brothers’ presumably metaphorical as well as actual brothers. The same writings create a legend of Ashoka’s pre-Buddhist days as filled with self-indulgent frivolity and cruelty. When he became emperor he set out to complete the occupation of the whole subcontinent and attacked the independent state of Kalinga modern-day Orissa on the east coast. " {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofworldin0000macg/page/205/mode/2up|title=A history of the world in 100 objects|last=MacGregor|first=Neil|date=2011|page=205|publisher=New York : Viking|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-670-02270-0}}</ref> old historians:[[Mark F. Whitters]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/e

ncyclopedia-of-world-history-7-volumes-set-facts-on-file-2008|page=33,262,270,590 |title=Encyclopedia Of World History 7 Volumes Set Facts On File 2008}}</ref>, [[Radha Kumud Mukherjee]]<ref name="MUKHERJEE">" Pg.12 : Asoka had the singular good fortune of being spared the ifficult task of founding and organising an inpare That ask was effectively executed by his grandfather, Chandragupta Maurya, who bequeathed to his successors an empire extending approximately from Afghanistan to Mysore Territories which are even now outside the Government of India were parts of the Indian Empire under Chandragupta, the four satrapies of Aria, Arochosia, Gedrosia, and the Paropanisadai, which Chanaragupta wrested in about 304 B C from the empire of Selukos as the penalty for his ill-advised aggression."  

"Pg.104 : The conquest of this province rounded off the Maurya empire, which now embraced almost the whole of nonTamil India and a considerable portion of Afganistan. It stretched from the land of the Yonas, Kambojaa and Gandharas in the Kabul valley and some adjoining mountain territory to the country of the Andhra in the Godavari-Krishna basin and the district(Ahara) of Isila in the north of Mysore* and from Sopara and Girnar in the west to Dhauli and Jaugada in the east. In the north-west the empire touched the realm of Antiochos II the Greek king of Syria and Western Asia, and in the south it extended as far as the Kingdom of tho Chodas, Pandyas, Satiyaputra and Keralaputras in the Tamil country. If tradition is to be believed, the dominions of Ashoka included the secluded vales of Kashmir and Nepal as well as the riparian plins of Pundravardhana (North Bengal) and Samatata [East Bengal), The inclusion of the Himalayan valleys is rendered probably by the discovery of inscriptions at Mansera in the Hazara district, at Kalsi in the Dehradun district at Nigali Sagar and Rummindei in the Nepaleso Tarai and at Rampurva in the Champaran district of North Bihar. "{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.4263|title=Advanced history of India|last=Majumdar|first=R. C.|date=1953|publisher=Macmillan & Company|page=101,104}}</ref>and historical geographer:[[Joseph E. Schwartzberg]].<ref name="dsal.uchicago.edu">Schwartzberg, Joseph E. [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/ ''A Historical Atlas of South Asia''] , 2nd ed. (University of Minnesota, 1992), Plate III.B.4b ([https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/pager.html?object=055 p.18]) and Plate XIV.1a-c ([https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/pager.html?object=182 p.145]) {{!}}url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/ {{!}}date=26 January 2021</ref> , Anthropologist and Bioarcheologist : [[Ian Barnes]]<ref name="IANBARNES">“ Pg.42 : Threatened by Chandragupta’s growing power, Seleucis of Syria, Alexander’s successor, challenged him by invading northern India in 305 BC but suffered a devastating defeat. A treaty ending the conflict gave Chandragupta all lands north to the Hindu Kush, including Baluchistan and Afghanistan. Chandragupta used an extensive and elaborate civil service, an army, and a secret service to rule. A virtual dictatorship coincided with widespread public works, building roads and developing irrigation systems……The Mauryan dynasty’s greatest ruler was Asoka, Chandragupta’s grandson. He came to the throne after fighting his brothers for the succession. His policy was to continue enlarging the empire, and in 251 BC, he invaded and conquered Kalinga, part of modern Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh. The Kalinga campaign caused such extensive misery and destruction to the local population that Asoka renounced armed conquest and adopted a policy of “conquest by dharma,” by spiritual rectitude and law.