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{{Short description|Ancient Indian empire (322–185 BCE)}}
{{distinguish|Mori Kingdom}}
{{for2|the Indian surname|Maurya (surname)|the Indian 2004 film|Maurya (film)|other uses|Moriya (disambiguation)}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox country
{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = Maurya Empire
| conventional_long_name = Mauryan Empire
| common_name            = Mauryan Empire
| common_name            = Mauryan Empire
| native_name            =  
| native_name            =  
| image_coat            =
| era                    = [[Iron Age]]
| era                    = [[Iron Age]]
| government_type        = [[Absolute monarchy]], as described in [[Kautilya]]'s ''[[Arthashastra]]''<br /> and [[Rajamandala]]<ref name="avari-2007">Avari, Burjor (2007). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1e2V_4Um10C India, the Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Sub-continent from C. 7000 BC to AD 1200] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123134054/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1e2V_4Um10C |date=23 November 2022 }}'' Taylor & Francis. {{ISBN|0415356156}}. pp. 188-189.</ref>
| government_type        = [[Absolute monarchy]], as described in [[Kautilya]]'s ''[[Arthashastra]]''<br /> and [[Rajamandala]]<ref name="avari-2007">Avari, Burjor (2007). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1e2V_4Um10C India, the Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Sub-continent from C. 7000 BC to AD 1200] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123134054/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1e2V_4Um10C |date=23 November 2022 }}'' Taylor & Francis. {{ISBN|0415356156}}. pp. 188-189.</ref>
| event_start            = [[Nanda-Mauryan War]]
| event_start            = [[Conquest of the Nanda Empire]]
| year_start            = 322&nbsp;BCE&nbsp;
| year_start            = 322&nbsp;BCE&nbsp;
| status                = [[Empire]]
| year_end              = &nbsp;184&nbsp;BCE
| year_end              = &nbsp;185&nbsp;BCE
| event_end              = Assassination of Brihadratha by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]]
| event_end              = Assassination of Brihadratha by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]]
| p1                     = Nanda Empire
| p2                     = Nanda Empire
| flag_p1                =
| flag_p2                = Nanda_Empire,_c.325_BCE.png
| p2                    = Gedrosia
| p1                     = Mahajanapadas
| flag_p2                =  
| flag_p1               = Mahajanapadas_(c._500_BCE).png
| p3                     = Arachosia
| flag_p3               =  
| p4                    = Aria (region)
| p5                    = Paropamisadae
| p6                    = Parada kingdom
| flag_p7                =
| p8                    = Pundravardhana
| p9                    = Saurashtra (region)
| p10                    = Vidarbha
| p11                    = Andhras
| p12                    = Kalinga (historical region)
| flag_p4                =
| s1                    = Shunga Empire
| s1                    = Shunga Empire
| flag_s1                =  
| flag_s1                = SungaEmpireMap.jpg
| s2                    = Vidarbha kingdom (Mauryan era)
| s2                    = Satavahana dynasty
| flag_s2                =  
| flag_s2                = Map_of_the_Satavahanas.png
| s3                    = Satavahana dynasty
| s3                    = Mahameghavahana dynasty
| flag_s3                =  
| flag_s3                = Map_of_the_Maha-Meghavahanas.png
| s4                    = Mitra dynasty (Kosambi)
| s4                    = Indo-Scythians
| flag_s4                =  
| flag_s4                = Map_of_the_Indo-Scythians.png
| s5                    = Samatata
| s5                    = Indo-Greek Kingdom
| flag_s5                =  
| flag_s5                = Map_of_the_Indo-Greeks.png
| s6                    = Indo-Greek Kingdom
| s6                    = Vidarbha kingdom (Mauryan era)
| s7                    = Mahameghavahana dynasty
| s10                    =
| flag_s6                =  
| flag_s6                =  
| today                  = [[India]]<br>[[Pakistan]]<br>[[Bangladesh]]<br>[[Nepal]]<br>[[Afghanistan]],<br>[[Iran]]
| image_map              = Ashoka Maurya Empire.png
| image_map              = Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE.png
| image_map_caption    = Maximum extent of the Maurya Empire, as shown by the location of [[Edicts of Ashoka|Ashoka's inscriptions]], and visualized by ASI ([[Archeological Survey Of India]]) based on ancient inscriptions, ancient Greecian , ancient Indian texts,<ref>{{Cite book|page=412|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.06445|title=Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol-13, Issue no.-1-4}}</ref> modern archaeologist :[[Nayanjot Lahiri]]<ref name="NAVJOT>"
| image_map_caption      = Territories of the Maurya Empire conceptualized as core areas or linear networks separated by large autonomous regions in the works of scholars such as: historians [[Hermann Kulke]] and [[Dietmar Rothermund]];{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=TPVq3ykHyH4C&pg=PA69 69-70]}} [[Burton Stein]];<ref name="Stein2010">{{citation|last=Stein|first=Burton|title=A History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC&pg=GBS.PA74|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-2351-1|page=74 |quote=In the past it was not uncommon for historians to conflate the vast space thus outlined with the oppressive realm described in the Arthashastra and to posit one of the earliest and certainly one of the largest totalitarian regimes in all of history. Such a picture is no longer considered believable; at present what is taken to be the realm of Ashoka is a discontinuous set of several core regions separated by very large areas occupied by relatively autonomous peoples.}}</ref> David Ludden;<ref name="Ludden2013-lead-4"/> and [[Romila Thapar]];<ref name="ConinghamYoung2015b"/> anthropologists [[Monica L. Smith]]<ref name="ConinghamYoung2015a">{{citation|last1=Coningham|first1=Robin|last2=Young|first2=Ruth|title=The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE – 200 CE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaJrCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA453|year=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-41898-7|page=453}}</ref> and [[Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah]];<ref name="ConinghamYoung2015b"/> archaeologist [[Robin Coningham]];<ref name="ConinghamYoung2015b">{{citation|last1=Coningham|first1=Robin|last2=Young|first2=Ruth|title=The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE – 200 CE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaJrCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA451|year=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-41898-7|pages=451–466}}</ref> and historical demographer [[Tim Dyson]].<ref name="Dyson2018-16b">{{citation|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|pages=16–17|quote=Magadha power came to extend over the main cities and communication routes of the Ganges basin. Then, under Chandragupta Maurya (c.321–297 bce), and subsequently Ashoka his grandson, Pataliputra became the centre of the loose-knit Mauryan 'Empire' which during Ashoka's reign (c.268–232 bce) briefly had a presence throughout the main urban centres and arteries of the subcontinent, except for the extreme south.}}</ref>
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. "
| image_map2            = Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE 2.png
 
| image_map2_caption    = Maximum extent of the Maurya Empire, as shown by the location of [[Edicts of Ashoka|Ashoka's inscriptions]], and visualized by historians: [[Vincent Arthur Smith]];<ref name="Smith1920">{{citation|last=Smith|first=Vincent Arthur|title=The Oxford History of India: From the Earliest Times to the End of 1911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2gxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA104|year=1920|publisher=Clarendon Press|pages=104–106}}</ref> [[R. C. Majumdar]];<ref name="India1950">{{citation|last1=Majumdar|first1=R. C.|last2=Raychaudhuri|first2=H. C.|last3=Datta|first3=Kalikinkar|title=An Advanced History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyIWMwEACAAJ|edition=Second|year=1950|publisher=Macmillan & Company|page=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>
Pg.748 : "The distribution of Ashoka's inscriptions suggests the extent of the Maurya empire. In the north-west, it extended up to Kandahar in Afghanistan, with the kingdom of Antiochus II of Syria lying to the west. Its eastern frontier extended to Orissa. It included almost the entire subcontinent, except the southernmost parts, which, according to rock edict 13, were inhabited by the Cholas and Pandyas, and according to rock edict 2, by the Keralaputras and Satiyaputras."
{{Cite book|page=740,748|url=http://archive.org/details/history-of-ancient-and-early-medeival-india-from-the-stone-age-to-the-12th-century-pdfdrive|title=History Of Ancient And Early Medeival India From The Stone Age To The 12th Century|last=[[Upinder Singh]]|date=2008}}</ref>, [[Jackson J. Spielvogel]]<ref name="JACKSON"> " Pg.106 - Seleucid Kingdom Another Hellenistic monarchy was founded by the general Seleucus (suh-LOO-kuss), who established the Seleucid dynasty of Syria. This was the largest of the Hellenistic kingdoms and controlled much of the old Persian Empire from Turkey in the west to India in the east, although the Seleucids found it increasingly difficult to maintain control of the eastern territories. In fact, an Indian ruler named Chandragupta Maurya (chundruh-GOOP-tuh MOWR-yuh) (324-301 B.c.E.) created a new Indian state, the Mauryan Empire, and drove out the Seleucid forces. His grandson Asoka (uh-SOH-kuh) (269-232 b.c.e.) extended the empire to include most of India and is considered the greatest ruler in India's history Asoka, a pious Buddhist, sought to convert the remaining Greek communities in northwestern India to his religion and even sent Buddhist missionaries to Greek rulers. The Seleucid rulers maintained relations with the Mauryan Empire. Trade was fostered, especially in such luxuries as spices and jewels. Seleucus also sent Greek and Macedonian ambassadors to the Mauryan court. Best known of these was Megasthenes (muh-GAS-thuh-neez), whose report on the people of India remained one of the western best sources of information on India until the Middle Ages. " {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/westerncivilizat08edspie|title=Western civilization|last=Spielvogel|first=Jackson J.|date=2012|page=106|publisher=Boston, MA : Wadsworth Cengage Learning|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-495-91329-0}}</ref>, [[Hugh Bowden]]<ref name="BOWDEN"> " Pg.122 : India's first approach towards becoming a unified state occurred under the first three kings of the Mauryan Empire. The founder of the dynasty, Chandragupta Maurya (c.310-286 BCE) , king of Magadha in Eastern India, unfied under his control the other kingdom of the Gangetic Plain. His grandson, Ashoka (c.270-234 BCE) , consolidated Mauryan imperial rule, extending it into eastern and southern "{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/timesancientcivi0000unse|title=The Times ancient civilizations|date=2002|page=122|publisher=London : Times Books|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-00-710859-6}}</ref>, [[Ram Sharan Sharma]]<ref name="SHARAN">“ Pg.355 : English Translation of his statement - "The biggest fact of Maurya political history was the establishment of the Magadha Empire, which included the whole of India except the far south. This empire was established with the strength of the sword and it could be protected only with the strength of the sword. Strong military power was necessary for both external security and internal peace..The tribal people living inside the empire and on its borders were equally a cause of trouble. So for this, there was a huge permanent army and tight judicial system."{{Cite book|page=355|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.401527|title=Prachin Bharat Me Rajneetik Vichar Avam Sansthae|last=Sharma|first=Ramsharan|date=1990}}</ref>, [[Charles Allen]]<ref name="CHARLES"> " Pg.1 : Ashoka Maurya—or Ashoka the Great as he was later known—holds a special place in the history of Buddhism and India. At its height in around 250 BCE, his empire stretched across the Indian subcontinent to Kandahar in the east, and as far north as the Himalayas. Through his quest to govern by moral force alone, Ashoka transformed Buddhism from a minor sect into a major world religion, while simultaneously setting a new yardstick for government that had lasting implications for all of Asia. His bold experiment ended in tragedy, however, and in the tumult that followed the historical record was cleansed so effectively that his name was largely forgotten for almost two thousand years. Yet, a few mysterious stone monuments and inscriptions miraculously survived the purge.
 
" 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>, [[Grigory Bongard-Levin]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=G. Bongard-Levin |url=http://archive.org/details/bongard-levin-1979-india-magadha-maurya |title=India in the Magadha and Mauryan Periods |publication-date=2010 |pages=69-70}}</ref> old historians:[[Mark F. Whitters]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopedia-of-world-history-7-volumes-set-facts-on-file-2008/page/n33/mode/1up|page=33,262,270 & 590 |title=Encyclopedia Of World History 7 Volumes Set Facts On File 2008}}</ref>, [[Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur ]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopedia-of-world-history-7-volumes-set-facts-on-file-2008/page/n269/mode/1up|page=33,262,270,590 |title=Encyclopedia Of World History 7th Volumes Set Facts On File 2008}}</ref>, [[Janice J. Terry]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopedia-of-world-history-7-volumes-set-facts-on-file-2008/page/n262/mode/1up|page=33,262,270,590 |title=Encyclopedia Of World History 7 Volume Set Facts On File 2008}}</ref>, [[Michael J. Schroeder ]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopedia-of-world-history-7-volumes-set-facts-on-file-2008/page/n270/mode/1up|page=33,262,270,590 |title=Encyclopedia of World History Volumes VII, Set Facts On File 2008}}</ref>, [[Marsha E. Ackermann ]]<ref name="WORLDHISTO">“ Pg.33 : Ashoka (Asoka) was the third ruler of the MAURYAN Empire. Under his long rule the empire that he inherited reached its zenith territorially and culturally. Soon after his death the Mauryan Empire split up and ended. He is remembered as a great ruler in world history and the greatest ruler in India. Chandragupta Maurya founded the Mauryan dynasty in 326 B.C.E. Both he and his son Bindusara were successful warriors, unifying northern India and part of modern Afghanistan for the first time in history. Ashoka was not Bindusara's eldest son, and there is a gap of time between his father's death and his succession, due perhaps to war with his brothers. Ashoka continued to expand the empire by conquering southward. One war against Kalinga in the southeast was particularly bloody and filled him with remorse. As a result he converted to Buddhism (from Vedic Hinduism) and renounced war as an instrument of policy.”
“Pg.262 : Chandragupta Maurya founded the Mauryan Empire in 326 B.C.E. in northern India. His son Bindusara and grandson AsHOKA (Asoka) continued his conquest that unified the entire subcontinent, with the exception of the southern tip, and part of Afghanistan into India's first great empire.  “
“Pg.270 :In 324 B.C.E. Chandragupta Maurya unified northern India by defeating his rivals. He went on to war against the successor of ALEXANDER THE GREAT in Asia, Seleucus Nicator, expelling his forces from the borderlands of India. In 305 B.C.E. the two men concluded a treaty in which the Greeks withdrew from the Punjab in northwestern India and which fixed the western boundary of the MAURYAN EMPIRE to the crest of the Hindu Kush. There was also exchange of ambassadors, gifts, and a vague mention of a marriage alliance. Megasthenes was Seleucus’s representative at Chandragupta’s court. “
&
“Check Mauryan Empire Map , Pg:590. “{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopedia-of-world-history-7-volumes-set-facts-on-file-2008/page/n590/mode/1up|page=33,262,270,590 |title=ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD HISTORY 7 Volumes}}</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.13 :Yuan Chwang saw Asokan topes in Kapis (Kafiris- tan), Nagar (Jelalabad), and Udyana in the north-west. In Bengal, the authority of Asoka is proved by his stūpa at Tamralipti, the capital of Suhma, and the famous port of embarkation for voyages towards the south. According to Yuan Chwang, there was also a stupa of Asoka in the capital of Samatata or the Brahmaputra Delta, and others in different parts of Bengal and Bihar, viz., Punyavardhana (northern Bengal) and Karnasuvarna (modern Burdwan, Birbhum and Murshidabad districts) [Watters, ii 184 f]. Yuan Chwang refers to Asokan topes being erected at various places in the south, in Chola and Dravida, of which the capital, Kanchipura, has been sought to be identified with the Satiyaputra country of the Edict Indeed, the distribu- tion of the Asokan topes as mentioned by Yuan Chwang is almost co-terminous with that of the inscriptions, and is equally significant of the vastness of his empire.Lastly, the extent of his empire is also indicated by his own mention in the Edicts (R.E. II, V, and XIII] of the peoples on its borders In the south, these are mentioned as the Cholas, Pandyas, the Satiyaputra and Keralaputra, who were all within his sphere of influence Towards the north-west, his empire marched with that of the Synan monarch, Antiochos [R.E. II], and hence extended up to Persia and Syria which were held by Antiochos, while it is also known how Asoka's grandfather, Chandragupta, had wrested from Selukos the provinces of Aria, Arachosia, Paropanisadai and Gedrosia, which descended to Asoka as his inheritance.
 
Lastly, the extent of his empire is also indicated by his own mention in the Edicts (Rock Edict II, V, and XIII] of the peoples on its borders In the south, these are mentioned as the Cholas, Pandyas, the Satiyaputra and Keralaputra, who were all within his sphere of influence Towards the north-west, his empire marched with that of the Synan monarch, Antiochos [Rock Edict II], and hence extended up to Persia and Syria which were held by Antiochos, while it is also known how Asoka's grandfather, Chandragupta, had wrested from Selukos the provinces of Aria, Arachosia, Paropanisadai and Gedrosia, which descended to Asoka as his inheritance ."
 
" Pg.16 : The capital of the empire at Pataliputra [Rock Edict V. Girnar], and of outlying towns, such as Bodh-Gaya [Rock Edict VIII), Kosambi (Allahabad Pillar Edict], Ujjeni, Takkhasilä [K.R.Edict),Suvarnagiri, Isila [M.R.Edict], and Tosali and Samāpā in the province of Kalinga [K.R.Edict] Thus we have a fairly definite idea of the limits of Asoka's empire in different directions. We may even hazard the conjecture that the empire was so large that Asoka did not live to visit all its parts, and inspect the execution of his inscriptions in different localities."{{Cite book|page=12,13,16|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Radhakumud+Mookerji%22&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Asoka|last=Mookerji|first=Radhakumud|date=1962|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishe|isbn=978-81-208-0582-8|language=en}}</ref><ref name="RADHA">"Pg.36-37: Chandragupta did not merely supplant the Nanda king in the sovereignty of Magadha. He made himself at once the sovereign of an empire which was much larger than that of Nanda, for it included the land of the five rivers up to the Indus. This empire also extended farther by his later conquests. His subsequent career may be gathered from the following statement of Plutarch [Lives. Chap. LXII] : 'Not long afterwards, Androcottos, who had at that time mounted the throne, presented Seleukos with 500 elephants and overran and subdued the whole of India with an army of 600,000 . " The throne " here is the throne of Magadha which he had won by defeating the Nanda king. The present to Seleukos was the result of a war between the two. It would appear that in the struggle for power which ensued among the generals of Alexander after his death, Seleukos won for himself a secure position as the ruler of Babylon by about 311 B C. and felt free to devote himself to the consolidation of his authority in the distant provinces. Bactria was not subdued without hard fighting. And by about 305 or 304 B. C. at the latest, he planned for a recovery of the Indian conquests of Alexander. Taking the route along the Kabul river,and crossed the Indus [Appian, Syr. 55]. But the expedition proved abortive and ended in an alliance. It was because he had to confront a new India, strong and united, under Chandragupta in command of a formidable army, and felt that discretion was the better part of valour. By the terms of the treaty, Seleukos ceded to Chandragupta the Satrapies of Arachosia' (Kandahar) and the Paropanisadae (Kabul), together with portions of Aria (Herat) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan). Thus Chandragupta was able to add another glorious feather to his cap. He extended his empire beyond the frontiers of India up to the borders of Persia. That is why it was possible for his grandson Asoka to declare in two of his Rock Edicts [11 and XIII] that the Syrian emperor, Antiochus [Antiyoka Yonaraja] was his immediate neighbour, one of his frontagers (an Anta or a Pratyanta king). "{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times|last=Mookerji|first=Radhakumud|date=1966|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ.|isbn=978-81-208-0405-0|language=en}}</ref>,[[John Haywood (British historian)|John Haywood]]<ref name="HAYWOOD"> " Pg.24 : In 321 Chandragupta Maurya (321-c. 293) seized the throne of the kingdom of Magadha, overthrowing the Nanda dynasty. Chandragupta spent most of his reign building a strong central administration, but he defeated a Seleucid invasioin, adding all of northwest India to his domains. His son Bindusara also conquered much of southern India. Under Ashoka the Mauryan empire reached its greatest extent. Appalled by his bloody conquest of the east coast kingdom of Kalinga in 261 Ashoka abjured further warfare and, becoming a Buddhist, tried to impose Buddhist standards of behavior on his people." {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/atlasofworldhist00hayw|page=24|title=Atlas of world history|last=Haywood|first=John|date=1997|publisher=New York : Barnes & Noble Books|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-7607-0687-9}}</ref>, [[Patrick Karl O'Brien]]<ref name="BRIEN"> " Pg.46 - By 500 Bc kingdoms existed throughout the Ganges region. Chief among these was Magadha, favourably located for control both of riverborne trade and of the sources of raw materials such as iron. Magadha gradually expanded at the expense of its neighbours and before 297 Bc its king, Chandragupta Maurya, ruled most of north India . His grandson Ashoka (r. 272-231 Bc) further extended the empire, conquering Kalinga in 261 Bc, and only the extreme south retained its independence. Pillar and rock edicts mark the extent of Mauryan political authority: these proclaimed Ashoka's ethical code of social responsibility and toleration. It was an age of peace and prosperity."{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/philipsatlasofwo0000unse_u6t7|title=Philip's Atlas of World History: From the Origins of Humanity to the Year 2000|page=46|date=1999|publisher=The Softback Preview|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-540-07858-5}}</ref><ref>https://books.google.nl/books?id=ffZy5tDjaUkC&pg=PA46&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref>, [[H. C. Raychaudhuri]]<ref name="RAYCHAUDHARI">"Pg.273 : The ceded country comprised a large portion of Ariana itself, a fact ignored by Tarn. In exchange the Maurya a monarch gave the comparatively small recompense of 500 elephants. It is believed that the territory ceded by the Syrian king included the four satrapies: Aria, Arachosia, Gedrosia and the Paropanisadai, i.e., Herat, Kandahar, Makran and Kabul. Doubts have been entertained about this by several scholars including Tarn. The inclusion of the Kabul valley within the Maurya Empire is, however, proved by the inscriptions of Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, which speak of the Yonas and Gandharas as vassals of the Empire. And the evidence of Strabo probably points to the cession by Seleukos of a large part of the Iranian Tableland besides the riparian provinces on the Indus."
" Pg.297: The conquest of the territory between the eastern and western seas has been taken by some scholars to refer to the annexation of the Deccan. But we should not forget that already in the time of Chandragupta the Maurya Empire extended from Saurashtra to Bengal (Gangaridae), i.e., from the western to the eastern sea. "
" Pg.327 : The full political effects of this change of policy became manifest only after the death of Ashoka, perhaps even after the 27th year of his consecration. From the time of Bimbisara to the Kalinga war' the history India was the story of the expansion of Magadha from a tiny state in South Bihar to a gigantic Empire extending from the foot of the Hindukush to the borders of the Tamil country."{{Cite book |last=Raychaud |first=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri|page=273,297,327|url=http://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.1633 |title=Political history of ancient India |date=1953}}</ref>, [[John F. Cady]]<ref name="CADY"> " Pg.34 - The India from whose culture Southeast Asian peoples borrowed so extensively was partly united for the first time politically in the third century B.C. The Mauryan Empire (330 to 180 By.) included the north Indian valleys westward to Greek Bactria and southward along the eastern Indian coast to the mouths of the Kistna and Godavari Rivers. Mauryan power centering at Patna in the lower Ganges Valley reached its peak in the mid-third century B.c. under the leadership of the great Asoka, who was a political exemplar of Buddhist ideals and humanitarian principles of government. Asoka unified and promoted the Buddhist faith without persecuting dissident elements; he built India's first shrines of cut stone and burned brick; he sponsored missionary efforts within India and beyond. Mauryan rule declined rapidly after his death in 237 B.c."{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/southeastasiaits0000cady_v1t8|title=Southeast Asia: its historical development|page=34|last=Cady|first=John F. (John Frank)|date=1964|publisher=New York, McGraw-Hill|others=Internet Archive}}</ref>, [[Gerald Danzer]]<ref name="DANZER">" Pg.44 - The Mauryan Empire reached out from the Ganges valley to annex the Indus valley peoples shortly after the death of Alexander the Great. Asoka extended the empire in all directions, but had an even greater impact in spreading the teachings of the Buddha throughout his realm. He had pillars erected at crossroads locations covered with edicts written in stone to proclaim his ideals." ..."In the generation after Alexander, however, information resurfaces with the establishment of the Mauryan Empire by Chandragupta in 324 BCE. By 240 bce the Mauryan Empire reached its greatest extent, controlling the great river valleys of both the Ganges and Indus rivers. Of even more importance was the conversion of the emperor, Asoka, to Buddhism. "{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/atlasofworldhist0000danz|title=An atlas of world history|last=Danzer|first=Gerald A.|date=2000|page=44|publisher=Ann Arbor, MI : Borders Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-681-46572-5}}</ref>, [[Vincent Arthur Smith]]<ref name="Smith1920">
Pg.75: The Indian conquests of Alexander to the east of the Indus, which extended across the Panjab as far as the Hyphasis or Bias river, quickly passed, as we have seen, soon after the death of Alexander, into the hands of Chandragupta Maurya, and the four satrapies of Aria, Arachosia, Gedrosia, and the Paropanisadai were ceded to him by Seleukos Nikator about B. c. 305. The Maurya frontier was thus extended as far as the Hindu Rush Mountains, and the greater part of the countries now called Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Makran, with the North- Western Frontier Province, became incorporated in the Indian Empire. That empire included the famous strongholds of Kabul, Zabul, Kandahar, and Herat, and so possessed the scientific frontier ' for which Anglo-Indian statesmen have long sighed in vain. There is no reason to suppose that the trans-Indus provinces were lost by Bindusara, and it is reasonable to assume that they continued under the sway of Asoka, who refers to Antiochos, King of Syria, in terms which suggest that the Syrian and Indian empires were conterminous. Costly buildings ascribed to Asoka were seen by Hiuen Tsang in different parts of Afghanistan. Among others he mentions a stone stupa, a hundred feet high, at the town of Kapisa, somewhere in Kafiristan, and a remarkable building of the same kind, three hundred feet in height and richly decorated, at Nangrahar, near Jalalabad, on the Kabul river. The Swat valley also contained evidences of Asoka's passion for building ."
"Pg.81 : Asoka's empire, therefore, comprised the countries now known as Afghanistan, as far as the Hindu Kush, Baluchistan, Makran, Sind, Kachh (Cutch), the Swat valley, with the adjoining regions, Kashmir, Nepal, and the whole of India proper, except the extreme south, Tamilakam or Tamil Land. His dominions were far more extensive than British India of to-day, excluding Burma. "{{citation|last=Smith|first=Vincent Arthur|title=The Oxford History of India: From the Earliest Times to the End of 1911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2gxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA104%7Cyear=1920%7C|publisher=Clarendon Press|pages=75,81}}</ref>, [[Robert Roswell Palmer]]<ref name="PALMER">" Pg.116 - Based on Magadha in the Ganges valley, the Mauryan empire flourished from 322 B.C., when its founder Chandragupta seized the capital city of Pataliputra to 185 B.C., when the last ruler of the dynasty died. Chandragupta united north India from the mouths of the Ganges to the watershed west of the Indus. He then took over, from a satrap of the Alexandrian empire, the regions of Arachosia and Gandhara up to the Hindu Kush mountains. His son Bindusara extended the empire to about the fifteenth parallel of latitude, except for Kalinga on the east coast, which was later annexed by Asoka. The reign of Asoka (273-232 B.C.) -saw the height of the Mauryan empire, and is one of the great periods of Indian history. Shortly after the conquest of Kahnga Asoka was converted to Buddhism, whereupon, forswearing mihtarism. he devoted himself to the welfare of his people and the propagation of Buddhism. His missionaries brought Buddhism and Indian civilization to Ceylon and elsewhere." {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/randmcnallyatla00rand|title=Rand McNally atlas of world history|last=Rand McNally and Company|page=106|last2=Palmer|first2=R. R. (Robert Roswell)|date=1965|publisher=Chicago|others=Internet Archive}}</ref>, [[Geoffrey Parker]]<ref name="GEOFFREY">" Pg.28 - A further turning point came in 320 BC when Chandragupta Maurya seized the state of Magadha on the lower Ganges, and occupied large parts of central India, and in 305 BC annexed the province of Trans-Indus from the successors of Alexander the Great (see page 32). Chandragupta’s grandson Ashoka (273-232 BC) expanded this Mauryan empire southwards, bringing the greater part of the sub-continent under his rule and inscribing edicts on pillars and rock-faces all over India as a permanent reminder of his power (map 2). Ashoka’s death introduced a troubled period, punctuated by invasions of both Greeks and nomads who founded states in the north-west, such as the Kushan empire, where Hellenistic and Indian influences mingled. Further south, the Satavahanas of the Deccan ruled a state that straddled the peninsula by AD 150." {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/timescompacthist0000unse_g4l2|page=28|title=The Times compact history of the world|date=2008|publisher=London : Times Books|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-00-726731-6}}</ref>, [[R. C. Majumdar]]<ref name="MAJUMDAR">
"Pg.101 : Towards the close of the reign of Chandrgupta, the Maurya empire received a further extension in the north-west Seleucus the general of Alexander, who had made himself master of Babylon, gradually extended his empire from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus and even tried to regain the provinces to the east of that river. He failed and had to conclude a treaty with Chandragupta by which he surrendered a large territory including, in the opinion of certain writers, the satrapies of Paropanisadai {Kabul), Aria (Herat), Arachosia (Qandahar), and Gedrosia (Baluchistan), in return for 500 elephant.
"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.
&
Check Mauryan Empire on Page  43 “{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/historyatlasofas00ianb|title=The history atlas of Asia|page=42|last=Barnes|first=Ian|last2=Hudson|first2=Robert|last3=Parekh|first3=Bhikhu C.|date=1998|publisher=New York : Macmillan|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-02-862581-2}}</ref>
 
 
| capital                = [[Pataliputra]]<br />(present-day [[Patna]])
| capital                = [[Pataliputra]]<br />(present-day [[Patna]])
| common_languages      = [[Sanskrit]] (literary and academic),
| common_languages      = [[Sanskrit]] (literary and academic),
[[Magadhi Prakrit]] (vernacular)
[[Magadhi Prakrit]] (vernacular)
| religion              = {{plainlist|
| religion              = {{plainlist|
*[[Brahmanism]]{{sfn|Nath Sen|1999|p= 164, (215) 217}}{{efn|name="Brahmanism"}}
*[[Hinduism]]<ref>{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999 |page=164|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen }}</ref><ref name="GF68">{{cite book |last1=Bronkhorst|first1=Johannes|last2=Flood |first2=Gavin|author-link1=Johannes Bronkhorst|author-link2=Gavin Flood|title=The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice |date=July 2020|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-873350-8 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxT0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Omvedt |first1=Gail |title=Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste |date=18 August 2003 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-0-7619-9664-4 |page=119 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rSF8b5hbyP0C&pg=PT70 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Jainism]]{{sfn|Smith|1981|p=99}}{{sfn|Dalrymple|2009}}{{sfn|Keay|1981|p=85-86}}{{efn|name="Jainism"}}
*[[Jainism]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=vincent A. |title=The Oxford History Of India Part. 1-3, Ed. 4th |date=1981 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=99 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.99999/page/n121/mode/2up|quote="the only direct evidence throwing light ....is that of Jain tradition. ...it may be that he embraced Jainism towards the end of his reign. ...after much consideration I am inclined to accept the main facts as affirmed by tradition .... no alternative account exists."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Dalrymple|first=William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mc2IVc6obeAC&pg=PT21|title=Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India|date=2009-10-07|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4088-0341-7|location=|pages=|language=en|quote="It was here, in the third century BC, that the first Emperor of India, Chandragupta Maurya, embraced the Jain religion and died through a self-imposed fast to the death,......"}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Keay |first1=John |title=India: A History |date=1981 |publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic |isbn=978-0-8021-9550-0 |pages=85–86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IquM4BrJ4YC&pg=PT174 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Buddhism]]{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}{{sfn|Long|2020|p=255}}{{efn|name="Buddhism"}}
*[[Buddhism]]<ref name="GF68"/><ref name="JDL">{{cite book |last1=Long |first1=Jeffery D.|author-link=Jeffery D. Long |title=Historical Dictionary of Hinduism |date=15 April 2020|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-2294-5 |page=255 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWXRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA255 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Ājīvika|Ajivikism]]{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}{{sfn|Long|2020|p=255}}{{efn|name="Ajivikism"}}
*[[Ājīvika|Ajivikism]]<ref name="GF68"/><ref name="JDL"/>
*[[Greek polytheism]]<br />[[Zoroastrianism]] (northwest){{sfn|Boyce|Grenet|1991|p=149}}}}
*[[Greek polytheism]]<br />[[Zoroastrianism]] (northwest)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyce |first1=Mary |last2=Grenet |first2=F. |title=A History of Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule |date=January 1991 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-29391-5 |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Euh5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA149 |language=en}}</ref>}}
| demonym                = Indian
| GDP_PPP                =  
| GDP_PPP                =  
| currency              = [[Karshapana]]
| currency              = [[Pana (Currency)|Panas]]
| title_leader          = [[List of Maurya Emperors|Emperor]]
| title_leader          = [[List of Magadha monarchs#House of Maurya|Emperor]]
| leader1                = [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]]
| leader1                = [[Chandragupta Maurya|Emperor Chandragupta]]
| year_leader1          = 322–298&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader1          = 322–298&nbsp;BCE
| leader2                = [[Bindusara]]
| leader2                = [[Bindusara|Emperor Bindusara]]
| year_leader2          = 298–272&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader2          = 298–272&nbsp;BCE
| leader3                = [[Ashoka]]
| leader3                = [[Ashoka|Emperor Ashoka]]
| year_leader3          = 268–232&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader3          = 268–232&nbsp;BCE
| leader4                = [[Dasharatha Maurya|Dasharatha]]
| leader4                = [[Dasharatha Maurya|Emperor Dasharatha]]
| year_leader4          = 232–224&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader4          = 232–224&nbsp;BCE
| leader5                = [[Samprati]]
| leader5                = [[Samprati|Emperor Samprati]]
| year_leader5          = 224–215&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader5          = 224–215&nbsp;BCE
| leader6                = [[Shalishuka]]
| leader6                = [[Shalishuka|Emperor Shalishuka]]
| year_leader6          = 215–202&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader6          = 215–202&nbsp;BCE
| leader7                = [[Devavarman (Maurya)|Devavarman]]
| leader7                = [[Devavarman (Maurya)|Emperor Devavarman]]
| year_leader7          = 202–195&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader7          = 202–195&nbsp;BCE
| leader8                = [[Shatadhanvan]]
| leader8                = [[Shatadhanvan|Emperor Shatadhanvan]]
| year_leader8          = 195–187&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader8          = 195–187&nbsp;BCE
| leader9                = [[Brihadratha Maurya|Brihadratha]]
| leader9                = [[Brihadratha Maurya|Emperor Brihadratha]]
| year_leader9          = 187–185&nbsp;BCE
| year_leader9          = 187–184&nbsp;BCE
| stat_year1            = 261 BCE
| stat_year1            = 261 BCE
| stat_area1            = 3400000
| stat_area1            = 3400000
Line 89: Line 91:
| ref_area2              = <ref name="Turchin223">{{cite journal|last2=Adams|first2=Jonathan M.|last3=Hall|first3=Thomas D|date=December 2006|title=East-West Orientation of Historical Empires|url=http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/369/381|journal=Journal of World-Systems Research|volume=12|issue=2|page=223|issn=1076-156X|last1=Turchin|first1=Peter|access-date=16 September 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520161830/http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/369/381|archive-date=20 May 2019|df=dmy-all}}</ref>{{break}}(high-end estimate of peak area)
| ref_area2              = <ref name="Turchin223">{{cite journal|last2=Adams|first2=Jonathan M.|last3=Hall|first3=Thomas D|date=December 2006|title=East-West Orientation of Historical Empires|url=http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/369/381|journal=Journal of World-Systems Research|volume=12|issue=2|page=223|issn=1076-156X|last1=Turchin|first1=Peter|access-date=16 September 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520161830/http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/369/381|archive-date=20 May 2019|df=dmy-all}}</ref>{{break}}(high-end estimate of peak area)
}}
}}
{{Maurya}}
{{Maurya}}
The '''Maurya Empire''' was a geographically extensive [[Iron Age]] [[list of ancient great powers|historical power]] in [[South Asia]] based in [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]]. Founded by [[Chandragupta Maurya]] in 322 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya">
The '''Mauryan Empire''', also known as the Maurya Empire, was a historically significant power during the Iron Age on the Indian subcontinent, with its core in Magadha. It was founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE and declined around 184 BCE.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya">
{{citation
{{citation
|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|pages=16–17}} Quote: "Magadha power came to extend over the main cities and communication routes of the Ganges basin. Then, under Chandragupta Maurya (c.321–297 bce), and subsequently Ashoka his grandson, Pataliputra became the centre of the loose-knit Mauryan 'Empire' which during Ashoka's reign (c.268–232 bce) briefly had a presence throughout the main urban centres and arteries of the subcontinent, except for the extreme south."</ref> The empire was centralized by the conquest of the [[Indo-Gangetic Plain]]; its capital city was located at [[Pataliputra]] (modern [[Patna]]). Outside this imperial centre, the empire's geographical extent was dependent on the loyalty of military commanders who controlled the armed cities scattered within it.<ref name="Ludden2013-lead-maurya">
|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA16|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|pages=16–17}} Quote: "Magadha power came to extend over the main cities and communication routes of the Ganges basin. Then, under Chandragupta Maurya (c.321–297 bce), and subsequently Ashoka his grandson, Pataliputra became the centre of the loose-knit Mauryan 'Empire' which during Ashoka's reign (c.268–232 bce) briefly had a presence throughout the main urban centres and arteries of the subcontinent, except for the extreme south."</ref> The Maurya Empire centralized its power through the conquest of the [[Indo-Gangetic Plain]], with its primary capital located at [[Pataliputra]], modern-day [[Patna]]. However, the empire also had other regional capitals, including [[Taxila]], [[Ujjain]], [[Suvarnagiri]], and [[Tosali]], which were governed by appointed governors and governers controlled by the Emperor.<ref>{{cite book | first1=Romila | last1=Thapar | title=A History of India, Volume 1 | publisher=Penguin Books | author-link=Romila Thapar | year=1990 | page=384 | isbn=0-14-013835-8}}</ref>The empire directly or indirectly ruled by Ashoka was thus immense, running from the Hindu Kush to Bengal, and from the Himalayas to the Karnataka.<ref>Alain Daniélou ."A brief history of India".2003, p.114. Archive Link:https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofin00dani/page/114/mode/1up</ref>
{{citation
 
|last=Ludden
 
|first=David|title=India and South Asia: A Short History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbFHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|year=2013|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-108-6|pages=29–30 |quote=The geography of the Mauryan Empire resembled a spider with a small dense body and long spindly legs. The highest echelons of imperial society lived in the inner circle composed of the ruler, his immediate family, other relatives, and close allies, who formed a dynastic core. Outside the core, empire travelled stringy routes dotted with armed cities. Outside the palace, in the capital cities, the highest ranks in the imperial elite were held by military commanders whose active loyalty and success in war determined imperial fortunes. Wherever these men failed or rebelled, dynastic power crumbled. ... Imperial society flourished where elites mingled; they were its backbone, its strength was theirs. Kautilya's ''Arthasastra'' indicates that imperial power was concentrated in its original heartland, in old ''Magadha'', where key institutions seem to have survived for about seven hundred years, down to the age of the Guptas. Here, Mauryan officials ruled local society, but not elsewhere. In provincial towns and cities, officials formed a top layer of royalty; under them, old conquered royal families were not removed, but rather subordinated. In most ''janapadas'', the Mauryan Empire consisted of strategic urban sites connected loosely to vast hinterlands through lineages and local elites who were there when the Mauryas arrived and were still in control when they left.}}</ref>{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|pp=xii, 448}}<ref>{{cite book | first1=Romila | last1=Thapar | title=A History of India, Volume 1 | publisher=Penguin Books | author-link=Romila Thapar | year=1990 | page=384 | isbn=0-14-013835-8}}</ref> During [[Ashoka]]'s rule (ca. 268–232 BCE), the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the [[Indian Subcontinent|subcontinent]] excepting the deep south.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya"/> It declined for about 50&nbsp;years after Ashoka's rule, and dissolved in 185&nbsp;BCE with the assassination of Brihadratha by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]] and foundation of the [[Shunga Empire|Shunga dynasty]] in [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]].
It declined for about 50&nbsp;years after Ashoka's rule, and dissolved in 185&nbsp;BCE with the assassination of Brihadratha by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]] and the foundation of the [[Shunga Empire]] in Magadh.


Chandragupta Maurya raised an army, with the assistance of [[Chanakya]], author of the [[Arthashastra]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=India: A History|last=Keay|first=John|publisher=Grove Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8021-3797-5|pages=82}}</ref> and overthrew the [[Nanda Empire]] in {{circa|322 BCE}}. Chandragupta rapidly expanded his power westwards across central and western India by conquering the [[satrap]]s left by [[Alexander the Great]], and by 317 BCE the empire had fully occupied northwestern India.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=31}} The Mauryan Empire then defeated [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus I]], a [[Diadochi|diadochus]] and founder of the [[Seleucid Empire]], during the [[Seleucid–Mauryan war]], thus acquiring territory west of the [[Indus River]].<ref>[[Seleucus I]] ceded the territories of [[Arachosia]] (modern Kandahar), [[Gedrosia]] (modern [[Balochistan]]), and [[Paropamisadae]] (or [[Gandhara]]). [[Aria (satrapy)|Aria]] (modern [[Herat]]) "has been wrongly included in the list of ceded satrapies by some scholars ... on the basis of wrong assessments of the passage of Strabo ... and a statement by Pliny" (Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee 1996, p. 594).</ref>{{sfn|John D Grainger|2014|p=109|ps=: Seleucus "must ... have held Aria", and furthermore, his "son [[Antiochus I Soter|Antiochos]] was active there fifteen years later".}}
[[Chandragupta Maurya]] raised an army, with the assistance of [[Chanakya]], his teacher and the author of [[Arthashastra]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=India: A History|last=Keay|first=John|publisher=Grove Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8021-3797-5|pages=82}}</ref> and overthrew the [[Nanda Empire]] in {{circa|322 BCE}}, laying the foundation for the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta rapidly expanded his power west across central and western India by defeating the [[satrap]]s left by [[Alexander the Great]], and by 317 BCE the empire had fully occupied [[northwestern India]].{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=31}} The Mauryan Empire then defeated [[Seleucus I Nicator]], a [[Diadochi|diadochus]] and founder of the [[Seleucid Empire]], during the [[Seleucid–Mauryan war]], thus acquiring territory west of the [[Indus River]], [[Afghanistan]] and [[Balochistan]].<ref>[[Seleucus I]] ceded the territories of [[Arachosia]] (modern Kandahar), [[Gedrosia]] (modern Balochistan), and [[Paropamisadae]] (or [[Gandhara]]). [[Aria (satrapy)|Aria]] (modern [[Herat]]) "has been wrongly included in the list of ceded [[satrapy|satrapies]] by some scholars ... on the basis of wrong assessments of the passage of [[Strabo]] ... and a statement by [[Pliny]]{{dn|date=June 2023}}" (Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee 1996, p. 594).</ref>{{sfn|John D Grainger|2014|p=109|ps=: [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]] "must ... have held Aria", and furthermore, his "son [[Antiochus I Soter|Antiochos]] was active there fifteen years later".}}


Under the Mauryas, internal and external trade, agriculture, and economic activities thrived and expanded across South Asia due to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration, and security. The Maurya dynasty built Uttarapath, a precursor of the [[Grand Trunk Road]] from Patliputra to [[Taxila]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2016/dinner-on-the-grand-trunk-road/|title=Dinner on the Grand Trunk Road|last=Bhandari|first=Shirin|date=2016-01-05|publisher=Roads & Kingdoms|language=en-US|access-date=2016-07-19}}</ref> After the [[Kalinga War]], the Empire experienced nearly half a century of centralized rule under Ashoka. Ashoka's embrace of [[Buddhism]] and sponsorship of Buddhist missionaries allowed for the expansion of that faith into [[Anuradhapura Kingdom|Sri Lanka]], northwest India, and Central Asia.{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|p=67}}
Under the Mauryas, internal and external trade, agriculture, and economic activities thrived and expanded across India due to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration, and security. The Maurya dynasty built a precursor of the [[Grand Trunk Road]] from Pataliputra to [[Taxila]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2016/dinner-on-the-grand-trunk-road/|title=Dinner on the Grand Trunk Road|last=Bhandari|first=Shirin|date=2016-01-05|publisher=Roads & Kingdoms|language=en-US|access-date=2016-07-19}}</ref>After the [[Kalinga War]], the Empire experienced nearly half a century of centralized rule under Ashoka the Great. Ashoka's embrace of [[Buddhism]] and sponsorship of Buddhist missionaries allowed for the expansion of that faith into [[Sri Lanka]], northwest India, and [[Central Asia]].{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|p=67}}


The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-4">
The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-4">
{{citation
{{citation
|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=24}} Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 BCE) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."</ref>  
|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=24}} Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 BCE) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."</ref>  
The empire's period of dominion was marked by exceptional creativity in art, architecture, inscriptions and produced texts,<ref name="Ludden2013-lead-4">
The Maurya period was marked by exceptional creativity in art, architecture, inscriptions and texts,<ref name="Ludden2013-lead-4">
{{citation
{{citation
|last=Ludden
|last=Ludden
|first=David|title=India and South Asia: A Short History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbFHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|year=2013|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-108-6|pages=28–29}}Quote: "A creative explosion in all the arts was a most remarkable feature of this ancient transformation, a permanent cultural legacy. Mauryan territory was created in its day by awesome armies and dreadful war, but future generations would cherish its beautiful pillars, inscriptions, coins, sculptures, buildings, ceremonies, and texts, particularly later Buddhist writers."
|first=David|title=India and South Asia: A Short History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbFHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|year=2013|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-108-6|pages=28–30}}
</ref> but also by the consolidation of [[Caste in India|caste]] in the [[Gangetic plain]], and the declining rights of women in the mainstream [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan speaking]] regions of India.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-3">
</ref> but also by the consolidation of [[caste]] in the Gangetic plain, and the declining rights of women in mainstream [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan speaking]] regions of India.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-3">
{{citation
{{citation
|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=19}} Quote: "Accordingly, as tribal societies were encountered by the expanding Indo-Aryan societies, so the evolving caste system provided a framework within which—invariably at a low level—tribal people could be placed. For example, by the time of the Mauryan Empire (c.320–230 bce) the caste system was quite well established and the Aranyachará (i.e. forest people) were grouped with the most despised castes. ... The evolution of Indo-Aryan society in the centuries before c.200 bce not only saw increased segregation with respect to caste, it also seems to have seen increased differentiation with respect to gender. ... Therefore, by the time of the Mauryan Empire the position of women in mainstream Indo-Aryan society seems to have deteriorated. Customs such as child marriage and dowry were becoming entrenched; and a young women's purpose in life was to provide sons for the male lineage into which she married. To quote the Arthashāstra: 'wives are there for having sons'. Practices such as female infanticide and the neglect of young girls were possibly also developing at this time, especially among higher caste people. Further, due to the increasingly hierarchical nature of the society, marriage was possibly becoming an even more crucial institution for childbearing and the formalization of relationships between groups. In turn, this may have contributed to the growth of increasingly instrumental attitudes towards women and girls (who moved home at marriage). It is important to note that, in all likelihood, these developments did not affect people living in large parts of the subcontinent—such as those in the south, and tribal communities inhabiting the forested hill and plateau areas of central and eastern India. That said, these deleterious features have continued to blight Indo-Aryan speaking areas of the subcontinent until the present day."
|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=19}}</ref>  
</ref>  
Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of [[Northern Black Polished Ware]] (NBPW). The ''[[Arthashastra]]''<ref>"It is doubtful if, in its present shape, [the ''Arthashastra''] is as old as the time of the first Maurya", as it probably contains layers of text ranging from Maurya times till as late as the 2nd century CE. Nonetheless, "though a comparatively late work, it may be used ... to confirm and supplement the information gleaned from earlier sources". (Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee 1996, pp. 246–247)</ref> and the [[Edicts of Ashoka]] are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times.{{cn|date=April 2023}} The [[Lion Capital of Ashoka]] at [[Sarnath]] is the national [[emblem]] of the [[Republic of India]].
Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of [[Northern Black Polished Ware]] (NBPW). The ''Arthashastra''<ref>"It is doubtful if, in its present shape, [the ''Arthashastra''] is as old as the time of the first Maurya", as it probably contains layers of text ranging from Maurya times till as late as the 2nd century CE. Nonetheless, "though a comparatively late work, it may be used ... to confirm and supplement the information gleaned from earlier sources". (Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee 1996, pp. 246–247)</ref> and the [[Edicts of Ashoka]] are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times. The [[Lion Capital of Ashoka]] at [[Sarnath]] is the [[State Emblem of India|State Emblem of the Republic of India]].


== Etymology ==
== Etymology ==
{{See also|Jambudvīpa}}


The name "Maurya" does not occur in [[Edicts of Ashoka|Ashoka's inscriptions]], or the contemporary Greek accounts such as [[Megasthenes]]'s ''[[Indica (Megasthenes)|Indica]]'', but it is attested by the following sources:{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
The name "Maurya" does not occur in [[Edicts of Ashoka|Ashoka's inscriptions]], or the contemporary Greek accounts such as [[Megasthenes]]'s ''[[Indica (Megasthenes)|Indica]]'', but it is attested by the following sources:{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
Line 122: Line 123:
* The [[Puranas]] (c. 4th century CE or earlier) use Maurya as a dynastic appellation.{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
* The [[Puranas]] (c. 4th century CE or earlier) use Maurya as a dynastic appellation.{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
* The Buddhist texts state that Chandragupta belonged to the "[[Moriya (tribe)|Moriya]]" clan of the Shakyas, the tribe to which [[Gautama Buddha]] belonged.{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
* The Buddhist texts state that Chandragupta belonged to the "[[Moriya (tribe)|Moriya]]" clan of the Shakyas, the tribe to which [[Gautama Buddha]] belonged.{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
* The Jain texts state that Chandragupta was the son of an imperial superintendent of peacocks (''mayura-poshaka'').{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
* The Jain texts state that Chandragupta was the son of a royal superintendent of peacocks (''mayura-poshaka'').{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
*[[Sangam literature|Tamil Sangam literature]] also designate them as '{{transliteration|ta|moriyar}}' and mention them after the [[Nanda Empire|Nandas]]<ref name="Singh 2008">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ&q=mokur+sangam+poem&pg=PA385|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century|last=Singh|first=Upinder|date=2008|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=9788131716779|language=en}}</ref>
*[[Sangam literature|Tamil Sangam literature]] also designate them as '{{transliteration|ta|moriyar}}' and mention them after the [[Nanda Empire|Nandas]]<ref name="Singh 2008">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ&q=mokur+sangam+poem&pg=PA385|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century|last=Singh|first=Upinder|date=2008|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=9788131716779|language=en}}</ref>
*[[Kuntala country|Kuntala]] inscription (from the town of Bandanikke, [[Mysore district|North Mysore]]) of 12th century AD chronologically mention Maurya as one of the dynasties which ruled the region.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107941|title=Annual Report Of Mysore 1886 To 1903|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
*[[Kuntala country|Kuntala]] inscription (from the town of Bandanikke, [[Mysore district|North Mysore]]) of 12th century AD chronologically mention Mauryya as one of the dynasties which ruled the region.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107941|title=Annual Report Of Mysore 1886 To 1903|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
*The Kalpasutra of the Jains mentions a Mauryaputra of the Kasyapa gotra, which shows that the Mauryas were regarded as high class folk who was the disciple of Mahavira.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/chandraguptamaur035072mbp|title=Chandragupta Maurya|last=Purushottam Lal Bhargava|publisher=The Upper India Publishing House Ltd Lucknow|others=BRAOU, Digital Library Of India}}</ref>
According to Kharavela' [[Hathigumpha inscription]] (2nd-1st century BC) mentions era of Maurya Empire as Muriya Kala (Mauryan era),<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/epigrahiaindicav014769mbp|title=Epigraphia Indica Vol.20|date=1920|publisher=Archaeological Survey of India|page=[https://archive.org/details/epigrahiaindicav014769mbp/page/n106 80]|language=en}}</ref> but this reading is disputed: other scholars—such as epigraphist [[D. C. Sircar]]—read the phrase as mukhiya-kala ("the principal art").<ref>{{cite book | chapter=The Satavahanas and the Chedis | author = [[D. C. Sircar]] | year = 1968 | title =The Age of Imperial Unity | editor = [[R. C. Majumdar]] | publisher = Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan | page = 215 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=J1SgAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>


According to some scholars, Kharavela's [[Hathigumpha inscription]] (2nd-1st century BC) mentions era of Maurya Empire as Muriya Kala (Mauryan era),<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/epigrahiaindicav014769mbp|title=Epigraphia Indica Vol.20|date=1920|publisher=Archaeological Survey of India|page=[https://archive.org/details/epigrahiaindicav014769mbp/page/n106 80]|language=en}}</ref> but this reading is disputed: other scholars—such as epigraphist [[D. C. Sircar]]—read the phrase as mukhiya-kala ("the principal art").<ref>{{cite book | chapter=The Satavahanas and the Chedis | author = [[D. C. Sircar]] | year = 1968 | title =The Age of Imperial Unity | editor = [[R. C. Majumdar]] | publisher = Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan | page = 215 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=J1SgAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>
According to the Buddhist tradition, the ancestors of the Maurya kings had settled in a region where peacocks (''mora'' in [[Pali language|Pali]]) were abundant. Therefore, they came to be known as "Moriyas", literally meaning, "belonging to the place of peacocks". According to another Buddhist account, these ancestors built a city called Moriya-nagara ("Moriya-city"), which was so called, because it was built with the "bricks coloured like peacocks' necks".{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=14}}
 
According to the Buddhist tradition, the ancestors of the Maurya kings had settled in a region where peacocks (''mora'' in [[Pali language|Pali]]) were abundant. Therefore, they came to be known as "Moriyas", literally meaning, "belonging to the place of peacocks". According to another Buddhist account, these ancestors built a city called Moriya-nagara ("Peacock-city"), which was so called, because it was built with the "bricks coloured like peacocks' necks".{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=14}}


The dynasty's connection to the peacocks, as mentioned in the Buddhist and Jain traditions, seems to be corroborated by archaeological evidence. For example, peacock figures are found on the [[Lauria Nandangarh#Pillar of Ashoka|Ashoka pillar at Nandangarh]] and several sculptures on the Great Stupa of [[Sanchi]]. Based on this evidence, modern scholars theorize that the peacock may have been the dynasty's emblem.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=15}}
The dynasty's connection to the peacocks, as mentioned in the Buddhist and Jain traditions, seems to be corroborated by archaeological evidence. For example, peacock figures are found on the [[Lauria Nandangarh#Pillar of Ashoka|Ashoka pillar at Nandangarh]] and several sculptures on the Great Stupa of [[Sanchi]]. Based on this evidence, modern scholars theorize that the peacock may have been the dynasty's emblem.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=15}}


Some later authors, such as [[Dhundhiraja of Svamimalai|Dhundhi-raja]] (an 18th-century commentator on the ''[[Mudrarakshasa]]'' and an annotator of the ''[[Vishnu Purana]]''), state that the word "Maurya" is derived from Mura and the mother of the first Maurya emperor. However, the Puranas themselves make no mention of Mura and do not talk of any relation between the Nanda and the Maurya dynasties.{{sfn|H. C. Raychaudhuri|1988|p=140}} Dhundiraja's derivation of the word seems to be his own invention: according to the Sanskrit rules, the derivative of the feminine name Mura ([[IAST]]: Murā) would be "Maureya"; the term "Maurya" can only be derived from the masculine "Mura".{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=8}}
Some later authors, such as [[Dhundhiraja of Svamimalai|Dhundhi-raja]] (an 18th-century commentator on the ''[[Mudrarakshasa]]'' and an annotator of the ''[[Vishnu Purana]]''), state that the word "Maurya" is derived from Mura and the mother of the first Maurya king. However, the Puranas themselves make no mention of Mura and do not talk of any relation between the Nanda and the Maurya dynasties.{{sfn|H. C. Raychaudhuri|1988|p=140}} Dhundiraja's derivation of the word seems to be his own invention: according to the Sanskrit rules, the derivative of the feminine name Mura ([[IAST]]: Murā) would be "Maureya"; the term "Maurya" can only be derived from the masculine "Mura".{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=8}}


==History==
==History==
Line 138: Line 139:
===Founding===
===Founding===


Prior to the Maurya Empire, the [[Nanda Empire]] ruled over a broad swathe of the Indian subcontinent. The Nanda Empire was a large, militaristic, and economically powerful empire due to conquering the [[mahajanapadas]]. According to several legends, Chanakya travelled to [[Pataliputra]], [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]], the capital of the Nanda Empire where Chanakya worked for the Nandas as a [[Amatya|minister]]. However, Chanakya was insulted by the King [[Dhana Nanda]] when he informed them of Alexander's invasion. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire.<ref name="Namita20082">{{cite book|last1=Sugandhi|first1=Namita Sanjay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bdULPF4gNYC&pg=PA88|title=Between the Patterns of History: Rethinking Mauryan Imperial Interaction in the Southern Deccan|year=2008|isbn=9780549744412|pages=88–89}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> He had to flee in order to save his life and went to [[Taxila]], a notable center of learning, to work as a teacher. On one of his travels, Chanakya witnessed some young men playing a rural game practicing a pitched battle. One of the boys was none other than Chandragupta. Chanakya was impressed by the young Chandragupta and saw imperial qualities in him as someone fit to rule.
Prior to the Maurya Empire, the [[Nanda Empire]] ruled over a broad swathe of the Indian subcontinent. The Nanda Empire was a large, militaristic, and economically powerful empire due to conquering the [[Mahajanapadas]]. According to several legends, Chanakya travelled to [[Pataliputra]], [[Magadha]], the capital of the Nanda Empire where Chanakya worked for the Nandas as a minister. However, Chanakya was insulted by the Emperor [[Dhana Nanda]] when he informed them of Alexander's invasion. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire.<ref name="Namita20082">{{cite book|last1=Sugandhi|first1=Namita Sanjay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bdULPF4gNYC&pg=PA88|title=Between the Patterns of History: Rethinking Mauryan Imperial Interaction in the Southern Deccan|year=2008|isbn=9780549744412|pages=88–89}}</ref> He had to flee in order to save his life and went to [[Taxila]], a notable center of learning, to work as a teacher. On one of his travels, Chanakya witnessed some young men playing a rural game practicing a pitched battle. One of the boys was none other than Chandragupta. Chanakya was impressed by the young Chandragupta and saw royal qualities in him as someone fit to rule.
 
Meanwhile, [[Alexander the Great]] was leading his Indian campaigns and ventured into Punjab. His army mutinied at the [[Beas River]] and refused to advance farther eastward when confronted by another army. Alexander returned to [[Babylon]] and re-deployed most of his troops west of the [[Indus River]]. Soon after Alexander died in Babylon in 323&nbsp;BCE, his empire fragmented into independent kingdoms led by his generals.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=31}}
 
The Maurya Empire was established in the Magadha region under the leadership of Chandragupta Maurya and his mentor Chanakya. Chandragupta was taken to Taxila by Chanakya and was tutored about statecraft and governing. Requiring an army Chandragupta recruited and annexed local [[Gaṇasaṅgha|military republics]] such as the [[Yaudheya]]s that had resisted Alexander's Empire. The Mauryan army quickly rose to become the prominent regional power in the North West of the Indian subcontinent. The Mauryan army then conquered the satraps established by the [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia ns]].<ref>{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999 |page=162|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen
}}</ref> Ancient Greek historians [[Nearchus]], [[Onesictrius]], and [[Aristobolus]] have provided lot of information about the Mauryan empire.<ref>{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999 |page=130|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen
}}</ref> The Greek generals [[Eudemus (general)|Eudemus]] and [[Peithon, son of Agenor|Peithon]] ruled in the Indus Valley until around 317&nbsp;BCE, when Chandragupta Maurya (with the help of Chanakya, who was now his advisor) fought and drove out the Greek governors, and subsequently brought the Indus Valley under the control of his new seat of power in Magadha.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=31}}
 
Chandragupta Maurya's ancestry is shrouded in mystery and controversy. On one hand, a number of ancient Indian accounts, such as the drama ''[[Mudrarakshasa]]'' (''Signet ring of Rakshasa'' – ''Rakshasa'' was the prime minister of Magadha) by [[Vishakhadatta]], describe his royal ancestry and even link him with the Nanda family. A kshatriya clan known as the Mauryas are referred to in the earliest [[Buddhist texts]], [[Mahaparinibbana Sutta]]. However, any conclusions are hard to make without further historical evidence. Chandragupta first emerges in Greek accounts as "Sandrokottos". As a young man he is said to have met Alexander.<ref>:"Androcottus, when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself, and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly missed making himself master of the country, since its king was hated and despised on account of his baseness and low birth." [[Plutarch]]  62-3 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243&layout=&loc=62.1 Plutarch 62-3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028230118/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243&layout=&loc=62.1 |date=28 October 2008 }}</ref> Chanakya is said to have met the Nanda king, angered him, and made a narrow escape.<ref>:"He was of humble Indian to a change of rule." Justin XV.4.15 "Fuit hic humili quidem genere natus, sed ad regni potestatem maiestate numinis inpulsus. Quippe cum procacitate sua Nandrum regem offendisset, interfici a rege iussus salutem pedum ceieritate quaesierat. (Ex qua fatigatione cum somno captus iaceret, leo ingentis formae ad dormientem accessit sudoremque profluentem lingua ei detersit expergefactumque blande reliquit. Hoc prodigio primum ad spem regni inpulsus) contractis latronibus Indos ad nouitatem regni sollicitauit." [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/texte15.html Justin XV.4.15] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201051124/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/texte15.html |date=1 February 2016 }}</ref>
 
==Empire Expansion==
===Conquest of the Nanda Empire===
Historically reliable inscription details of Chandragupta's campaign against [[Nanda Empire]] are unavailable and but later written Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu texts which claim [[Magadha]] was ruled by the [[Nanda dynasty]], which, with [[Chanakya]]'s counsel, [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]] conquered Nanda Empire.{{sfn|Thapar|2013|pp=362–364}}{{sfn|Sen|1895|pp=26–32}}{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=272}} The army of Chandragupta and Chanakya first conquered the Nanda outer territories, and finally besieged the Nanda capital '''Pataliputra'''. In contrast to the easy victory in Buddhist sources, the Hindu and Jain texts state that the campaign was bitterly fought because the Nanda dynasty had a powerful and well-trained army.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=28–33}}{{sfn|Sen|1895|pp=26–32}}
[[File:Nanda Empire, c.325 BCE.png|thumb|Nanda_Empire 323 BCE]]
The Buddhist ''Mahavamsa Tika'' and Jain ''Parishishtaparvan'' records Chandragupta's army unsuccessfully attacking the Nanda capital. {{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=175–188}} Chandragupta and Chanakya then began a campaign at the frontier of the Nanda empire, gradually conquering various territories on their way to the Nanda capital.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=33}} He then refined his strategy by establishing garrisons in the conquered territories, and finally besieged the Nanda capital Pataliputra. There [[Dhana Nanda]] accepted defeat.{{sfn|Malalasekera|2002|p=383}}{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=33-34}} The conquest was fictionalised in ''Mudrarakshasa'' play, it contains narratives not found in other versions of the Chanakya-Chandragupta legend.[[Radha Kumud Mukherjee]] similarly considers Mudrakshasa play without historical basis.<ref>Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, p.26-27 {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA27 |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |access-date=2016-11-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127023139/https://books.google.fr/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA27 |archive-date=27 November 2016 |df=dmy-all |isbn=9788120804050 |last1=Mookerji |first1=Radhakumud |year=1966 }}</ref>
 
These legends state that the Nanda king was defeated, deposed and exiled by some accounts, while Buddhist accounts claim he was killed.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=34}} With the defeat of Dhana Nanda, Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire.{{sfn|Roy|2012|p=62}}
 
===Conquest of the Eastern Seleucid Empire===
[[File:Seleucid Empire.png|thumb|Seleucid Empire 281 BCE]]
[[File:Chandragupta Maurya Empire c.290 BCE.png|thumb|Chandragupta Maurya Empire c.290 BCE]]
 
Greek historians mentioned the result of [[Seleucid–Mauryan war]] where Seleucid Empire's eastern satrapies( [[Gedrosia]],[[Arachosia]], [[Aria]], and [[Paropamisadae]]) ceded to Mauryan Empire :
{{quote|text= " Seleucus crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of he Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until  they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship.  Some of these exploits were performed before the death of Antigonus and some afterward." |sign=<small>[[Appian]]</small>|source=''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-the-syrian-wars/appian-the-syrian-wars-11/ 55]}}
{{quote|text= " The geographical position of the tribes is as follows: along the Indus are the Paropamisadae, above whom lies the Paropamisus mountain: then, towards the south, the Arachoti: then next, towards the south, the Gedroseni, with the other tribes that occupy the seaboard; and the Indus lies, latitudinally, alongside all these places; and of these places, in part, some that lie along the Indus are held by Indians, although they formerly belonged to the Persians. Alexander [III 'the Great' of Macedon] took these away from the Arians and established settlements of his own, but [[Seleucus Nicator]] gave them to [[Sandrocottus]] [Chandragupta], upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange five hundred elephants. " |sign=<small>[[Strabo]] </small>|source= 15.2.9<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15B*.html#2.9]</ref> }}
Greecian historian Pliny also quoted a passage from Megasthanes work about Chandragupta Empire boundaries:
<blockquote>
Most geographers, in fact, do not look upon India as bounded by the river Indus, but add to it the four satrapies of the [[Gedrosia|Gedrose]], the [[Arachosia|Arachotë]], the [[Herat|Aria]], and the [[Paropamisadë]], the [[Kabul River|River Cophes]] thus forming the extreme boundary of India. According to other writers, however, all these territories, are reckoned as belonging to the country of the Aria. 
 
— Pliny, Natural History VI, 23<ref>Pliny, Natural History VI, 23[https://archive.today/20121210070738/http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+6.23]</ref><ref>Pliny, Natural History VI, 23[https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof21855plin/page/50/mode/1up]</ref>
</blockquote>
The conquest of the south by Chandragupta Maurya may also perhaps be inferred from the following statement of Plutarch. "The throne" in the context is the Magadhan throne, the occupation of which by Chandragupta is thus followed by two other events, viz., the defeat of Selucus, and the conquest of the remaining part of India not included in the Magadhan empire of the Nandas:
 
<blockquote>"Not long afterwards Androkottos, who had by that time mounted the throne, presented Selukos with 500 elephants, and overran and subdued the whole of India with an army of 600,000."
<br>
— Chapter LXII ,Life of Alexander, Plutarch<ref>Chapter LXII ,Life of Alexander, Plutarch [https://books.google.co.in/books?id=TXtEAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false]</ref>
</blockquote>
Megasthenes defined the region that Chandragupta won from Seleucus as likely western side Gedrosia which shares boundaries with the Euphrates River, and eastern side Arachosia shares boundaries with the Indus. The northern frontier boundary formed by Hindukush mountain range:
<blockquote>
India, which is in shape quadrilateral, has its eastern as well as its western side bounded by the great sea, but on the northern side it is divided by Mount Hemôdos from that part of Skythia which is inhabited by those Skythians who are called the Sakai, while the fourth or western side is bounded by the river called the Indus.
<br>
— Book I Fragment I , Indica, Megasthanes<ref>Book I Fragment I , Indica, Megasthanes by Mccrindle, J. W[https://archive.org/details/AncientIndiaAsDescribedByMegasthenesAndArrianByMccrindleJ.W/page/n39/mode/1up]</ref>
</blockquote>
[[File:SakastanMap.jpg|thumb|Satrapian provinces in northwestern India which ceaded to Chandragupta by Selucus due to [[Treaty of Indus]].]]
<blockquote>
Sandrokottos the king of the Indians, India forms the largest of the four parts into which Southern Asia is divided, while the smallest part is that region which is included between the Euphrates and our own sea. The two remaining parts, which are separated from the others by the Euphrates and the Indus, and lie between these rivers...
India is bounded on its eastern side, right onwards to the south, by the great ocean; that its northern frontier is formed by the Kaukasos range(Hindukush Range) as far as the junction of that range with Tauros; and that the boundary.
 
— Book I Fragment II , Indica, Megasthanes<ref>Book I Fragment II , Indica, Megasthanes[https://archive.org/details/AncientIndiaAsDescribedByMegasthenesAndArrianByMccrindleJ.W/page/n54/mode/1up]</ref>
</blockquote>
 
====Treaty of the Indus====
The ancient historians Justin, Appian, and Strabo preserve the three main terms of the Treaty of the Indus:<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=9UWdAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire|last=Kosmin|first=Paul J.|date=2014-06-23|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-72882-0|language=en}}</ref>
 
(i) Seleucus transferred to Chandragupta's kingdom the easternmost satrapies of his empire, certainly Gandhara, Parapamisadae, and the eastern parts of Gedrosia, Arachosia and Aria as far as Herat.
 
(ii) Chandragupta gave Seleucus 500 Indian war elephants.
 
(iii) The two kings were joined by some kind of marriage alliance (ἐπιγαμία οι κῆδος); most likely Chandragupta wed a female relative of Seleucus.
====Other account====
*Tibbetan Lama Taranatha (1575–1634)
 
<blockquote>Ashoka brought under his rule without bloodshed all the countries including those to the south of the Vindhya. And he conquered the northern Himalayas, the snowy ranges beyond Li-yul (Khotan)," the entire land of Jambudvipa bounded by seas on east, south and west, and also fifty small islands.
 
— History Of Buddhism In India ,Taranatha<ref>History Of Buddhism In India ,Taranatha[https://archive.org/details/TaranathasHistoryOfBuddhismInIndia/page/n89/mode/2up]</ref>
</blockquote><br>
<blockquote>
Ashoka served as a viceroy during the rule of his father Bindusara.
According to established constitutional usage, Asoka as Prince served as viceroy in one of the remoter provinces of the Empire. This was the province of Western India called Avantirattham  or province of Avanti with headquarter at Ujjain.
<br>
— Mahabodhivamsa, pg.98<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Asoka|last=Mookerji|first=Radhakumud|date=1962|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishe|isbn=978-81-208-0582-8|language=en}}</ref>
</blockquote>
[[File:Bindusara Empire.png|thumb|Bindusara Empire 273 BCE]]
 
===Conquest of the Saurashtra===
Chandragupta conquered Southern-Western part of India. Especially his conquest over Saurashtra and Sudarshana lake construction is preseved in later Satrapian king Rudradaman inscription:
 
<blockquote>
''8. mauryasya rājyaḥ candra-guptasya rāṣṭriyena vaiśyena puṣpa-guptena kāritam śokasya mauryasya kṛte yavana-raj tuṣāra-saphenādhāyā''
 
—Junagadh rock inscription of [[Rudradaman]]<ref name="WB">[http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/Docs/HISTORY/PRIMARYDOCS/EPIGRAPHY/JunagadhRockInscription.htm  "Junagadh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman", ''Project South Asia''.]{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223182107/http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/Docs/HISTORY/PRIMARYDOCS/EPIGRAPHY/JunagadhRockInscription.htm |date=23 February 2009 }}</ref>
 
'''Translation''' : for the sake of ordered to be made by the Vaishya Pushyagupta, the provincial governor of the Maurya king [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]]; adorned with conduits for [[Ashoka]] the Maurya by the [[Yavana]] king [[Tushaspha]] while governing; and by the conduit ordered to be made by him, constructed in a manner worthy of a king (and) seen in that breach.
</blockquote>
 
===Rule over territories of Yonas , Kambojas, Nabhakas, Nabhapamktis, Bhojas, Pitinikas, Andhras and Palidas===
 
The [[Kambojas]] are a people of Central Asian origin who had settled first in [[Arachosia]] and [[Drangiana]] (today's southern Afghanistan), and in some of the other areas in the northwestern Indian subcontinent in [[Sindhu]], [[Gujarat]] and [[Sauvira]]. The Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the [[Pitinikas]], the [[Andhras]] and the [[Palidas]] were other people under Ashoka's rule:
 
<blockquote>
 
''9. hidā laja viśavashi Yona Kambojeshu Nabhaka Nabhapamtishu Bhoja Pitinikyeshu''
 
''10. Adha Paladeshu shavata Devānampiyashā dhammanushathi anuvatamti[] yata pi dutā''
 
— Ashoka, Rock Edict 13 , Kalsi Rock, South Portion.<ref>Ashoka, Rock Edict 13 , Kalsi Rock, South Portion by E. Hultzsch[https://archive.org/details/InscriptionsOfAsoka.NewEditionByE.Hultzsch/page/n186/mode/1up?view=theater]</ref>
 
'''Translation''' : Likewise here in the king's (Ashoka ) territory, among the [[Yonas]] and [[Kambojas]], among the [[Nabhakas]] and [[Nabhapamkits]],  among the [[Bhojas]] and the [[Pitinikas]],  among the [[Andhras]] and the [[Palidas]],  everywhere (people) are conforming to Beloved-Of-God (Ashoka) instruction in morality.
</blockquote>
 
===Conquest of the Kalinga===
[[Kalinga War]] plays a very important role in Mauryan history which changes a cruel Emperor Chanda-Ashoka to Priyadarshi Ashoka.
 
<blockquote> "Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Priyadarsi(Ashoka)conquered the Kalingas eight years after his coronation. One hundred and fifty thousand were deported, one hundred thousand were killed and many more died (from other causes). After the Kalingas had been conquered, Beloved-of-the-Gods came to feel a strong inclination towards the Dharma, a love for the Dharma and for instruction in Dharma. Now Beloved-of-the-Gods feels deep remorse for having conquered the Kalingas. "
 
— Ashoka, Major Rock Edict 13<ref>Ashoka, Major Rock Edict 13 [https://books.google.co.in/books?id=K4vHjbUtf_4C&pg=PT82&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false]</ref>
</blockquote>
 
===Conquest of the Kuntala===
Shikarpur Taluq inscription mentioned about Mauryan ruling in the region of [[Kuntala country|Kuntala]] .The Kuntala country is an ancient Indian political region  included the western Deccan and some parts of central,south Karnataka and north Mysore.
[[File:South India 500 to 200 BCE.jpg|thumb|South India , Kuntala present in Western coastal region]]
<blockquote>
''Kuntala-kshôpiyam pesarvett â-nava-Nanda-Gupta-kula-Mauryya-kshmâpar aldar llasaj-jasad''
 
— Shikarpur Taluq, inscription 225<ref>Shikarpur Taluq inscription 225, Epigraphia Carnatica, Volume 17[https://archive.org/details/epigraphia_carnatica_vol7_myso/page/n327/mode/1up]</ref><ref>Shikarpur Taluq inscription 225, Epigraphia Carnatica Volume 17[https://archive.org/details/epigraphia_carnatica_vol7_myso/page/n587/mode/1up]</ref>
 
'''Translation''' : The Kuntala country, which is like curls (kuntaja) to the lady Earth, was-ruled by the renowned nine Nandas, the Gupta and Mauryan kings.
</blockquote>
 
===Conquest of the Nepala===
According to the Asokavadana, it is stated that in his youth, Ashoka subdued the revolt in the of the Khasas (present day Nepala region) and [[Taxila|Taksasila]]. Similarly, in contrast, according to a 15th-century Tibetan historian:
<blockquote>
Meanwhile, peoples of the hilly countries like Nepal and Khasya revolted. Asoka was sent with the army to subdue them. Without difficulty Asoka subdued .the hilly races, imposed levy and annual tax on them, realised ransom from them and offered these to the king.
 
— History Of Buddhism In India ,[[Taranatha]]<ref>History Of Buddhism In India ,[[Taranatha]][https://archive.org/details/TaranathasHistoryOfBuddhismInIndia/page/n80/mode/1up]</ref>
</blockquote>
Apart from Taranath's account, it is noteworthy that Ashoka was responsible for the construction of several significant structures in Nepal. These include the [[Ramagrama Stupa]],[[Gotihawa|Gotihawa Pillar of Ashoka]], [[Nigali Sagar|Nigali-Sagar Ashoka Pillar inscription]] , and the [[Lumbini pillar inscription]] of Ashoka.The Chinese pilgrims [[Fa-Hien]] (337 CE – c. 422 CE) and [[Xuanzang]] (602–664 CE) describe the Kanakamuni Stupa and the Asoka Pillar of currently Nepal region in their travel accounts. Xuanzang speaks of a lion capital atop the pillar, now lost. A base of a [[Pillar of Ashoka]] has been discovered at [[Gotihawa]], a few miles from Nigali Sagar, and it has been suggested that it is the original base of the Nigalar Sagar pillar fragments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ghosh |first=A. |date=1967 |title=The Pillars of Aśoka - Their Purpose |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29755169 |journal=East and West |volume=17 |issue=3/4 |pages=273–275 |issn=0012-8376}}</ref>
 
===Boundaries sharing territories===
 
Even though Ashoka defined the boundaries of his empire four times in various inscriptions ('''with same lines''') but he never mentioned any inner hole or unconquered region inside his empire.This suggests that Ashoka's empire was likely contiguous, with no significant unconquered regions within its borders :
----
<blockquote>
''3. Sav[r]atra vijite [De]va[naṃ]priyasa Priyadraśisa y[e] ca [a]ṃta yathā [Coḍa] Paṃḍiya Satiyaputro Keraḍaputro Taṃbapaṃṇī Aṃtiyo[k]o nāma Yonaraja ye ca aṃñe tasa Aṃtiyokasa samaṃta rajano ''
 
''4. savratra Devanaṃpriyasa Priyadraśisa raño du[vi] cik[i]sa [kr]i[ṭa] manusa-cikisa .. pa[śu-c]ikisa [ca]''
 
—Second Rock-Edict: Shahbazgarhi<ref>Second Rock-Edict, Shahbazgarhi by E. Hultzsch[https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.25989/page/51/mode/1up]</ref>
</blockquote>
----
<blockquote>
''4. Sav[a]ta vijitsi Devanampiyas[a] Piyadasis[a] lajine ye cha amta [a]tha Choda Pam[di]ya Satiyaputo Ke[lala]puto Tamba[pa]mni''
 
''5. Aṃtiyoge [n]āma Yona-lājā ye ca aṃne tas[ā A]ṃtiyogasā sā[ma]ṃta lā[j]ano [sa]vatā Devānaṃpiyasā Piyadasisā lājine duve cikisakā kaṭā manusacikisā cā pasu-cikisā cā ''
 
—Second Rock Edict: Kalsi<ref>Second Rock Edict, Kalsi by E. Hultzsch[https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.25989/page/28/mode/1up]</ref>
</blockquote>
----
<blockquote>
''6. Sa[vatra vi]jitasi Devanapriyasa Priyadrasisa rajine ye cha ata atha [Choda] Pa[mdiya] Sa[ti]ya[p]u[tra] Keralaputra [Tam]bapani Atiyoge nama Yona-raja ye cha [a] .... sa ......[gasa] samata ra[jane sa]vratra ...... priyasa Priyadrasisa rajine''
 
''7. duve chikisa [ka]ta manusa-chik[isa cha] pasu [chi]kisa cha ''
 
—Second Rock Edict: Mansehra<ref>Second Rock Edict, Mansehra by E. Hultzsch[https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.25989/page/71/mode/1up]</ref>
</blockquote>
----
<blockquote>
''1. Sarvata vijitamhi Devānaṃpriyasa Piyadasino rāño''
 
''2. evamapi pracaṃtesu yathā Coḍa Pāḍā Satiyaputo Ketalaputo ā Taṃba-''
 
''3. paṃṇī Aṃtiyako Yona-rājā ye vā pi tasa Aṃtiy[a]kas[a] sāmīp[aṃ] ''
 
''4. rājāno sarvatra Devānaṃpriyasa Priyadasino rāño dve cikīcha katā ''
 
''5 manusa-cīkichā ca pasu cikīchā ca''
 
—Second Rock Edict :Girnar<ref>Second Rock Edict, Girnar by E. Hultzsch[https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.25989/page/n136/mode/1up]</ref>
</blockquote>
----
'''— [[James Prinsep]] Translation''' : Everywhere within the conquered province of Raja Piyadasi (Ashoka), the beloved of the gods, as well as in the parts occupied by the faithful, such as Chola, Pandiya, Satiyaputra, and Keralaputra, even as fart as Tambapanni (Sri Lanka) and, moreover, within the dominions the Greek (of which [[Antiochus]] generals are the rulers ) everywhere the heaven-beloved Raja Piyadasi’s double system of medical aid is established— both medical aid for men, and medical aid for animals, together with the medicaments of all sorts, which are suitable for men, and suitable for animals.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.25520/page/117/mode/1up|title=Complete Works of Alexander Cunningham: Inscriptions of Asoka Vol I|last=Cunningham|page=117|first=Alexander|date=1969|publisher=Indological Book House, Varanasi}}</ref>
 
'''— [[E. Hultzsch]] Translation:''' Everywhere in the dominions of Dévanampriya Priyadarsina, and (of those) who (are his) borderers, such as the Cholas, the Pandyas, the Satiyaputra, the Kéralaputra, Tamaraparni, the Yona(Greek) king named Antiyoka , and the other kings who are the neighbours of this Antiyoka, everywhere two kinds of medical treatment were established by king Devanampriya Priyadarsin, (viz.) medical treatment for men and medical treatment for cattle.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.25989/page/52/mode/1up|title=Inscriptions of Asoka, Vol. I|page=52|last=Hultzsch|first=E.|date=1989|publisher=Indological Book House, Varanasi}}</ref>
 
[[File:Ashoka Maurya Empire 250 BCE.jpg|thumb|Possible Mauryan Empire size according to details given in Ashoka Second Rock Edict of Shahbazgarhi , Kalsi ,Mansera and Girnar.]]
 
===Empire reconstruction from fragments===
 
According to the account of Fa Hein who was the first Chinese pilgrim to visit India during 399 and 414 CE. His work "The travels of Fa-Hian (400 A.D.)"mentioned that Ashoka constructed 84,000 Buddhist stupas and pillars after destroying seven stupas that initially housed Buddha relics. Ashoka divided the relics from these seven stupas into 84,000 parts :
<br>
<blockquote> " King Asoka having destroyed seven (of the original) pagodas, constructed 84,000 others. The very first which he built is the great tower which stands about three li to the south of this. city. In front of this pagoda is an impression of Buddha’s foot, (over which) they have raised a chapel, the gate of which faces the north. To the south of the tower is a stone pillar, about a chang and a half in girth (18 feet), and three cluing or so in height (35 feet). On the surface of this pillar is an inscription to the following effect: “King Asoka presented the whole of Jambudvipa to the priests of the four quarters, and redeemed it again with money, and tins he did three times.” Three or four hundred paces to the north of the pagoda is the spot where Asoka was horn (or resided). On this spot he raised the city of Ni-li, and in the midst of it erected a stone pillar, also about 35 feet in height, on the top of which he placed the figure of a lion, and also engraved an historical record on the pillar giving an account of the successive events connected with Ni-li, with the corresponding year, day, and month."
<br>
— Chapter XXVII , The travels of Fa-Hian (400 A.D)<ref>Chapter XXVII , The travels of Fa-Hian (400 A.D)[https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/the-travels-of-fa-hian/d/doc220127.html]</ref></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
" When King Asoka was living he wished to destroy the eight towers and to build eighty-four thousand others. Having destroyed seven, he next proceeded to treat this one in the same way."
 
— Chapter XXIII ,The travels of Fa-Hian (400 A.D)<ref>Chapter XXIII ,The travels of Fa-Hian (400 A.D)[https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/the-travels-of-fa-hian/d/doc220123.html]</ref>
</blockquote>


{{Continental Asia in 200 BCE|right|The Maurya Empire and contemporary Asian polities circa 200 BCE||Gupta Empire map.png}}
Ashoka built one pillar beside every stupa :
Meanwhile, [[Alexander the Great]] was leading his Indian campaigns and ventured into Punjab. His army mutinied at the [[Beas River]] and refused to advance farther eastward when confronted by another army. Alexander returned to [[Babylon]] and re-deployed most of his troops west of the [[Indus River]]. Soon after Alexander died in Babylon in 323&nbsp;BCE, his empire fragmented into independent kingdoms ruled by his generals.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=31}}
<blockquote>
" In after times Asoka, wishing to discover the utmost depths to which these ladders went, employed men to dig down and examine into it. They went on digging till they came to the yellow spring (the earth's foundation), but yet had not come to the bottom. The king, deriving from this an increase of faith and reverence, forthwith built over the ladders a and facing the middle flight he placed a standing figure (of Buddha) sixteen feet high. Behind the vihara, he erected a stone pillar thirty cubits high, and on the top placed the figure of a lion. Within the pillar on the four sides are figures of Buddha; both within and without it is shining and bright as glass. It happened once that some heretical doctors had a contention with the Sramanas respecting this as a place of residence. Then the argument of the Sramanas failing, they all agreed to the following compact: "If this place properly belongs to the Sramanas, then there will he some supernatural proof given of it." Immediately on this the lion on the top of the pillar uttered a loud roar."
—Chapter XVII, The travels of Fa-Hian (400 A.D)<ref>Chapter XVII, The travels of Fa-Hian (400 A.D)[https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/the-travels-of-fa-hian/d/doc220117.html]</ref>
</blockquote>


The Maurya Empire was established in the Magadha region under the leadership of Chandragupta Maurya and his mentor Chanakya. Chandragupta was taken to Taxila by Chanakya and was tutored about statecraft and governing. Requiring an army Chandragupta recruited and annexed local [[Gaṇasaṅgha|military republics]] such as the [[Yaudheya]]s that had resisted Alexander's Empire. The Mauryan army quickly rose to become the prominent regional power in the North West of the Indian subcontinent. The Mauryan army then conquered the satraps established by the [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonians]].<ref>{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999 |page=162|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen
Ashoka commissioned the construction of 84,000 stupas for the preservation of Buddha's relics. However, over time, many of the Ashoka pillars , inscriptions and stupas have been subject to complete destruction and deterioration. According to the British historian Charles Allen, historical records of Ashoka were effectively cleansed to the extent that his name was largely forgotten for nearly two thousand years. However, very few mysterious stone monuments and inscriptions miraculously survived, preserving his historical legacy :
}}</ref> Ancient Greek historians [[Nearchus]], [[Onesictrius]], and [[Aristobulus of Cassandreia|Aristobolus]] have provided lot of information about the Mauryan empire.<ref>{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999 |page=130|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen
}}</ref> The Greek generals [[Eudemus (general)|Eudemus]] and [[Peithon, son of Agenor|Peithon]] ruled in the [[Indus Valley]] until around 317&nbsp;BCE, when Chandragupta Maurya (with the help of Chanakya, who was now his advisor) fought and drove out the Greek governors, and subsequently brought the Indus Valley under the control of his new seat of power in Magadha.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=31}}


Chandragupta Maurya's ancestry is shrouded in mystery and controversy. On one hand, a number of ancient Indian accounts, such as the drama ''[[Mudrarakshasa]]'' (''Signet ring of Rakshasa'' – ''Rakshasa'' was the prime minister of Magadha) by [[Vishakhadatta]], describe his royal ancestry and even link him with the Nanda family. A kshatriya clan known as the Mauryas are referred to in the earliest [[Buddhist texts]], [[Mahāparinibbāna Sutta]]. However, any conclusions are hard to make without further historical evidence. Chandragupta first emerges in Greek accounts as "Sandrokottos". As a young man he is said to have met Alexander.<ref>:"Androcottus, when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself, and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly missed making himself master of the country, since its king was hated and despised on account of his baseness and low birth." [[Plutarch]]  62-3 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243&layout=&loc=62.1 Plutarch 62-3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028230118/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243&layout=&loc=62.1 |date=28 October 2008 }}</ref> Chanakya is said to have met the Nanda king, angered him, and made a narrow escape.<ref>:"He was of humble Indian to a change of rule." Justin XV.4.15 "Fuit hic humili quidem genere natus, sed ad regni potestatem maiestate numinis inpulsus. Quippe cum procacitate sua Nandrum regem offendisset, interfici a rege iussus salutem pedum ceieritate quaesierat. (Ex qua fatigatione cum somno captus iaceret, leo ingentis formae ad dormientem accessit sudoremque profluentem lingua ei detersit expergefactumque blande reliquit. Hoc prodigio primum ad spem regni inpulsus) contractis latronibus Indos ad nouitatem regni sollicitauit." {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160201051124/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/texte15.html Justin XV.4.15]}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=April 2023}}
<blockquote>" Pg.2 - Ashoka Maurya—or Ashoka the Great as he was later known—holds a special place in the history of Buddhism and India. At its height in around 250 BCE, his empire stretched across the Indian subcontinent to Kandahar in the east, and as far north as the Himalayas. Through his quest to govern by moral force alone, Ashoka transformed Buddhism from a minor sect into a major world religion, while simultaneously setting a new yardstick for government that had lasting implications for all of Asia. His bold experiment ended in tragedy, however, and in the tumult that followed the historical record was cleansed so effectively that his name was largely forgotten for almost two thousand years. Yet, a few mysterious stone monuments and inscriptions miraculously survived the purge. "<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=K4vHjbUtf_4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Charles+Allen%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor|last=Allen|first=Charles|date=2012-02-21|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-1-4087-0388-5|language=en}}</ref> </blockquote>


===Overthrow of the Nanda Empire===
According to the Indian historian Ram Sharan Sharma, the Mauryans maintained a large army and implemented a strict judicial system to exercise control over tribal populations under their Empire :
{{Main|Nanda-Mauryan War|Chandragupta Maurya|Chanakya|Nanda Empire|Magadha}}
<blockquote>
{{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width = 330|caption_align = center
" Pg.355 The biggest fact of Maurya political history was the establishment of the Magadha Empire, which included the whole of India except the far south. This empire was established with the strength of the sword and it could be protected only with the strength of the sword. Strong military power was necessary for both external security and internal peace..The tribal people living inside the empire and on its borders were equally a cause of trouble. So for this, there was a huge permanent army and tight judicial system."<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.401527|title=Prachin Bharat Me Rajneetik Vichar Avam Sansthae|last=Sharma|first=Ramsharan|date=1990}}</ref>  </blockquote>
| align    = right
===North-East and South influence===
| direction = horizontal
Ashoka's influence in North-East and South India is evident through the dissemination of Buddhist principles, rock edicts, and the broader cultural exchanges facilitated by the Mauryan Empire. While the direct impact may vary, Ashoka's legacy remains a significant part of India's historical and cultural tapestry. <ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/encyclopedia-of-world-history-7-volumes-set-facts-on-file-2008|title=Encyclopedia Of World History 7 Volumes Set Facts On File 2008}}</ref>
| header    = '''Territorial evolution of the Mauryan Empire'''
 
| image1    = Magadha Expansion 1.gif
===Popular Maps===
| caption1  = <small>Territory of [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]] and the Maurya Empire between 600 and 180 BCE, including Chandragupta's overthrow of the Nanda Empire (321 BCE) and gains from the [[Seleucid Empire]] (303 BCE), the southward expansion (before 273 BCE), and Ashoka's conquest of [[Kalinga (historical region)|Kalinga]] (261 BCE).<ref name="dsal.uchicago.edu"/></small>
Indian New Parliament already
| image2    = Magadha Expansion 2.gif
have carved Mauryan Empire  over mural which represents Indian integrity and glorious past.<ref>{{Cite web|title=New Parliament Ashoka Empire mural|url=https://bharatmotherofdemocracy.ignca.gov.in/contents/ashoka-responsible-and-accountable-governance/$OG_IMAGE|access-date=2024-07-22|website=bharatmotherofdemocracy.ignca.gov.in|language=en}}</ref>. Several historians have reconstructed the map of the Mauryan Empire based on details from Ashoka's inscriptions and accounts from Greek historians, among other sources. For example :
| caption2  = <small>The same animation, modified in accordance with Kulke and Rothermund (see text). [[Hermann Kulke]] and [[Dietmar Rothermund]] believe that Ashoka's empire did not include large parts of India, which were controlled by autonomous tribes.{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|p=69–70}}</small>
 
| footer    =
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:100%;"
}}
! colspan="2" | Renowned Scholars Authoritative Crafted Maps
|-
!style="background-color:#ADD8E6;" | Mauryan empire maps created by Historians/Other Scholars
!style="background-color:#ADD8E6;" | Map Link
|-
| ASI ([[Archeological Survey Of India]])
| [https://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.06445/page/n421/mode/1up Rough Map by ASI]
|-
|-
| [[NCERT]]
| [https://archive.org/details/medieval-india-ncert-class-11/page/n146/mode/1up Their designed map]
|-
| British Historian [[Geoffrey Parker]]
| [https://archive.org/details/timescompacthist0000unse_g4l2/page/29/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
| British historian [[Patrick Karl O'Brien]]
| [https://archive.org/details/philipsatlasofwo0000unse_u6t7/page/46/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
|-
| Australian historian [[Craig Benjamin]]
| [https://archive.org/details/the-cambridge-world-history-volume-iv/page/519/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
| American historian [[Gerald Danzer]]
| [https://archive.org/details/atlasofworldhist0000danz/page/44/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
| British Historian [[Charles Allen]]
| [https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Ashoka/K4vHjbUtf_4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT5&printsec=frontcover His designed map]
|-
| Historian [[Robert W. Strayer]] and [[Eric Nelson]]
| [https://archive.org/details/waysofworld0000robe/page/121/mode/1up Their designed map]
|-
| Irish Historian and Indologist [[Vincent Arthur Smith]]
| [https://archive.org/details/asokabuddhistemp00smitiala/asokabuddhistemp00smitiala/page/n284/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
| Anthropologist and Bioarcheologist [[Professor Ian Barnes]]
| [https://archive.org/details/historyatlasofas00ianb/page/43/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
| Group of Historian, Archeologist and Historical Geographer, published by Millennium House
| [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781921811043/page/65/mode/1up?q=Pink Their designed map]
|-
| American Historian [[Albert M. Craig]]
| [https://archive.org/details/heritageofworldc0000crai/page/142/mode/1up?q=%22Southwest+Asia+and+India+ca.+250%22 His designed map]
|-
| Indian Historian Kashi Prasad Jayaswal
| [https://archive.org/details/pvjO_itihas-pravesh-bharatiya-itihas-ka-digdarshan-by-jaychandra-vidyalankar-ed.-by-l/page/89/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
|Historical Geographer C. Collin Davies
| [https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.509319/page/13/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
|Indologist Prof. N.A. Nikam and American Philosopher [[Richard McKeon|Prof. Richard McKeon]]
| [https://archive.org/details/TheEdictsOfAsokaNikamMcKeon/page/n25/mode/1up Their designed map]
|-
|Group of historian namely [[Jeremy Adelman]],  [[Peter Brown]], [[Benjamin A. Elman]], [[Stephen Kotkin]], [[Xinru Liu]], [[Gyan Prakash]], [[Brent Shaw]] and Archeologist [[Holly Pittman]]
| [https://archive.org/details/worldstogetherwo0000unse_p0y1/page/234/mode/2up?q=%22various+Afro-Eurasian+worlds+together%22 Their designed world map for 250 BCE]
|-
|Professor of East Asian Studies, [[William J. Duiker]]
|
[https://archive.org/details/essentialworldhi0000duik_s5l0/page/51/mode/1up?q=%22The+Empire+of+Ashoka.+Ashoka%22 His designed map]
|-
|Italian historian [[Gianni Sofri]]
| [https://archive.org/details/gandhiindiacentu0000sofr/page/20/mode/1up?q=%22the+fifteenth+century%22 His designed map]
|-
|History Professor of Oxford University [[Harold Arthur Harris]]
| [https://archive.org/details/greekathletesath00harr/page/75/mode/1up?q=%22conquered+Kalinga+and+governed%22 His designed map]
|-
|Pakistani popular known historian Muhammad Hussain Panhwar
| [https://archive.org/details/AnIllustratedHistoricalAtlasOfSoomraKingdomByM.H.Panhwar/Six_Thousands_Years_Of_Irrigation/page/n116/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
|Indian Historian [[Dwijendra Narayan Jha]]
| [https://archive.org/details/ancient-india-in-historical-outline-d.-n.-jha/page/96/mode/1up His designed map]
|-
|Linguist Dr. Aaron Ralby and University of Oklahoma professor Amanda Lomazoff
| [https://archive.org/details/atlasofworldmili0000ralb/page/107/mode/1up?q=%22starved+himself%22 Their designed map]
|-
|History professor of Southern Methodist University, Johan Elverskog
| [https://archive.org/details/buddhismandislamonthesilkroad/page/n22/mode/1up Their designed map]
|-
|Group of Historian, Archeologist and Historical Geographer, published by Berkshire
| [https://archive.org/details/berkshire-encyclopedia-of-world-history-2nd-ed./page/316/mode/1up Their designed map]
|-
|[[National Geographic Maps]] 
| [https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158899532712910 Their designed map]<br>
[https://archive.org/details/ancient-civilizations-discovering-our-past-california-edition-jackson-j.-spielvogel/page/260/mode/1up Other]
|}


Historically reliable details of Chandragupta's campaign against [[Nanda Empire]] are unavailable and legends written centuries later are inconsistent. Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu texts claim [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]] was ruled by the [[Nanda dynasty]], which, with [[Chanakya]]'s counsel, [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]] conquered Nanda Empire.{{sfn|Thapar|2013|pp=362–364}}{{sfn|Sen|1895|pp=26–32}}{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=272}} The army of Chandragupta and Chanakya first conquered the Nanda outer territories, and finally besieged the Nanda capital '''Pataliputra'''. In contrast to the easy victory in Buddhist sources, the Hindu and Jain texts state that the campaign was bitterly fought because the Nanda dynasty had a powerful and well-trained army.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=28–33}}{{sfn|Sen|1895|pp=26–32}}
===Territorial span on a national scale===
The territorial expanse of the Mauryan Empire, when correlated with contemporary nations, is delineated as follows:<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/thomas-1922-maurya-empire/mode/1up| title=Cambridge History of India, Volume 1, The Maurya Empire|last=Thomas|first=F.W.| website=Internet Archive }}</ref>


The Buddhist ''Mahavamsa Tika'' and Jain ''Parishishtaparvan'' records Chandragupta's army unsuccessfully attacking the Nanda capital. {{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=175–188}} Chandragupta and Chanakya then began a campaign at the frontier of the Nanda empire, gradually conquering various territories on their way to the Nanda capital.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=33}} He then refined his strategy by establishing garrisons in the conquered territories, and finally besieged the Nanda capital Pataliputra. There [[Dhana Nanda]] accepted defeat.{{sfn|Malalasekera|2002|p=383}}{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=33-34}} The conquest was fictionalised in ''Mudrarakshasa'' play, it contains narratives not found in other versions of the Chanakya-Chandragupta legend. Because of this difference, [[Thomas Trautmann]] suggests that most of it is fictional or legendary, without any historical basis.{{sfn|Trautmann|1971|p=43}} [[Radha Kumud Mukherjee]] similarly considers Mudrakshasa play without historical basis.<ref>Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, p.26-27 {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA27 |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |access-date=2016-11-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127023139/https://books.google.fr/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA27 |archive-date=27 November 2016 |df=dmy-all |isbn=9788120804050 |last1=Mookerji |first1=Radhakumud |year=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:100%;"
|-
! style="background-color:#ADD8E6;" | Present day countries
! style="background-color:#ADD8E6;" | Mauryan Empire Extent
|-
| {{flag|Bangladesh}}
| (Whole)
|-
| {{flag|Pakistan}}
| (Whole)
|-
| {{flag|Bhutan}}
| (Whole)
|-
| {{flag|Afghanistan}}
| (Whole)
|-
| {{flag|India}}
| (Whole except southernmost tip)
|-
| {{flag|Iran}}
| (Eastern Gedrosia part only within Jaz Murian Lake)
|-
| {{flag|Myanmar}}
| (Western tip closer to [[Rangakuta Stupa]])
|}


These legends state that the Nanda emperor was defeated, deposed and exiled by some accounts, while Buddhist accounts claim he was killed.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=34}} With the defeat of Dhana Nanda, Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire.{{sfn|Roy|2012|p=62}}
== Wars Involving the Mauryan Empire ==
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! style="background:orange;"|<span style="color: white;">Conflict</span>
! style="background:orange;"|<span style="color: white;">Mauryan Emperor</span>
! style="background:orange;"|<span style="color: white;">Opponent</span>
! style="background:orange;width: 320px;"|<span style="color:white;">Outcome</span>
|-
| '''Conquest of Magadha'''<br>(322 BCE - 320 BCE)
| [[Chandragupta Maurya]]
| [[Dhana Nanda]] of [[Nanda Empire]]
| '''Mauryan Victory'''
* Chandragupta establishes the Mauryan Empire replacing Nandas.
*He married the princes of the Nanda's [[Durdhara]]
|-
| '''Seleucid-Maurya War'''<br>(305 BCE - 303 BCE)
| [[Chandragupta Maurya]]
| [[Seleucid Empire]]
| '''Mauryan Victory'''
*Treaty of the Indus.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=33–34}}
* Seleucid Empire's eastern satrapies ceded to Mauryan Empire
* Seleucus gives the hand of his daughter to Chandragupta, founding a dynastic alliance
* Chandragupta gives 500 [[war elephants]] to Seleucus
* Establishment of [[Megasthenes|diplomatic relations]]
* Conquest of the Persian territories such as [[Aria (region)]] [[Arachosia]], [[Gedrosia]] and [[Paropamisadae]] by the Mauryans <ref>[[Strabo]], ''Geography'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15B*.html#2.9 xv.2.9]</ref> {{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=33–34}}<ref name="Smith1920">{{citation|last=Smith|first=Vincent Arthur|title=The Oxford History of India: From the Earliest Times to the End of 1911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2gxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA104|year=1920|publisher=Clarendon Press|pages=104–106}}</ref>
|-
| '''Conquest of Kalinga'''<br>(265 BCE - 261 BCE)
| [[Ashoka the Great]]
| [[Kalinga Kingdom]]
| '''Mauryan Victory'''
* Kalinga conquered by the Emperor Ashoka.
* 150,000 people died on the Kalinga side and an almost equal number of Ashoka's army. Total death count approx 3 lakh.
* Ashoka elder brother son inspire Ashoka to became Buddhist, to devote the rest of his life to ahimsa (non-violence).
* Ashoka changes hispolicy of Diga-Vijaya (conquest of all four direction) to Dhamma-Vijaya (victory through Dharma).
|}


==Founding Emperors==
===Chandragupta Maurya===
===Chandragupta Maurya===
{{Main|Chandragupta Maurya}}
{{Main|Chandragupta Maurya}}
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After the [[death of Alexander the Great]] in 323 BCE, Chandragupta led a [[Seleucid–Mauryan war|series of campaigns]] in 305 BCE to take [[satrapies]] in the Indus Valley and northwest India.<ref name="greenwood">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEvN6XwWTk8C&pg=PA252|title=From Polis to Empire, the Ancient World, C. 800 B.C.-A.D. 500|date=2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing|isbn=0313309426|access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref> When Alexander's remaining forces were routed, returning westwards, Seleucus I Nicator fought to defend these territories. Not many details of the campaigns are known from ancient sources. Seleucus was defeated and retreated into the mountainous region of Afghanistan.<ref name=kistler>{{cite book |last1=Kistler |first1=John M. |title=War Elephants |date=2007 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0803260047 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5RHK4Ol15QC&pg=PA64 |access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref>
After the [[death of Alexander the Great]] in 323 BCE, Chandragupta led a [[Seleucid–Mauryan war|series of campaigns]] in 305 BCE to take [[satrapies]] in the Indus Valley and northwest India.<ref name="greenwood">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEvN6XwWTk8C&pg=PA252|title=From Polis to Empire, the Ancient World, C. 800 B.C.-A.D. 500|date=2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing|isbn=0313309426|access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref> When Alexander's remaining forces were routed, returning westwards, Seleucus I Nicator fought to defend these territories. Not many details of the campaigns are known from ancient sources. Seleucus was defeated and retreated into the mountainous region of Afghanistan.<ref name=kistler>{{cite book |last1=Kistler |first1=John M. |title=War Elephants |date=2007 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0803260047 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5RHK4Ol15QC&pg=PA64 |access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref>


The two rulers concluded a peace treaty in 303 BCE, including a marital alliance. Under its terms, Chandragupta received the satrapies of [[Paropamisadae]] ([[Kambojas|Kamboja]] and [[Gandhara]]) and [[Arachosia]] ([[Kandahar Province]]) and [[Gedrosia]] ([[Balochistan]]). Seleucus I received the 500 [[war elephant]]s that were to have a decisive role in his victory against western [[Hellenistic]] kings at the [[Battle of Ipsus]] in 301&nbsp;BCE. Diplomatic relations were established and several Greeks, such as the historian [[Megasthenes]], [[Deimachus]] and [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] resided at the Mauryan court.<ref>{{Cite book|last=s|first=deepak|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5NRDQAAQBAJ&q=Megasthenes%2C+Deimakos+and+Dionysius&pg=PA89|title=Indian civilization|date=2016-10-25|publisher=deepak shinde|language=en}}</ref>
The two rulers concluded a peace treaty in 303 BCE, including a marital alliance. Under its terms, Chandragupta received the satrapies of [[Paropamisadae]] ([[Kambojas|Kamboja]] and Gandhara) and [[Arachosia]] ([[Kandhahar]]) and [[Gedrosia]] ([[Balochistan]]). Seleucus I received the 500 [[war elephant]]s that were to have a decisive role in his victory against western [[Hellenistic]] kings at the [[Battle of Ipsus]] in 301&nbsp;BCE. Diplomatic relations were established and several Greeks, such as the historian [[Megasthenes]], [[Deimakos]] and [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] resided at the Mauryan court.<ref>{{Cite book|last=s|first=deepak|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5NRDQAAQBAJ&q=Megasthenes%2C+Deimakos+and+Dionysius&pg=PA89|title=Indian civilization|date=2016-10-25|publisher=deepak shinde|language=en}}</ref>


Megasthenes in particular was a notable Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=38}} His book ''Indika'' is a major literary source for information about the Mauryan Empire. According to [[Arrian]], ambassador Megasthenes (c.&nbsp;350&nbsp;– c.&nbsp;290&nbsp;BCE) lived in Arachosia and travelled to [[Pataliputra]].<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://websfor.org/alexander/arrian/book5a.asp |chapter=Book 5 |title=Anabasis |title-link=Anabasis Alexandri |author-link=Arrian |author=Arrian |quote=Megasthenes lived with [[Sibyrtius]], satrap of Arachosia, and often speaks of his visiting [[Sandracottus]], the king of the Indians.}}</ref> Megasthenes' description of Mauryan society as freedom-loving gave Seleucus a means to avoid invasion, however, underlying Seleucus' decision was the improbability of success. In later years, Seleucus' successors maintained diplomatic relations with the Empire based on similar accounts from returning travellers.<ref name=greenwood />
Megasthenes in particular was a notable Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=38}} His book ''Indika'' is a major literary source for information about the Mauryan Empire. According to [[Arrian]], ambassador Megasthenes (c.&nbsp;350&nbsp;– c.&nbsp;290&nbsp;BCE) lived in Arachosia and travelled to [[Pataliputra]].<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://websfor.org/alexander/arrian/book5a.asp |chapter=Book 5 |title=Anabasis |title-link=Anabasis Alexandri |author-link=Arrian |author=Arrian |quote=Megasthenes lived with [[Sibyrtius]], satrap of Arachosia, and often speaks of his visiting [[Sandracottus]], the king of the Indians.}}</ref> Megasthenes' description of Mauryan society as freedom-loving gave Seleucus a means to avoid invasion, however, underlying Seleucus' decision was the improbability of success. In later years, Seleucus' successors maintained diplomatic relations with the Empire based on similar accounts from returning travellers.<ref name=greenwood />


Chandragupta established a strong centralised state with an administration at Pataliputra, which, according to Megasthenes, was "surrounded by a wooden wall pierced by 64 gates and 570 towers". [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], although not expressly quoting Megasthenes nor mentioning Pataliputra, described Indian palaces as superior in splendor to [[Ancient Iran|Persia]]'s [[Susa]] or [[Ecbatana]].<ref>"In the royal residences in India where the greatest of the kings of that country live, there are so many objects for admiration that neither [[Memnon (mythology)|Memnon]]'s city of [[Susa]] with all its extravagance, nor the magnificence of [[Ectabana]] is to be compared with them. ... In the parks, tame peacocks and pheasants are kept." [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], ''Characteristics of animals'' [https://archive.org/details/L449AelianCharacteristicsOfAnimalsIII1217 book XIII, Chapter 18], also quoted in ''The Cambridge History of India'', Volume 1, p411</ref> The architecture of the city seems to have had many similarities with Persian cities of the period.<ref>Romila Thapar (1961), ''Aśoka and the decline of the Mauryas'', Volume 5, p.129, Oxford University Press. "The architectural closeness of certain buildings in Achaemenid Iran and Mauryan India have raised much comment. The royal palace at Pataliputra is the most striking example and has been compared with the palaces at Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis."</ref>
Chandragupta established a strong centralised state with an administration at Pataliputra, which, according to Megasthenes, was "surrounded by a wooden wall pierced by 64 gates and 570 towers". [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], although not expressly quoting Megasthenes nor mentioning Pataliputra, described Indian palaces as superior in splendor to [[Persia]]'s [[Susa]] or [[Ecbatana]].<ref>"In the royal residences in India where the greatest of the kings of that country live, there are so many objects for admiration that neither [[Memnon (mythology)|Memnon]]'s city of [[Susa]] with all its extravagance, nor the magnificence of [[Ectabana]] is to be compared with them. ... In the parks, tame peacocks and pheasants are kept." [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], ''Characteristics of animals'' [https://archive.org/details/L449AelianCharacteristicsOfAnimalsIII1217 book XIII, Chapter 18], also quoted in ''The Cambridge History of India'', Volume 1, p411</ref> The architecture of the city seems to have had many similarities with Persian cities of the period.<ref>Romila Thapar (1961), ''Aśoka and the decline of the Mauryas'', Volume 5, p.129, Oxford University Press. "The architectural closeness of certain buildings in Achaemenid Iran and Mauryan India have raised much comment. The royal palace at Pataliputra is the most striking example and has been compared with the palaces at Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis."</ref>


Chandragupta's son [[Bindusara]] extended the rule of the Mauryan empire towards southern India. The famous [[Tamils|Tamil]] poet [[Mamulanar]] of the [[Sangam literature]] described how areas south of the [[Deccan Plateau]] which comprised [[Tamilakam]] was invaded by the Mauryan Army using troops from Karnataka. Mamulanar states that [[Vatuka|Vadugar]] (people who resided in Andhra-Karnataka regions immediately to the north of Tamil Nadu) formed the vanguard of the Mauryan Army.<ref name="Singh 2008"/>{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} He also had a Greek ambassador at his court, named [[Deimachus]].{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=32}} According to [[Plutarch]], Chandragupta Maurya subdued all of India, and Justin also observed that Chandragupta Maurya was "in possession of India". These accounts are corroborated by Tamil Sangam literature which mentions about Mauryan invasion with their south Indian allies and defeat of their rivals at Podiyil hill in [[Tirunelveli district]] in present-day [[Tamil Nadu]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KItocaxbibUC&q=nanda+empire+extension&pg=PA157|title=Indian Civilization and Culture|last=Chatterjee|first=Suhas|date=1998|publisher=M.D. Publications |isbn=9788175330832|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LA91rqvCB2EC&q=podiyil+hill+maurya&pg=PA58|title=The Mauryan Polity|last=Dikshitar|first=V. R. Ramachandra|date=1993|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=9788120810235|language=en}}</ref>
Chandragupta's son [[Bindusara]] extended the rule of the Mauryan empire towards southern India. The famous [[Sri Lankan Tamil people|Tamil]] poet Mamulanar of the [[Sangam literature]] described how areas south of the [[Deccan Plateau]] which comprised Tamil country was invaded by the Maurya army using troops from Karnataka. Mamulanar states that Vadugar (people who resided in Andhra-Karnataka regions immediately to the north of Tamil Nadu) formed the vanguard of the Mauryan army.<ref name="Singh 2008"/>{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} He also had a Greek ambassador at his court, named [[Deimachus]].{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=32}} According to [[Plutarch]], Chandragupta Maurya subdued all of India, and Justin also observed that Chandragupta Maurya was "in possession of India". These accounts are corroborated by Tamil sangam literature which mentions about Mauryan invasion with their south Indian allies and defeat of their rivals at Podiyil hill in [[Tirunelveli district]] in present-day [[Tamil Nadu]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KItocaxbibUC&q=nanda+empire+extension&pg=PA157|title=Indian Civilization and Culture|last=Chatterjee|first=Suhas|date=1998|publisher=M.D. Publications |isbn=9788175330832|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LA91rqvCB2EC&q=podiyil+hill+maurya&pg=PA58|title=The Mauryan Polity|last=Dikshitar|first=V. R. Ramachandra|date=1993|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=9788120810235|language=en}}</ref>


Chandragupta renounced his throne and followed Jain teacher [[Bhadrabahu]].{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|pp=39–40}}{{sfn|Geoffrey Samuel|2010|pp=60}}{{sfn|Romila Thapar|2004|p=178}} He is said to have lived as an ascetic at [[Shravanabelagola]] for several years before fasting to death, as per the Jain practice of ''[[sallekhana]]''.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|pp=39–41}}
Chandragupta renounced his throne and followed Jain teacher [[Bhadrabahu]].{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|pp=39–40}}{{sfn|Geoffrey Samuel|2010|pp=60}}{{sfn|Romila Thapar|2004|p=178}} He is said to have lived as an ascetic at [[Shravanabelagola]] for several years before fasting to death, as per the Jain practice of ''[[sallekhana]]''.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|pp=39–41}}
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{{Main|Bindusara}}
{{Main|Bindusara}}
[[File:I42 1karshapana Maurya Bindusara MACW4165 1ar (8486583162).jpg|thumb|A silver coin of 1 [[karshapana]] of the Maurya empire, period of [[Bindusara]] Maurya about 297–272 BC, workshop of Pataliputra. '''Obv:''' Symbols with a sun. '''Rev:''' Symbol. '''Dimensions:''' 14 × 11 mm. '''Weight:''' 3.4 g.]]
[[File:I42 1karshapana Maurya Bindusara MACW4165 1ar (8486583162).jpg|thumb|A silver coin of 1 [[karshapana]] of the Maurya empire, period of [[Bindusara]] Maurya about 297–272 BC, workshop of Pataliputra. '''Obv:''' Symbols with a sun. '''Rev:''' Symbol. '''Dimensions:''' 14 × 11 mm. '''Weight:''' 3.4 g.]]
Bindusara was born to [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]], the founder of the Mauryan Empire. This is attested by several sources, including the various [[Puranas]] and the ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]''.{{sfn|Srinivasachariar|1974|p=lxxxvii}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2019}} He is attested by the Buddhist texts such as ''[[Dīpavaṃsa]]'' and ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]'' ("Bindusaro"); the Jain texts such as ''Parishishta-Parvan''; as well as the Hindu texts such as ''[[Vishnu Purana]]'' ("Vindusara").<ref name="VAS_Asoka">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/asokabuddhistemp00smitiala#page/18/mode/2up |title=Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India |author=Vincent Arthur Smith |year=1920 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9788120613034 |pages=18–19 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlQOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA10 |title= On the Early Life of Asoka |author=Rajendralal Mitra |journal=Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal |year=1878 |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bengal |page=10 |author-link= Rajendralal Mitra }}</ref> According to the 12th century Jain writer [[Hemachandra]]'s ''[[Parishishtaparvan|Parishishta-Parvan]]'', the name of Bindusara's mother was [[Durdhara]].<ref name="Rosalind_1993">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Po9tUNX0SYAC&pg=PA204 |title=The Clever Adulteress and Other Stories: A Treasury of Jaina Literature |chapter=The Minister Cāṇakya, from the Pariśiṣtaparvan of Hemacandra|translator=Rosalind Lefeber |editor=[[Phyllis Granoff]] |author=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1993 |pages=204–206 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |isbn=9788120811508 }}</ref> Some Greek sources also mention him by the name "Amitrochates" or its variations.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=35}}{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=108}}
Bindusara was born to [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]], the founder of the Mauryan Empire. This is attested by several sources, including the various [[Puranas]] and the ''[[Mahavamsa]]''.{{sfn|Srinivasachariar|1974|p=lxxxvii}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2019}} He is attested by the Buddhist texts such as ''[[Dipavamsa]]'' and ''[[Mahavamsa]]'' ("Bindusaro"); the Jain texts such as ''Parishishta-Parvan''; as well as the Hindu texts such as ''[[Vishnu Purana]]'' ("Vindusara").<ref name="VAS_Asoka">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/asokabuddhistemp00smitiala#page/18/mode/2up |title=Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India |author=Vincent Arthur Smith |year=1920 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9788120613034 |pages=18–19 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlQOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA10 |title= On the Early Life of Asoka |author=Rajendralal Mitra |journal=Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal |year=1878 |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bengal |page=10 |author-link= Rajendralal Mitra }}</ref> According to the 12th century Jain writer [[Hemachandra]]'s ''[[Parishishtaparvan|Parishishta-Parvan]]'', the name of Bindusara's mother was [[Durdhara]].<ref name="Rosalind_1993">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Po9tUNX0SYAC&pg=PA204 |title=The Clever Adulteress and Other Stories: A Treasury of Jaina Literature |chapter=The Minister Cāṇakya, from the Pariśiṣtaparvan of Hemacandra|translator=Rosalind Lefeber |editor=[[Phyllis Granoff]] |author=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1993 |pages=204–206 |isbn=9788120811508 }}</ref> Some Greek sources also mention him by the name "Amitrochates" or its variations.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=35}}{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=108}}


Historian [[Upinder Singh]] estimates that Bindusara ascended the throne around 297 BCE.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} Bindusara, just 22&nbsp;years&nbsp;old, inherited a large empire that consisted of what is now, Northern, Central and Eastern parts of India along with parts of Afghanistan and [[Balochistan (region)|Baluchistan]]. Bindusara extended this empire to the southern part of India, as far as what is now known as [[Karnataka]]. He brought sixteen states under the Mauryan Empire and thus conquered almost all of the Indian peninsula (he is said to have conquered the 'land between the two seas' – the peninsular region between the [[Bay of Bengal]] and the [[Arabian Sea]]). Bindusara did not conquer the friendly [[Three Crowned Kings|Tamil kingdoms]] of the [[Chola Dynasty|Cholas]], ruled by King [[Ilamcetcenni]], the [[Pandyas]], and [[Chera Dynasty|Cheras]]. Apart from these southern states, [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]] (modern Odisha) was the only kingdom in India that did not form part of Bindusara's empire.{{sfn|Sircar|1971|p=167}} It was later conquered by his son [[Ashoka]], who served as the [[Uparaja|Viceroy]] of [[Avantirastra]] during his father's reign, which highlights the importance of the province.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HeJS3nE9cAC&pg=PA152 |title=The Greeks in Bactria and India |author=William Woodthorpe Tarn |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=9781108009416 |page=152 |author-link=William Woodthorpe Tarn }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Mookerji Radhakumud |title=Asoka |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&pg=PA8 |year=1962 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0582-8 |page=8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510200953/https://books.google.com/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&pg=PA8 |archive-date=10 May 2018 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
Historian [[Upinder Singh]] estimates that Bindusara ascended the throne around 297 BCE.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} Bindusara, just 22&nbsp;years&nbsp;old, inherited a large empire that consisted of what is now, Northern, Central and Eastern parts of India along with parts of Afghanistan and [[Balochistan (region)|Baluchistan]]. Bindusara extended this empire to the southern part of India, as far as what is now known as [[Karnataka]]. He brought sixteen states under the Mauryan Empire and thus conquered almost all of the Indian peninsula (he is said to have conquered the 'land between the two seas' – the peninsular region between the [[Bay of Bengal]] and the [[Arabian Sea]]). Bindusara did not conquer the friendly [[Tamils|Tamil]] kingdoms of the [[Chola Dynasty|Cholas]], ruled by King [[Ilamcetcenni]], the [[Pandyas]], and [[Chera Dynasty|Cheras]]. Apart from these southern states, [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]] (modern Odisha) was the only kingdom in India that did not form part of Bindusara's empire.{{sfn|Dineschandra Sircar|1971|p=167}} It was later conquered by his son [[Ashoka]], who served as the viceroy of [[Ujjaini]] during his father's reign, which highlights the importance of the town.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HeJS3nE9cAC&pg=PA152 |title=The Greeks in Bactria and India |author=William Woodthorpe Tarn |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=9781108009416 |page=152 |author-link=William Woodthorpe Tarn }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Mookerji Radhakumud |title=Asoka |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&pg=PA8 |year=1962 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0582-8 |page=8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510200953/https://books.google.com/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&pg=PA8 |archive-date=10 May 2018 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>


Bindusara's life has not been documented as well as that of his father Chandragupta or of his son Ashoka. Chanakya continued to serve as prime minister during his reign. According to the medieval Tibetan scholar Taranatha who visited India, Chanakya helped Bindusara "to destroy the nobles and kings of the sixteen kingdoms and thus to become absolute master of the territory between the eastern and western oceans".{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=109}} During his rule, the citizens of [[Taxila]] revolted twice. The reason for the first revolt was the maladministration of [[Susima]], his eldest son. The reason for the second revolt is unknown, but Bindusara could not suppress it in his lifetime. It was crushed by Ashoka after Bindusara's death.<ref name="EB_legends">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/legendsofindianb00burn#page/20/mode/2up |title=Legends of Indian Buddhism |author=Eugène Burnouf |publisher=E. P. Dutton |location=New York |year=1911 |pages=59 }}</ref>
Bindusara's life has not been documented as well as that of his father Chandragupta or of his son Ashoka. Chanakya continued to serve as prime minister during his reign. According to the medieval Tibetan scholar Taranatha who visited India, Chanakya helped Bindusara "to destroy the nobles and kings of the sixteen kingdoms and thus to become absolute master of the territory between the eastern and western oceans".{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=109}} During his rule, the citizens of [[Taxila]] revolted twice. The reason for the first revolt was the maladministration of [[Susima]], his eldest son. The reason for the second revolt is unknown, but Bindusara could not suppress it in his lifetime. It was crushed by Ashoka after Bindusara's death.<ref name="EB_legends">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/legendsofindianb00burn#page/20/mode/2up |title=Legends of Indian Buddhism |author=Eugène Burnouf |publisher=E. P. Dutton |location=New York |year=1911 |pages=59 }}</ref>


Bindusara maintained friendly diplomatic relations with the Hellenic world. [[Deimachus]] was the ambassador of [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] king [[Antiochus I]] at Bindusara's court.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]] states that the king of Palibothra ([[Pataliputra]], the Mauryan capital) welcomed a Greek author, [[Iambulus]]. This king is usually identified as Bindusara.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] states that the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic]] king [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Philadelphus]] sent an envoy named [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] to India.<ref>"Three Greek ambassadors are known by name: Megasthenes, ambassador to Chandragupta; Deimachus, ambassador to [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta's]] son Bindusara; and Dyonisius, whom Ptolemy Philadelphus sent to the court of Ashoka, Bindusara's son", McEvilley, p.367</ref><ref>''India, the Ancient Past'', Burjor Avari, pp. 108–109</ref> According to Sailendra Nath Sen, this appears to have happened during Bindusara's reign.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}}
Bindusara maintained friendly diplomatic relations with the Hellenic world. [[Deimachus]] was the ambassador of [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] emperor [[Antiochus I]] at Bindusara's court.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]] states that the king of Palibothra ([[Pataliputra]], the Mauryan capital) welcomed a Greek author, [[Iambulus]]. This king is usually identified as Bindusara.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] states that the Egyptian king [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Philadelphus]] sent an envoy named [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] to India.<ref>"Three Greek ambassadors are known by name: Megasthenes, ambassador to Chandragupta; Deimachus, ambassador to [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta's]] son Bindusara; and Dyonisius, whom Ptolemy Philadelphus sent to the court of Ashoka, Bindusara's son", McEvilley, p.367</ref><ref>''India, the Ancient Past'', Burjor Avari, pp. 108–109</ref> According to Sailendra Nath Sen, this appears to have happened during Bindusara's reign.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}}


Unlike his father Chandragupta (who at a later stage converted to [[Jainism]]), Bindusara believed in the [[Ajivika]] religion. Bindusara's guru Pingalavatsa (Janasana) was a Brahmin<ref>Arthur Llewellyn Basham, ''History and doctrines of the Ājīvikas: a vanished Indian religion'', pp. 138, 146</ref> of the Ajivika religion. Bindusara's wife, Empress [[Shubhadrangi|Subhadrangi]] was a [[Brahmin]]<ref>Anukul Chandra Banerjee, ''Buddhism in comparative light'', p. 24</ref> also of the Ajivika religion from [[Champapuri|Champa]] (present [[Bhagalpur district]]). Bindusara is credited with giving several grants to Brahmin monasteries (''Brahmana-bhatto'').<ref>Beni Madhab Barua, Ishwar Nath Topa, ''Ashoka and his inscriptions'', Volume 1, p. 171</ref>
Unlike his father Chandragupta (who at a later stage converted to [[Jainism]]), Bindusara believed in the [[Ajivika]] sect. Bindusara's guru Pingalavatsa (Janasana) was a Brahmin<ref>Arthur Llewellyn Basham, ''History and doctrines of the Ājīvikas: a vanished Indian religion'', pp. 138, 146</ref> of the Ajivika sect. Bindusara's wife, Queen [[Shubhadrangi|Subhadrangi]] (Queen Dharma/ Aggamahesi) was a Brahmin<ref>Anukul Chandra Banerjee, ''Buddhism in comparative light'', p. 24</ref> also of the Ajivika sect from Champa (present Bhagalpur district). Bindusara is credited with giving several grants to Brahmin monasteries (''Brahmana-bhatto'').<ref>Beni Madhab Barua, Ishwar Nath Topa, ''Ashoka and his inscriptions'', Volume 1, p. 171</ref>


Historical evidence suggests that Bindusara died in the 270s BCE. According to Upinder Singh, Bindusara died around 273 BCE.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} [[Alain Daniélou]] believes that he died around 274 BCE.{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=109}} Sailendra Nath Sen believes that he died around 273–272 BCE, and that his death was followed by a four-year struggle of succession, after which his son [[Ashoka]] became the emperor in 269–268 BCE.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} According to the ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]'', Bindusara reigned for 28 years.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBbznHuPrTYC&pg=PA33 |title=Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita |author=Kashi Nath Upadhyaya |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1997 |isbn=9788120808805 |page=33 }}</ref> The ''[[Vayu Purana]]'', which names Chandragupta's successor as "Bhadrasara", states that he ruled for 25 years.<ref name="HHW_Vishnu">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0943AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA188 |title=The Vishnu Purana |volume=IV |translator=[[Horace Hayman Wilson|H. H. Wilson]] |editor=[[Fitzedward Hall]] |publisher=Trübner & Co |year=1868 |pages=188 }}</ref>
Historical evidence suggests that Bindusara died in the 270s BCE. According to Upinder Singh, Bindusara died around 273 BCE.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} [[Alain Daniélou]] believes that he died around 274 BCE.{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=109}} Sailendra Nath Sen believes that he died around 273–272 BCE, and that his death was followed by a four-year struggle of succession, after which his son [[Ashoka]] became the emperor in 269–268 BCE.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} According to the ''[[Mahavamsa]]'', Bindusara reigned for 28 years.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBbznHuPrTYC&pg=PA33 |title=Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita |author=Kashi Nath Upadhyaya |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1997 |isbn=9788120808805 |page=33 }}</ref> The ''[[Vayu Purana]]'', which names Chandragupta's successor as "Bhadrasara", states that he ruled for 25 years.<ref name="HHW_Vishnu">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0943AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA188 |title=The Vishnu Purana |volume=IV |translator=[[Horace Hayman Wilson|H. H. Wilson]] |editor=[[Fitzedward Hall]] |publisher=Trübner & Co |year=1868 |pages=188 }}</ref>


===Ashoka===
===Ashoka===
{{Main|Ashoka}}
{{Main|Ashoka}}
{{further|Kalinga War}}
[[File:Sarnath capital.jpg|right|thumb|[[Lion Capital of Ashoka]] at [[Sarnath]]. c. 250 BCE.]]
[[File:Sarnath capital.jpg|right|thumb|[[Lion Capital of Ashoka]] at [[Sarnath]]. c. 250 BCE.]]
[[File:Ashoka pillar at Vaishali, Bihar, India.jpg|thumb| Ashoka pillar at [[Vaishali (ancient city)|Vaishali]].]]
[[File:Ashoka pillar at Vaishali, Bihar, India.jpg|thumb| Ashoka pillar at [[Vaishali (ancient city)|Vaishali]].]]
[[File:6thPillarOfAshoka.JPG|thumb|Fragment of the 6th Pillar [[Edicts of Ashoka|Edict of Ashoka]] (238 BCE), in [[Brāhmī script|Brahmi]], sandstone, [[British Museum]].]]
[[File:6thPillarOfAshoka.JPG|thumb|Fragment of the 6th Pillar [[Edicts of Ashoka|Edict of Ashoka]] (238 BCE), in [[Brāhmī script|Brahmi]], sandstone, [[British Museum]].]]
As a young prince, Ashoka ({{reign|272|232}}&nbsp;BCE) was a brilliant commander who crushed revolts in Ujjain and Taxila. As emperor he was ambitious and aggressive, re-asserting the Empire's superiority in southern and western India. But it was his conquest of [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]] (262–261&nbsp;BCE) which proved to be the pivotal event of his life. Ashoka used Kalinga to project power over a large region by building a fortification there and securing it as a possession.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States|last1=Allchin|first1=F. R.|last2=Erdosy|first2=George|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|location=Cambridge|pages=306}}</ref> Although Ashoka's army succeeded in overwhelming Kalinga forces of royal soldiers and citizen militias, an estimated 100,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in the furious warfare, including over 10,000 of Imperial Mauryan soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of people were adversely affected by the destruction and fallout of war. When he personally witnessed the devastation, Ashoka began feeling remorse. Although the annexation of Kalinga was completed, Ashoka embraced the teachings of Buddhism, and renounced war and violence. He sent out missionaries to travel around Asia and spread Buddhism to other countries. He also propagated his own ''[[Ashoka's policy of Dhamma|dhamma]].''{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
As a young prince, Ashoka ({{reign|272|232}}&nbsp;BCE) was a brilliant commander who crushed revolts in Ujjain and Taxila. As monarch he was ambitious and aggressive, re-asserting the Empire's superiority in southern and western India. But it was his conquest of [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]] (262–261&nbsp;BCE) which proved to be the pivotal event of his life. Ashoka used Kalinga to project power over a large region by building a fortification there and securing it as a possession.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States|last1=Allchin|first1=F. R.|last2=Erdosy|first2=George|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|location=Cambridge|pages=306}}</ref> Although Ashoka's army succeeded in overwhelming Kalinga forces of royal soldiers and civilian units, an estimated 100,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in the furious warfare, including over 10,000 of Ashoka's own men. Hundreds of thousands of people were adversely affected by the destruction and fallout of war. When he personally witnessed the devastation, Ashoka began feeling remorse. Although the annexation of Kalinga was completed, Ashoka embraced the teachings of Buddhism, and renounced war and violence. He sent out missionaries to travel around Asia and spread Buddhism to other countries. He also propagated his own ''dhamma.''{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}


Ashoka implemented principles of ''[[ahimsa]]'' by banning hunting and violent sports activity and abolishing [[Slavery in ancient India|slave trade]]. While he maintained a large and powerful army, to keep the peace and maintain authority, Ashoka expanded friendly relations with states across Asia and Europe, and he sponsored Buddhist missions. He undertook a massive public works building campaign across the country. Over 40&nbsp;years of peace, harmony and prosperity made Ashoka one of the most successful and famous monarchs in Indian history. He remains an idealized figure of inspiration in modern India.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
Ashoka implemented principles of ''[[ahimsa]]'' by banning hunting and violent sports activity and ending indentured and forced labor (many thousands of people in war-ravaged Kalinga had been forced into hard labour and servitude). While he maintained a large and powerful army, to keep the peace and maintain authority, Ashoka expanded friendly relations with states across Asia and Europe, and he sponsored Buddhist missions. He undertook a massive public works building campaign across the country. Over 40&nbsp;years of peace, harmony and prosperity made Ashoka one of the most successful and famous monarchs in Indian history. He remains an idealized figure of inspiration in modern India.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}


The [[Edicts of Ashoka]], set in stone, are found throughout the Subcontinent. Ranging from as far west as Afghanistan and as far south as Andhra ([[Nellore District]]), Ashoka's edicts state his policies and accomplishments. Although predominantly written in Prakrit, two of them were written in [[Greek language|Greek]], and one in both Greek and [[Aramaic]]. Ashoka's edicts refer to the Greeks, [[Kambojas]], and [[Gandhara]]s as peoples forming a frontier region of his empire. They also attest to Ashoka's having sent envoys to the Greek rulers in the West as far as the Mediterranean. The edicts precisely name each of the rulers of the [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic world]] at the time such as ''Amtiyoko'' ([[Antiochus II Theos]]), ''Tulamaya'' ([[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Ptolemy II]]), ''Amtikini'' ([[Antigonus II Gonatas|Antigonos II]]), ''Maka'' ([[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]]) and ''Alikasudaro'' ([[Alexander II of Epirus]]) as recipients of Ashoka's proselytism.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} The Edicts also accurately locate their territory "600 yojanas away" (1 yojana being about 7&nbsp;miles), corresponding to the distance between the center of India and Greece (roughly 4,000&nbsp;miles).<ref>[[Edicts of Ashoka]], 13th Rock Edict, translation S. Dhammika.</ref>
The [[Edicts of Ashoka]], set in stone, are found throughout the Subcontinent. Ranging from as far west as Afghanistan and as far south as Andhra ([[Nellore District]]), Ashoka's edicts state his policies and accomplishments. Although predominantly written in Prakrit, two of them were written in [[Greek language|Greek]], and one in both Greek and [[Aramaic]]. Ashoka's edicts refer to the Greeks, [[Kambojas]], and [[Gandhara]]s as peoples forming a frontier region of his empire. They also attest to Ashoka's having sent envoys to the Greek rulers in the West as far as the Mediterranean. The edicts precisely name each of the rulers of the [[Ancient Greece|Hellenic]] world at the time such as ''Amtiyoko'' ([[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochus]]), ''Tulamaya'' ([[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Ptolemy]]), ''Amtikini'' ([[Antigonus II Gonatas|Antigonos]]), ''Maka'' ([[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]]) and ''Alikasudaro'' ([[Alexander II of Epirus|Alexander]]) as recipients of Ashoka's proselytism.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} The Edicts also accurately locate their territory "600 yojanas away" (a yojanas being about 7&nbsp;miles), corresponding to the distance between the center of India and Greece (roughly 4,000&nbsp;miles).<ref>[[Edicts of Ashoka]], 13th Rock Edict, translation S. Dhammika.</ref>


===Decline===
===Decline===
{{See also|Indian colonisation of Khotan}}
Ashoka was followed for 50&nbsp;years by a succession of weaker kings. He was succeeded by [[Dasharatha Maurya]], who was Ashoka's grandson. None of Ashoka's sons could ascend to the throne after him. [[Mahinda (Buddhist monk)|Mahinda]], his firstborn, became a Buddhist monk. [[Kunala|Kunala Maurya]] was blind and hence couldn't ascend to the throne; and Tivala, son of Kaurwaki, died even earlier than Ashoka. Little is known about another son, Jalauka.
Ashoka was followed for 50&nbsp;years by a succession of weaker emperors. He was succeeded by [[Dasharatha Maurya]], who was Ashoka's grandson. None of Ashoka's sons could ascend to the throne after him. [[Mahinda (Buddhist monk)|Mahinda]], his firstborn, became a Buddhist monk. [[Kunala|Kunala Maurya]] was blinded and hence couldn't ascend to the throne; and [[Tivala]], son of [[Karuvaki]], died even earlier than Ashoka. Little is known about another son, [[Jalauka]].


The empire lost many territories under Dasharatha, which were later reconquered by [[Samprati]], Kunala's son. Post Samprati, the Mauryas slowly lost many territories. In 180 BCE, [[Brihadratha Maurya]], was killed by his [[Senapati|general]], [[Pushyamitra Shunga]] in a military parade without any heir. Hence, the great Maurya Empire finally ended, giving rise to the [[Shunga Empire]].
The empire lost many territories under Dasharatha, which were later reconquered by [[Samprati]], Kunala's son. Post Samprati, the Mauryas slowly lost many territories. In 180 BCE, [[Brihadratha Maurya]], was killed by his general [[Pushyamitra Shunga]] in a military parade without any heir. Hence, the great Maurya empire finally ended, giving rise to the [[Shunga Empire]].


Reasons advanced for the decline include the succession of weak emperors after Ashoka Maurya, the partition of the empire into two, the growing independence of some areas within the empire, such as that ruled by [[Sophagasenus]], a top-heavy administration where authority was entirely in the hands of a few persons, an absence of any national consciousness,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077244.001.0001/acprof-9780198077244-chapter-7 |title=Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas |last=Thapar |first=Romila |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford Scholarship Online |isbn=9780198077244 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077244.003.0031}}</ref> the pure scale of the empire making it unwieldy, and invasion by the [[Greco-Bactrian Empire|Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]].
Reasons advanced for the decline include the succession of weak kings after Aśoka Maurya, the partition of the empire into two, the growing independence of some areas within the empire, such as that ruled by [[Sophagasenus]], a top-heavy administration where authority was entirely in the hands of a few persons, an absence of any national consciousness,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077244.001.0001/acprof-9780198077244-chapter-7 |title=Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas |last=Thapar |first=Romila |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford Scholarship Online |isbn=9780198077244 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077244.003.0031}}</ref> the pure scale of the empire making it unwieldy, and invasion by the [[Greco-Bactrian Empire]].


Some historians, such as [[Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri]], have argued that Ashoka's pacifism undermined the "military backbone" of the Maurya empire. Others, such as [[Romila Thapar]], have suggested that the extent and impact of his pacifism have been "grossly exaggerated".{{sfn|Singh|2012|p=131, 143}}
Some historians, such as [[H. C. Raychaudhuri]], have argued that Ashoka's pacifism undermined the "military backbone" of the Maurya empire. Others, such as [[Romila Thapar]], have suggested that the extent and impact of his pacifism have been "grossly exaggerated".{{sfn|Singh|2012|p=131, 143}}


====Shunga coup (185&nbsp;BCE)====
====Shunga coup (185&nbsp;BCE)====
Buddhist records such as the [[Ashokavadana]] write that the assassination of Brihadratha and the rise of the Shunga empire led to a wave of religious persecution for [[Buddhists]],<ref>According to the [[Ashokavadana]]</ref> and a resurgence of [[Hinduism]].{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} According to [[Sir John Marshall]],<ref>Sir John Marshall (1990), "A Guide to Sanchi", Eastern Book House, {{ISBN|81-85204-32-2}}, p. 38</ref> Pushyamitra may have been the main author of the persecutions, although later Shunga kings seem to have been more supportive of Buddhism. Other historians, such as [[Etienne Lamotte]]<ref>E. Lamotte, ''History of Indian Buddhism'', Institut Orientaliste, Louvain-la-Neuve 1988 (1958)</ref> and [[Romila Thapar]],<ref>Romila Thapar (1960), ''Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas'', Oxford University Press, p. 200</ref> among others, have argued that archaeological evidence in favour of the allegations of persecution of Buddhists are lacking, and that the extent and magnitude of the atrocities have been exaggerated.
Buddhist records such as the [[Ashokavadana]] write that the assassination of Brihadratha and the rise of the Shunga empire led to a wave of religious persecution for [[Buddhists]],<ref>According to the [[Ashokavadana]]</ref> and a resurgence of [[Hinduism]]. According to [[Sir John Marshall]],<ref>Sir John Marshall (1990), "A Guide to Sanchi", Eastern Book House, {{ISBN|81-85204-32-2}}, p. 38</ref> Pushyamitra may have been the main author of the persecutions, although later Shunga kings seem to have been more supportive of Buddhism. Other historians, such as [[Etienne Lamotte]]<ref>E. Lamotte, ''History of Indian Buddhism'', Institut Orientaliste, Louvain-la-Neuve 1988 (1958)</ref> and [[Romila Thapar]],<ref>Romila Thapar (1960), ''Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas'', Oxford University Press, p. 200</ref> among others, have argued that archaeological evidence in favour of the allegations of persecution of Buddhists are lacking, and that the extent and magnitude of the atrocities have been exaggerated.


====Establishment of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (180&nbsp;BCE)====
====Establishment of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (180&nbsp;BCE)====
{{Main|Indo-Greek Kingdom}}
{{Main|Indo-Greek Kingdom}}
[[File:World in 200 BCE.png|thumb|300px|Map of the world in 200 BC showing the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]], the Maurya Empire and the [[Yuezhi]] (Kushans)]]
The fall of the Mauryas left the [[Khyber Pass]] unguarded, and a wave of foreign invasion followed. The [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|Greco-Bactrian]] king, [[Demetrius I of Bactria|Demetrius]], capitalized on the break-up, and he conquered southern Afghanistan and parts of northwestern India around 180&nbsp;BCE, forming the [[Indo-Greek Kingdom]]. The Indo-Greeks would maintain holdings on the trans-Indus region, and make forays into central India, for about a century. Under them, Buddhism flourished, and one of their kings, [[Menander I|Menander]], became a famous figure of Buddhism; he was to establish a new capital of Sagala, the modern city of [[Sialkot]]. However, the extent of their domains and the lengths of their rule are subject to much debate. Numismatic evidence indicates that they retained holdings in the subcontinent right up to the birth of Christ. Although the extent of their successes against indigenous powers such as the [[Shunga Empire|Shunga]]s, [[Satavahana]]s, and [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]]s are unclear, what is clear is that Scythian tribes, renamed [[Indo-Scythians]], brought about the demise of the Indo-Greeks from around 70&nbsp;BCE and retained lands in the trans-Indus, the region of [[Mathura, Uttar Pradesh|Mathura]], and Gujarat.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}


The fall of the Mauryas left the [[Khyber Pass]] unguarded, and a wave of foreign invasion followed. The [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|Greco-Bactrian]] king [[Demetrius I of Bactria|Demetrius]] capitalized on the breakup, and he conquered southern Afghanistan and parts of northwestern India around 180&nbsp;BCE, forming the [[Indo-Greek Kingdom]]. The Indo-Greeks would maintain holdings on the trans-Indus region, and make forays into central India, for about a century. Under them, Buddhism flourished, and one of their kings, [[Menander I|Menander]], became a famous figure of Buddhism; he was to establish a new capital of Sagala, the modern city of [[Sialkot]]. However, the extent of their domains and the lengths of their rule are subject to much debate. Numismatic evidence indicates that they retained holdings in the subcontinent right up to the birth of Christ. Although the extent of their successes against indigenous powers such as the [[Shunga Empire|Shunga]]s, [[Satavahana]]s, and [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]] are unclear, what is clear is that Scythian tribes, named [[Indo-Scythians]], brought about the demise of the Indo-Greeks from around 70&nbsp;BCE and retained lands in the trans-Indus, the region of [[Mathura, Uttar Pradesh|Mathura]], and Gujarat.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
== Military ==
Megasthenes mentions military command consisting of six boards of five members each, (i) [[Navy]] (ii) military transport (iii) [[Infantry]] (iv) [[Cavalry]] with [[Catapults]] (v) [[Chariot|Chariot divisions]] and (vi) [[Elephant]]s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kangle|first=R. P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzxwTS0-nbUC&q=megasthenes+navy&pg=PA66|title=A Study|date=1986|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ.|isbn=978-81-208-0041-0|language=en}}</ref>


== Military ==
Historians theorise that the organisation of the Empire was in line with the extensive bureaucracy described by [[Chanakya]] in the [[Arthashastra]]: a sophisticated civil service governed everything from municipal hygiene to international trade. The expansion and defense of the empire was made possible by what appears to have been one of the largest armies in the world during the [[Iron Age]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gabriel A |first=Richard |title=The Ancient World :Volume 1 of Soldiers' lives through history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HscIwvtkq2UC&pg=PA301 |date=30 November 2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |page=28 |isbn=9780313333484 }}</ref> According to Megasthenes, the empire wielded a military of 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots and 9,000 war elephants besides followers and attendants.{{sfn|R. C. Majumdar|2003|p=107}}
Megasthenes mentions military command consisting of six boards of five members each, (i) [[History of the Indian Navy|Navy]] (ii) [[Military transport]] (iii) [[Infantry]] (iv) [[Cavalry]] and [[Catapults]] (v) [[Ratha|Chariot divisions]] and (vi) [[War elephant|Elephants]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kangle|first=R. P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzxwTS0-nbUC&q=megasthenes+navy&pg=PA66|title=A Study|date=1986|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ.|isbn=978-81-208-0041-0|language=en}}</ref>


==Administration==
==Administration==
[[File:MauryaStatuettes.jpg|thumb|Statuettes of the Mauryan era]]
[[File:MauryaStatuettes.jpg|thumb|Statuettes of the Mauryan era]]


The Empire was divided into four provinces, with the imperial capital at [[Pataliputra]]. From Ashokan edicts, the names of the four provincial capitals are [[Tosali]] (in the east), [[Ujjain]] (in the west), [[Suvarnagiri]] (in the south), and [[Taxila]] (in the north). The head of the provincial administration was the [[Kumar (title)|''Kumar'']] (prince), who governed the provinces as emperor's representative. The ''kumara'' was assisted by [[Amatya|''mahamatyas'']] (great ministers) and council of ministers. This organizational structure was reflected at the imperial level with the Emperor and his ''Mantriparishad'' (Council of Ministers).{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}. The Mauryans established a well developed coin minting system. Coins were mostly made of silver and copper. Certain gold coins were in circulation as well. The coins were widely used for trade and commerce<ref>{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999  |page=160|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen
The Empire was divided into four provinces, with the imperial capital at [[Pataliputra]]. From Ashokan edicts, the names of the four provincial capitals are [[Tosali]] (in the east), [[Ujjain]] (in the west), [[Suvarnagiri]] (in the south), and [[Taxila]] (in the north). The head of the provincial administration was the ''Kumara'' (royal prince), who governed the provinces as king's representative. The ''kumara'' was assisted by Mahamatyas and council of ministers. This organizational structure was reflected at the imperial level with the Emperor and his ''Mantriparishad'' (Council of Ministers).{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}. The mauryans established a well developed coin minting system. Coins were mostly made of silver and copper. Certain gold coins were in circulation as well. The coins were widely used for trade and commerce<ref>{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999  |page=160|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen
}}</ref>
}}</ref>


Historians theorise that the organisation of the Empire was in line with the extensive bureaucracy described by [[Chanakya]] in the [[Arthashastra]]: a sophisticated civil service governed everything from municipal hygiene to international trade. The expansion and defense of the empire was made possible by what appears to have been one of the largest armies in the world during the [[Iron Age]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gabriel A |first=Richard |title=The Ancient World :Volume 1 of Soldiers' lives through history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HscIwvtkq2UC&pg=PA301 |date=30 November 2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |page=28 |isbn=9780313333484 }}</ref> According to Megasthenes, the empire wielded a military of 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots and 9,000 war elephants besides followers and attendants.{{sfn|R. C. Majumdar|2003|p=107}} A vast [[espionage]] system collected intelligence for both internal and external security purposes. Having renounced offensive warfare and expansionism, Ashoka nevertheless continued to maintain this large army, to protect the Empire and instil stability and peace across West and South Asia.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}.Even though large parts were under the control of  Mauryan empire the spread of information and imperial messages was limited since many parts were inaccessible and were situated far away from capital of empire.<ref>{{cite book|title= History of India |first= Herman |last= Kulke |publisher= Routledge |year=2004 |page=79 |isbn= 9780415329200 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RoW9GuFJ9GIC&q=india++history}}</ref>
The economy of the empire has been described as, "a socialized monarchy", "a sort of state socialism", and the world's first welfare state.<ref name="Boesche2003">{{cite book|author=Roger Boesche|title=The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K85NA7Rg67wC&pg=PA67|year=2003|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-0607-5|pages=67–70}}</ref> Under the Mauryan system there was no private ownership of land as all land was owned by the king to whom tribute was paid by the by the laboring class. In return the emperor supplied the laborers with agricultural products, animals, seeds, tools, public infrastructure, and stored food in reserve for times of crisis.<ref name="Boesche2003" />
 
The economy of the empire has been described as, "a socialized monarchy", "a sort of state socialism", and the world's first [[welfare state]].<ref name="Boesche2003">{{cite book|author=Roger Boesche|title=The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K85NA7Rg67wC&pg=PA67|year=2003|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-0607-5|pages=67–70}}</ref> Under the Mauryan system there was no private ownership of land as all land was owned by the emperor to whom tribute was paid by the laboring class. In return the emperor supplied the laborers with agricultural products, animals, seeds, tools, public infrastructure, and stored food in reserve for times of crisis.<ref name="Boesche2003" />


=== Local government ===
=== Local government ===
[[Arthashastra]] and [[Megasthenes]] accounts of [[Pataliputra]] describe the intricate municipal system formed by Maurya empire to govern its cities. A city counsel made up of thirty commissioners was divided into six committees or boards which governed the city. The first board fixed wages and looked after provided goods, second board made arrangement for foreign dignitaries, tourists and businessmen, third board made records and registrations, fourth looked after manufactured goods and sale of commodities, fifth board regulated trade, issued licenses and checked weights and measurements, sixth board collected sales taxes. Some cities such as Taxila had autonomy to issue their own coins. The city counsel had officers who looked after public welfare such as maintenance of roads, public buildings, markets, hospitals, educational institutions etc.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MazdaWXQFuQC&q=pataliputra+local+government+system&pg=SL1-PA262|title=Indian History|date=1988|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=9788184245684|language=en}}</ref> The official head of the village was ''Gramika'' and in towns and cities was ''Nagarika''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.172447|title=India As Described By Megasthenes|last=Narain Singh Kalota|date=1978}}</ref> The city counsel also had some magisterial powers. The taking of census was regular process in the Mauryan administration. The village heads (''Gramika'') and mayors (''Nagarika'') were responsible enumerating different classes of people in the Mauryan empire such as traders, agriculturists, smiths, potters, carpenters etc. and also cattle, mostly for taxation purposes.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/explained-the-politics-behind-the-caste-census-in-bihar/articleshow/96916420.cms|title=Explained: History and politics of caste census in Bihar &#124; India News - Times of India|website=The Times of India}}</ref>{{better source needed|reason=ToI is not a reliable source for history; also see [[Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 287#Times of India RFC]]|date=January 2023}} These vocations consolidated as castes, a feature of Indian society that continues to influence the Indian politics till today.
[[Arthashastra]] and [[Megasthenes]] accounts of [[Pataliputra]] describe the intricate municipal system formed by Maurya empire to govern its cities. A city counsel made up of thirty commissioners was divided into six committees or boards which governed the city. The first board fixed wages and looked after provided goods, second board made arrangement for foreign dignitaries, tourists and businessmen, third board made records and registrations, fourth looked after manufactured goods and sale of commodities, fifth board regulated trade, issued licenses and checked weights and measurements, sixth board collected sales taxes. Some cities such as Taxila had autonomy to issue their own coins. The city counsel had officers who looked after public welfare such as maintenance of roads, public buildings, markets, hospitals, educational institutions etc.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MazdaWXQFuQC&q=pataliputra+local+government+system&pg=SL1-PA262|title=Indian History|date=1988|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=9788184245684|language=en}}</ref> The official head of the village was Gramika (in towns [[Nagar Palika|Nagarika]]).<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.172447|title=India As Described By Megasthenes|last=Narain Singh Kalota|date=1978}}</ref> The city counsel also had some magisterial powers. The taking of Census was regular process in the Mauryan administration. The village officials (Gramika) and municipal officials ([[Nagar Palika|Nagarika]]) were responsible enumerating different classes of people in the Mauryan empire such as traders, agriculturists, smiths, potters, carpenters etc. and also cattle, mostly for taxation purposes.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/explained-the-politics-behind-the-caste-census-in-bihar/articleshow/96916420.cms|title=Explained: History and politics of caste census in Bihar &#124; India News - Times of India|website=The Times of India}}</ref> These vocations consolidated as castes, a feature of Indian society that continues to influence the Indian politics till today.


==Economy==
==Economy==
{{see also|Economic history of India|Coinage of India}}
{{see also|Economic history of India|Coinage of India}}
[[File:MauryanStatuette2ndCenturyBCE.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Maurya statuette, 2nd century BCE.]]
[[File:MauryanStatuette2ndCenturyBCE.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Maurya statuette, 2nd century BCE.]]
For the first time in [[South Asia]], political unity and military security allowed for a common economic system and enhanced trade and commerce, with increased agricultural productivity. The previous situation involving hundreds of kingdoms, many small armies, powerful regional chieftains, and internecine warfare, gave way to a disciplined central authority. Farmers were freed of tax and crop collection burdens from regional kings, paying instead to a centrally administered and strict-but-fair system of taxation as advised by the principles in the ''Arthashastra''. Chandragupta Maurya established a single currency across India, and a network of regional governors and administrators and a civil service provided justice and security for merchants, farmers and traders. The Mauryan army wiped out many gangs of bandits, regional private armies, and powerful chieftains who sought to impose their own supremacy in small areas. Although regimental in revenue collection, Mauryas also sponsored many public works and waterways to enhance productivity, while internal trade in India expanded greatly due to new-found political unity and internal peace.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
For the first time in [[South Asia]], political unity and military security allowed for a common economic system and enhanced trade and commerce, with increased agricultural productivity. The previous situation involving hundreds of kingdoms, many small armies, powerful regional chieftains, and internecine warfare, gave way to a disciplined central authority. Farmers were freed of tax and crop collection burdens from regional kings, paying instead to a nationally administered and strict-but-fair system of taxation as advised by the principles in the ''Arthashastra''. Chandragupta Maurya established a single currency across India, and a network of regional governors and administrators and a civil service provided justice and security for merchants, farmers and traders. The Mauryan army wiped out many gangs of bandits, regional private armies, and powerful chieftains who sought to impose their own supremacy in small areas. Although regimental in revenue collection, Maurya also sponsored many public works and waterways to enhance productivity, while internal trade in India expanded greatly due to new-found political unity and internal peace.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}


Under the Indo-Greek friendship treaty, and during Ashoka's reign, an international network of trade expanded. The [[Khyber Pass]], on the modern boundary of Pakistan and Afghanistan, became a strategically important port of trade and intercourse with the outside world. Greek states and Hellenic kingdoms in West Asia became important trade partners of India. Trade also extended through the [[Malay Peninsula]] into Southeast Asia. India's exports included silk goods and textiles, spices and exotic foods. The external world came across new scientific knowledge and technology with expanding trade with the Mauryan Empire. Ashoka also sponsored the construction of thousands of roads, waterways, canals, hospitals, rest-houses and other public works. The easing of many over-rigorous administrative practices, including those regarding taxation and crop collection, helped increase productivity and economic activity across the Empire.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
Under the Indo-Greek friendship treaty, and during Ashoka's reign, an international network of trade expanded. The [[Khyber Pass]], on the modern boundary of Pakistan and Afghanistan, became a strategically important port of trade and intercourse with the outside world. Greek states and Hellenic kingdoms in West Asia became important trade partners of India. Trade also extended through the [[Malay peninsula]] into Southeast Asia. India's exports included silk goods and textiles, spices and exotic foods. The external world came across new scientific knowledge and technology with expanding trade with the Mauryan Empire. Ashoka also sponsored the construction of thousands of roads, waterways, canals, hospitals, rest-houses and other public works. The easing of many over-rigorous administrative practices, including those regarding taxation and crop collection, helped increase productivity and economic activity across the Empire.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}


In many ways, the economic situation in the Mauryan Empire is analogous to the [[Roman Empire]] of several centuries later. Both had extensive trade connections and both had organizations similar to [[corporation]]s. While Rome had organizational entities which were largely used for public state-driven projects, Mauryan India had numerous private commercial entities. These existed purely for private commerce and developed before the Mauryan Empire itself.<ref>[https://ssrn.com/abstract=796464 ''The Economic History of the Corporate Form in Ancient India.''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204000202/https://ssrn.com/abstract=796464 |date=4 February 2016 }} [[University of Michigan]].</ref>
In many ways, the economic situation in the Mauryan Empire is analogous to the Roman Empire of several centuries later. Both had extensive trade connections and both had organizations similar to [[corporation]]s. While Rome had organizational entities which were largely used for public state-driven projects, Mauryan India had numerous private commercial entities. These existed purely for private commerce and developed before the Mauryan Empire itself.<ref>[https://ssrn.com/abstract=796464 ''The Economic History of the Corporate Form in Ancient India.''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204000202/https://ssrn.com/abstract=796464 |date=4 February 2016 }} [[University of Michigan]].</ref>


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==Religion==
==Religion==
While [[Brahmanism]] was an important religion throughout the period of the empire,{{sfn|Nath Sen|1999|p=164, (215) 217}}{{efn|name="Brahmanism"}} the Mauryans were rooted in the non-Vedic Magadha realm, and favored [[Jainism]],{{sfn|Smith|1981|p=99}}{{sfn|Dalrymple|2009}}{{sfn|Keay|1981|p=85-86}}{{efn|name="Jainism"}} [[Buddhism]],{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}{{sfn|Long|2020|p=255}}{{efn|name="Buddhism"}} and [[Ājīvika|Ajivikism]].{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}{{sfn|Long|2020|p=255}}{{efn|name="Ajivikism"}} Brahmanism, which had developed in the conquered [[Kuru kingdom|Kuru]]-[[Panchala]] realm, lost its privileges, which threatened its very existence, and pressured it to transform itself into a "socio-political ideology" which eventually became influential far beyond the confines of its original homeland,{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2011}}{{efn|name="Bronkhorst_Brahmanical_transformation"|{{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2011}}:
Throughout the period of empire, [[Vedic]] was an important religion.<ref name="Nath sen 1999 164">{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999 |page=164|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen}}</ref> The Mauryans favored Brahmanism as well as Jainism and Buddhism. Minor religious sects such as [[Ajivika]]s also received patronage. A number of [[List of Hindu texts|Hindu texts]] were written during the Mauryan period.<ref>{{cite book | last=Ray | first=A. | title=Towns and Cities of Medieval India: A Brief Survey | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-351-99731-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4TslDwAAQBAJ | page=22}}</ref>
* This incorporation into a larger empire, first presumably by the Nandas, then by the Mauryas, took away all the respect and privileges that Brahmins had so far enjoyed, and might have meant the disappearance of Brahmins as a distinct group of people. The reason [110] why this did not happen is that Brahmanism reinvented itself. Deprived of their earlier privileges, Brahmins made an effort to find new ways to make themselves indispensable for rulers, and to gain the respect of others."
* "It [118] was because of the Maurya empire that Brahmanism had to reinvent itself. It was because of that empire that Brahmanism transformed itself from a ritual tradition linked to local rulers in a relatively restricted part of India into a socio-political ideology that succeeded in imposing itself on vast parts of South and Southeast Asia, together covering an area larger than the Roman empire ever had."}} resulting in the [[Hindu synthesis]] in which Brahmanical ideology, local traditions, and elements from the sramana-traditions, were synthesized.


[[File:Shravanabelagola2007 - 44.jpg|thumb|Bhadrabahu Cave, [[Shravanabelagola]] where [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]] is said to have died]]
[[File:Shravanabelagola2007 - 44.jpg|thumb|Bhadrabahu Cave, [[Shravanabelagola]] where [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]] is said to have died]]
While according to Greek traveller [[Megasthenes]], Chandragupta Maurya sponsored Brahmanical rituals and sacrifices,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lal bhargava |first=Purushottam |title=Chandragupta Maurya A Gem of Indian History |publisher=D.K Printworld |year=1996 |isbn=9788124600566 |pages=44}}</ref><ref name="India19602">{{citation |last1=Majumdar |first1=R. C. |title=An Advanced History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyIWMwEACAAJ |year=1960 |location=London |publisher=Macmillan & Company Ltd; New York: St Martin's Press |quote=If the Jaina tradition is to be believed, Chandragupta was converted to the religion of Mahavira. He is said to have abdicated his throne and passed his last days at Sravana Belgola in Mysore.  Greek evidence, however, suggests that the first Maurya did not give up the performance of Brahmanical sacrificial rites and was far from following the Jaina creed of ''Ahimsa'' or non-injury to animals. He took delight in hunting, a practice that was continued by his son and alluded to by his grandson in his eighth Rock Edict.  It is, however, possible that in his last days he showed some predilection for Jainism ... |last2=Raychauduhuri |first2=H. C. |last3=Datta |first3=Kalikinkar |author-link1=R. C. Majumdar |author-link2=H. C. Raychaudhuri}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sharma |first=Madhulika |title=Fire Worship in Ancient India |publisher=Publication scheme |year=2001 |isbn=9788186782576}}</ref> according to a Jain text from the 12th century, Chandragupta Maurya followed [[Jainism]] after retiring, when he renounced his throne and material possessions to join a wandering group of [[Jain monk]]s and in his last days, he observed the rigorous but self-purifying Jain ritual of [[santhara]] (fast unto death), at [[Shravana Belgola]] in [[Karnataka]],{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|pp=39-41}}{{sfn|Romila Thapar|2004|p=178}}{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|pp=64-65}}{{sfn|Geoffrey Samuel|2010|pp=60}} though it is also possible that "they are talking about his great grandson."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mookerji |first=Radhakumud |title=Chandragupta Maurya and his times |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1966 |pages=40–50 |quote=There is also no evidence to prove the fact taken for granted without the need of any argument or demonstration by all Jain writers that Chandragupta ever became a convert to their religion after abdication. It is possible they are talking about his great grandson.}}</ref> [[Samprati]], the grandson of [[Ashoka]], patronized Jainism. Samprati was influenced by the teachings of Jain monks like [[Suhastin]] and he is said to have built 125,000 [[derasar]]s across India.{{sfn|John Cort|2010|p=142}} Some of them are still found in the towns of Ahmedabad, Viramgam, Ujjain, and Palitana.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} It is also said that just like Ashoka, Samprati sent messengers and preachers to Greece, [[History of Iran|Persia]] and the [[Middle East]] for the spread of Jainism, but, to date, no evidence has been found to support this claim.{{sfn|John Cort|2010|p=199}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Tukol |first=T. K. |author-link=T. K. Tukol |title=Jainism in South India |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/south.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191052/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/south.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
According to a Jain text from the 12th century, Chandragupta Maurya followed [[Jainism]] after retiring, when he renounced his throne and material possessions to join a wandering group of Jain monks and in his last days, he observed the rigorous but self-purifying Jain ritual of [[santhara]] (fast unto death), at [[Shravana Belgola]] in [[Karnataka]].{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|pp=39-41}}{{sfn|Romila Thapar|2004|p=178}}{{sfn|Hermann Kulke|2004|pp=64-65}}{{sfn|Geoffrey Samuel|2010|pp=60}} Nevertheless, it is possible that Chandragupta Maurya "did not give up the performance of sacrificial rites and was far from following the Jaina creed of ''Ahimsa'' or non-injury to animals."<ref name="India1960">{{citation|last1=Majumdar|first1=R. C.|author-link1=R. C. Majumdar|last2=Raychauduhuri|first2=H. C.|author-link2=H. C. Raychaudhuri|last3=Datta|first3=Kalikinkar|title=An Advanced History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyIWMwEACAAJ|year=1960|publisher=Macmillan & Company Ltd; New York: St Martin's Press|location=London|quote=If the Jaina tradition is to be believed, Chandragupta was converted to the religion of Mahavira. He is said to have abdicated his throne and passed his last days at Sravana Belgola in Mysore.  Greek evidence, however, suggests that the first Maurya did not give up the performance of sacrificial rites and was far from following the Jaina creed of ''Ahimsa'' or non-injury to animals. He took delight in hunting, a practice that was continued by his son and alluded to by his grandson in his eighth Rock Edict.  It is, however, possible that in his last days he showed some predilection for Jainism ...}}</ref> [[Samprati]], the grandson of [[Ashoka]], also patronized Jainism. Samprati was influenced by the teachings of Jain monks like [[Suhastin]] and he is said to have built 125,000 [[derasar]]s across India.{{sfn|John Cort|2010|p=142}} Some of them are still found in the towns of Ahmedabad, Viramgam, Ujjain, and Palitana.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} It is also said that just like Ashoka, Samprati sent messengers and preachers to Greece, [[Persia]] and the [[Middle East]] for the spread of Jainism, but, to date, no evidence has been found to support this claim.{{sfn|John Cort|2010|p=199}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Tukol |first=T. K. |author-link=T. K. Tukol |title=Jainism in South India |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/south.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191052/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/south.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>


[[File:Sanchi2.jpg|thumb|The [[stupa]], which contained the relics of Buddha, at the center of the [[Sanchi]] complex was originally built by the Maurya Empire, but the balustrade around it is [[Sunga]], and the decorative gateways are from the later [[Satavahana]] period.]]
[[File:Sanchi2.jpg|thumb|The [[stupa]], which contained the relics of Buddha, at the center of the [[Sanchi]] complex was originally built by the Maurya Empire, but the balustrade around it is [[Sunga]], and the decorative gateways are from the later [[Satavahana]] period.]]
[[File:Taxila1.jpg|thumb|The [[Dharmarajika]] [[stupa]] in [[Taxila]], modern Pakistan, is also thought to have been established by Emperor [[Asoka]].]]
[[File:Taxila1.jpg|thumb|The [[Dharmarajika]] [[stupa]] in [[Taxila]], modern Pakistan, is also thought to have been established by Emperor [[Asoka]].]]


The Buddhist texts ''[[Samantapasadika]]'' and ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]'' suggest that Bindusara followed Brahmanism, calling him a "''Brahmana bhatto''" ("devotee of the Brahmins").<ref name="SMH_2001">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOkQAQAAIAAJ |title=Buddhism in India and Sri Lanka (c. 300 BC to C. 600 AD) |author=S. M. Haldhar |publisher=Om |year=2001 |isbn=9788186867532 |page=38 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=79w9AAAAMAAJ |title=Asoka and His Inscriptions |volume=1 |author=Beni Madhab Barua |author-link=Benimadhab Barua|year=1968 |page=171 }}</ref>
The Buddhist texts ''[[Samantapasadika]]'' and ''[[Mahavamsa]]'' suggest that Bindusara followed Hindu Brahmanism, calling him a "''Brahmana bhatto''" ("monk of the Brahmanas").<ref name="SMH_2001">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOkQAQAAIAAJ |title=Buddhism in India and Sri Lanka (c. 300 BC to C. 600 AD) |author=S. M. Haldhar |publisher=Om |year=2001 |isbn=9788186867532 |page=38 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=79w9AAAAMAAJ |title=Asoka and His Inscriptions |volume=1 |author=Beni Madhab Barua |author-link=Benimadhab Barua|year=1968 |page=171 }}</ref>


[[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]], the centre of the empire, was also the birthplace of Buddhism. In later life Ashoka followed Buddhism; following the [[Kalinga War]], he renounced expansionism and aggression, and the harsher injunctions of the ''[[Arthashastra]]'' on the use of force, intensive policing, and ruthless measures for tax collection and against rebels. Ashoka sent a mission led by his son [[Mahinda (buddhist monk)|Mahinda]] and daughter [[Sanghamitta]] to [[Anuradhapura Kingdom|Sri Lanka]], whose king [[Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura|Tissa]] was so charmed with Buddhist ideals that he adopted them himself and made Buddhism the state religion. Ashoka sent many Buddhist missions to [[West Asia]], Greece and [[South East Asia]], and commissioned the construction of monasteries and schools, as well as the publication of Buddhist literature across the empire. He is believed to have built as many as 84,000 stupas across India, such as [[Sanchi]] and [[Mahabodhi Temple]], and he increased the popularity of Buddhism in Afghanistan and [[History of Thailand|Thailand]]. Ashoka helped convene the [[Buddhist Councils|Third Buddhist Council]] of India's and South Asia's Buddhist orders near his capital, a council that undertook much work of reform and expansion of the Buddhist religion. Indian merchants embraced Buddhism and played a large role in spreading the religion across the Mauryan Empire.<ref>Jerry Bentley, ''Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts in Pre-Modern Times'' (New York: Oxford University Press), 46</ref>
[[Magadha]], the centre of the empire, was also the birthplace of Buddhism. Ashoka initially practised Brahmanism{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} but later followed Buddhism; following the [[Kalinga War]], he renounced expansionism and aggression, and the harsher injunctions of the ''[[Arthashastra]]'' on the use of force, intensive policing, and ruthless measures for tax collection and against rebels. Ashoka sent a mission led by his son [[Mahinda (buddhist monk)|Mahinda]] and daughter [[Sanghamitta]] to [[Sri Lanka]], whose king [[Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura|Tissa]] was so charmed with Buddhist ideals that he adopted them himself and made Buddhism the state religion. Ashoka sent many Buddhist missions to [[West Asia]], Greece and [[South East Asia]], and commissioned the construction of monasteries and schools, as well as the publication of Buddhist literature across the empire. He is believed to have built as many as 84,000 stupas across India, such as [[Sanchi]] and [[Mahabodhi Temple]], and he increased the popularity of Buddhism in Afghanistan and [[Thailand]]. Ashoka helped convene the [[Buddhist Councils|Third Buddhist Council]] of India's and South Asia's Buddhist orders near his capital, a council that undertook much work of reform and expansion of the Buddhist religion. Indian merchants embraced Buddhism and played a large role in spreading the religion across the Mauryan Empire.<ref>Jerry Bentley, ''Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts in Pre-Modern Times'' (New York: Oxford University Press), 46</ref>


==Society==
==Society==
The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-4b">{{citation|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=24}} Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 bce) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."</ref> According to Tim Dyson, the period of the Mauryan Empire saw the consolidation of [[Caste system in India|caste]] among the [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan people]] who had settled in the Gangetic plain, increasingly meeting tribal people who were incorporated into their evolving caste-system, and the declining rights of women in the [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan speaking]] regions of India, though "these developments did not affect people living in large parts of the subcontinent."<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-3b">{{citation|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=19}}</ref>
The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-4b">{{citation|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=24}} Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 bce) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."</ref> According to Tim Dyson, the period of the Mauryan Empire saw the consolidation of [[Caste system in India|caste]] among the [[Vedic period|Indo-Aryan people]] who had settled in the Gangetic plain, increasingly meeting tribal people who were incorporated into their evolving caste-system, and the declining rights of women in the [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan speaking]] regions of India, though "these developments did not affect people living in large parts of the subcontinent."<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-3b">{{citation|last=Dyson|first=Tim|title=A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-882905-8|page=19}}</ref>


==Architectural remains==
==Architectural remains==
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[[File:Barabar Caves 2.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Mauryan architecture in the [[Barabar Caves]]. [[Lomas Rishi Cave]]. 3rd century BCE.]]
[[File:Barabar Caves 2.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Mauryan architecture in the [[Barabar Caves]]. [[Lomas Rishi Cave]]. 3rd century BCE.]]


The greatest monument of this period, executed in the reign of [[Chandragupta Maurya]], was the old palace at Paliputra, modern [[Kumhrar]] in [[Patna]]. Excavations have unearthed the remains of the palace, which is thought to have been a group of several buildings, the most important of which was an immense pillared hall supported on a high substratum of timbers. The pillars were set in regular rows, thus dividing the hall into a number of smaller square bays. The number of columns is 80, each about {{formatnum:{{#expr:9.75-2.74 round 0}}}} meters high. According to the eyewitness account of [[Megasthenes]], the palace was chiefly constructed of timber, and was considered to exceed in splendour and magnificence the palaces of [[Susa]] and [[Ecbatana]], its gilded pillars being adorned with golden vines and silver birds. The buildings stood in an extensive park studded with fish ponds and furnished with a great variety of ornamental trees and shrubs.<ref>"L'age d'or de l'Inde Classique", p23</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2016}} Kauṭilya's [[Arthashastra]] also gives the method of palace construction from this period. Later fragments of stone pillars, including one nearly complete, with their round tapering shafts and smooth polish, indicate that Ashoka was responsible for the construction of the stone columns which replaced the earlier wooden ones.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
The greatest monument of this period, executed in the reign of [[Chandragupta Maurya]], was the old palace at Paliputra, modern [[Kumhrar]] in [[Patna]]. Excavations have unearthed the remains of the palace, which is thought to have been a group of several buildings, the most important of which was an immense pillared hall supported on a high substratum of timbers. The pillars were set in regular rows, thus dividing the hall into a number of smaller square bays. The number of columns is 80, each about {{formatnum:{{#expr:9.75-2.74 round 0}}}} meters high. According to the eyewitness account of [[Megasthenes]], the palace was chiefly constructed of timber, and was considered to exceed in splendour and magnificence the palaces of Susa and Ecbatana, its gilded pillars being adorned with golden vines and silver birds. The buildings stood in an extensive park studded with fish ponds and furnished with a great variety of ornamental trees and shrubs.<ref>"L'age d'or de l'Inde Classique", p23</ref>Kauṭilya's [[Arthashastra]] also gives the method of palace construction from this period. Later fragments of stone pillars, including one nearly complete, with their round tapering shafts and smooth polish, indicate that Ashoka was responsible for the construction of the stone columns which replaced the earlier wooden ones.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}


[[File:Early stupa 6 meters in diameter with fallen umbrella on side in Chakpat near Chakdara.jpg|thumb|left|An early [[stupa]], 6 meters in diameter, with fallen umbrella on side. Chakpat, near [[Chakdara]]. Probably Maurya, 3rd century BCE.]]
[[File:Early stupa 6 meters in diameter with fallen umbrella on side in Chakpat near Chakdara.jpg|thumb|left|An early [[stupa]], 6 meters in diameter, with fallen umbrella on side. Chakpat, near [[Chakdara]]. Probably Maurya, 3rd century BCE.]]
During the Ashokan period, stonework was of a highly diversified order and comprised lofty free-standing pillars, railings of [[stupas]], lion thrones and other colossal figures. The use of stone had reached such great perfection during this time that even small fragments of stone art were given a high lustrous polish resembling fine enamel. This period marked the beginning of [[Buddhist architecture]].  Ashoka was responsible for the construction of several [[stupas]], which were large domes and bearing symbols of Buddha. The most important ones are located at [[Sanchi]], [[Bodhgaya]], [[Bharhut]], and possibly [[Amaravati Stupa]]. The most widespread examples of Mauryan architecture are the [[Pillars of Ashoka|Ashoka pillars]] and carved edicts of Ashoka, often exquisitely decorated, with more than 40 spread throughout the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref>"L'age d'or de l'Inde Classique", p22</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2016}}
During the Ashokan period, stonework was of a highly diversified order and comprised lofty free-standing pillars, railings of [[stupas]], lion thrones and other colossal figures. The use of stone had reached such great perfection during this time that even small fragments of stone art were given a high lustrous polish resembling fine enamel. This period marked the beginning of [[Buddhist architecture]].  Ashoka was responsible for the construction of several [[stupas]], which were large domes and bearing symbols of Buddha. The most important ones are located at [[Sanchi]], [[Bodhgaya]], [[Bharhut]], and possibly [[Amaravati Stupa]]. The most widespread examples of Mauryan architecture are the [[Pillars of Ashoka|Ashoka pillars]] and carved edicts of Ashoka, often exquisitely decorated, with more than 40 spread throughout the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref>"L'age d'or de l'Inde Classique", p22</ref>


The peacock was a dynastic symbol of Mauryans, as depicted by Ashoka's pillars at Nandangarh and Sanchi Stupa.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=15}}
The peacock was a dynastic symbol of Mauryans, as depicted by Ashoka's pillars at Nandangarh and Sanchi Stupa.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=15}}
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The protection of animals in India was advocated by the time of the Maurya dynasty; being the first empire to provide a unified political entity in India, the attitude of the Mauryas towards forests, their denizens, and fauna in general is of interest.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor|last=Allen|first=Charles|publisher=Hachette Digital|year=2012|isbn=978-1-408-70388-5|location=London|pages=274}}</ref>
The protection of animals in India was advocated by the time of the Maurya dynasty; being the first empire to provide a unified political entity in India, the attitude of the Mauryas towards forests, their denizens, and fauna in general is of interest.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor|last=Allen|first=Charles|publisher=Hachette Digital|year=2012|isbn=978-1-408-70388-5|location=London|pages=274}}</ref>


The Mauryas firstly looked at forests as resources. For them, the most important forest product was the elephant. Military might in those times depended not only upon horses and men but also [[War elephants|battle-elephants]]; these played a role in the defeat of [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]], one of [[Alexander the Great]]'s former generals. The Mauryas sought to preserve supplies of elephants since it was cheaper and took less time to catch, tame and train wild elephants than to raise them. [[Kautilya]]'s ''[[Arthashastra]]'' contains not only maxims on ancient statecraft, but also unambiguously specifies the responsibilities of officials such as the ''Protector of the Elephant Forests''.<ref name="IWH4">Rangarajan, M. (2001) India's Wildlife History, pp 7.</ref>
The Mauryas firstly looked at forests as resources. For them, the most important forest product was the elephant. Military might in those times depended not only upon horses and men but also [[War elephants|battle-elephants]]; these played a role in the defeat of [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]], one of [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]'s former generals. The Mauryas sought to preserve supplies of elephants since it was cheaper and took less time to catch, tame and train wild elephants than to raise them. [[Kautilya]]'s ''[[Arthashastra]]'' contains not only maxims on ancient statecraft, but also unambiguously specifies the responsibilities of officials such as the ''Protector of the Elephant Forests''.<ref name="IWH4">Rangarajan, M. (2001) India's Wildlife History, pp 7.</ref>


{{blockquote|text=On the border of the forest, he should establish a forest for elephants guarded by foresters. The Office of the Chief Elephant Forester should with the help of guards protect the elephants in any terrain. The slaying of an elephant is punishable by death.|author=[[Kautilya]] |title=[[Arthashastra]]}}
{{blockquote|text=On the border of the forest, he should establish a forest for elephants guarded by foresters. The Office of the Chief Elephant Forester should with the help of guards protect the elephants in any terrain. The slaying of an elephant is punishable by death.|author=[[Kautilya]] |title=[[Arthashastra]]}}
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The Mauryas also designated separate forests to protect supplies of timber, as well as lions and tigers for skins. Elsewhere the ''Protector of Animals'' also worked to eliminate thieves, tigers and other predators to render the woods safe for grazing cattle.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
The Mauryas also designated separate forests to protect supplies of timber, as well as lions and tigers for skins. Elsewhere the ''Protector of Animals'' also worked to eliminate thieves, tigers and other predators to render the woods safe for grazing cattle.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}


The Mauryas valued certain forest tracts in strategic or economic terms and instituted curbs and control measures over them. They regarded all [[Adivasi|forest tribes]] with distrust and controlled them with bribery and political subjugation. They employed some of them, the food-gatherers or ''aranyaca'' to guard borders and trap animals. The sometimes tense and conflict-ridden relationship nevertheless enabled the Mauryas to guard their vast empire.<ref name="IWH5">Rangarajan, M. (2001) India's Wildlife History, pp 8.</ref>
The Mauryas valued certain forest tracts in strategic or economic terms and instituted curbs and control measures over them. They regarded all forest tribes with distrust and controlled them with bribery and political subjugation. They employed some of them, the food-gatherers or ''aranyaca'' to guard borders and trap animals. The sometimes tense and conflict-ridden relationship nevertheless enabled the Mauryas to guard their vast empire.<ref name="IWH5">Rangarajan, M. (2001) India's Wildlife History, pp 8.</ref>


When [[Ashoka]] embraced Buddhism in the latter part of his reign, he brought about significant changes in his style of governance, which included providing protection to fauna, and even relinquished the royal hunt. He was the first ruler in history{{failed verification|date=September 2017}} to advocate [[Conservation (ethic)|conservation]] measures for wildlife and even had rules inscribed in stone edicts. The edicts proclaim that many followed the emperor's example in giving up the slaughter of animals; one of them proudly states:<ref name="IWH5"/>
When [[Ashoka]] embraced Buddhism in the latter part of his reign, he brought about significant changes in his style of governance, which included providing protection to fauna, and even relinquished the royal hunt. He was the first ruler in history{{failed verification|date=September 2017}} to advocate [[Conservation (ethic)|conservation]] measures for wildlife and even had rules inscribed in stone edicts. The edicts proclaim that many followed the king's example in giving up the slaughter of animals; one of them proudly states:<ref name="IWH5"/>
{{blockquote|Our king killed very few animals.|[[Edicts of Ashoka|Edict on Fifth Pillar]]}}


However, the edicts of Ashoka reflect more the desire of rulers than actual events; the mention of a 100 'panas' (coins) fine for poaching deer in imperial hunting preserves shows that rule-breakers did exist. The legal restrictions conflicted with the practices freely exercised by the common people in hunting, felling, fishing and setting fires in forests.<ref name="IWH5"/>
However, the edicts of Ashoka reflect more the desire of rulers than actual events; the mention of a 100 'panas' (coins) fine for poaching deer in royal hunting preserves shows that rule-breakers did exist. The legal restrictions conflicted with the practices freely exercised by the common people in hunting, felling, fishing and setting fires in forests.<ref name="IWH5"/>


==Contacts with the Hellenistic world==
==Contacts with the Hellenistic world==
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Relations with the Hellenistic world may have started from the very beginning of the Maurya Empire. [[Plutarch]] reports that Chandragupta Maurya met with [[Alexander the Great]], probably around [[Taxila]] in the northwest:<ref name="RM16">{{cite book |last1=Mookerji |first1=Radhakumud |author-link1=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |date=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120804050 |pages=16–17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA16 |language=en}}</ref>
Relations with the Hellenistic world may have started from the very beginning of the Maurya Empire. [[Plutarch]] reports that Chandragupta Maurya met with [[Alexander the Great]], probably around [[Taxila]] in the northwest:<ref name="RM16">{{cite book |last1=Mookerji |first1=Radhakumud |author-link1=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |date=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120804050 |pages=16–17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA16 |language=en}}</ref>


{{blockquote|Sandrocottus, when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself, and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly missed making himself master of the country, since its king was hated and despised on account of his baseness and low birth.| [[Plutarch]] 62-4<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0243&redirect=true|title=Plutarch, Alexander, chapter 1, section 1|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref name="RM16"/>}}
{{blockquote|Sandrocottus(Chandragupta), when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself, and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly missed making himself master of the country, since its king (Dhananda) was hated and despised on account of his baseness and low birth.| Plutarch 62-4<ref name="RM16"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0243&redirect=true|title=Plutarch, Alexander, chapter 1, section 1|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>}}


===Reconquest of the Northwest (c. 317–316&nbsp;BCE)===
===Reconquest of the Northwest (c. 317–316&nbsp;BCE)===
Chandragupta ultimately occupied Northwestern India, in the territories formerly ruled by the Greeks, where he fought the satraps (described as "Prefects" in Western sources) left in place after Alexander (Justin), among whom may have been [[Eudemus (general)|Eudemus]], ruler in the western Punjab until his departure in 317&nbsp;BCE or [[Peithon, son of Agenor]], ruler of the Greek colonies along the Indus until his departure for [[Babylon]] in 316&nbsp;BCE.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
Chandragupta ultimately occupied Northwestern India, in the territories formerly ruled by the Greeks, where he fought the satraps (described as "Prefects" in Western sources) left in place after Alexander (Justin), among whom may have been [[Eudemus (general)|Eudemus]], ruler in the western Punjab until his departure in 317&nbsp;BCE or [[Peithon, son of Agenor]], ruler of the Greek colonies along the Indus until his departure for [[Babylon]] in 316&nbsp;BCE.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}


{{blockquote|India, after the death of Alexander, had assassinated his prefects, as if shaking the burden of servitude. The author of this liberation was Sandracottos, but he had transformed liberation in servitude after victory, since, after taking the throne, he himself oppressed the very people he has liberated from foreign domination.| [[Justin (historian)|Justin]] XV.4.12–13<ref>"(Transitum deinde in Indiam fecit), quae post mortem Alexandri, ueluti ceruicibus iugo seruitutis excusso, praefectos eius occiderat. Auctor libertatis Sandrocottus fuerat, sed titulum libertatis post uictoriam in seruitutem uerterat; 14 siquidem occupato regno populum quem ab externa dominatione uindicauerat ipse seruitio premebat." {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170420013859/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html Justin XV.4.12–13]}}</ref>}}
{{blockquote|India, after the death of Alexander, had assassinated his prefects, as if shaking the burden of servitude. The author of this liberation was Sandracottos, but he had transformed liberation in servitude after victory, since, after taking the throne, he himself oppressed the very people he has liberated from foreign domination.| Justin XV.4.12–13<ref>"(Transitum deinde in Indiam fecit), quae post mortem Alexandri, ueluti ceruicibus iugo seruitutis excusso, praefectos eius occiderat. Auctor libertatis Sandrocottus fuerat, sed titulum libertatis post uictoriam in seruitutem uerterat; 14 siquidem occupato regno populum quem ab externa dominatione uindicauerat ipse seruitio premebat." [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html Justin XV.4.12–13] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420013859/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html |date=20 April 2017 }}</ref>}}


{{blockquote|Later, as he was preparing war against the prefects of Alexander, a huge wild elephant went to him and took him on his back as if tame, and he became a remarkable fighter and war leader. Having thus acquired royal power, Sandracottos possessed India at the time Seleucos was preparing future glory.|Justin XV.4.19<ref>"Molienti deinde bellum aduersus praefectos Alexandri elephantus ferus infinitae magnitudinis ultro se obtulit et ueluti domita mansuetudine eum tergo excepit duxque belli et proeliator insignis fuit. Sic adquisito regno Sandrocottus ea tempestate, qua Seleucus futurae magnitudinis fundamenta iaciebat, Indiam possidebat." {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170420013859/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html Justin XV.4.19]}}</ref>}}
{{blockquote|Later, as he was preparing war against the prefects of Alexander, a huge wild elephant went to him and took him on his back as if tame, and he became a remarkable fighter and war leader. Having thus acquired royal power, Sandracottos possessed India at the time Seleucos was preparing future glory.|Justin XV.4.19<ref>"Molienti deinde bellum aduersus praefectos Alexandri elephantus ferus infinitae magnitudinis ultro se obtulit et ueluti domita mansuetudine eum tergo excepit duxque belli et proeliator insignis fuit. Sic adquisito regno Sandrocottus ea tempestate, qua Seleucus futurae magnitudinis fundamenta iaciebat, Indiam possidebat." [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html Justin XV.4.19] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420013859/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html |date=20 April 2017 }}</ref>}}


===Conflict and alliance with Seleucus (305&nbsp;BCE)===
===Conflict and alliance with Seleucus (305&nbsp;BCE)===
{{Main|Seleucid–Mauryan war}}
{{Main|Seleucid–Mauryan war}}
[[File:Hellenistic world and Maurya Empire 281 BCE.png|thumb|right|A map showing the north western border of Maurya Empire, including its various neighboring states.]]
[[File:Hellenistic World 281 BC with Seleukos & Mauryan Empire.png|thumb|right|A map showing the north western border of Maurya Empire, including its various neighboring states.]]
[[Seleucus I Nicator]], the Macedonian [[satrap]] of the Asian portion of Alexander's former empire, conquered and put under his own authority eastern territories as far as Bactria and the Indus ([[Appian]], ''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars 55), until in 305&nbsp;BCE he entered into a confrontation with Emperor Chandragupta:
[[Seleucus I Nicator]], the Macedonian [[satrap]] of the Asian portion of Alexander's former empire, conquered and put under his own authority eastern territories as far as Bactria and the Indus ([[Appian]], ''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars 55), until in 305&nbsp;BCE he entered into a confrontation with Emperor Chandragupta:


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====Marriage alliance====
====Marriage alliance====
[[File:Mauryan head from Sarnath.jpg|thumb|upright|Figure of a foreigner, found in [[Sarnath]], 3rd century BCE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bachhofer |first1=Ludwig |title=Early Indian Sculpture Vol. I |date=1929 |publisher=The Pegasus Press |location=Paris |pages=239–240 |url=https://indianculture.gov.in/rarebooks/early-indian-sculpture-vol-i |language=en}}</ref> This is a probable member of the West Asian [[Pahlava]] or [[Saka]] elite in the [[Gangetic plain]]s during the Mauryan period.<ref name="Gupta 122">Page 122: About the [[Masarh lion]]: "This particular example of a foreign model gets added support from the male heads of foreigners from Patna city and Sarnath since they also prove beyond doubt that a section of the elite in the Gangetic Basin was of foreign origin. However, as noted earlier, this is an example of the late Mauryan period since this is not the type adopted in any Ashoka pillar. We are, therefore, visualizing a historical situation in India in which the West Asian influence on Indian art was felt more in the late Mauryan than in the early Mauryan period. The term West Asia in this context stands for Iran and Afghanistan, where the Sakas and Pahlavas had their base-camps for eastward movement. The prelude to future inroads of the Indo-Bactrians in India had after all started in the second century B.C."... in {{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Swarajya Prakash |author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan |year=1980 |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-391-02172-3 |pages=88, 122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}.</ref><ref name="Gupta 318">According to Gupta [[:File:Mauryan head from Sarnath.jpg|this is]] a non-Indian face of a foreigner with a conical hat: "If there are a few faces which are nonIndian, such as one head from Sarnath with conical cap ( Bachhofer, Vol . I, Pl . 13 ), they are due to the presence of the foreigners their costumes, tastes and liking for portrait art and not their art styles." in {{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Swarajya Prakash |author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan |year=1980 |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-391-02172-3 |page=318 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Annual Report 1907-08 |date=1911 |page=55 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.35434/page/n101/mode/2up}}</ref>]]
[[File:Mauryan head from Sarnath.jpg|thumb|upright|Figure of a foreigner, found in [[Sarnath]], 3rd century BCE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bachhofer |first1=Ludwig |title=Early Indian Sculpture Vol. I |date=1929 |publisher=The Pegasus Press |location=Paris |pages=239–240 |url=https://indianculture.gov.in/rarebooks/early-indian-sculpture-vol-i |language=en}}</ref> This is a probable member of the West Asian [[Pahlava]] or [[Saka]] elite in the [[Gangetic plain]]s during the Mauryan period.<ref name="Gupta 122">Page 122: About the [[Masarh lion]]: "This particular example of a foreign model gets added support from the male heads of foreigners from Patna city and Sarnath since they also prove beyond doubt that a section of the elite in the Gangetic Basin was of foreign origin. However, as noted earlier, this is an example of the late Mauryan period since this is not the type adopted in any Ashoka pillar. We are, therefore, visualizing a historical situation in India in which the West Asian influence on Indian art was felt more in the late Mauryan than in the early Mauryan period. The term West Asia in this context stands for Iran and Afghanistan, where the Sakas and Pahlavas had their base-camps for eastward movement. The prelude to future inroads of the Indo-Bactrians in India had after all started in the second century B.C."... in {{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Swarajya Prakash |author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan |year=1980 |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-391-02172-3 |pages=88, 122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}.</ref><ref name="Gupta 318">According to Gupta [[:File:Mauryan head from Sarnath.jpg|this is]] a non-Indian face of a foreigner with a conical hat: "If there are a few faces which are nonIndian, such as one head from Sarnath with conical cap ( Bachhofer, Vol . I, Pl . 13 ), they are due to the presence of the foreigners their costumes, tastes and liking for portrait art and not their art styles." in {{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Swarajya Prakash |author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan |year=1980 |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-391-02172-3 |page=318 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Annual Report 1907-08 |date=1911 |page=55 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.35434/page/n101/mode/2up}}</ref>]]
Chandragupta and [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]] concluded a peace treaty and a marriage alliance in 303 BCE. Chandragupta received vast territories and in a return gave Seleucus 500 [[war elephant]]s,{{sfn|R. C. Majumdar|2003|p=105}}<ref>Ancient India, (Kachroo, p.196)</ref><ref>''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' (Hunter, p.167)</ref><ref>''The evolution of man and society'' (Darlington, p.223)</ref><ref>W. W. Tarn (1940). "Two Notes on Seleucid History: 1. Seleucus' 500 Elephants, 2. Tarmita", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '''60''', p. 84–94.</ref> a military asset which would play a decisive role at the [[Battle of Ipsus]] in 301&nbsp;BCE.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=37}} In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, [[Megasthenes]], to Chandragupta, and later [[Deimakos]] to his son [[Bindusara]], at the Mauryan court at [[Pataliputra]] (modern [[Patna]] in [[Bihar state|Bihar]]). Later, [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], the ruler of [[Ptolemaic Egypt]] and contemporary of [[Ashoka]], is also recorded by [[Pliny the Elder]] as having sent an ambassador named [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] to the Mauryan court.<ref name="perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de">{{cite web|url=http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+6.21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728023626/http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.%2BNat.%2B6.21 |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 July 2013 |title=Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (eds. John Bostock, H. T. Riley) }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2016}}
Chandragupta and [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]] concluded a peace treaty and a marriage alliance in 303 BCE. Chandragupta received vast territories and in a return gave Seleucus 500 [[war elephant]]s,{{sfn|R. C. Majumdar|2003|p=105}}<ref>Ancient India, (Kachroo, p.196)</ref><ref>''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' (Hunter, p.167)</ref><ref>''The evolution of man and society'' (Darlington, p.223)</ref><ref>W. W. Tarn (1940). "Two Notes on Seleucid History: 1. Seleucus' 500 Elephants, 2. Tarmita", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '''60''', p. 84–94.</ref> a military asset which would play a decisive role at the [[Battle of Ipsus]] in 301&nbsp;BCE.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=37}} In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, [[Megasthenes]], to Chandragupta, and later [[Deimakos]] to his son [[Bindusara]], at the Mauryan court at [[Pataliputra]] (modern [[Patna]] in [[Bihar state|Bihar]]). Later, [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], the ruler of [[Ptolemaic Egypt]] and contemporary of [[Ashoka]], is also recorded by [[Pliny the Elder]] as having sent an ambassador named [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] to the Mauryan court.<ref name="perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de">{{cite web|url=http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+6.21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728023626/http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.%2BNat.%2B6.21 |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 July 2013 |title=Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (eds. John Bostock, H. T. Riley) }}</ref>


Mainstream scholarship asserts that Chandragupta received vast territory west of the Indus, including the [[Hindu Kush]], modern-day Afghanistan, and the [[Balochistan, Pakistan|Balochistan]] province of Pakistan.<ref>[[Vincent Arthur Smith|Vincent A. Smith]] (1998). ''Ashoka''. Asian Educational Services. {{ISBN|81-206-1303-1}}.</ref><ref>[[Walter Eugene Clark]] (1919). "The Importance of Hellenism from the Point of View of Indic-Philology", ''Classical Philology'' '''14''' (4), pp. 297–313.</ref> Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], are known as far as [[Kandahar]] in southern Afghanistan.
Mainstream scholarship asserts that Chandragupta received vast territory west of the Indus, including the [[Hindu Kush]], modern-day Afghanistan, and the [[Balochistan, Pakistan|Balochistan]] province of Pakistan.<ref>[[Vincent Arthur Smith|Vincent A. Smith]] (1998). ''Ashoka''. Asian Educational Services. {{ISBN|81-206-1303-1}}.</ref><ref>[[Walter Eugene Clark]] (1919). "The Importance of Hellenism from the Point of View of Indic-Philology", ''Classical Philology'' '''14''' (4), pp. 297–313.</ref> Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], are known as far as [[Kandahar]] in southern Afghanistan.
Line 360: Line 687:
{{blockquote|He (Seleucus) crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. | [[Appian]]| ''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars [https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_11.html 55]}}
{{blockquote|He (Seleucus) crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. | [[Appian]]| ''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars [https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_11.html 55]}}


{{blockquote|After having made a treaty with him (Sandrakotos) and put in order the Orient situation, Seleucos went to war against [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus|Antigonus]].|[[Junianus Justinus]]|''Historiarum Philippicarum, libri XLIV'', {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030902205057/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html XV.4.15]}}}}
{{blockquote|After having made a treaty with him (Sandrakotos) and put in order the Orient situation, Seleucos went to war against [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus|Antigonus]].|[[Junianus Justinus]]|''Historiarum Philippicarum, libri XLIV'', [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html XV.4.15]}}


The treaty on "[[Epigamia]]" implies lawful marriage between Greeks and Indians was recognized at the State level, although it is unclear whether it occurred among dynastic rulers or common people, or both.{{citation needed|date=July 2009}}
The treaty on "[[Epigamia]]" implies lawful marriage between Greeks and Indians was recognized at the State level, although it is unclear whether it occurred among dynastic rulers or common people, or both.


====Exchange of presents====
====Exchange of presents====
Line 377: Line 704:


An influential and large Greek population was present in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent under Ashoka's rule, possibly remnants of Alexander's conquests in the Indus Valley region. In the [[Edicts of Ashoka|Rock Edicts of Ashoka]], some of them inscribed in Greek, Ashoka states that the Greeks within his dominion were converted to Buddhism:
An influential and large Greek population was present in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent under Ashoka's rule, possibly remnants of Alexander's conquests in the Indus Valley region. In the [[Edicts of Ashoka|Rock Edicts of Ashoka]], some of them inscribed in Greek, Ashoka states that the Greeks within his dominion were converted to Buddhism:
 
{{blockquote|Here in the king's dominion among the [[Yona|Greeks]], the [[Kambojas]], the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the [[Andhra Pradesh|Andhras]] and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in [[Dharma]].|[[Edicts of Ashoka|(Rock Edict Number 13]])}}
{{blockquote|Here in the king's dominion among the [[Yona|Greeks]], the [[Kambojas]], the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the [[Andhras]] and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in [[Dharma]].|[[Edicts of Ashoka|(Rock Edict Number 13]])}}
{{blockquote|Now, in times past (officers) called [[Mahamatras]] of morality did not exist before. Mahdmatras of morality were appointed by me (when I had been) anointed thirteen years. These are occupied with all sects in establishing morality, in promoting morality, and for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to morality (even) among the [[Yona|Greeks]], [[Kambojas]] and [[Gandharas]], and whatever other western borderers (of mine there are).|([[Major Rock Edicts|Rock Edict Number 5]])}}
{{blockquote|Now, in times past (officers) called [[Mahamatras]] of morality did not exist before. Mahdmatras of morality were appointed by me (when I had been) anointed thirteen years. These are occupied with all sects in establishing morality, in promoting morality, and for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to morality (even) among the [[Yona|Greeks]], [[Kambojas]] and [[Gandharas]], and whatever other western borderers (of mine there are).|([[Major Rock Edicts|Rock Edict Number 5]])}}


Fragments of Edict 13 have been found in Greek, and a full Edict, written in both Greek and Aramaic, has been discovered in [[Kandahar]]. It is said to be written in excellent Classical Greek, using sophisticated philosophical terms. In this Edict, Ashoka uses the word [[Eusebeia]] ("[[Piety]]") as the Greek translation for the ubiquitous "[[Dharma]]" of his other Edicts written in [[Prakrit]]:{{primary source inline|date=August 2016}}
Fragments of Edict 13 have been found in Greek, and a full Edict, written in both Greek and Aramaic, has been discovered in [[Kandahar]]. It is said to be written in excellent Classical Greek, using sophisticated philosophical terms. In this Edict, Ashoka uses the word [[Eusebeia]] ("[[Piety]]") as the Greek translation for the ubiquitous "[[Dharma]]" of his other Edicts written in [[Prakrit]]:


{{blockquote|Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King Piodasses (Ashoka) made known (the doctrine of) Piety (''εὐσέβεια'', [[Eusebeia]]) to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing) living beings, and other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily. |Trans. by G.P. Carratelli {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051103235517/http://www.afghanan.net/afghanistan/mauryans.htm]}} {{unreliable source?|date=August 2016}}}}
{{blockquote|Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King Piodasses (Ashoka) made known (the doctrine of) Piety (''εὐσέβεια'', [[Eusebeia]]) to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing) living beings, and other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily. |Trans. by G.P. Carratelli {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051103235517/http://www.afghanan.net/afghanistan/mauryans.htm]}}}}


===Buddhist missions to the West (c. 250&nbsp;BCE)===
===Dhamma Vijaya to the West (c. 250&nbsp;BCE)===
<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
AiKhanoumAndIndia.jpg|The distribution of the [[Edicts of Ashoka]].<ref>Reference: "India: The Ancient Past" p.113, Burjor Avari, Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-35615-6}}</ref>
AiKhanoumAndIndia.jpg|The distribution of the [[Edicts of Ashoka]].<ref>Reference: "India: The Ancient Past" p.113, Burjor Avari, Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-35615-6}}</ref>
Line 393: Line 719:
Also, in the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], Ashoka mentions the Hellenistic kings of the period as recipients of his Buddhist proselytism, although no Western historical record of this event remains:
Also, in the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], Ashoka mentions the Hellenistic kings of the period as recipients of his Buddhist proselytism, although no Western historical record of this event remains:


{{blockquote|The conquest by [[Dharma]] has been won here, on the borders, and even six hundred [[yojana]]s (5,400–9,600&nbsp;km) away, where the Greek king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]] rules, beyond there where the four kings named [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Ptolemy]], [[Antigonus Gonatas|Antigonos]], [[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]] and [[Alexander II of Epirus|Alexander]] rule, likewise in the south among the [[Chola dynasty|Cholas]], the [[Pandya]]s, and as far as [[Tamraparni]] ([[Anuradhapura Kingdom|Sri Lanka]]). |[[Edicts of Ashoka]], 13th Rock Edict, S. Dhammika.{{primary source inline|date=August 2016}}}}
{{blockquote|The conquest by [[Dharma]] has been won here, on the borders, and even six hundred [[yojana]]s (5,400–9,600&nbsp;km) away, where the Greek king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]] rules, beyond there where the four kings named [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Ptolemy]], [[Antigonus Gonatas|Antigonos]], [[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]] and [[Alexander II of Epirus|Alexander]] rule, likewise in the south among the [[Chola]]s, the [[Pandya]]s, and as far as [[Tamraparni]] ([[Sri Lanka]]). |[[Edicts of Ashoka]], 13th Rock Edict, S. Dhammika.}}


Ashoka also encouraged the development of [[herbal medicine]], for men and animals, in their territories:
Ashoka also encouraged the development of [[herbal medicine]], for men and animals, in their territories:


{{blockquote|Everywhere within Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's [Ashoka's] domain, and among the people beyond the borders, the Cholas, the Pandyas, the [[Velir|Satiyaputras]], the [[Chera dynasty|Keralaputras]], as far as [[Tamraparni]] and where the Greek king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]] rules, and among the kings who are neighbors of Antiochos, everywhere has Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, made provision for two types of medical treatment: medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available I have had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals. |[[Edicts of Ashoka|2nd Rock Edict]]{{primary source inline|date=August 2016}}}}
{{blockquote|Everywhere within Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's [Ashoka's] domain, and among the people beyond the borders, the [[Chola]]s, the [[Pandya]]s, the Satiyaputras, the Keralaputras, as far as [[Tamraparni]] and where the Greek king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]] rules, and among the kings who are neighbors of Antiochos, everywhere has Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, made provision for two types of medical treatment: medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available I have had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals. |[[Edicts of Ashoka|2nd Rock Edict]]}}


The Greeks in India even seem to have played an active role in the spread of Buddhism, as some of the emissaries of Ashoka, such as [[Dharmaraksita]], are described in [[Pāli|Pali]] sources as leading Greek ("[[Yona]]") Buddhist monks, active in Buddhist proselytism (the [[Mahavamsa]], XII<ref>''Mahavamsa'' [http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chapters.html chapter XII] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905050433/http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chapters.html |date=5 September 2006 }}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=August 2016}}).
The Greeks in India even seem to have played an active role in the spread of Buddhism, as some of the emissaries of Ashoka, such as [[Dharmaraksita]], are described in [[Pāli|Pali]] sources as leading Greek ("[[Yona]]") Buddhist monks, active in Buddhist proselytism (the [[Mahavamsa]], XII)<ref>''Mahavamsa'' [http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chapters.html chapter XII] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905050433/http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chapters.html |date=5 September 2006 }}</ref>


===Subhagasena and Antiochos III (206&nbsp;BCE)===
===Subhagasena and Antiochos III (206&nbsp;BCE)===
[[Sophagasenus]] was an Indian [[Mauryan]] ruler of the 3rd century BCE, described in ancient Greek sources, and named Subhagasena or Subhashasena in [[Prakrit]]. His name is mentioned in the list of Mauryan princes,{{citation needed|date=June 2007}} and also in the list of the Yadava dynasty, as a descendant of Pradyumna. He may have been a grandson of [[Ashoka]], or [[Kunala]], the son of Ashoka. He ruled an area south of the [[Hindu Kush]], possibly in [[Gandhara]]. [[Antiochos III]], the [[Seleucid]] king, after having made peace with [[Euthydemus II|Euthydemus]] in [[Bactria]], went to India in 206&nbsp;BCE and is said to have renewed his friendship with the Indian king there:
{{Part of History of India|File:MET DT9196.jpg}}
[[Sophagasenus]] was an Indian [[Mauryan]] ruler of the 3rd century BCE, described in ancient Greek sources, and named Subhagasena or Subhashasena in [[Prakrit]]. His name is mentioned in the list of Mauryan princes. He may have been a grandson of [[Ashoka]], or [[Kunala]], the son of Ashoka. He ruled an area south of the [[Hindu Kush]], possibly in [[Gandhara]]. [[Antiochos III]], the [[Seleucid]] king, after having made peace with [[Euthydemus II|Euthydemus]] in [[Bactria]], went to India in 206&nbsp;BCE and is said to have renewed his friendship with the Indian king there:


{{blockquote|text=He (Antiochus) crossed the Caucasus and descended into India; renewed his friendship with Sophagasenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving [[Androsthenes of Cyzicus|Androsthenes]] of [[Cyzicus]] the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him.|author=[[Polybius]] |title=[[The Histories (Polybius)|The Histories]], 11.39<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/invalidquery.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0234:book=11:chapter=39|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307194743/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plb.+11.39|url-status=dead|title=No document found|archive-date=7 March 2008|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>}}
{{blockquote|text=He (Antiochus) crossed the Caucasus and descended into India; renewed his friendship with Sophagasenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving Androsthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him.|author=[[Polybius]] |title=[[The Histories (Polybius)|The Histories]], 11.39<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/invalidquery.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0234:book=11:chapter=39|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307194743/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plb.+11.39|url-status=dead|title=No document found|archive-date=7 March 2008|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>}}
 
Fa-Hian, the Chinese Buddhist monk and traveler, mentioned Dharmavarddhana, who was believed to be Subhagsena by historians :
<blockquote>
From this, descending eastward, journeying for five days, we arrive at the country of Gandhara (Kien-to-wei). This is the place which Dharmavarddhana, the son of Asoka, governed. Buddha also in this country, when he was a Bodhisattva, gave his eyes in charity for the sake of a man. On this spot also they have raised a great stupa, adorned with silver and gold. The people of this country mostly study the Little Vehicle.
 
~Chapter X ,The travels of Fa-Hian (400 A.D.)
[https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/the-travels-of-fa-hian/d/doc220110.html]
</blockquote>
 
==Later Mauryans==
The Rājataranginī mentions Jalauka as the successor of Asoka in Kasmira, while Tāranātha mentions another successor Virasena who ruled in Gandhāra and he was as Dr. Thomas suggests, probably the predecessor of Subhagasena.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.10359|title=Political History of ancient India|last=Hemchandra Raychaudhuri|first=M. A.|date=1932|page=238}}</ref>
 
Petty Maurya kings continued to rule in western India as well as Magadha long after the extinction of the imperial line. King Dhavala of the Maurya dynasty is referred to in the Kanaswa inscription of A.D. 738. Professor Bhandarkar identifies him with Dhavalappadeva, the overlord of Dhanika mentioned in the Dabok (Mewar) inscription of A.D. 725.” Maurya chief of the Konkan and Khandesh are referred to in the early epigraphs. A Maurya Prince of Magadha named Pürnavarman is mentioned by Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.10359|title=Political History of ancient India|last=Hemchandra Raychaudhuri|first=M. A.|date=1932|page=240}}</ref> In 7th century A.D. Hiuen Tsang, wrote about small dominions in eastern India for he relates that shortly before his visit Purnavarman, king of Magadha, a descendant of Ashoka who had restored the Bodhi-tree, which had been destroyed by Sasanka, apart from this he also mention Mauryan ruler named Narendragupta of Karnasuvarna(Bengal).<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55603|title=The Cambridge History Of India Vol.i|last=Rapson|first=E. J.|date=1935|page=513}}</ref>
 
During the sixth century Kolaba along with the Northern Konkan coast was probably ruled by Mauryas and Nala Chiefs as Kirtivarman (550-567), the first of the Calukyas who conquered Konkan is described as the night of death to the Nalas and Mauryas [Indian Antiquary VIII. 24.].
 
From an inscribed stones of the fifth and the sixth century discovered in the Thānā district of North Konkan, it describes that a Mauryan King Suketuvarman was ruling in Konkan. Konkan was given in charge of a Maurya family.<ref name="HAI">"Konkan was given in charge of a Maurya family. A grant of the Maurya prince Suketuvarman, who ruled in this period, has been discovered in the Thānā district of North Konkan." {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/jEqi_literay-and-historical-studies-in-indology-of-dr.-vasudev-vishnu-mirashi-mlbd-varanasi|page=128|title=Literay And Historical Studies In Indology Of Dr. Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi MLBD Varanasi|last=MLBD Varanasi}}</ref><ref name="CORPUS"> "A stone inscription from Vada in the north of the Thana District mentions a Maurya king named Suketuvarman ruling in Konkan." {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.367473|title=Corpus Inscriptionium Indicarum Vol Iv Part 1|page=75|last=Vasudev Vishnu Mirshi|date=1955|publisher=Government Epigraphist For India, Ootacamund|language=Multilingual}}</ref><ref name="INSCRIPTION"> "We have discussed above about the Saka era. From the point of view of its early history as well as for the history of the later Mauryas of Konkana the Vala (or Vada) inscription of Suketuvarman, dated Saka 322, is one of utmost importance. The inscription was actually found at the place of this name in the Thane District of Maharashtra though wrongly attributed to Vala in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. It aims at registering the installation of the deity Koțiśvara by one Simhadatta, son of Anankiparadatta in the Saka year 322, and some grants to the divinity by one Isuprakki, the Vallabha-Talavara of the Maurya Dharma- mahārāja Suketuvarman of the Bhojas. The inscription adds one more name to the list of the Mauryas of Konkaņa." {{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.29982|page=32|title=puratattva: Bulletin of the Indian archaeological society number 25  1994-95|last=Dikshit|first=K. N.|date=1995|publisher=Indian Archaeological Society,New delhi}}</ref>
 
 
It is interesting to see that More is a name quite common among Marathas, Kunbis and Rolls of Kolaba. Probably here can be traced the name Maurya. Two small landing places of the name of More in Elephanta and in Karanja can be taken as relics of the Maurya power formerly existing in Konkan. The Mauryas of the Konkan, previously subdued, were overwhelmed and the city of Puri (either Gharapuri, i.e., the island of Elephanta near Bombay, or Rajpuri near Janjira), which was located in the Arabian Sea and was probably the Maurya capital, was invaded by Pulakesin's battleships and was captured.<ref>https://gazetteers.maharashtra.gov.in/cultural.maharashtra.gov.in/english/gazetteer/KOLABA/his_early.html</ref>
 
===Rediscovery===
 
Coins of the Kalacuri king Krşņarāja have been found in the island of Bombay. But the country was not directly administered by the Kalacuris. They gave it to a feudadtory family called the Mauryas.The Kaņaśva inscription dated A.D. 738-39 mentions the Maurya king Dhavalappa, who was probably holding the fort of Chittorgarh.This family probably succumbed to the attack of the Arabs, who are credited with a victory over them. Another Maurya family was ruling at Valabhi (modern Valā) in Saurāştra. A later scion of it named Govindaraja Maurya was reigning from Väghli in Khāndeśa as a feudatory of the Mahamandaleśvara Seunacandra II. The family ruling in North Konkan in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. was related to any of the branches of the great Maurya family. The first notice of the Maurya family ruling in North Konkan occurs in the description of the conquests of the early Chalukya king Kirtivarman I (A.D. 566-598). In the Aihole inscription where he is described as the Night of Destruction to the Nalas, Mauryas and Kadambas. The Kadambas were described as subclan of Southern Mauryans who where completely lost.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/ancient-history-of-maharashtra_202110|title=Ancient History of Maharashtra|page=140|last=Maharashtra State Gazetteers|date=1967}}</ref>
 
====The Mauryas of Konkan region====
Suketuvarman is known from a solitary stone inscription found at Vada to the north of Thana near Bombay but now preserved in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. The epigraph, which is damaged and written in the southern characters of about the 4th or 5th century A.D. and refers to a king named Suketuvarman of the Maurya dynasty. He appears to have been ruling near about Thana during that period.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.07863|title=Central Provinces District Gazetteers: Nagpur District|page=65|last=N. V. SundaraRaman|first=Chairman|last2=P. Setu Madhava Rao|first2=Member|last3=V. B. Kolte|first3=Member|last4=C. D. Deshpande|first4=Member|last5=B. R. Rairikar|first5=Member|last6=Sarojini Babar|first6=Member|last7=V. T. Gune|first7=Member|last8=P. N. Chopra|first8=Member|last9=V. N. Gurav|first9=Member-Secretary|date=1908|publisher=Bombay, Times Press}}</ref>
 
====The Mauryas of Western coastline====
Two copper plate grants discovered in the Goa territory on the west coast reveal the existence of two kings named [[Chandravarman Maurya|Chandravarman]] and [[Anirjitavarman]] who belonged to the Maurya dynasty as per their inscription. As both the grants are dated in the regnal years of the ruling kings, from the palaeographical point of view, they may be assigned to the 6th or 7th century A.D., the grant of Chandravarman being slightly earlier than that of Anirjitvarman. Both these rulers, who assume the epithet of Mahārāja in their records. The charter of Chandravarman records the donation, by the king, of some lands to the Mahāvihāra situated in Sivapura which is identified with the village bearing the same name near Chandor in Goa. The grant of Anirjitavarman, registers certain gifts, made by the king, to a Brāhmaņa named Hastyärya. It is issued from a a place called Kumāradvīpa which appears to be located somewhere in the Goa territory. These two records show that Candravarman and Anirjitvarman were ruling somewhere in the Goa territory about the 6th-7th century A.D.<ref>{{Cite book|page=295|url=http://archive.org/details/epigraphia-indica|title=epigraphia-indica}}</ref>
 
====The Mauryas of the Mathura region====
[[Dindirāja]] alias Karka fragmentary stone inscription from Mathura city in Uttar Pradesh which, on palaeographical grounds, is referred to the latter half of the 7th century A.D., mentions four members of the Maurya dynasty viz. Krşņarāja in his family, Chandragupta his son, Aryarāja and, probably his son, Dindirāja alias Karka.<ref name="INSC">"Jhalarpatan inscription (AD 689) of Durgagana, the Kudarkot inscription of about the second half of the seventh century, the Nagar inscription (AD 684) of Dhanika, and the Kanaswa inscription (AD 738) of Sivagana." The inscription was composed "in adoration of a god whose epithets kal- anjana-rajah-punja-dyuti, (ma)havaraha-rupa and jangama have only been preserved". It leaves "no doubt that the reference is to the god Vishnu since the expression mahavaraha-rupa certainty speaks of the Boar incarnation of the deity." The hero of the prasasti is a king named Dindiraja of the Maurya dynasty.{{Cite book|page=80-81|url=http://archive.org/details/hindu-temples-vol.-ii-ed-sitaram-goel_202306|title=Hindu Temples Vol. II (Ed Sitaram Goel)|last=Ed Sitaram Goel|date=1993}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|page=208-209|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.11070|title=Pracyavidya-Tarangini|last=D. C. Sircar|date=1969}}</ref>The last named ruler of this Mauryan branch appears to have burnt the city of Kanyakubja (Kannauj). The Maurya kings mentioned in this record seem to have held sway over the south-western areas of Uttar Pradesh. The Jaina tradition represents king Yasovarman (circa 728-53 A.D.) of Kannauj as a descendant of Chandragupta Maurya. This may refer to Yasovarman's relations with Karka-Dindirāja who, in all probability, was the grandson of a Maurya ruler named Chandragupta of 7th century A.D.<ref>{{Cite book|page=207-212|url=http://archive.org/details/bmshri.epigraphiaindica0000unse_z3v3|title=Epigraphia indica (1957-1958)|publisher=The director general archaeological survey of india|others=Servants of Knowledge}}</ref>
 
====The Mauryas of the Rajasthan region====
King Dhavala or Dhavalātman inscription" from Kanaswa in the old Kota, State of Rajasthan, dated in the Mälava year (i.e. Vikrama Samvat) 795 or 738. A.D., refers to the Brahmana Sivagana as a feudatory of king Dhavala of the Maurya lineage. Dr. D.C. Sircar has suggested, on grounds of palaeographical resemblance and geographical proximity, that the Mauryas of the Mathura region mentioned above may be connected with the Maurya king Dhavala of the Kanaswa record.<ref>{{Cite book|page=209|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.06115|title=Epigraphia Indica, Vol-32, Issue no.-1-42}}</ref> It has also been suggested that the Mauryas who are stated to have been defeated by the Tājika (i. e. Arab) army in the Navsari plates of the Gujarat Chalukya chief Pulakeśin, dated 738 A.D., were probably these Mauryas of the Malwa Rajasthan region.<ref>{{Cite book|page=540|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.461080|title=The Dynastic History Of Northern India Vol. 2|last=Ray|first=H. C.|date=1935-11-18}}</ref>
 
Dhavala inscription from Dabok about 8 miles to the east of Udaipur in Rajasthan, mentions a Guhila chief Dhanika of Dhabagarta  and his lord Dhavalappa Deva. Bhandarkar was inclined to identify Dhavalappa of this epigraph with the Maurya king Dhavalātman of the Kanaswa inscription referred.<ref>{{Cite book|page=73|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.16596|title=ANTIQUITIES OF INDIA|last=BARNETT|first=L. D.|date=1958|publisher=PUNTHI PUSTAK, CALCUTTA}}</ref> It is possible that they were related to the Mauryas of the West Coast region and might have extended their suzerainty over Rajasthan which then formed part of Harsa's (606-47 A.D.) dominion. As pointed out by Dr. Sircar, the date of the Dabok record as read by him shows that Harsa must have lost parts of Rajasthan before his death in 647 A.D., though the Mauryas of Rajasthan must have owed allegiance to him before.<ref name="INSCRI"> "The second inscription of Dhanıka, dated A.D. 725, was discovered at Dabok in Mewar .It mentions Śrī Dhanıka as ruling over DHAVALAGARTTA as a feudatory chief under paramabhattāraka-mahārājādhırājā paramēśvara-Śrī-DHAVALAPPADEVA According to Prof DR Bhandarkar, the paramount ruler mentioned in the record is the same as the king DHAVALA of the Maurya dynasty referred to in the Kansuvām inscription of AD 738" {{Cite book|294|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.48555|title=Bharata- Kaumudi Studies In Indology In Honur Of Dr Radha Kumud Mookerji Part-i|last=Mookerji|first=Radha Kumud|date=1945}}</ref><ref name="HAII"> "The Mauryas are referred to in a record at Jhalrapatan dated A.D. 690. Another record in Kotah State, dated A.D. 738-39, refers to the local prince as a friend of king Dhavala of Maurya lineage..As already noted above, the Mauryas fell a victim to the Arab aggression, and it was probably after this catastrophe that Bappa defeated them and took possession of Chitor." {{Cite book|page=162|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.505920|title=The Classical Age Vol-iii (1954)|last=Munshi K. M.|date=1954|publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.}}</ref>
 
Jhalrapatan (Jhalwar District Rajasthan) inscription dated 689 A.D. mentions a Maurya ruler named Durgagana.<ref name="DHAVAL"> "This inscription is dated in the 796th year of the Lords of Malava. It is probable that the Jhalrapathan inscription, which is dated in the 747th year of an unnamed era, is to be referred to the same method of computing time. The slight difference in the alphabet to which attention has been drawn is of the kind that might develop in the fifty years which, on this hypothesis, would separate the two. Neither the Sivagaņa of our inscription nor the Durgagana of the Jhalrapathan inscription is spoken of as a sovereign monarch: and when we find one spoken of as ruling at Kotah, under a Maurya Emperor, in the year 796 of the Lords of Malava, and the other referred to as ruler in the year 747, of a town only seventy miles to the south, which has always been very closely connected with Kotah, it seems natural to suppose that "Durgagana," and "Sivagana," are of the same stock. If this be so, it is to be noted that the want of any reference on the Jhalrâpâthan inscription speaks of an era which at the time had wide and undisputed currency. "{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/auchityalamkara00petegoog|title=The Auchityalamkara of Kshemendra, with a note on the date of Patanjali, and an inscription from Kotah; two papers read before the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic society, with a preface in reply to Professor Bhandarkar|last=Peterson|first=Peter|date=1885|publisher=Bombay, Printed at the Education society's press, Byculla|others=University of California}}</ref> Further, Bappa, son of Guhila or Guhadatta, founder of the Guhila family, supplanted his uncle known as the Mori (i.e. Maurya) ruler of Chitor in whose service he was before.<ref>{{Cite book|page=23-30|url=http://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.12693|title=MEDIEVAL STUDIES|last=BANERJEE|first=ANIL CHANDRA|date=1958|publisher=A. MUKHARJEE AND COMPANY , CALCUTTA}}</ref>
====The Mauryas of Khandesh region====
Govindarāja stone record from Väghli in the Khandesh District, Maharastra State, dated Saka 991 or 1069 A.D. refers to a Maurya chief Govinda or Govindaraja as a subordinate of the early Yadava king Seuņachandra II. The epigraph mentions twenty princes or chiefs who were predecessors of Mauryan King Govindaraja, the earliest member being Kikața. It is also stated that originally the capital of the Mauryas was at Valabhī in Surashtra.<ref>{{Cite book|page=418|url=http://archive.org/details/epigraphia-indica|title=epigraphia-indica}}</ref>
====Modern Assertion====
Ashoka appointed the princes of the royal blood as viceroys in the outlying provinces of his vast empire to carry on the administration.Four such Mauryan princes viceroys ruling at Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali and Suvarnagiri are known from lithic records of Ashoka edicts. So Mauryan lineage kings spreaded from the time of Ashoka.The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang (7th century A.D.) mentions a Maurya ruler of Magadha named Pürņavarman. While some of the later Mauryan rulers enjoyed independent status, others were either semi-independent or feudatories or even petty chiefs. Future discoveries may throw further light on these later Mauryas.


==Timeline==
==Timeline==
{{Part of History of India}}
 
*322&nbsp;BCE: Chandragupta Maurya  [[Nanda-Mauryan War|conquers the Nanda Empire]], founding Maurya dynasty.<ref>{{cite book|title=Buddhism in North India and Pakistan|author=D. C. Ahir|year=1998|page=121}}</ref>
*322&nbsp;BCE: Chandragupta Maurya  [[Conquest of the Nanda Empire|conquers the Nanda Empire]], founding Maurya dynasty.<ref>{{cite book|title=Buddhism in North India and Pakistan|author=D. C. Ahir|year=1998|page=121}}</ref>
*317–316&nbsp;BCE: Chandragupta Maurya conquers the Northwest of the Indian subcontinent.
*317–316&nbsp;BCE: Chandragupta Maurya conquers the Northwest of the Indian subcontinent.
*305–303&nbsp;BCE: Chandragupta Maurya gains territory by [[Seleucid–Mauryan war|defeating the Seleucid Empire]].
*305–303&nbsp;BCE: Chandragupta Maurya gains territory by [[Seleucid–Mauryan war|defeating the Seleucid Empire]].
*298–269&nbsp;BCE: Reign of Bindusara, Chandragupta's son. He conquers parts of [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]], southern India.
*298–269&nbsp;BCE: Reign of Bindusara, Chandragupta's son. He conquers parts of Deccan, southern India.
*269–232&nbsp;BCE: The Mauryan Empire reaches its height under Ashoka, Chandragupta's grandson.
*269–232&nbsp;BCE: The Mauryan Empire reaches its height under Ashoka, Chandragupta's grandson.
*261&nbsp;BCE: Ashoka [[Kalinga War|conquers the Kingdom of Kalinga]].
*261&nbsp;BCE: Ashoka [[Kalinga War|conquers the kingdom of Kalinga]].
*250&nbsp;BCE: Ashoka builds Buddhist stupas and erects pillars bearing inscriptions.
*250&nbsp;BCE: Ashoka builds Buddhist stupas and erects pillars bearing inscriptions.
*184&nbsp;BCE: The empire collapses when Brihadratha, the last emperor, is killed by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]], a Mauryan general and the founder of the [[Shunga Empire]].
*184&nbsp;BCE: The empire collapses when Brihadratha, the last emperor, is killed by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]], a Mauryan general and the founder of the [[Shunga Empire]].


== Family tree and List of rulers ==
== Sources of Mauryan History ==
{{main|List of Maurya Emperors}}
 
{| class=wikitable
|-
! style="background: orange;" | Mauryan History Sources !! style="background: yellow;" | Authentic Names
|-
| Jain Scriptures ||
1 - Brihatkalpa Sutra
 
2 - Brihatkathakosha
 
3 - Aradhana Satkathaprabandh
 
4 - Shri Chandravirachita Kathakosha
 
5 - Nemichandrakrita Kathakosha
 
6 - Parishishtaparvana
 
7 - Vividhtirthakalpa
 
8 - Punyashravakathakosha
 
9 - Nisitha Sutra
|-
| Buddhist Scriptures ||
1 - Mahavansha
 
2‌‌ - Dipavansha
 
3‌‌ - Mahabodhivansha
 
4 - Tripitaka
 
5 - Divyavadana
 
6 - Ashokavadana
 
7 ‌- Vinayapitaka
 
8 - Mahavansatika (Vansatthappakasini)
 
9 - Uttara Vihara Attakatha
|-
| Vedic Scriptures ||
1 - Matsya Purana
 
2 - Vishnu Purana
 
3‌ - Bhagavata Purana
 
4 - Bhavishya Purana
 
5 - Brahmanda Purana
 
6 - Vayu Purana
 
7 - Kamandaka Neetisara
|-
| Inscriptions / Rock Edicts Evidence ||
1 - Ashoka's Rock Edicts, Cave Inscriptions, Pillar Edicts
 
2 - Kharavela's Hathigumpha Rock Edicts
 
3 - Rudradaman Inscription of Junagarh
|-
| Ancient Historical Books ||
1 - Arthashastra, Kautilya
 
2 - Mudrarakshasa, Vishakhadatta
 
3 - Mahabhashya, Patanjali
 
4 - Malavikagnimitram, Kalidasa
 
5 - Harshacharita, Banabhatta
 
6 - Rajatarangini, Kalhana
 
7 - Indica, Megasthenese
 
8 - Naturalis Historia, Pliny
 
9 - Epitome of Trogus, Justin
 
10 - Geographica, Strabo
 
11 - Anabasis Alexandri, Arrian
 
12 - The travels of Fa-Hian, Fa Hian
 
|}
 
==In literature==
According to ''Vicarasreni'' of [[Merutunga]], Mauryans rose to power in 312&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|Kailash Chand Jain|1991|p=85}}
 
== List of rulers ==
 
;Rulers-
{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor=#cccccc
! colspan=2 | Ruler!!Reign!!Notes
|-
|[[Chandragupta Maurya]]|| ||322–297 BCE|| Founder of first Indian united empire.
|-
|[[Bindusara]]||[[File:I42 1karshapana Maurya Bindusara MACW4165 1ar (8486583162).jpg|100px]] ||297–273 BCE||Known for his foreign diplomacy and crushed of [[Vidarbha]] revolt.
|-
|[[Ashoka]]||[[File:Ashoka's visit to the Ramagrama stupa Sanchi Stupa 1 Southern gateway.jpg|100px]] ||268–232 BCE||Greatest emperor of dynasty. His son [[Kunala]] was blinded and died before his father. Ashoka was succeeded by his grandson. Also known for [[Kalinga War]] victory.
|-
|[[Dasharatha Maurya]]||[[File:Dasaratha Maurya inscription on entrance of Vadathika cave.jpg|100px]] ||232–224 BCE||Grandson of Ashoka.
|-
|[[Samprati]]||||224–215 BCE||Brother of Dasharatha.
|-
|[[Shalishuka]]||[[File:Mauryan Empire. temp. Salisuka or later. Circa 207-194 BC.jpg|100px]]||215–202 BCE||
|-
|[[Devavarman (Maurya)|Devavarman]]||||202–195 BCE||
|-
|[[Shatadhanvan]]||||195–187 BCE|| The Mauryan Empire had shrunk by the time of his reign
|-
|[[Brihadratha Maurya|Brihadratha]]||||187–184 BCE|| Assassinated by his Commander-in-chief [[Pushyamitra Shunga]] in 185 BCE.
|-
|}
 
== Family tree ==
 
{{Chart top|width=100%|collapsed=yes|Family tree of Maurya Emperors}}
 
{{Tree chart/start|align=center|style=font-size:95%}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01='''[[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta<br>Maurya]]'''<br><sup>(1)</sup><br><small>r. 324/1-297 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A01=border-color:#FFD700}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01='''[[Bindusara|Bindusara<br>Amitraghata]]'''<br><sup>(2)</sup><br><small>r. 297-273 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A01=border-color:#FFD700}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01='''[[Ashoka|Ashoka<br>the Great]]'''<br><sup>(3)</sup><br><small>r. 268-232 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A01=border-color:#FFD700}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |,|-|^|-|.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | |A02  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01=Child<br>of Ashoka|
A02=[[Kunala]]}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | |A02  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01='''[[Dasharatha Maurya|Dasharatha]]'''<br><sup>(4)</sup><br><small>r. 232-224 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A01=border-color:#FFD700|
A02='''[[Samprati]]'''<br><sup>(5)</sup><br><small>r. 224-215 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A02=border-color:#FFD700}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01='''[[Shalishuka]]'''<br><sup>(6)</sup><br><small>r. 215-202 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A01=border-color:#FFD700}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01='''[[Devavarman (Maurya)|Devavarman]]'''<br><sup>(7)</sup><br><small>r. 202-195 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A01=border-color:#FFD700}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01='''[[Shatadhanvan]]'''<br><sup>(8)</sup><br><small>r. 195-187 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A01=border-color:#FFD700}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}
 
{{Tree chart|border=1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |A01  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
A01='''[[Brihadratha Maurya|Brihadratha]]'''<br><sup>(9)</sup><br><small>r. 187-184 BCE</small>|boxstyle_A01=border-color:#FFD700}}
 
{{Tree chart/end}}
 
{{Chart bottom}}


==See also==
==See also==
* [[Moriya (tribe)|Moriya Republic]]
* [[Magadha]]
* [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]]
*[[Pradyota dynasty]]
*[[Gupta Empire]]
*[[Gupta Empire]]
*[[History of India]]
*[[History of India]]
Line 429: Line 973:


==Notes==
==Notes==
{{notelist|35em|refs=
<!-- A -->
<!-- "Ajivikism" -->
{{efn|name="Ajivikism"|Ajivikism:
* {{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}: "The brahmanized regions of north-western India were now governed by rulers who had no sympathy for Brahmins or their sacrificial culture, and whose natural sympathies lay with the religions of Greater Magadha, primarily Jainism, Jivikism, and Buddhism."}}
<!-- B -->
<!-- "Brahmanism" -->
{{efn|name="Brahmanism"|While {{harvtxt|Nath Sen|1999|p= 164, (215) 217}} states (p.164) "During the Mauryan period Brahmanism was an important religion" (Nath Sen distinguishes Brahmanism from Hinduism; p. (215) 217: [At the time of [[Chandragupta II]] (ca. 380-415 CE) of the [[Gupta Empire]]] [...] [i]n place of the old sacrificial Brahmanism, Hinduism had appeared"). Others strongly disagree:
* {{harvtxt|Thapar|1960}}: "...the Mauryas did not conform to the accepted religion of most royal families of the time, Brahmanism."
* {{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2011}}:
:* "We know that Aśoka’s personal leanings were toward Buddhism, and tradition testifies to the fact that all the other rulers of the Maurya empire had strong links with Jainism, sometimes Ajivikism, but never with Brahmanism. A persistent tradition maintains that Candragupta was a Jaina."
:* "The picture that is slowly gaining ground in modern research is that the establishment of the Maurya empire spelt disaster for traditional Brahmanism. Brahmins in earlier days performed rituals at the courts of kings in the Brahmanical heartland. This Brahmanical heartland was conquered by rulers from Pāṭaliputra, who had no respect for Brahmanical rituals and needed no Brahmins at their courts."
:* "the region of Magadha had not been brahmanized at the time of Candragupta."
* {{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}: "The brahmanized regions of north-western India were now governed by rulers who had no sympathy for Brahmins or their sacrificial culture, and whose natural sympathies lay with the religions of Greater Magadha, primarily Jainism, Jivikism, and Buddhism."
* {{harvtxt|Omvedt|2003|p=119}} "Magadha was considered by Brahmanic literature to be a ''mleccha'' (barbarian) land where Vedic sacrifices and Brahmanic rituals were not performed.}}
<!-- "Buddhism" -->
{{efn|name="Buddhism"|Buddhism:
* {{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}: "The brahmanized regions of north-western India were now governed by rulers who had no sympathy for Brahmins or their sacrificial culture, and whose natural sympathies lay with the religions of Greater Magadha, primarily Jainism, Jivikism, and Buddhism."}}
<!-- J -->
<!-- "Jainism" -->
{{efn|name="Jainism"|Jainism:
* {{harvtxt|Smith|1981|p=99}}: "the only direct evidence throwing light [...] is that of Jain tradition [...] it may be that he [Chandragupta] embraced Jainism towards the end of his reign [...] after much consideration I am inclined to accept the main facts as affirmed by tradition [...] no alternative account exists."
* {{harvtxt|Dalrymple|2009}}: "It was here, in the third century BC, that the first Emperor of India, Chandragupta Maurya, embraced the Jain religion and died through a self-imposed fast to the death."}}
}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


==Sources==
===Sources===
{{refbegin|40em}}
{{refbegin|40em}}
<!-- B -->
 
* {{cite book |last =Basham | first =Arthur Llewellyn Basham |year=1951 |author-link=Arthur Llewellyn Basham |others=foreword by L. D. Barnett |title=History and doctrines of the Ājīvikas: a vanished Indian religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5-cYAAAAIAAJ |edition=1 |publisher=Luzac |location=[[London]] }}
* {{cite book |author=Alain Daniélou |title=A Brief History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlwoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |year=2003 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-59477-794-3 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Boyce |first1=Mary |last2=Grenet |first2=F. |title=A History of Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule |date=January 1991 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-29391-5 |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Euh5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA149 |language=en}}
* {{cite book |author=Arthur Llewellyn Basham |author-link=Arthur Llewellyn Basham |others=foreword by L. D. Barnett |title=History and doctrines of the Ājīvikas: a vanished Indian religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5-cYAAAAIAAJ |edition=1 |year=1951 |publisher=Luzac |location=[[London]] }}
* {{cite journal | last = Bronkhorst | first =Johannes | year =2011 | title =Candragupta Maurya and his importance for Indian history | journal = Indologica Taurinensia 37 (2011 [2014]), 107-121}}
* Burton Stein (1998). ''A History of India'' (1st ed.), Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
* {{cite book | last1 =Bronkhorst | first1 =Johannes | date =July 2020 | author-link1 =Johannes Bronkhorst | chapter =Historical Context of early Asceticism | editor-last =Flood | editor-first =Gavin | title =The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice |publisher =Oxford University Press | isbn =978-0-19-873350-8 | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=fxT0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 | language=en}}
* {{cite book |author=Geoffrey Samuel |year=2010 |title=The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
<!-- C -->
* {{cite book |author=H. C. Raychaudhuri |author-link=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri |chapter=India in the Age of the Nandas |editor=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |editor-link=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |title=Age of the Nandas and Mauryas |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoAwor58utYC&pg=PA11 |year=1988 |orig-year=1967 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=Delhi |isbn=978-81-208-0466-1 }}
* {{cite book |author1=H. C. Raychaudhuri |author1-link=H C Raychaudhuri |author2=B. N. Mukherjee |year=1996 |title=Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] }}
* {{cite book |author1=Hermann Kulke |author2=Dietmar Rothermund |title=A History of India |edition=4th |year=2004 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[London]] |isbn=0-415-15481-2 |ref={{harvid|Hermann Kulke|2004}}}}
* {{cite book |author1=Irfan Habib |author2=Vivekanand Jha |title=Mauryan India |series=A People's History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUvGQgAACAAJ |year=2004 |publisher=Aligarh Historians Society / [[Tulika Books]] |isbn=978-81-85229-92-8 }}
* J. E. Schwartzberg (1992). ''A Historical Atlas of South Asia''. University of Oxford Press.
* John Keay (2000). ''India, a History''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
* {{cite book |author=John Cort |author-link=John E. Cort |title=Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDBpq23-0QoC |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-538502-1 }}
* {{cite book |author=John Cort |author-link=John E. Cort |title=Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDBpq23-0QoC |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-538502-1 }}
<!-- D -->
{{Cite book|last=Dalrymple|first=William|date=2009-10-07|title=Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4088-0341-7|location=|pages=|language=en|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mc2IVc6obeAC&pg=PT21}}
* {{cite book |author=Alain Daniélou |title=A Brief History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlwoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |year=2003 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-59477-794-3 }}
<!-- G -->
* {{cite book |author=John D Grainger |title=Seleukos Nikator (Routledge Revivals): Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0TXKAgAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-317-80098-9 }}
* {{cite book |author=John D Grainger |title=Seleukos Nikator (Routledge Revivals): Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0TXKAgAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-317-80098-9 }}
<!-- H -->
* {{cite book |author1=Irfan Habib |author2=Vivekanand Jha |title=Mauryan India |series=A People's History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUvGQgAACAAJ |year=2004 |publisher=Aligarh Historians Society / [[Tulika Books]] |isbn=978-81-85229-92-8 }}
* {{citation |last=Hemacandra |translator=R.C.C. Fynes |title=The Lives of the Jain Elders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quNpKVqABGMC |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-283227-6}}
* {{citation |last=Hemacandra |translator=R.C.C. Fynes |title=The Lives of the Jain Elders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quNpKVqABGMC |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-283227-6}}
<!-- J -->
* {{cite book |author=Kailash Chand Jain |title=Lord Mahāvīra and His Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-TxcO9dfrcC |date=1991 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-81-208-0805-8 }}
* {{cite book |author=Kailash Chand Jain |title=Lord Mahāvīra and His Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-TxcO9dfrcC |date=1991 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-81-208-0805-8 }}
<!-- K -->
* {{cite book |last1=Keay |first1=John |date=1981 |title=India: A History |publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic |isbn=978-0-8021-9550-0 |language=en|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IquM4BrJ4YC&pg=PT174 }}
* John Keay (2000). ''India, a History''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
* {{cite book |last1=Kosmin |first1=Paul J. |author-link=Paul J. Kosmin |title=The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UWdAwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-674-72882-0 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Kosmin |first1=Paul J. |author-link=Paul J. Kosmin |title=The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UWdAwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-674-72882-0 }}
* {{cite book |author1=Hermann Kulke |author2=Dietmar Rothermund |title=A History of India |edition=4th |year=2004 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[London]] |isbn=0-415-15481-2 |ref={{harvid|Hermann Kulke|2004}}}}
<!-- L -->
* {{cite book |last1=Long |first1=Jeffery D.|author-link=Jeffery D. Long |title=Historical Dictionary of Hinduism |date=15 April 2020|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-2294-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWXRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA255 |language=en}}
<!-- M -->
* {{cite book |author=R. C. Majumdar |author-link=R. C. Majumdar |title=Ancient India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNxiN5tzKOgC |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |year=2003 |orig-year=1952 |isbn=81-208-0436-8 }}
* {{citation |last=Malalasekera |first=Gunapala Piyasena |title=Encyclopaedia of Buddhism: Acala |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5UfYAAAAMAAJ |year=2002 |publisher=Government of Ceylon}}
* {{citation |last=Malalasekera |first=Gunapala Piyasena |title=Encyclopaedia of Buddhism: Acala |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5UfYAAAAMAAJ |year=2002 |publisher=Government of Ceylon}}
* {{cite book |author=R. K. Mookerji |author-link=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA3 |year=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0405-0 }}
* {{cite book |author=R. K. Mookerji |author-link=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA3 |year=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0405-0 }}
* {{citation |last=Mookerji |first=Radha Kumud |author-link=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and his times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C |edition=4th |year=1988 |orig-year=first published in 1966 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=81-208-0433-3}}
* {{citation |last=Mookerji |first=Radha Kumud |author-link=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and his times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C |edition=4th |year=1988 |orig-year=first published in 1966 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=81-208-0433-3}}
<!-- N -->
* {{cite book |author=R. C. Majumdar |author-link=R. C. Majumdar |title=Ancient India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNxiN5tzKOgC |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |year=2003 |orig-year=1952 |isbn=81-208-0436-8 }}
* {{cite book | last =Nath Sen | first =Sailendra | year=1999 | title =Ancient Indian History and Civilization| publisher =Routledge | page= 164, (215) 217 | isbn =9788122411980 |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen}}
<!-- O -->
* {{cite book |last1=Omvedt |first1=Gail |date=18 August 2003 |title=Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-0-7619-9664-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rSF8b5hbyP0C&pg=PT70 |language=en}}
<!-- R -->
* {{cite book |author=H. C. Raychaudhuri |author-link=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri |chapter=India in the Age of the Nandas |editor=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |editor-link=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |title=Age of the Nandas and Mauryas |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoAwor58utYC&pg=PA11 |year=1988 |orig-year=1967 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=Delhi |isbn=978-81-208-0466-1 }}
* {{cite book |author1=H. C. Raychaudhuri |author1-link=H C Raychaudhuri |author2=B. N. Mukherjee |year=1996 |title=Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] }}
* {{citation |last=Roy |first=Kaushik |title=Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-107-01736-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRE3n1VwDTIC}}
* {{citation |last=Roy |first=Kaushik |title=Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-107-01736-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRE3n1VwDTIC}}
<!-- S -->
* {{cite book |author=Geoffrey Samuel |year=2010 |title=The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
* J. E. Schwartzberg (1992). ''A Historical Atlas of South Asia''. University of Oxford Press.
* {{citation |last=Sen |first=R.K. |title=Journal of the Buddhist Text Society of India |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0ZBAQAAMAAJ |year=1895 |publisher=The Society |chapter=Origin of the Maurya of Magadha and of Chanakya}}
* {{citation |last=Sen |first=R.K. |title=Journal of the Buddhist Text Society of India |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0ZBAQAAMAAJ |year=1895 |publisher=The Society |chapter=Origin of the Maurya of Magadha and of Chanakya}}
* {{cite book |author=S. N. Sen |title=Ancient Indian History and Civilization |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC |year=1999 |publisher=New Age International |isbn=978-81-224-1198-0 }}
* {{cite book |author=S. N. Sen |title=Ancient Indian History and Civilization |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC |year=1999 |publisher=New Age International |isbn=978-81-224-1198-0 }}
* {{cite book |author=Upinder Singh |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GW5Gx0HSXKUC |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-81-317-1677-9 }}
* {{cite book |author=Upinder Singh |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GW5Gx0HSXKUC |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-81-317-1677-9 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Singh |first=Upinder |title=Governing the State and the Self: Political Philosophy and Practice in the Edicts of Aśoka |journal=South Asian Studies |year=2012 |publisher=University of Delhi |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=131–145 |doi=10.1080/02666030.2012.725581|s2cid=143362618 }}
* {{cite book |last =Sircar | first =Dineschandra | title=Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AqKw1Mn8WcwC&pg=PA167 |year=1971 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0690-0 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=vincent A. |date=1981 |title=The Oxford History Of India Part. 1-3, Ed. 4th |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.99999/page/n121/mode/2up}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4dVRvVyHaiQC&pg=PR87 |title=History of Classical Sanskrit Literature |first=M. |last=Srinivasachariar |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1974 |isbn=9788120802841 }}
* Burton Stein (1998). ''A History of India'' (1st ed.), Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
<!-- T -->
* {{cite journal | last =Thapar | first =Romila | year =1960 | title =Aśoka and Buddhism | journal =Past & Present, Nov., 1960, No. 18 (Nov., 1960), Pp. 43-51}}
* {{cite book |author=Romila Thapar |title=Early India: From the Origins to A.D. 1300 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC |year=2004 |orig-year=first published by Penguin in 2002 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24225-8 }}
* {{cite book |author=Romila Thapar |title=Early India: From the Origins to A.D. 1300 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC |year=2004 |orig-year=first published by Penguin in 2002 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24225-8 }}
* {{citation |last=Thapar |first=Romila |author-link=Romila Thapar |title=The Past Before Us|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aei9AAAAQBAJ |year=2013 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-72651-2 }}
* {{citation |last=Thapar |first=Romila |author-link=Romila Thapar |title=The Past Before Us|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aei9AAAAQBAJ |year=2013 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-72651-2 }}
* {{citation |first=Thomas R. |last=Trautmann |author-link=Thomas Trautmann |title=Kauṭilya and the Arthaśāstra: a statistical investigation of the authorship and evolution of the text |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3iDAAAAMAAJ |year=1971 |publisher=Brill }}
{{refend}}
{{refend}}


==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category|Mauryan Empire}}
 
*[https://www.livius.org/man-md/mauryas/mauryas.html ''Livius.org'': Maurya dynasty]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226183742/https://www.livius.org/man-md/mauryas/mauryas.html |date=26 February 2012 }}.
*[https://www.livius.org/man-md/mauryas/mauryas.html Livius.org: Maurya dynasty]
*[http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/ancient/maurya.htm Extent of the Empire]
*[http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/ancient/maurya.htm Extent of the Empire]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140328144411/http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html Ashoka's Edicts] (archived 28 March 2014)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140328144411/http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html Ashoka's Edicts]


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  | before = [[Nanda dynasty]]
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