13. The Mauryan Empire

Chandragupta Maurya(Reign 321-297 B.C.)

• He founded the Maurya dynasty and seems to have belonged to some ordinary family.
• With the help of Chanakya also known as Kautilya, he overthrew the Nandas and established the rule of the Mauryan dynasty.
• He liberated north-western India from the thraldom of Greek governor, Seleucus who in return for peace offered him 500 elephants and eastern Afghanistan, Baluchistan and area west of Indus.
• He thus built a vast empire which included not only Bihar, Orissa and Bengal but also western and north western India and the Deccan leaving Kerala, Tamil Nadu and parts of North-eastern India.

 

Imperial Organisation

• The Mauryas organised a very elaborate system of administration as can be gathered from the account of Megasthenes and the Arthasastra of Kautilya.
• Megasthenes was a Greek ambassador sent by Seleucus to the court of Chandragupta in Pataliputra.
• Chandragupta Maurya was evidently an autocrat who concentrated all power in his hands and was assisted by a council whose members were noted for wisdom.
• The empire was divided into a number of provinces, and each province was placed under a prince who was a scion of the royal dynasty.
• Pataliputra, Taxila, Kausambi and Ujjain were important cities.  The administration of Pataliputra was carried out by the six committees, each consisting of 5 members.
• These committees were intrusted with sanitation, care of foreigners, regulation of weights and measures and similar other functions.
• The most striking feature of Chandragupta's administration is the maintenance of a huge army consisting of according to the accounts of Roman writer Pliny 600,000 foot soldiers, 30,000 cavalry and 9000 elephants and also maintained navy.
• How did he manage it? According to Arthasastra of Kautilya the state controlled almost all the economic activities in the realm.
• The state brought new land under cultivation with the help of cultivators and sudra labourers yielding handsome income to the state in form of revenue collection from the new settled peasants.
• The taxes collected from peasants varied from 1/4th to 1/6th of the produce and those provided with irrigation facilities by the state had to pay for it.
• Tolls were levied on commodities brought to town for sale and they were collected at the gates. Moreover the state enjoyed monopoly in mining, sale of liquor, manufacture of arms etc.

 

Asoka (273-232 B.C.)

• Chandragupta was succeeded by Bindusara whose reign was important for continued links with the Greek princes.
• His son Asoka was the greatest of the Mauryan rulers.

 

Asokan Edicts

• He is the first Indian king to speak directly to the people through his inscriptions engraved on rocks, on polished stone pillars and in caves found not only in Indian subcontinent but also in Kandhar.
• These inscriptions are in the form of 44 royal orders and each royal order has several copies composed in Prakrit language, and written in Brahmi script but in north-western part they appear in Kharosthi script and in Kandhar, Afghanistan in Aramaic, in Greek script and Greek language.
• They throw light on the career of Asoka, his external and domestic policies and extent of his empire.

Impact of Kalinga War

• After his accession to the throne Asoka fought only one major war called the Kalinga war killing 100,000 people and taking 150,000 prisoners.
• The war brought Brahmana priests and Buddhist monks great sufferings and caused Asoka much grief and remorse, so he abandoned the policy of physical occupation in favour of cultural conquest.
• In other words bherighosha was replaced by dhammaghosha. The officials appointed were asked to propagate this idea among all sections of the subjects.
• He took steps for the welfare of men and animals in foreign lands, sent ambassadors to the Greek kingdoms n Western Asia and Greece.
• He also sent missionaries for the propagation of Buddhism to Sri Lanka and Central Asia.
• Within the empire he appointed a class of officers known as the rajukas who were vested with the authority of not only rewarding people but also punishing them.
• The Kandhar inscription speaks of the success of his policy with the hunters and fishermen, who gave up killing animals and possibly took to a settled agricultural life.

 

Internal Policy and Buddhism

• Asoka converted to Buddhism as a result of Kalinga war and became a monk and made huge gifts to the Buddhists and undertook pilgrimages to the Buddhist shrines.
• As agents of the kings, the officers were asked to take care of the people. He appointed dharmamahamatra for propagating dharma among various social groups including women.
• He disapproved of rituals, especially those observed by women, forbade killing of certain birds and animals and completely prohibited the slaughter of animals in the capital.
• But Asoka's dharma can't be regarded as a sectarian faith with the broad objective of maintaining of the social order.
• Asoka taught people to live and let live. His teachings were meant to strengthen the institutions of family and the existing social classes on the basis of tolerance.
• He doesn't seem to have preached any sectarian faith.

 

Asoka's Place in History

• It is said that the pacific policy of Asoka ruined the Mauryan empire but this is not true. On the contrary he has a number of achievements to his credit.
• He was certainly the greatest missionary ruler in the history of ancient world and worked with great zeal and devotion to his mission and achieved a lot both at home and at abroad.
• He brought about the political unification of the country through one dharma, one language and practically one script called Brahmi.
• He did not try to foist his Buddhist faith on his subjects but made gifts to non-Buddhist and even anti-Buddhist sects.
• Above all he is important in history for his policy of peace, non-aggression and cultural conquest and had no model in early Indian history for pursuing such policy.
• Although he possessed sufficient resources and certainly maintained a huge army, he didn't wage any war after the conquest of Kalinga.
• However Asoka's policy didn't make a lasting impression on his viceroys and vassals who declared themselves independent in their respective areas after the retirement of the king in 232 B.C.
• Similarly the policy could not convert his neighbours who swooped the north-western frontier of his empire within 25 years of Asoka's exit from power.