Maurya Empire should not be confused with Mori Kingdom.
| Conventional Long Name: | Maurya Empire |
| Common Name: | Mauryan Empire |
| Era: | Iron Age |
| Government Type: | Absolute monarchy |
| Event Start: | Nanda-Mauryan War |
| Year Start: | ca.320 BCE |
| Status: | Empire |
| Year End: | 185 BCE |
| Event End: | Assassination of Brihadratha by Pushyamitra Shunga |
| P1: | Nanda Empire |
| P2: | Arachosia |
| P3: | Paropamisadae |
| P4: | Parada kingdom |
| P5: | Aparanta |
| P6: | Saurashtra (region) |
| P7: | Andhras |
| S1: | Shunga Empire |
| P14: | Kalinga (historical region) |
| S2: | Indo-Greek Kingdom |
| S3: | Mitra dynasty (Kosambi) |
| S4: | Vidarbha kingdom (Mauryan era) |
| S5: | Samatata |
| S6: | Satavahana dynasty |
| S7: | Mahameghavahana dynasty |
| Today: | India Pakistan Bangladesh Nepal Afghanistan |
| Image Map Caption: | Maurya Empire, conceptualized as a network of core regions connected by networks of communication and trade, with large areas with peripheral or no Maurya control. |
| Image Map2: | Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE 2.png |
| Image Map2 Caption: | Traditional depiction of the Maurya Empire under Ashoka as a solid mass of Maurya-controlled territory. |
| Capital: | Pataliputra (near present-day Patna) |
| Common Languages: | Sanskrit (literary and academic),Magadhi Prakrit (vernacular) |
| Religion: |
|
| Demonym: | Indian |
| Currency: | Karshapana |
| Title Leader: | Emperor |
| Leader1: | Chandragupta |
| Year Leader1: | ca.320–298 BCE |
| Leader2: | Bindusara |
| Year Leader2: | 298–272 BCE |
| Leader3: | Ashoka |
| Year Leader3: | 268–232 BCE |
| Leader4: | Dasharatha |
| Year Leader4: | 232–224 BCE |
| Leader5: | Samprati |
| Year Leader5: | 224–215 BCE |
| Leader6: | Shalishuka |
| Year Leader6: | 215–202 BCE |
| Leader7: | Devavarman |
| Year Leader7: | 202–195 BCE |
| Leader8: | Shatadhanvan |
| Year Leader8: | 195–187 BCE |
| Leader9: | Brihadratha |
| Year Leader9: | 187–185 BCE |
| Stat Year1: | 261 BCE |
| Stat Area1: | 3400000 |
| Ref Area1: | (low-end estimate of peak area) |
| Stat Year2: | 250 BCE |
| Stat Area2: | 5000000 |
| Ref Area2: | [1] (high-end estimate of peak area) |
| Stat Year3: | 3rd century BC |
| Stat Pop3: | 15 - 30 million |
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary sources for the written records of the Mauryan times are partial records of the lost history of Megasthenes in Roman texts of several centuries later, the Edicts of Ashoka, which were first read in the modern era by James Prinsep after he had deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts in 1838, and the Arthashastra, a work first discovered in the early 20th century,[2] and previously attributed to Chanakya, but now thought to be composed by multiple authors in the first centuries of the common era.
Through military conquests and diplomatic treaties, Chandragupta Maurya defeated the Nanda dynasty and extended his suzerainty as far westward as Afghanistan below the Hindu Kush and as far south as the northern Deccan; however, beyond the core Magadha area, the prevailing levels of technology and infrastructure limited how deeply his rule could penetrate society. During the rule of Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka (ca. 268–232 BCE), the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the subcontinent excepting the deep south. The Mauryan capital (what is today Patna) was located in Magadha; the other core regions were Taxila in the northwest; Ujjain in the Malwa Plateau; Kalinga on the Bay of Bengal coast; and the precious metal-rich lower Deccan plateau. Outside the core regions, the empire's geographical extent was dependent on the loyalty of military commanders who controlled the armed cities scattered within it. The Mauryan economy was helped by the earlier rise of Buddhism and Jainism - creeds that promoted nonviolence, proscribed ostentation, or superfluous sacrifices and rituals, and reduced the costs of economic transactions; by coinage that increased economic accommodation in the region; and by the use of writing, which might have boosted more intricate business dealings. Despite profitable settled agriculture in the fertile eastern Gangetic plain, these factors helped maritime and river-borne trade, which were essential for acquiring goods for consumption as well as metals of high economic value. To promote movement and trade, the Maurya dynasty built roads, most prominently a chiefly winter-time road - the Uttarapath - which connected eastern Afghanistan to their capital Patliputra during the time of year when the water levels in the intersecting rivers were low and they could be easily forded. Other roads connected the Ganges basin to Arabian Sea coast in the west, and precious metal-rich mines in the south.[3]
The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.[4] The empire's period of dominion was marked by exceptional creativity in art, architecture, inscriptions and produced texts,[5] but also by the consolidation of caste in the Gangetic plain, and the declining rights of women in the mainstream Indo-Aryan speaking regions of India.[6] After the Kalinga War in which Ashoka's troops visited much violence on the region, he embraced Buddhism and promoted its tenets in edicts scattered around South Asia, most commonly in clusters along the well-traveled road networks.[7] He sponsored Buddhist missionaries to Sri Lanka, northwest India, and Central Asia, which played a salient role in Buddhism becoming a world religion, and himself a figure of world history.[8] As Ashoka's edicts forbade both the killing of wild animals and the destruction of forests, he is seen by some modern environmental historians as an early embodiment of that ethos.[9] [10] Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW). The Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath is the State Emblem of the Republic of India, and the 24-pointed Buddhist Wheel of Dharma on the capital's drum-shaped abacus, is the central feature of India's national flag.[11]
See also: Jambudvīpa.
The domains of Ashoka are addressed as Jaṃbudīpa in his edicts. This term, meaning "island/continent of jambu", is the common name for the entire Indian subcontinent in ancient Indian sources. Neighbouring cultures usually adressed this land by a variety of exonyms, such as the Greek (derived from the Indus River), which gave most European languages the common name for the subcontinent, including English. Both of these terms are, however, more geographical than political, and in common parlance could include areas outside of the Mauryan control.
The name "Maurya" does not occur in any of the Edicts of Ashoka, or the contemporary Greek accounts such as Megasthenes's Indica, but it is attested by the following sources:
According to some scholars, Kharavela's Hathigumpha inscription (2nd-1st century BCE) mentions era of Maurya Empire as Muriya Kala (Mauryan era),[14] but this reading is disputed: other scholars—such as epigraphist D. C. Sircar—read the phrase as mukhiya-kala ("the principal art").[15]
According to the Buddhist tradition, the ancestors of the Maurya kings had settled in a region where peacocks (mora in 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".
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 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.
Some later authors, such as 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. 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".
The primary sources for the written records of the Mauryan times are partial records of the lost history of Megasthenes in Roman texts of several centuries later;[16] and the Edicts of Ashoka, which were first read in the modern era by James Prinsep after he had deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts in 1838.[17] The Arthashastra, a work first discovered in the early 20th century, and previously attributed to Kautilya, but now thought to be composed by multiple authors in the first centuries of the common era, has lost it's value as a source for Mauryan times, as it describes post-Mauryan customs.
See main article: Chandragupta Maurya and Magadha.
The origins of the Maurya Empire are shrouded in legend. Greek sources refer to confrontations between the Greeks and Chandragupta Maurya, but are almost silent on his conquest of the Nanda Empire. Indian sources, on the other hand, only narrate the conquest of the Nanda Empire, and provide no info on what happened at the Greek frontier.
A number of Indian accounts, such as the Gupta-era drama Mudrarakshasa 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". Plutarch states that Chandragupta, as a young man, saw Alexander.[18]
See main article: Chandragupta Maurya.
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 BCE, his empire fragmented into independent kingdoms ruled by his generals.
The Roman historian Justin (2nd c. CE) states, in Epit. 15.4.12-13, that after Alexander's death, Greek governors in India were assassinated, liberating the people of Greek rule. This revolt was led by Chandragupta, who in turn established an oppressive regime himself "after taking the throne":
Raychaudhuri states that, according to Justin Epitome 15.4.18–19, Chandragupta organized an army. He notes that early translators interpreted Justin's original expression as "body of robbers", but states Raychaudhuri, the original expression used by Justin may mean mercenary soldier, hunter, or robber. Mookerji refers to McCrindle as stating that "robbers" refers to the people of the Punjab, "kingless people." Mookerju further quotes Rhys Davids, who states that "it was from the Punjab that Chandragupta recruited the nucleus of the force with which he besieged and conquered Dhana-Nanda." According to Nath Sen, Chandragupta recruited and annexed local military republics such as the Yaudheyas that had resisted Alexander's Empire.[19]
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.[20]
See main article: Chanakya and Nanda Empire.
The Nanda Empire ruled the Ganges basin and some adjacent territories. The Nanda Empire was a large, militaristic, and economically powerful empire due to conquering the mahajanapadas.
Historically reliable details of Chandragupta's campaign against the Nanda Empire are unavailable, and legends written centuries later are inconsistent. Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu texts claim Magadha was ruled by the Nanda dynasty, which was defeated and conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, with Chanakya's counsel. The conquest was fictionalised in the Gupta-era play Mudrarakshasa, which embellished the legend with further narratives not found in earlier 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. Radha Kumud Mukherjee similarly considers Mudrakshasa play without historical basis.[21]
Justin reports that Chandragupta met the Nanda king, angered him, and made a narrow escape. According to several Indian 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 King Dhana Nanda when he informed them of Alexander's invasion. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire.[22] 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 near Vinjha forest. 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.
The Buddhist Mahavamsa Tika and Jain Parishishtaparvan records Chandragupta's army unsuccessfully attacking the Nanda capital. 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. He then refined his strategy by establishing garrisons in the conquered territories, and finally besieged the Nanda capital Pataliputra. There Dhana Nanda accepted defeat. 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. These legends state that the Nanda emperor was defeated, deposed and exiled by some accounts, while Buddhist accounts claim he was killed. With the defeat of Dhana Nanda, Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire.
Historically reliable details of Chandragupta's campaign into Pataliputra are unavailable and the legends written centuries later are inconsistent. While his victory, and ascencion of the throne, is usually dated at ca. 322-319 BCE, which would put his war in the Punjab after his ascencion, an ascencion "between c.311 and c.305 bc" is also possible, placing his activity in the Punjab at ca. 317 BCE, "at the time Seleucos was preparing future glory":
See main article: Seleucid–Mauryan war.
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
"... another source that enjoyed high standing as a description of the early Mauryan state was the Arthashastra, a treatise on power discovered in the early twentieth century."
"Knitting these regions together were important trade routes. The northern road (uttarapatha) extended from Bengal to Taxila; another branched from the Ganges near the juncture with the Yamuna, joined the Narmada basin and continued to the Arabian seaport of Bharukaccha (Broach). Yet another branched southward (dakshinapatha) from Ujjain to the regional capital of Suvarnagiri, a centre for the production of gold and iron"
"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."
"In the newer view, Ashoka’s edicts trace out this spacious commercial domain as a gigantic zone of Ashoka’s moral authority. Ashoka had his Buddhist-inspired moralizing edicts inscribed on distinctive pillars or upon prominent rocks where people passed or congregated. They traced a set of trade routes along which commodities passed to and from the Mauryan heartland in the eastern Gangetic plain. ... Along these same roads went Ashoka. Having become a lay Buddhist, he embarked on a year-long pilgrimage to all the sacred sites of his new faith;
"Following the Buddha’s message, he banned Brahminic Vedic animal sacrifices in his capital (although he evidently lacked the administrative control to stop them outside of it). Overall, Ashoka’s edicts proclaim his compassion for animals, perhaps motivated by an environmental ethic (in addition to his revenue or administrative goals). Consequently, today many environmentalists evoke Ashoka as an ancient Indian exemplar."
"The records and descriptions of Megasthenes may be subject to similar questioning and may be dismissed as primary sources. Indeed, they are partial records which have survived in a fragmentary form through the Roman compilations many centuries later, such as that of Arrian in the third century CE (Kalota 1978)."