Maurya Empire 𑀫𑀸𑀕𑀥𑁂 Māgadhe | |
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322 BCE – 185 BCE | |
![]() 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;[1] Burton Stein;[2] David Ludden;[3] and Romila Thapar;[4] anthropologists Monica L. Smith[5] and Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah;[4] archaeologist Robin Coningham;[4] and historical demographer Tim Dyson.[6] | |
![]() Maximum extent of the Maurya Empire, as shown by the location of Ashoka's inscriptions, and visualized by historians: Vincent Arthur Smith;[7] R. C. Majumdar;[8] and historical geographer Joseph E. Schwartzberg.[9] | |
Status | Empire |
Capital | Pataliputra (present-day Patna) |
Common languages | Sanskrit (literary and academic), Magadhi Prakrit (vernacular) |
Religion | |
Demonym(s) | Indian |
Government | Absolute monarchy, as described in Kautilya's Arthashastra and Rajamandala[17] |
Emperor | |
• 322–298 BCE | Chandragupta |
• 298–272 BCE | Bindusara |
• 268–232 BCE | Ashoka |
• 232–224 BCE | Dasharatha |
• 224–215 BCE | Samprati |
• 215–202 BCE | Shalishuka |
• 202–195 BCE | Devavarman |
• 195–187 BCE | Shatadhanvan |
• 187–185 BCE | Brihadratha |
Historical era | Iron Age |
322 BCE | |
• Assassination of Brihadratha by Pushyamitra Shunga | 185 BCE |
Area | |
261 BCE[18] (low-end estimate of peak area) | 3,400,000 km2 (1,300,000 sq mi) |
250 BCE[19] (high-end estimate of peak area) | 5,000,000 km2 (1,900,000 sq mi) |
Currency | Karshapana |
Today part of | India Pakistan Bangladesh Nepal Afghanistan |
Maurya Empire (322–180 BCE) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The Maurya Empire (Ashokan Prakrit: 𑀫𑀸𑀕𑀥𑁂, Māgadhe[20]) was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia based in Magadha (present day Bihar). It was the fourth ruling dynasty of Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE.[21] 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.[22][23][24] During Ashoka's rule (ca. 268–232 BCE), the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the Indian subcontinent excepting the deep south.[21] It declined for about 50 years after Ashoka's rule, and dissolved in 185 BCE with the assassination of Brihadratha by Pushyamitra Shunga and foundation of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha.
History of India |
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Timeline |
Chandragupta Maurya raised an army, with the assistance of Chanakya, author of the Arthashastra,[25] and overthrew the Nanda Empire in c. 322 BCE. Chandragupta rapidly expanded his power westwards across central and western India by conquering the satraps left by Alexander the Great, and by 317 BCE the empire had fully occupied northwestern India.[26] The Mauryan Empire then defeated Seleucus I, a diadochus and founder of the Seleucid Empire, during the Seleucid–Mauryan war, thus acquiring territory west of the Indus River.[27][28]
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.[29] 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 Sri Lanka, northwest India, and Central Asia.[30]
The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.[31] The empire's period of dominion was marked by exceptional creativity in art, architecture, inscriptions and produced texts,[3] 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.[32] Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW). The Arthashastra[33] 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 the Republic of India.
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.
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.
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.
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