Mauryan Dynasty

  

Mauryan Empire

 

Capital                                     Pataliputra (Present-day Patna, Bihar)

Common languages            Magadhi Prakrit

 

Religion         

•          Buddhism

•          Hinduism

•          Jainism

•          Ajivikism

•          Brahmanism (northwest)

•          Greek polytheism (northwest)

•          Zoroastrianism (northwest)

 

Government                        Absolute monarchy, as described in Kautilya's Arthashastra and                                             Rajamandala

Currency                                 Panas

 

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

• 187–180 BCE                        Brihadratha

 

 

Preceded by

Nanda Empire

Mahajanapada

 

Succeeded by

Shunga Empire

Satavahana dynasty

Mahameghavahana dynasty

Indo-Scythians

Indo-Greek Kingdom

Vidarbha kingdom (Mauryan era)

Introduction:

• The establishment of the Mauryan Empire, marks the beginning of a new era in the history of India.
• The advent of the Mauryan dynasty marks the passage from darkness into light for historians.
• The foundation of the Mauryan empire is a unique event in Indian History.
• Before the Mauryas the dates in Indian history were controversial.
• With the coming of the Mauryas, chronology becomes definite.
• The Mauryan system of administration was a modern one.
• The political unification of Northern India was achieved under one administration.
• Art also made wonderful progress.
• The Mauryas also established political, cultural and other contacts with civilized monarchs of countries like Egypt, Syria, Ceylon, Macedonia, Nepal etc.
• Thus, it was observed by many historians, that apart from political unity, there existed in the empire social harmony, economic prosperity, religious liberty, security and peace.

 

Mauryan Historical Sources:

• Many sources are available for the study of Mauryas.
• Literary sources are available from contemporary works, as well as literary works of the later period.
• The literary sources of information are both religious and secular.
• The religious works like Buddhist Dipavamsa, Ashokavadana, Mahavamsa, Jataka tales, the Jain literature and Divyavadana.
• Works like Hemachandra's Parishishta-Parvan and the Puranas, gives us some useful information about the Mauryan empire and the conditions of the period.
• The secular sources are from Megasthenes’s Indica, Kautilya’s Arthasastra, Somadeva's Katha Saritsagara, Vishakhadatta's Mudrarakshasa, Kalhana's Rajatarangini, Kshemendra's Brihat Kathamanjari, works of foreign writers like Diodorus, Pliny, Arrian, Strabo, Fahien, Junianus Justinus, Hiuen Tsang and others.
• The other material sources of information are the pottery, sculptural remains, coins, Asoka's edicts, Rudradaman's Junagadh inscription and Dasharatha's Nagarjunakonda inscription.
• All these throw light on the Mauryan administration, society, economic condition, condition of religions of the period and also speak a lot about the traditions of architecture and sculpture of the period.

 

The foundation of Mauryan Dynasty-Extension-Decline:

• Chandragupta, the founder of Maurya dynasty was mentioned as belonging to a lower class, and hence a Vrishala and Kulahina by Vishakhadatta in his Mudrarakshasam.
• According to legends, he was born to a Moriya chief and after his death Chandragupta was forced to live the obscure life of a cow boy.
• He was picked up by Chanakya, who educated him and trained him in the art of warfare.
• Chanakya, who was humiliated by the Nandas pledged to ruin them.
• Chandragupta met Alexander but could not get help from him.
• After the departure of Alexander from India, Chandragupta organized his own army.
• Dhana Nanda was the ruler of Magadha.
• He was a powerful ruler.
• Chandragupta failed in his 1st attempt when he directly attacked Pataliputra, but on his 2nd attempt conquered the frontier region and besieged the capital, Pataliputra.
• Dhana Nanda was killed in the battle field.
• Chandragupta crowned himself as the king of Pataliputra.
• After the death of Alexander, Chandragupta conquered many places in Northern India.
• The Greeks were driven across the Hindukush.
• He was said to have conquered Kathiawar and Gujarat.
• Seleucus Nicator was the Greek governor in charge of Alexander's Indian possessions.
• In 305 B.C., Seleucus crossed the Indus with a huge army to recover the Indian possessions of Alexander.
• But he was defeated by Chandragupta and made peace with him.
• According to that Peace treaty, Seleucus gave Chandragupta - Aria (Heart), Arachosia (Kandahar), Gedrosia (Baluchistan) and Paropanishae (Kabul) and in exchange Chandragupta made a gift of 500 elephants to Seleucus.
• He married the daughter of Seleucus.
• Seleucus, later on, sent to the Mauryan court an ambassador named Megasthenes who wrote Indica.
• Thus, Chandragupta brought about the political unification of North India.
• The boundary of his kingdom was extended to the borders of Persia.
• Thus, he established a big empire and consolidated it with an efficient administration.
• Chandragupta was one of the greatest rulers of India.
• He always cared for the welfare of his countrymen.
• Chandragupta was succeeded by his son Bindusara.
• He had a title 'Amitraghata' or ‘slayer of Enemies’.
• Bindusara received the envoy sent by the ruler of Egypt.
• During of his reign, Deimachus succeeded Megasthenes as the Greek ambassador.
• Nothing definite is known about his conquests.
• However, he made sure that the kingdom, which he received from Chandragupta, remained intact.
• Asoka was the son of Bindusara and Subhadrangi.
• During the lifetime of his father, he served as viceroy of Taxila and Ujjain.
• On the death of Bindusara, there was a war of succession.
• Though Bindusara died in 273 B.C., his coronation ceremony was held only in 269 B.C.
• This suggests that his succession was not peaceful.
• Asoka was an imperialist like Chandragupta Maurya.
• In the 12th year of his reign, he started his career of conquest.
• He wanted to annex the independent state of Kalinga, which lay on the Eastern coast.
• In what followed, the people of Kalinga were defeated.
• It is said that in this war nearly 1 lakh people were killed, many were wounded and a large number of people were imprisoned.
• All this had a great impact on Asoka.
• Kalinga was annexed to the Mauryan empire.
• But Asoka's mind was disturbed by the horrors of this war.
• At that time, he was attracted by the teachings of Gauthama Buddha.
• He became a Buddhist and pledged himself to peace as an absolute good.
• The sound of war drums (bherighosha) was replaced by the sound of peace (dharmaghosha).
• After becoming a Buddhist, Asoka turned his attention towards the propagation of Buddhism.
• To propagate Buddhist Dharmas to his people, he engraved them on rocks, pillars and caves throughout his vast kingdom.
• For the spread of Buddhism, Asoka went on a Dharma Yatra.
• He declared that his policy was one of Dharma Vijaya and Dharma Ghosha.
• He also appointed special officers called Dharma Mahamatras to enforce Dharma.
• As a ruler, he always had the good of his people at heart.
• He made sure that there was efficiency in his administration.
• His kingdom extended from Hindukush to Bengal and from the Himalayas in the North to the borders of the Tamil Kingdom.
• Asoka was a great warrior and statesman.
• He firmly believed that love, goodwill and sympathy could uplift humanity from misery.
• "In the history of the world there have been thousands of kings and emperors who called themselves 'their highnesses', 'their majesties', 'their exalted majesties' and so on," HG Wells wrote in The Outline of History. "They shone for a brief moment, and as quickly disappeared. But Ashoka shines and shines brightly like a bright star, even unto this day."
• After the death of Asoka, the Mauryan Empire started declining and finally disappeared from the political scene of North India.
• The Mauryan empire was succeeded by weak rulers, who could not stop the process of disintegration.
• The semi-independent states gradually broke away which finally led to the collapse of the Mauryan empire.
• The prominent feature of the Mauryan administration was the excessive centralization and concentration of power in the hands of the monarch.
• The succession of the weak rulers at the centre brought weakness and confusion everywhere.
• The Mauryan empire was a vast one.
• When there was no sufficient transport and communication facilities, it became very difficult to control the distant provinces.
• Many scholars point to Asoka as the one responsible for the decline of the empire.
• After the Kalinga war, he did not wage anymore wars.
• His zeal for nonviolence and peace resulted in the negligence of the fighting forces.
• But the most important cause was the incompetency of his successors.
• This resulted in the murder of Brihadratha, the last Mauryan ruler, by the commander-in-chief Pushyamitra-Shunga.
• Several factors weakened the Mauryan empire and finally it fell to pieces and disappeared.

 

Administration of Mauryas:

• Chandragupta was an efficient administrator.
• Mauryan administration attained a high degree of perfection, during Asoka's regime.
• Kautilya said that, "administration cannot be the work of one man, just as a carriage with one wheel cannot move.”
• During age of internecine war and foreign invasion that preceded the Mauryan period, the republican ideas and institutions were deprecated.
• (Note – Internecine war - An internecine war is one which takes place between opposing groups within a country or organization.)
• (Note – deprecate – disapprove)
• There was imperialist consolidation and that's why, we don't hear about local government and etcetera in the contemporary records.
• The Kautilyan-Mauryan system of administration continued till the time of Asoka.
• However, Asoka who in his later days was an exponent of Dharma, incorporated some changes into it.
• (Note – exponent – a person who supports an idea or theory and tries to persuade people of its truth or benefits.)
• The Mauryan administration was a centralized one and enormous powers were vested with the monarch in order to effectively run the administration of such a vast empire and to implement royal decisions.
• Kautilya suggested the creation of a government machinery, consisting of

1. The emperor

2. The Governors

3. The Minister

4. Heads of various departments and branches

5. Lower division employees and village level officers.

• According to scholars "the Mauryan state was better organized than the Mughal empire under Akbar".

 

Central Government:

• The king was the Keystone of administration.
• He was the head of the legislation, law and army.
• But the Mauryan king was not an autocrat and was bound by the Dharma of the land.
• Kautilya emphasized the need for collective deliberations and stressed that the king should follow the chief adviser.
• The king always cared for the welfare of his people.
• The king was assisted by a number of ministers.
• Some of the important officers of the state were Amatya, Mantri and Sachiv.
• This was called the Mantri parishad.
• Each member was in charge of a state department.
• Collectively, the council met to discuss important matters and foreign affairs.
• There were two popular assemblies called Janapada and Paura.
• Janapada was attended by the representatives of the rural parts.
• Paura was the assembly of the representatives of the capital.
• These were the channels of public opinion.
• The administration was carried on by well-organized civil services.
• There were many departments like the department of public works, finance, commerce, royal correspondence, agriculture etc.
• Each department was controlled by superintendents.

 

State Government:

• The empire was divided into a number of administrative units for the sake of administrative convenience such as provinces, districts and villages.
• Each province was placed under a viceroy.
• Tosali (in the east), Ujjain (in the west), Suvarnagiri (in the south), and Taxila (in the north) were the 4 important provinces.
• The provinces were divided into districts.
• They were known as Aharas, Vishayas or Pradesas.
• Pradeshika was the head of district administration.
• Village was the lowest unit of administration.
• Gramini was the village officer.
• Gopa was the officer-in-charge of a unit consisting of 5 to 10 villages.

 

Secret Service:

• In order to keep the king informed about any seditious activities happening in the empire and it’s the provinces, the Mauryan kings maintained a secret service for which spies, detectives and news agents were carefully chosen and selected by the king personally.
• These spies were to directly inform the emperor of any important developments or information that they came across.
• A large number of detectives (guddhapurushas), secret agents, double agents, news agents, spies, counter-spies, etc., were posted all over the kingdom.
• Chanakya has given an elaborate description of the various aspects of espionage.
• He divides them into samsthan (stationary) and sanchari (wandering), each having several sub-divisions.
• There are sources which state that Chandragupta appointed women as his bodyguards.

 

City Administration:

• Megasthenes gives an account of the administration of Pataliputra.
• The most noteworthy feature of the Mauryan administration was their efficient city administration.
• The head of the city administration was Nagarika.
• He was assisted by a number of subordinate officers.
• The general administration was carried out by a municipal commission consisting of 30 members, divided into 6 Panchayats with 5 members each.
• These committees looked after census, foreigners, artisans, trade and manufactures and the collection of taxes due from the corporations.

 

State Revenue:

• Land Revenue was the chief source of income to the state.
• The tax was collected at the rate of 1/4th of the gross produce and could be paid in cash or kind.
• In addition to the land tax, licence fee, royalties on mines, excise duty, octroi duty, water tax, revenue from crown lands, fisheries, forests and profession taxes and also tolls on ferries and bridges, were other sources of income.
• The income was spent by the king on giving salaries to officials.
• There were cases of partial remissions and assignment of land revenue to public institutions.
• (Note – Remission – the cancellation of a debt, charge, or penalty.)
• The financial year, during Mauryan regime, began from the month of Ashada.

 

Army and the Military:

• The Mauryan standing army was a huge one and according to Pliny, the army of Chandragupta, consisted of 6 lakh foot soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, 9,000 elephants and 8,000 chariots.
• The army was well-equipped, organized and disciplined.

 

Judicial Administration:

• The Mauryan king was the fountain of justice and the final court of appeal.
• In districts, cities and villages, there were tribunals of Justice.
• The district court called Kantaka-shodhana (removal of thorns) met under the presidentship of 3 pradestris.
• The city tribunal, Dharmasthiya, was presided over by 3 Amatyas and 3 Dharmasthas (Jurists).
• Petty cases in villages were decided by the village elders and the Gramika.
• According to Megasthenes, the criminal code was severe.
• Severe punishments were given, even in cases of tax evasion or presentation of false evidence.

 

Culture conditions under the Mauryas:

• In Mauryan period, the social and cultural conditions are very good.
• It is clear from the available records that life under the Mauryas reached a high degree of cultural progress.
• Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism were followed by the people.
• Women played an important part in the Mauryan society.
• A joint-family system was followed by the people.
• Though marriage was considered sacred, divorce was permitted under certain circumstances.
• Remarriage was allowed under certain circumstances.
• Sati was limited to a few women of the higher classes.
• In the Mauryan period, agriculture and industry were the chief occupations of people.
• Agriculture was the main occupation for a large number of people.
• Cow was an important domestic animal.
• Trade and industry were highly organized.
• The interests of artisans and merchants were protected by guilds and clubs of merchants.
• There was a brisk trade, both internal and external.
• The chief modes of transportation were rivers, canals and the roadways.
• During the Mauryan period, Buddhism and Jainism also played an important part in the religious life of the people.
• The Dharma-Mahamatras of Ashoka were very active in spreading Buddhism far and wide.
• Chandragupta Maurya and his son Bindusara professed Jainism.
• Despite the prevalence of Buddhism as a strong religious force, the Popular faiths never died out.
• The cult of Arjuna and Vasudeva or Krishna were prevalent in Punjab.
• The Mauryan kings contributed a lot to the development of language and literature.
• The dominant language of Ashoka's court was Magadhi Prakrit.
• Pali language was also spoken by the people.
• The Ashokan Edicts were written in Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts.
• Classical Sanskrit also occupied an important place.
• Some of the important literary works written during the Mauryan period were Samgraha Sutra written by Vyadi and Mahabhasya written by Patanjali.
• The numerous Buddhist monasteries were the centres of learning.
• Kathavatthu, Arthasastra and some really important Buddhist works in Pali belonged to the Mauryan period.
• The greatest centre of higher education was the University of Taxila.
• The Mauryan age constituted a landmark in art and architecture.
• The prosperity and peace of the kingdom resulted in the development of art.
• Buildings of exceptional grandeur were built during the Chandragupta period.
• Stones were used in building construction from the days of Asoka.
• These stones were finely chiselled and highly polished.
• The finest example of Ashokan art is furnished by the monolithic columns.
• The wonderful capital of Sarnath, with the four animals carved on the abacus and four lions standing back-to-back on the top is a wonderful specimen of Mauryan art.
• (Note – Abacus – the flat slab on top of a capital, supporting the architrave.)
• (Note – Capital – the distinct, typically broader section at the head of a pillar or column.)
• (Note – Architrave – a main beam resting across the tops of columns, specifically the lower third entablature.)
• (Note – Entablature – the upper part of a classical building supported by columns.)
• Asoka built stupas and cave temples.
• The stupas were erected as a memorial over the relics of famous Buddhist saints.
• Buddhist sources tell us that Asoka constructed about 84,000 stupas.
• Among them, Sarnath, Sanchi and Bharhut stupas are noteworthy.
• The Mauryan art is typically Indian, both in workmanship and spirit.
• Mauryan period was the one of the brightest periods of Indian History.

 

Conclusion:

• The Mauryan dynasty was one of the most important dynasties of Ancient India.
• The Mauryan system of administration was a modern one.
• The political unification of Northern India was achieved under their administration.
• In short, the establishment of the Mauryan Empire marks the beginning of a new era in the history of India.
• Chandragupta was the founder of the Mauryan dynasty.
• The Kalinga war took place in 261 B.C.
• Even though Asoka won the war, he repented with deep remorse after realising the effect that violence and bloodshed have.
• He decided not to fight anymore and became a follower of Buddhism.
• Inscriptions of Asoka, Chanakya's Arthasastra, Indica written by Megasthanes and Mudrarakshasam written by Visakadatta are some sources which let us know about the Mauryan rule.
• Chandragupta was the architect of an efficient administrative machinery.
• The state was well governed with graded officials.
• Their duties were clearly defined.
• Society under the Mauryas reached a high degree of cultural progress.
• During the Mauryan period, there was political, economic and cultural advancement in India.

Tags:

#Mauryan Dynasty,Mauryan Dynasty Extension and Decline,Mauryan Empire,Ancient Indian History,Indian History,Ancient India,India,