Indian History: The Age Of The Mauryas (Notes)

Chandragupta Maurya
The Mauryan dynasty was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, who seems to have belonged to some ordinary family. According to the brahmanical tradition he was born of Mura, a shudra woman in the court of the Nandas. But an earlier Buddhist tradition speaks of the existence of a kshatriya clan called Mauryas living in the region of Gorakhpur adjoining the Nepalese terai. In all likelihood, Chandragupta was a member of this clan. He took advantage of the growing weakness and unpopularity of the Nandas in the last days of their rule. With the help of Chanakya, who is known as Kautilya, he overthrew the Nandas and established the rule of the Maurya dynasty.

The machinations of Chanakya against Chandragupta’s enemies are described in detail in the Mudrarakshasa, a drama written by Vishakhadatta in the ninth century. Several plays have been based on it in modern times.
Justin, a Greek writer, says that Chandragupta overran the whole of India with an army of 600,000. But Chandragupta liberated north-western India from the thraldom of Selucus, Chandragupta thus built up a vast empire which included not only Bihar and good portions of Orissa and Bengal but also western and northwestern India, and the Deccan. Leaving Kerala, Tamil nadu and parts of north-easrtern India the Mauryas ruled over the whole of the subcontinent. In the north-west they held sway over certain areas which were not included even in the British empire.

Imperial Organization
The Mauryas organized a very elaborate system of administration. We know about it from the account of Megasthenes and the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Megasthenes was a Greek ambassador sent by Seleucus to the court of Chandragupta Maurya. He lived in the Maurya capital of Pataliputra and wrote an account not only of the administration of the city of Pataliputra but also of the Maurya empire as a whole. The account of Megasthenes have been published in the form of a book called Indika, which throws valuable light on the administration, society and economy of Maurya times. The account of Megasthenes can be supplemented by the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Arthashastra gives authentic information about the Maurya administration and economy. On the basis of these two sources we can draw a picture of the administrative system of Chandra-gupta Maurya. If we believe in a statement of the Arthashastra, the king had set a high ideal the happiness of his subjects lay his happiness and in their troubles lay his troubles.
According to Megasthenes the king was assisted by a council.
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. The provinces were divided into still smaller units, and arrangements were made for both rural and urban administration.
Excavations The administration Pataliputra, which was the capital of the Mauryas, was carried on by six committees, each committee consisting of five members. These committees were entrusted with sanitation, care of foreigners, registration of birth and death, regulation of weights and measures and similar other functions.
The most striking feature of Chandragupta’s administration is the maintenance of a Huge army. According to the account of a
Roman writer called Poiny, Chandragupta maintained 600,000 foot-soldiers, 30,000 cavalry and 9000 elephants the Mauryas also maintained a navy. The administration of the armed forces, according to Megasthenes, was carried on by a board of 30 officers divided into six committees, consisting of five members.

Ashoka (273-232 B.C.)
Chandragupta Maurya was succeeded by Bindusara, whose reign is important for continued links with the Greek princes. His son, Ashoka, is the greatest of the Maurya rulers. According to Buddhist tradition he was so cruel in his early life that he killed his 99 brothers to get the throne. But since the statement is based on a legend, it may well be wrong. His biography, prepared by Buddhist writers, is so full of finction that it cannot be taken seriously.

Ashokan Inscriptions
The history of Ashoka is reconstructed on the basis of his inscriptions. These incriptions, numbering 39, are classified into Major Rock Edicts, Minor Rock Edicts, Separate Rock Edicts, Major Pillar Edicts and Minor Pillar Edicts. The name of Ashoka occurs only in copies of Minor Rock Edict found at three places in Karnataka and at one in Madhya Pradesh.
All the other inscriptions mention only devanamptya piyadasi, dear to gods, and leave out the word Ashoka. The Ashokan inscriptions are found in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Altogether they appear at 47 places, and their total versions number 182. They were generally placed on ancient highways. Composed in Prakrit, they were writtne in Brahmi script in the greater part of the subcontinent. But in its northwestern part they appeared in Aramaic language and Kharoshthi script, and in the Afghanistan they were written in both
Aramaic and Greek scripts and languages. He is the first Indian king to speak directly to the people through his inscriptions which carry royal orders. The inscriptions throw light on the career of Ashoka, his external Territorial States and the First Magadhan Empire 23 and domestic polices, and the extent of his empire.

Impact of the Kalinga War
The ideology of Buddhism guided Ashoka’s state policy at home and abroad.
After his accession to the throne, Ashoka fought only one major war called the Kalinga War. According to him, 100,000 people were killed in this war, several lakhs perished, and 150,000 were taken prisoners. At any rate it seems that the king war moved by the massacre in this war. So he abandoned the policyof physical occupation in favour of policy of cultural conquest. In other words, bherighosha was replaced with dhammaghosha.

From Ashoka's Thirteenth Major Rock Edict: (Excerpt)

When king Devanampriya Priyadarshi had been anointed eight years, the country of the Kalingas was conquered by him. One Hundred and fifty thousand in number were the men who were deported thence;One hundred and thousand in numbers were those who were slain there; and many times as many those who died.

After that, now that the country of the Kalingas has been taken, Devanampriya is devoted to the pursuit of Dhamma, the love of Dhamma, and to instructing the people in Dhama. This is the repentance of Devanamprira an account of his conquest of the country of the Kalingas. For the slaughter, death, and deportation of people that take place in the course of conquering an unconquered country is considered very painful and deplorable by Devanampriya.

But the following is considered even more deplorable than this by Devanampriya- that Brahmanas and Shramanas, members of other sects or householders who are living there, and who practice obedience and firm devotion to superior persons, obedience to mother and father, obedience to elderd, proper courtesy to friends, acquaintances, companions, and relatives, to slave and servants-all these suffer injury or slaughter or deportation of their loved ones. And if misfortune befalls the friends, acquaintances, companions, and relatives of persons who are full of devotion towards them, even though they themselves be well provided for, this misfortune too becomes an injury to their own selves. This is shared by all and is considered deplorable be Devanampriya...
 

Ashoka no longer treated foreign dominions as legitimate areas for military conquest. He tried to conquer them ideologically. He took steps for the welfare of men and animals in foreigh lands, which was a new thing considering the condition of those days. He sent ambassadors of peace to the Greek kingdoms in West Asia and Greece. He sent mission-aries for the propagation of Buddhism to Sri Lanka and Central Asia. As an enlightened ruler Ashoka tiled to enlarge his area of political influence through propaganda.
It would be wrong to think that the Kalinga war made Ashoka an extreme pacifist. On the other hand he adopted a practical policy of consolidating his empire.
He retained Kalinga after its conquest and incorporated it into his empire. There is also nothing to show that he disbanded the huge army maintained from the time of Chandragupta Maurya. 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, wherever necessary.

Internal Policy and Buddhism
Ashoka was converted to Buddhism as a result of the Kalinga war. According to tradition hs became a monk, made huge gifts to the Buddhists and undertook pilgrimages to the Buddhist shrines. The fact of his visiting the Buddhist shrines is also suggested by the dhamma yatras mentioned in his inscriptions.
According to tradition the Buddhist council (Sangiti) was held by Ashoka and missionaries were sent not only to south India but also to Sri Lanka, Burma and other countries to covert the people there. Brahmi inscriptions of the second and first centuries B.C. have been found Sri Lanka.
Ashoka set a very high ideal for himself, and this was the ideal of paternal kingship.
He repeatedly asked his officials to tell the subjects that the king looked upon them as his children. As agents of the king, the official were also asked to take care of the people.
Ashoka appointed Dhammama-hamatras for propagating dharma among various social groups including women. He also appointed rajukas for the administration of justice in his empire.
He disapporved of rituals, especially those observed by women. He forbade killing certain birds and animals, and completely prohibited the slaughter of animals in the capital. He interdicted gay social functions in which people indulged in revelries.

Ashoka’s Place in History
It is said that the pacific policy of Ashoka drained the Mauryan empire, but this is not true. On the country Ashoka has a number of achievements to his credit. He was certainly a great missionary ruler in the history of the ancient world. He worked with great zeal and devotion to his mission and achieved a lot, both at home and abroad.
Ashoka brought about the political unification of the country. He bound it further by one dharma, one language and practically one script called Brahmi which was used in most of his inscriptions. In unifying the country he respected such scripts as Brashmi, Kharoshthi, Aramaci and Greek. Evidently he also accommodated such languages as Greek, Prakrit and Sanskrit and various religious sects. Ashoka follwed a tolerant religious policy. He did not try to foist his buddhist faith on his subjects. On the other hand he made gifts to non-Buddhist and even anti-Buddhist sects. Ashoka was fired with zeal for missionary activities. He deputed officials in the far-flung parts of the empire.
This helped the cause of ad-ministration and also promoted cultural contacts between the developed Gangetic basin and the backward distant provinces. The material culture, typical of the heart of the empire, spread to Kalinga and the lower Deccan and norther
Bengal. Above all Ashoka is important in history for his policy of peace, nonaggression and cultural conquest. He had no model in early Indian history for pursuing such a policy; nor did such an example exist in any country except Egypt where Akhnaton had pursued a pacific policy in the fourteenth century B.C. But it is obvious that Ashoka was not aware for his Egyptian predecessor.
However, Ashoka’s policy did not make any lasting impression on his viceroys and vassals, who declared themselves independent in their respective areas after the retrirement of the king in 232 B.C.
Similarly, the policy could not convert his neighbours, who swooped on the northwestern frontier of his empire within 30 years of Ashoka’s exit from power in 232 B.C.