The Mauryan Empire

Out of the powerful kingdom of Magadha grew India's first great empire, the Mauryan Empire. For the first time, most of the subcontinent came under a single rule, governed from the city of Pataliputra. Its most famous ruler, Ashoka, is remembered across the world as a king who, after a terrible war, chose peace. The Mauryas are one of the most important and heavily tested topics in ancient history.

The stage was set by a foreign invasion. In 326 BCE, Alexander of Macedon invaded north-west India. At that time the Nanda dynasty still ruled Magadha. Alexander soon turned back, and the power vacuum he left in the north-west helped an ambitious young man seize his chance.

That man was Chandragupta Maurya. He overthrew the Nandas and founded the empire around 321 BCE. Keep the order straight: Alexander's invasion came first, under Nanda rule, and Chandragupta's rise followed about five years later. He was guided by his clever minister Chanakya (also called Kautilya). Chanakya's famous book, the Arthashastra, set out the principles of statecraft, economics and war.

Chandragupta built a large empire stretching across northern India and into the north-west. In his last years he is said to have given up his throne and become a Jain monk. Centuries later, the playwright Visakhadatta dramatised this founding story in his Sanskrit play Mudrarakshasa. The play depicts the court intrigues around Chandragupta's rise and Chanakya's scheming role in it.

The Arthashastra was not only a manual of war and taxes. It also laid down rules that softened slavery:

• Freedom through motherhood: a female slave who bore her master a son became legally free.
• Status of the child: such a son held the legal status of the master's own son.
• Limits on enslavement: judicial punishment was not a recognised cause of slavery.

The Mauryas ruled a vast territory from their grand capital at Pataliputra. To hold it together they built a strong administration:

• The empire was divided into provinces, each governed by a prince or governor.
• A large body of officials collected taxes, ran the cities and maintained roads.
• A network of spies kept the ruler informed.
• A huge standing army of infantry, cavalry, chariots and elephants defended and expanded the empire.

Below the provinces came the districts. Ashoka's inscriptions name three district-level officers, and examiners love to test the trio:

• Pradeshika: the head of district administration.
• Rajuka: an officer responsible for land measurement and rural justice.
• Yukta: a junior officer who handled accounts and records.

The Greek ambassador Megasthenes, who visited the court, left a vivid account of Pataliputra and its government.

The greatest Mauryan ruler was Ashoka, Chandragupta's grandson. Early in his reign he fought a fierce war to conquer Kalinga (modern Odisha).

Why Kalinga? The motive was strategic. Kalinga controlled the land and sea routes to South India. An empire that wanted to dominate trade and movement down the eastern coast could not leave it independent. The war and its aftermath are described in Ashoka's own Rock Edict XIII.

The war was won, but at a terrible cost. Over a hundred thousand were killed and many more taken captive. Sickened by the bloodshed, Ashoka was filled with remorse. He resolved never to wage war again. He embraced Buddhism and devoted the rest of his reign to the welfare of his people and the spread of peace.

After Kalinga, Ashoka taught a moral code he called dhamma (not a religion but a set of principles for right living):

• Respect for elders, and kindness to servants, slaves and the poor.
• Tolerance of all religions and sects.
• Non-violence and concern for all living beings.

To spread these ideas, Ashoka had his messages carved on rocks and pillars across the empire. These are the famous Ashokan edicts, written in Prakrit, mostly in the Brahmi script. Edict sites stretch from Shahbazgarhi in the north-west (where the Kharosthi script was used) to Sohgaura in Uttar Pradesh, known for a Mauryan copper-plate inscription. The script itself was long forgotten. It was James Prinsep who first deciphered the Brahmi of Ashoka's edicts in 1837, restoring the king to history. Ashoka also built hospitals, roads and rest-houses. He sent missionaries to spread Buddhism abroad. The Lion Capital of his pillar at Sarnath is today India's national emblem.

In the edicts Ashoka calls himself Devanampiya (beloved of the gods), rarely his own name. One sculpture, though, names and shows him. At Kanganahalli in Karnataka, a relief sculpture carries the inscription "Ranyo Ashoka" (King Ashoka). It is the only known stone portrait of Ashoka. Do not confuse it with Sanchi, the famous stupa site in Madhya Pradesh, which has Ashokan links but no labelled portrait of the king.

After Ashoka's death around 232 BCE, the empire weakened quickly. His successors were feeble rulers. Provinces broke away, the treasury shrank and the huge army became hard to maintain. Within about fifty years the dynasty came to a violent end.

The end of Mauryan rule opened a chain of short-lived dynasties in Magadha. Each fell to a usurper from within or to a rising power from outside. The sequence of these transfers of power is frequently tested:

• Brihadratha: the last Mauryan ruler, assassinated around 185 BCE by his own commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Sunga, who founded the Sunga dynasty.
• Devabhuti: the last Sunga king, assassinated by his Brahmana minister Vasudeva Kanva, who usurped the throne and founded the Kanva dynasty.
• The last Kanva ruler: deposed by the Andhras, better known as the Satavahanas, a power that rose in the Deccan.

Remember the order of succession in Magadha: Mauryas, then Sungas, then Kanvas, then the Satavahanas (Andhras). In each case the founder of the new line was the killer or conqueror of the old.