Maurya Empire: A Visual History

The Maurya Empire was founded around 322 BC by Chandragupta Maurya, who overthrew the Nanda dynasty of Magadha and, advised by Kautilya, expelled the Greek successors of Alexander from the north-west. His grandson Ashoka conquered Kalinga around 261 BC, was horrified by the slaughter, embraced Buddhism and ruled the largest empire ever seen in India, publishing his moral edicts on rocks and pillars from Afghanistan to Karnataka. The empire declined after his death and was ended by a military coup in 185 BC.

When it existed: the era ribbon

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Mauryan territory

Timeline of the Maurya Empire

1. 322 BC
   Chandragupta takes Magadha
2. 305 BC
   Treaty with SeleucusThe north-west ceded for 500 elephants.
3. 298 BC
   Bindusara succeeds
4. 268 BC
   Ashoka's accession
5. 261 BC
   Kalinga War
6. 250 BC
   Third Buddhist Council; missions sent abroad
7. 232 BC
   Ashoka dies
8. 185 BC
   Brihadratha assassinatedThe Shunga dynasty.

Chandragupta and Kautilya

Chandragupta, of obscure origin, seized Magadha's throne around 322 BC with the guidance of the Brahmin Kautilya (Chanakya), reputed author of the Arthashastra, a ruthless manual of statecraft. He drove the Macedonian garrisons from the Punjab and in about 305 BC forced Seleucus to cede the lands west of the Indus in exchange for 500 elephants. Greek ambassador Megasthenes described the splendour of Pataliputra. Chandragupta reportedly abdicated, became a Jain monk and fasted to death.

Ashoka

Bindusara extended the empire south. Ashoka (about 268-232 BC) won a bloody succession and around 261 BC conquered Kalinga (Odisha), where his edict says 100,000 were killed and 150,000 deported. Remorse turned him to Buddhism and dhamma, a policy of moral rule, religious tolerance, animal welfare and public works, proclaimed in edicts carved across the subcontinent in Prakrit, Greek and Aramaic. He sent Buddhist missions to Sri Lanka, the Hellenistic kings and Southeast Asia.

Decline

Ashoka's successors were weak and the empire's provinces slipped away; the north-west was invaded by the Bactrian Greeks. Around 185 BC the last emperor Brihadratha was killed by his general Pushyamitra Shunga while reviewing troops. The Mauryan model of a unified India lingered as an ideal for two millennia.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Magadha (600 BC to 320 BC)
• Seleucid Empire (312 BC to 63 BC)
• Macedonian Empire (359 BC to 323 BC)
• Eastern Maurya kingdom (232 BC to 185 BC)
• Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (256 BC to 125 BC)
• Satavahana dynasty (100 BC to 225)
• Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC to 10)

Wars of the same era and region

• Kalinga War (262 BC to 261 BC)
• Wars of Alexander the Great (335 BC to 323 BC)

8 surprising things about the Maurya Empire

1. The lion capital of Ashoka's pillar at Sarnath is India's national emblem, and the wheel on the Indian flag is his dharma chakra.
2. Ashoka's edicts were forgotten and undeciphered until James Prinsep read the Brahmi script in 1837.
3. Some edicts in Afghanistan are written in Greek and Aramaic for the local population.
4. Megasthenes claimed Pataliputra was defended by 570 towers and 64 gates and had a wooden palisade nearly 15 km long.
5. The Arthashastra discusses spies, poisons and assassination alongside taxation and irrigation.
6. Ashoka's son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta traditionally brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka.
7. H. G. Wells wrote that among the tens of thousands of monarchs in history, the name of Ashoka 'shines almost alone, a star'.
8. The empire had a department for the care of animals, and Ashoka banned the royal hunt.

Sources

• Mauryan empire Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Maurya Empire Wikipedia
• Mauryan Empire World History Encyclopedia
• Romila Thapar, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas (1961) Oxford University Press

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