The MAURYANS

Background 

IN 326 BC India was faced with a crisis. The imperial crown of Magadha and the neighbouring provinces was worn by a king who was detested by his own people. The land of the five rivers was overrun by the Mecedonians who resolved to incorporate it permanently into their growing empire. The indigenous population had, in the meantime, found a new leader who knew how to take advantage of the disunion and the thinned ranks of the foreign invaders. 

This new Indian leader was a young man called Chandragupta, who belonged to Mauryan tribe. He was helped by a Taxilian Brahmin Kautilya who was believed to have been insulted by the last Nanda king Dhana Nanda. He helped Chandragupta to defeat the Nandas and established the Mauryan Empire in around 323 BC or 321 BC. It marked a turning point in the history of India. For the first time now, we have at our disposal a number of written sources which throw better light on the history of this period.

The founder of the Mauryan dynasty, Chandragupta Maurya (321 BC – 297 BC) inherited a large army of the Nandas, which he used to conquer almost whole of north, the north-west, and a large part of the peninsular India. He acquired Avanti, and extended his rule up to Saurashtra. He was succeeded by his son Bindusara (297BC – 269BC) who promoted trade and cultural interaction with Greeks. But the most important Mauryan king was his son and successor Asoka.

Asoka the Great (269BC – 232BC) 

Asoka probably ascended the throne of the imperial Mauryas in 269BC by succeeding his father Bindusara and continued the aggressive policies of his forefathers. With the suppression of revolt in Taxila and acquisition of Kalinga, the Mauryan Empire now extended from Kabul in central Asia to Tamil land in the peninsula. 

But the Kalinga war in 261BC proved to be a turning point in his imperial career which produced results of far reaching consequences in the history of Indian and the whole of the eastern world. The sight of the misery and bloodshed in the Kalinga campaign hit him hard and awakened the feelings of repentance and sorrow. It made Asoka gave up the policy of conquering new land and intensely devoted him to the practice of Dhamma, the religion of humanism.

Dhamma 

Shortly after the Kalinga war, he embraced Buddhism and devoted all his time to preach and promote Dharma-Rajya (conquest by piety). He was influenced by the Buddhist teachings and embarked on a journey of 256 nights to meet his people and convey to them his Dhamma. Although Asoka himself was a Budhist but was tolerant to all other religions and treated all his subject as one, as sons of a father.

Historians believe that by the later half of Asoka’s rule, expansion of the empire was almost complete. It was an empire having different cultural, social and religious groups. In order to save the empire from political tensions arising out of these differences there were two ways. He could either increase the size of the armed forces to seek military solutions to these conflicts, which might have needed increased taxes and in turn could lead to more resistance. Another alternative was peaceful resolution of various conflicts by cementing and welding of divergent groups. He chose the second alternative in order to promote  harmony and peace in his kingdom. He spent the rest of his life in promoting and spreading the policy of Dhamma.

Decline of the Mauryas 

However, his successor could not keep the empire integrated and it completely disappeared after the last king Brihadaratha was assassinated by his military chief Pushyamitra Sunga around 187BC. Mauryas maintained a huge army and a vast bureaucracy and ruled over a large part of the Indian subcontinent. But soon after the death of Asoka the empire got divided into two parts. While the eastern part of the empire was controlled by king Dashratha, western part was ruled by Samprati.

One of the main reasons of this decline could be the succession of the weak rulers, who could not keep under check those, ministers and officials of far-flung regions, who had become oppressive and acted against the interest of the centre.

After the Kalinga war the army has been inactive during the remaining part of the reign of Asoka. Even the royal hunt was abolished. Also he called upon his descendants not to plan any aggressive warfare. This led to the later Mauryan kings losing touch with the military and ceased to command their affection. This created troubles for the later Mauryan kings to quell the innumerable rebellions throughout the kingdom leading to the ultimate disintegration.

Also some historians believe that Asoka under the influence of Buddhism altered the religious policy that antagonized the Brahmins, like abolishment of rituals and sacrifices led to their loss of power and prestige. This can be proved by the fact that the last of the Mauryan king was assassinated by his military chief who happened to be a Brahmin.

Polity and Administration 

The Mauryas established an elaborate system of administration in which the king played the chief role. He was assisted by a council of ministers, but the king took all the final decisions regarding revenue, law and order, war, or any other matter related to the general administration. The king’s council of minister was called ‘mantriparishad’ and it had ‘amatyas, mahamatras, and adhyakshyas or superintendents who were responsible for running various economic departments. Besides, the Mauryas also employed a large number of spies.

The Mauryans maintained a huge army of 60000 infantry, 30000 cavalry, 9000 elephants, 8000 chariots. As far as judicial administration was considered the king was the supreme authority, but several civil and criminal courts also functioned at the local level right from the villages to the provinces. It seems most of the cases were disposed off at the village level by village elders.

Apart from Magadha with its capital at Patliputra (modern Patna), the Mauryan empire was divided into four other provinces with capitals at Taxila (north-west), Suvarnagiri (south India), Tosali (east India), and Ujjain (west India). These were put under the control of the royal princes called Kumaras.

Economy 

The mainstay of the economy was agriculture. The Mauryan state funded new agricultural settlements to bring virgin land under cultivation. The new lands were king’s property and were used to pay the army and bureaucracy. Beside state farms there were individual farms that paid a variety of taxes to the state. The land tax called ‘Bali’ was the main item of revenue, levied at the rate of one-sixth of the produce. Peasants had to pay many other taxes like pindakara, hiranya, bhaga, bhoga, etc.

Trade and urban economy received great impetus under the Mauryans and influenced almost all parts of the empire. The main centers of textile manufacturing were Varanasi, Mathura, Bengal, Gandhara and Ujjain. Mining and metallurgy was another important economic activity. Trade was conducted through land and river routes. Craft activities were also a major source of revenue to the state. Traders and artisans had to pay tax in cash or kind and they had guilds.

Mauryans had complete mono poly over iron production and supplied to army, agriculture and industry.

Society 

Mauryan society was based on the varna system. The Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas dominated the social hierarchy. However, as a result of greater trade and commerce, there was improvement in the social status of the Vaisyas or the trading communities. Now sudras could b e involved in the agricultural and artisanal activities. But again at the same time there was increase in the number of untouchables.

 Architectures

The Mauryan period provides the earliest examples of ancient Indian art and architecture. Asokan pillars at Rampurva, Lauriya, Nandangarh and Sarnath present excellent examples of stone sculptures which developed in this period. All these pillars are circular and monolithic, and are made of sandstone found at Chunar near Mirzapur in UP.