Ancient Indian History

In 322 BCE Chandragupta Maurya, guided by his guru Kautilya (Chanakya) — author of the Arthashastra on statecraft — overthrew Dhana Nanda and founded the Mauryan empire with its capital at Pataliputra. At his court lived the Greek ambassador Megasthenes, whose book Indica (surviving in fragments) describes Pataliputra, the army and the absence of slavery in the Greek sense. In 305 BCE Chandragupta faced Seleucus Nicator, Alexander's general; the treaty gave Seleucus 500 war elephants while Chandragupta received the eastern satrapies (Kabul–Kandahar–Herat–Makran belt) and a marriage alliance. Bindusara ('slayer of foes', Amitraghata) kept the Greek envoy Deimachus at court. Ashoka (c. 268–232 BCE) fought the Kalinga war in 261 BCE (his 8th regnal year); the horror of it turned him to Dhamma — not a new religion, but a code of ethics: tolerance, ahimsa, kindness to servants and animals, respect for all sects, welfare works (roads, wells, rest houses).

Ashoka's messages are carved on rocks and polished pillars in Prakrit, mostly in the Brahmi script (Kharosthi in the north-west; a Greek–Aramaic bilingual at Kandahar). They were deciphered by James Prinsep in 1837. Key items:

• Major Rock Edict XIII — the Kalinga war and the king's remorse; names five Greek kings as neighbours in Dhamma.
• Major Rock Edict XII — tolerance and respect for all sects.
• Bhabru (Bairat) edict — the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.
• Rummindei pillar — visit to Lumbini (the Buddha's birthplace); village tax reduced to one-eighth.
• Schism edicts — unity of the Sangha.
• Dhamma Mahamatras — special officers appointed (RE V) to spread Dhamma.

The king stood at the top, advised by the mantriparishad (council of ministers). Provinces (Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali, Suvarnagiri, Pataliputra) were headed by princes (Kumara/Aryaputra). Revenue officers: Samaharta (collection), Sannidhata (treasurer–storekeeper), yuktas as accountants; district level Pradeshika, Rajuka (survey) and Sthanika; the village head was the gramika. A spy network of gudhapurusha ran in two wings — sanstha (stationary) and sanchara (wandering). Megasthenes counted an army of about 6 lakh infantry, 30,000 cavalry and 9,000 elephants. The state monopolised mines, salt and liquor and ran irrigation and roads.

Court art is monolithic and polished: pillars of Chunar sandstone with animal capitals — the Sarnath Lion Capital (four lions back to back, wheel on the abacus) became India's National Emblem on 26 January 1950. Stupa cores at Sanchi and the Dharmarajika date to Ashoka; the Barabar (and Nagarjuni) hill caves were gifted to the Ajivika sect — India's earliest rock-cut caves (Lomas Rishi's chaitya-arch facade). Folk art produced the Yaksha–Yakshini statues (e.g. the Didarganj Yakshini with a fly-whisk).

Later rulers (Dasharatha onwards) were weak. The empire broke under money trouble, over-centralisation, Greek pressure on the north-west and religious reaction. The last Mauryan king, Brihadratha, was killed by his commander Pushyamitra Sunga in 185 BCE, who founded the Sunga dynasty.