India - Mauryan Empire

India As a series of Article

 Article II – Mauryan Empire                                                 

Last article summarised the great intellectual millennium that started with the arrival of Aryans and Sanskrit. However, this article focussed on the first great empire of India and making of India as we know it today.

In 322 BC, Chandragupta Maurya, aged 20, forced the current Nanda ruler, Dhana Nanda to resign and took over the control of Nanda dynasty and established the Mauryan dynasty. The Victory of Chandragupta mainly belongs to Chanakya, the clever advisor he had. Dhana Nanda was not popular among the peasant, he was despot and corrupt and public loathe him. His problems were compounded when foreign invasion by Alexander the Great happened. Chanakya took advantage of the situation and sided with Alexander and won some parts of Sind. However, once Alexander returned, he aroused nationalistic feelings and commanded an army of petty commanders and kings and defeated Sicialus, the Governor of Alexander in India. Chanakya then created the situation of civil war in the country and to bring Nanda forces outside Patliputra, capital city of Nanda, and attacked city to force Chana Nanda to give control of dynasty to Chandragupta. Chandragupta took the empire to the south and won entire Indian subcontinent, except Kalinga (Orissa) and Tamil. However, he never had any good control over southern kings, it was his grandson, Asoka the Great, who stabilised Southern India and won Kalinga into the Mauryan Dynasty.

The city of Patliputra was nicely located at the juncture of three rivers, which make the city unapproachable from three sides and pretty safe. However, its natural safety comes at a cost, the city was frequently flooded. The houses were mainly build of woods so as to minimize the rework and economic damage to the city. The city was close to Nalanda, which served as the intellectual powerhouse for a very long time. Currently the city is serving as capital of Bihar, and known as Patna.

Chanakya, the man behind the formation of the Mauryan dynasty, published Arthashashtra, the moral code for rulers and it also served as the great insight of life of ordinary people. Above all, it shows the remarkable understanding of the economic structure of the time by Chanakya and the rules which he proclaimed during 4^th century BC were even helpful today. The book told us that Indian villages were generally economically independent and generally ruled by an elected ruler, called as mukhiya. The central government generally did not interfere with autonomy of villages. The mauryans were the first one to start coins with king’s face, which they probably learned from Greeks. However, Greeks bring one more cultural additions to India, they brought in deity worship. It was assumed that Hindu religion initially did not worship deities and it was Greeks who taught them so. Whatever it may be but it has immense impact on our lives, and established itself as a form primary worship in the Hinduism.

Asoka the Great, grandson of Chandragupta, was the indisputable the greatest monarch of India. He was ardently loved by people, and first one to create Edicts of Asoka as the medium to reach to people and give them moral law on which his empire were based. At his peak, he ruled over 5 million squared kilometres territory, with 50-60 million people. Truly he was the ruler of the greatest empire of the time. The trait which made him great was his ability to rule by peace not by fear. He adopted Buddha religion and helped it to spread central and south Asia. Mauryans were most distinct rulers as they were having both Buddha monks and Brahmins in their court, which pronounce their tolerance to religions and their will to create secular India. As Buddha religion spread to other parts of the continent, it bring fame and glory to its mother land and India was seen as divine land.

A few generations after Asoka, Mauryan Empire crumbled and gave its way to Gupt dynasty. Gupt were far more artistic. Great poets were borne, including Kalidas, at the time which is also known as golden age of Indian arts and culture.