Mauryan Empire

Abstract

The Maurya Dynasty (c.324–185 BCE), with no known royal pedigree, established a vast empire, the first of its kind in the ancient South Asian subcontinent. The empire was obviously carved out by a sustained policy of aggressive expansion during the reigns of its first three rulers, Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusara, and Asoka. Nearly pan-Indian in extent, the empire was administered by a large number of functionaries, known largely from the Greek accounts, the Arthasastra and inscriptions of Asoka. Recent historiography questions the traditional view of the Mauryan Empire as a unitary state, but presents a more nuanced view of the complexities of state and imperial formations in which the ideology of Dhamma (employed by Asoka) played a crucial role. The empire witnessed the first advent of written records and stone sculpting in Indian history. The empire collapsed in c.185 BCE.