MAURYAN EMPIRE

 

MAURYAN EMPIRE

 

THE THREE MAIN RULERS OF THE MAURYAN EMPIRE

•CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA

•BINDUSAR

•ASHOKA

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◦       He was the founder of the Mauryan Empire

◦       His Empire was extended from Bengal in the east to Afghanistan and Baluchistan in the west to the Himalayas in Kashmir in the north and the Deccan Plateau in the south.

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 his rise to power came with the help of his most trusted Minister and Chief advisor whose name was Chanakya also known as Kautilya.

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Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the numbers and established tomorrow in Empire in  321BCE.

◦        is composed of Pataliputra established a strong base for the Maurya Empire.

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Chanakya

 

◦       He was previously a Minister of the Last Nanda rulers.

◦       He was a great political thinker and an economist. 

◦       All political theories have been compiled

           in his book -  Arthashastra.

 

 

Bindusara

◦       He was Chandragupta son  who succeeded his Throne.

◦        The Maurya Empire during Bindusara's reign extended all the way to Mysore in the south. Bindusara had to face numerous revolts from different parts of his kingdoms for example the very famous  was the Taxila revolt.

◦       Chanakya continued to serve as a prime minister during his reigning period.

◦       He was also the tolerant of all religion and many Saints visited his Empire during this time.

 

 

Ashoka and Kalinga War

 

◦       He was  the one of the greatest ruler of Maurya Empire. he has been called with the name Ashoka The Great. at the time of his father's ruling period he served as the governor of Taxila and Ujjain and later he became the emperor.

◦       He was a very ambitious ruler and used military strength in order to expand his Empire he launched many brutal was which lasted for around 80 years till the Kalinga War  as that was the turning point of his life.

◦        Kalinga was a Republic state in present day Odisha. Bindusara had initially made attend to conquer Kalinga but had not been successful. Ashoka decided to Annex Kalinga. The war of Kalinga turned out to be in famous battle. people of Kalinga and more than 10000 soldiers of Ashoka died in this war as he felt responsible for the loss of so many lives and decided to  renounce war.  He devoted the rest of his life to the non violence and converted to Buddhism. Ashoka ruled for 40 years after the battle of Kalinga in peace harmony and prosperity.

 

Ashoka’s Dhamma

◦       Dhamma is the Prakrit  form of word dharma which means the ‘duty’. The principles of the dhamma were based on a code of conduct.  it was based on non violence tolerance parents respect for brahmins and all religious teachers humane treatment and generously towards all.

◦       There was special officers who looked after the affairs of Dhamma and it was their duty to spread the message of Dhamma. They were known as the Dharmamahamatras. Pillar in Sarnath has four lions carved at the top of this pillar has came to be known as the most famous of Ashoka's pillars. This structure is now the National Emblem of India.

 Ashoka did a lot of things for the Welfare of his people some are as below:

•       He built roads, rest houses and Universities

•         he made hospitals for animals and people

•        he promoted vegetarianism and prohibited unnecessary slaughter of animals encourage and control international trade 

•       boosted agriculture 

•       offered loan to poor farmers

 

Mauryan Administration

◦       The modern Empire was divided into four provinces each under a prince or a Kumar the provinces were divided into districts and these districts were further divided into villages at the provincial level .The Prince was assisted by Minister some of the functions undertaken at the district level are-

◦        the review of the land, maintenance of law and order and collection of taxes.

◦       At the village level the head men look after the land records and assisted the district official pertaining to matters of the village

◦       Art and architecture of the best contribution of art and architecture was made during   this time. some examples are this to pass the pillar edits of Ashoka's and viharas.

◦        The Ashokan pillar at the Sarnath has a Lion Capital and the four line position back to back supporting the Dharma known as Ashok Chakra. This has been chosen as the national emblem of India and is also found in our national flag.

 

 

 Decline of the Mauryan  Empire

◦       There were several causes that led to the decline of the Mauryan Empire.

◦       Successive years of age were not powerful.

◦        The Empire was too vast.

◦        The administrative machinery was highly centralized and was difficult to maintain.

◦        After the death of Ashoka many distant provinces broke away.

◦        There were a lot of foreign invasions.

◦       The main is the internal Revolt led by the Chief of the Mauryan army.