View source for Maurya Empire

{{Short description|Ancient Indian empire (ca.321–185 BCE)}}
{{distinguish|Mori Kingdom}}
{{pp-dispute|small=yes}}
{{protection padlock|small=yes}}
{{for-multi|the Indian surname|Maurya (surname)|the Indian 2004 film|Maurya (film)|other uses|Moriya (disambiguation)}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}}
{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = Maurya Empire
| common_name            = Mauryan Empire
| native_name            = 
| era                    = [[Iron Age]]
| government_type        = [[Monarchy]]
| event_start            = [[Nanda-Mauryan War]]
| event1                 = [[Kalinga War]]
| date_event1            = 261 BCE
| year_start             = ca. 320&nbsp;BCE&nbsp;
| status                 = [[Empire]]
| year_end               = &nbsp;185&nbsp;BCE
| event_end              = Assassination of Brihadratha by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]]
| p1                     = Nanda Empire
| p2                     = Arachosia
| p3                     = Paropamisadae
| p4                     = Parada kingdom
| p5                     = Aparanta
| p6                     = Saurashtra (region)
| p7                     = Andhras
| s1                     = Shunga Empire
| p14                    = Kalinga (historical region)
| flag_s1                = 
| s2                     = Indo-Greek Kingdom
| flag_s2                = 
| s3                     = Mitra dynasty (Kosambi)
| flag_s3                = 
| s4                     = Yaudheyas
| flag_s4                = 
| s5                     = Samatata
| flag_s5                = 
| s6                     = Satavahana dynasty
| s7                     = Mahameghavahana dynasty
| s10                    = 
| flag_s6                = 
| today                  = [[South Asia]]
| image_map              = <!-- Before changing the maps, please discuss at talk -->Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE network model v01.png
| image_map_caption      = Maurya Empire, conceptualised as a network of core regions connected by networks of communication and trade, with large areas with peripheral or no Maurya control.{{efn-la|name="map_network_model"}}
| image_map2             = <!-- Before changing the maps, please discuss at talk -->Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE 2.png
| image_map2_caption     = Traditional depiction of the Maurya Empire under Ashoka as a solid mass of Maurya-controlled territory.{{efn-la|name="map_solid_mass"}}{{efn-la|name="ceded_territory"}}
| capital                = [[Pataliputra]]<br />(near present-day [[Patna]])
| common_languages       = [[Sanskrit]] (literary and academic),
[[Magadhi Prakrit]] (vernacular)
| religion               = {{plainlist|
*[[Brahmanism]]{{sfn|Nath Sen|1999|p= 164, (215) 217}}{{efn-la|name="Brahmanism"}}
*[[Jainism]]{{sfn|Smith|1981|p=99}}{{sfn|Dalrymple|2009}}{{sfn|Keay|1981|p=85-86}}{{efn-la|name="Jainism"}}
*[[Buddhism]]{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}{{sfn|Long|2020|p=255}}{{efn-la|name="Buddhism"}}
*[[Ājīvika|Ajivikism]]{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}{{sfn|Long|2020|p=255}}{{efn-la|name="Ajivikism"}} 
*[[Greek polytheism]]<br />[[Zoroastrianism]]{{sfn|Boyce|Grenet|1991|p=149}}}}
| demonym                = Indian
| GDP_PPP                = 
| currency               = [[Karshapana]]
| title_leader           = [[List of Maurya Emperors|Emperor]]
| leader1                = [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]] {{small|(first)}}
| year_leader1           = ca. 321–298&nbsp;BCE
| leader2                = [[Bindusara]] {{small|(second)}}
| year_leader2           = 298–272&nbsp;BCE
| leader3                = [[Ashoka]] {{small|(third)}}
| year_leader3           = 268–232&nbsp;BCE
| leader4                = [[Dasharatha Maurya|Dasharatha]] {{small|(fourth)}}
| year_leader4           = 232–224&nbsp;BCE
| leader5                = [[Samprati]] {{small|(fifth)}}
| year_leader5           = 224–215&nbsp;BCE
| leader6                = [[Shalishuka]] {{small|(sixth)}}
| year_leader6           = 215–202&nbsp;BCE
| leader7                = [[Devavarman (Maurya)|Devavarman]] {{small|(seventh)}}
| year_leader7           = 202–195&nbsp;BCE
| leader8                = [[Shatadhanvan]] {{small|(eighth)}}
| year_leader8           = 195–187&nbsp;BCE
| leader9                = [[Brihadratha Maurya|Brihadratha]] {{small|(ninth & last)}}
| year_leader9           = 187–185&nbsp;BCE
| stat_year1             = 261 BCE
| stat_area1             = 3400000
| ref_area1              = {{sfn|Taagepera|1979|p=132}}{{break}}(low-end estimate of peak area)
| stat_year2             = 250 BCE
| stat_area2             = 5000000
| ref_area2              = <ref name="Turchin223">{{cite journal|last2=Adams|first2=Jonathan M.|last3=Hall|first3=Thomas D|date=December 2006|title=East-West Orientation of Historical Empires|url=http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/369/381|journal=Journal of World-Systems Research|volume=12|issue=2|page=223|issn=1076-156X|last1=Turchin|first1=Peter|access-date=16 September 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190520161830/http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/369/381|archive-date=20 May 2019}}</ref>{{break}}(high-end estimate of peak area)
| stat_year3             = 3rd century BC
| stat_pop3              = 15,000,000&ndash;30,000,000<ref name=Dyson2018-lead-maurya-4/>
}}
<!-- Doublure; also all mentioned in infobox above {{Maurya}} -->

{{Part of History of India|File:Ringstone_MET_DT9196.jpg}}
The '''Maurya Empire''' was a geographically extensive [[Iron Age]] historical power in [[South Asia]] with its power base in [[Magadha]]. Founded by [[Chandragupta Maurya]] around c. 320 BCE,{{efn-la|name="dating"}} it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE.{{efn-la|name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya"}} The primary sources for the written records of the Mauryan times are partial records of the lost history of [[Megasthenes]] in Roman texts of several centuries later;<ref name=coningham-young-p451-megasthenes/> and the [[Edicts of Ashoka]].<ref name=michon-2015/> Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of [[Northern Black Polished Ware]] (NBPW).

Through military conquests and diplomatic treaties, [[Chandragupta Maurya]] defeated the [[Nanda dynasty]] and extended his [[suzerainty]] as far westward as Afghanistan below the [[Hindu Kush]] and as far south as the northern [[Deccan]];{{efn-la|name="territorial_extent"}} however, beyond the core Magadha area, the prevailing levels of technology and infrastructure limited how deeply his rule could penetrate society.{{efn-la|name="limited_control"}} During the rule of Chandragupta's grandson, [[Ashoka]] (ca. 268–232 BCE), the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the [[Indian Subcontinent|subcontinent]] excepting the deep south.{{efn-la|name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya"}} The Mauryan capital (what is today [[Patna]]) was located in Magadha; the other core regions were [[Taxila]] in the northwest; [[Ujjain]] in the [[Malwa Plateau]]; [[Kalinga (region)|Kalinga]] on the [[Bay of Bengal]] coast; and the [[precious metal]]-rich lower [[Deccan Plateau]].{{efn-la|name="core_regions"}} Outside the core regions, the empire's geographical extent was dependent on the loyalty of military commanders who controlled the armed cities scattered within it.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|pp=xii, 448}}{{sfn|Thapar|1990|p=384}}{{efn-la|name="map_network_model"}}

The Mauryan economy was helped by the earlier rise of [[Buddhism]] and [[Jainism]]&mdash;creeds that promoted nonviolence, proscribed ostentation, or superfluous sacrifices and rituals, and reduced the costs of economic transactions; by coinage that increased economic accommodation in the region; and by the use of writing, which might have boosted more intricate business dealings. Despite profitable settled agriculture in the fertile eastern Gangetic plain, these factors helped maritime and river-borne trade, which were essential for acquiring [[consumption goods|goods for consumption]] as well as metals of high economic value.{{efn-la|name="Roy_2012a_p28_changes"}} To promote movement and trade, the Maurya dynasty built roads, most prominently a chiefly winter-time road&mdash;the Uttarapath&mdash;which connected eastern Afghanistan to their capital [[Patliputra|Pataliputra]] during the time of year when the water levels in the intersecting rivers were low and they could be easily [[ford (crossing)|forded]].{{efn-la|name="Iori_2023_maintenance"}} Other roads connected the Ganges basin to Arabian Sea coast in the west, and [[precious metal]]-rich mines in the south.<ref name="Stein-Arnold-2013-lead-3">{{harvtxt|Stein|Arnold|2010|p=73}}: "Knitting these regions together were important trade routes. The northern road (uttarapatha) extended from Bengal to Taxila; another branched from the Ganges near the juncture with the Yamuna, joined the Narmada basin and continued to the Arabian seaport of Bharukaccha (Broach). Yet another branched southward (dakshinapatha) from Ujjain to the regional capital of Suvarnagiri, a centre for the production of gold and iron"</ref>

The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-4">{{harvnb|Dyson|2018|p=24}} Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 BCE) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."</ref> The empire's period of dominion was marked by exceptional creativity in art, architecture, inscriptions and produced texts,<ref name="Ludden2013-lead-4">{{harvtxt|Ludden|2013|pp=28–29}}: "A creative explosion in all the arts was a most remarkable feature of this ancient transformation, a permanent cultural legacy. Mauryan territory was created in its day by awesome armies and dreadful war, but future generations would cherish its beautiful pillars, inscriptions, coins, sculptures, buildings, ceremonies, and texts, particularly later Buddhist writers."</ref> but also by the consolidation of [[Caste in India|caste]] in the [[Gangetic plain]], and the declining rights of women in the mainstream [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan speaking]] regions of India.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-3">{{harvnb|Dyson|2018|p=19}} Quote: "Accordingly, as tribal societies were encountered by the expanding Indo-Aryan societies, so the evolving caste system provided a framework within which—invariably at a low level—tribal people could be placed. For example, by the time of the Mauryan Empire (c.320–230 bce) the caste system was quite well established and the Aranyachará (i.e. forest people) were grouped with the most despised castes. ... The evolution of Indo-Aryan society in the centuries before c.200 bce not only saw increased segregation with respect to caste, it also seems to have seen increased differentiation with respect to gender. ... Therefore, by the time of the Mauryan Empire the position of women in mainstream Indo-Aryan society seems to have deteriorated. Customs such as child marriage and dowry were becoming entrenched; and a young woman's purpose in life was to provide sons for the male lineage into which she married. To quote the Arthashāstra: 'wives are there for having sons'. Practices such as female infanticide and the neglect of young girls were possibly also developing at this time, especially among higher caste people. Further, due to the increasingly hierarchical nature of the society, marriage was possibly becoming an even more crucial institution for childbearing and the formalization of relationships between groups. In turn, this may have contributed to the growth of increasingly instrumental attitudes towards women and girls (who moved home at marriage). It is important to note that, in all likelihood, these developments did not affect people living in large parts of the subcontinent—such as those in the south, and tribal communities inhabiting the forested hill and plateau areas of central and eastern India. That said, these deleterious features have continued to blight Indo-Aryan speaking areas of the subcontinent until the present day."</ref> After the [[Kalinga War]] in which Ashoka's troops visited much violence on the region, he embraced [[Buddhism]] and promoted its tenets in edicts scattered around South Asia, most commonly in clusters along the well-traveled road networks.<ref name="Stein-Arnold-2013-lead-4">{{harvtxt|Stein|Arnold|2010|p=73}}: "In the newer view, Ashoka's edicts trace out this spacious commercial domain as a gigantic zone of Ashoka's moral authority. Ashoka had his Buddhist-inspired moralizing edicts inscribed on distinctive pillars or upon prominent rocks where people passed or congregated. They traced a set of trade routes along which commodities passed to and from the Mauryan heartland in the eastern Gangetic plain. ... Along these same roads went Ashoka. Having become a lay Buddhist, he embarked on a year-long pilgrimage to all the sacred sites of his new faith;</ref>{{efn-la|name="map_network_model"}} He sponsored Buddhist missionaries to [[Anuradhapura Kingdom|Sri Lanka]], northwest India, and Central Asia,{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=67}} which played a salient role in Buddhism becoming a world religion, and himself a figure of world history.<ref name=imperial-gazetteer-india-v2-lead-1>{{cite book|title=The Imperial Gazetteer of India: The Indian Empire, Volume 2, Historical|publisher=Oxford at the Clarendon Press|year = 1908|page=286|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CLRZSmrH6NMC&pg=PA285}} "By his efforts Buddhism, which had hitherto been merely local sects in the valley of the Ganges, was transformed into one of the great religions of the world. ... This is Asoka's claim to be remembered; this is which makes his reign an epoch, not only in the history of India, but in that of the world."</ref> As Ashoka's edicts forbade both the killing of wild animals and the destruction of forests, he is seen by some modern environmental historians as an early embodiment of that ethos.<ref name=elverskog-2020-lead-1>{{cite book|last=Elverskog|first=Johan|title=The Buddha's Footprint: An Environmental History of Asia|location=Philadelphia|publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-5183-8|year=2020|page=56|quote=The imperial edicts of Asoka echo this commodity view of trees.  In Pillar Edict V, Asoka decreed that "forests must not be burned without reason." The Buddhist community took this mandate further by declaring that in order to protect forests from such conflagrations monks were allowed to set counterfires}}</ref><ref name=fisher-2018-lead-3>{{harvtxt|Fisher|2018|p=72}}: "Following the Buddha's message, he banned Brahminic Vedic animal sacrifices in his capital (although he evidently lacked the administrative control to stop them outside of it). Overall, Ashoka's edicts proclaim his compassion for animals, perhaps motivated by an environmental ethic (in addition to his revenue or administrative goals). Consequently, today many environmentalists evoke Ashoka as an ancient Indian exemplar."</ref> In July 1947, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], the interim prime minister of India, proposed in the [[Constituent Assembly of India]] that [[Lion Capital of Ashoka]] at [[Sarnath]] be the [[State Emblem of India]], and the 24-pointed [[Buddhist]] [[Wheel of Dharma]] on the capital's drum-shaped [[abacus (architecture)|abacus]] the central feature of India's national flag. The proposal was accepted in December 1947.<ref name=Vajpeyi-2012>{{cite book|last=Vajpeyi|first=Ananya|title=Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India|year=2012 |location=Cambridge MA and London|publisher=Harvard University Press|pages=188&ndash;189|isbn= 978-0-674-04895-9}}</ref>

== Etymology ==
{{See also|Jambudvīpa}}

The domains of [[Ashoka]] are addressed as 𑀚𑀁𑀩𑀼𑀤𑀻𑀧 ''Jaṃbudīpa'' in [[Edicts of Ashoka|his edicts]]. This term, meaning "island/continent of [[Syzygium cumini|jambu]]", is the common name for the entire [[Indian subcontinent]] in ancient Indian sources. Neighbouring cultures usually addressed this land by a variety of [[exonyms]], such as the Greek {{Lang|grc|Ἰνδῐ́ᾱ}} ({{transliteration|grc|Indíā}}, derived from the [[Indus River]]), which gave most [[European languages]] the common name for the subcontinent, including [[English language|English]]. Both of these terms are, however, more geographical than political, and in common parlance could include areas outside of the Mauryan control.

The name "Maurya" does not occur in any of the Edicts of Ashoka, or the contemporary Greek accounts such as [[Megasthenes]]'s ''[[Indica (Megasthenes)|Indica]]'', but it is attested by the following sources:{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}

*The [[Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman]] (c. 150 CE) prefixes "Maurya" to the names Chandragupta and Ashoka.{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
* The [[Puranas]] (c. 4th century CE or earlier) use Maurya as a dynastic appellation.{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
* The Buddhist texts state that Chandragupta belonged to the "[[Moriya (tribe)|Moriya]]" clan of the Shakyas, the tribe to which [[Gautama Buddha]] belonged.{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
* The Jain texts state that Chandragupta was the son of an imperial superintendent of peacocks (''mayura-poshaka'').{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=14}}
*[[Sangam literature|Tamil Sangam literature]] also designate them as '{{transliteration|ta|moriyar}}' and mention them after the [[Nanda Empire|Nandas]]<ref name="Singh 2008">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ&q=mokur+sangam+poem&pg=PA385|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century|last=Singh|first=Upinder|date=2008|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=9788131716779|language=en}}</ref>
*[[Kuntala country|Kuntala]] inscription (from the town of Bandanikke, [[Mysore district|North Mysore]]) of 12th century AD chronologically mention Maurya as one of the dynasties which ruled the region.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107941|title=Annual Report Of Mysore 1886 To 1903|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

According to some scholars, Kharavela's [[Hathigumpha inscription]] (2nd-1st century BCE) mentions era of Maurya Empire as Muriya Kala (Mauryan era),<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/epigrahiaindicav014769mbp|title=Epigraphia Indica Vol.20|date=1920|publisher=Archaeological Survey of India|page=[https://archive.org/details/epigrahiaindicav014769mbp/page/n106 80]|language=en}}</ref> but this reading is disputed: other scholars—such as epigraphist [[D. C. Sircar]]—read the phrase as mukhiya-kala ("the principal art").<ref>{{cite book | chapter=The Satavahanas and the Chedis | author = [[D. C. Sircar]] | year = 1968 | title =The Age of Imperial Unity | editor = [[R. C. Majumdar]] | publisher = Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan | page = 215 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=J1SgAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>

According to the Buddhist tradition, the ancestors of the Maurya kings had settled in a region where peacocks (''mora'' in [[Pali language|Pali]]) were abundant. Therefore, they came to be known as "Moriyas", literally meaning, "belonging to the place of peacocks". According to another Buddhist account, these ancestors built a city called Moriya-nagara ("Peacock-city"), which was so called, because it was built with the "bricks coloured like peacocks' necks".{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=14}}

The dynasty's connection to the peacocks, as mentioned in the Buddhist and Jain traditions, seems to be corroborated by archaeological evidence. For example, peacock figures are found on the [[Lauria Nandangarh#Pillar of Ashoka|Ashoka pillar at Nandangarh]] and several sculptures on the Great Stupa of [[Sanchi]]. Based on this evidence, modern scholars theorise that the peacock may have been the dynasty's emblem.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=15}}

Some later authors, such as [[Dhundhiraja of Svamimalai|Dhundhi-raja]] (an 18th-century commentator on the ''[[Mudrarakshasa]]'' and an annotator of the ''[[Vishnu Purana]]''), state that the word "Maurya" is derived from Mura and the mother of the first Maurya emperor. However, the Puranas themselves make no mention of Mura and do not talk of any relation between the Nanda and the Maurya dynasties.{{sfn|H. C. Raychaudhuri|1988|p=140}} Dhundiraja's derivation of the word seems to be his own invention: according to the Sanskrit rules, the derivative of the feminine name Mura ([[IAST]]: Murā) would be "Maureya"; the term "Maurya" can only be derived from the masculine "Mura".{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=8}}

==History==

===Sources===
The primary sources for the written records of the Mauryan times are partial records of the lost history of [[Megasthenes]] in Roman texts of several centuries later;<ref name=coningham-young-p451-megasthenes>{{harvnb|Coningham|Young|2015|p=451}}: "The records and descriptions of Megasthenes may be subject to similar questioning and may be dismissed as primary sources. Indeed, they are partial records which have survived in a fragmentary form through the Roman compilations many centuries later, such as that of Arrian in the third century CE (Kalota 1978)."</ref> and the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], which were first read in the modern era by [[James Prinsep]] after he had deciphered the [[Brahmi script|Brahmi]] and [[Kharoshthi script|Kharoshthi]] scripts in 1838.<ref name=michon-2015>{{cite book|last=Michon|first=Daniel|title=Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India|series=Archaeology and Religion in South Asia series|location=London, New York, and New Delhi|publisher=Routledge|year=2015|isbn=978-1-138-82252-8|page=33|quote=Prinsep was also responsible for deciphering two ancient Indian scripts, Brahmı and Kharoshthı,  the latter being essential in the unravelling of Punjab’s political history in the early historic period. He also was the first to read, with a proper understanding of their import, the Asokan inscriptions of the 3rd century BCE, which opened the door to further understanding of the Mauryan Empire in the northwest.}}</ref> The ''Arthashastra'', a work first discovered in the early 20th century, and previously attributed to [[Chanakya|Kautilya]], but now thought to be composed by multiple authors in the first centuries of the [[common era]], has lost its value as a source for Mauryan times, as it describes post-Mauryan customs.{{efn-la|name="arthasastra_dating-composite_authorship"}}

===Chandragupta Maurya===
{{Main|Chandragupta Maurya|Magadha}}

The origins of the Maurya Empire are shrouded in legend. Greek sources refer to confrontations between the Greeks and Chandragupta Maurya, but are almost silent on his conquest of the Nanda Empire. Indian sources, on the other hand, only narrate the conquest of the Nanda Empire, and provide no info on what happened at the Greek frontier.

A number of Indian accounts, such as the Gupta-era drama ''[[Mudrarakshasa]]''{{efn-la|''Signet ring of Rakshasa'' – ''Rakshasa'' was the prime minister of Magadha}} by [[Vishakhadatta]], describe his royal ancestry and even link him with the Nanda family. A kshatriya clan known as the Mauryas are referred to in the earliest [[Buddhist texts]], [[Mahāparinibbāna Sutta]]. However, any conclusions are hard to make without further historical evidence.

Chandragupta first emerges in Greek accounts as "Sandrokottos". Plutarch states that Chandragupta, as a young man, saw Alexander.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mookerji |first1=Radhakumud |author-link1=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |date=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120804050 |pages=16–17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA16 |language=en}}</ref>{{efn-la|"Androcottus, when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself, and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly missed making himself master of the country, since its king was hated and despised on account of his baseness and low birth."<ref>[[Plutarch]]  62-3 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243&layout=&loc=62.1 Plutarch 62-3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081028230118/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243&layout=&loc=62.1 |date=28 October 2008 }}</ref>}}

====Unrest and warfare in the Punjab====
[[File:Joppen Alexander's Empire 326BC ivory.jpg|thumb|right|[[Alexander the Great]]'s empire in 326 BCE. The routes taken to South Asia and the return from South Asia to Babylon by land and sea are shown.]]
[[File:EasternSatrapsAfterAlexander with ceded territories.jpg|thumb|Alexander's eastern Satrapies, with territories ceded by the Seleucid Empire in 303 BCE.{{sfn|Tarn|1922|p=100}}{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=33}}]]
{{Main|Chandragupta Maurya}}
{{further|Mauryan conquest of Greek satrapies|l1=Mauryan conquest of Greek satrapies east of Indus (317-313 BCE)|Seleucid–Mauryan war|l2=Seleucid–Mauryan war (305-303 BCE)}}

[[Alexander the Great]] was leading his Indian campaigns and ventured into Punjab. His army mutinied at the [[Beas River]] and refused to advance farther eastward when confronted by another army. Alexander returned to [[Babylon]] and re-deployed most of his troops west of the [[Indus River]]. Soon after Alexander died in Babylon in 323&nbsp;BCE, his empire fragmented into independent kingdoms ruled by his generals.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=31}}

The Roman historian [[Justin (historian)|Justin]] (2nd c. CE) states, in ''Epit. 15.4.12-13'', that after Alexander's death, Greek governors in India were assassinated, liberating the people of Greek rule. This revolt was led by Chandragupta, who in turn established an oppressive regime himself "after taking the throne":{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=6-8, 31-33}}{{efn-la|name="Boesche_2003_assassination"}}
{{blockquote|India, after the death of Alexander, had assassinated his prefects, as if shaking the burden of servitude. The author of this liberation was Sandracottos [Chandragupta], but he had transformed liberation in servitude after victory, since, after taking the throne, he himself oppressed the very people he has liberated from foreign domination." | [[Junianus Justinus]]|''Histoires Philippiques Liber'', XV.4.12-13 <ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030902205057/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html Justin XV.4.12-13]}}</ref>}}

Raychaudhuri states that, according to Justin ''Epitome'' 15.4.18–19, Chandragupta organised an army. He notes that early translators interpreted Justin's original expression as "body of robbers", but states Raychaudhuri, the original expression used by Justin may mean mercenary soldier, hunter, or robber.{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1967|p=144}} Mookerji refers to McCrindle as stating that "robbers" refers to the people of the Punjab, "kingless people." Mookerju further quotes Rhys Davids, who states that "it was from the Punjab that Chandragupta recruited the nucleus of the force with which he besieged and conquered Dhana-Nanda."{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=22}} According to Nath Sen, Chandragupta recruited and annexed local [[Gaṇasaṅgha|military republics]] such as the [[Yaudheya]]s that had resisted Alexander's Empire.<ref>{{cite book|title= Ancient Indian History and Civilization|first= Sailendra |last= Nath sen |publisher= Routledge |year=1999 |page=162|isbn= 9788122411980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen
}}</ref>

When Alexander's remaining forces were routed, returning westwards, Seleucus I Nicator fought to defend these territories. Not many details of the campaigns are known from ancient sources. Seleucus was defeated and retreated into the mountainous region of Afghanistan.<ref name=kistler>{{cite book |last1=Kistler |first1=John M. |title=War Elephants |date=2007 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0803260047 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5RHK4Ol15QC&pg=PA64 |access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref>

====Conquest of the Nanda Empire====
[[File:Nanda Empire, c.325 BCE.png|thumb|Possible extent of Nanda Empire c.325 BCE{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=69}}{{sfn|Schwartzberg|1992|p=145}}]]
[[File:Mauryan ruins of pillared hall at Kumrahar site of Pataliputra ASIEC 1912-13.jpg|thumb|[[Pataliputra]], capital of the Mauryas. Ruins of pillared hall at Kumrahar site.]]
[[File:Pataliputra capital, Bihar Museum, Patna, 3rd century BCE.jpg|thumb|The [[Pataliputra capital]], discovered at the [[Bulandi Bagh]] site of Pataliputra, 4th–3rd c. BCE.]]
{{Main|Nanda-Mauryan War|Chanakya|Nanda Empire}}

The [[Nanda Empire]] ruled the Ganges basin and some adjacent territories. The Nanda Empire was a large, militaristic, and economically powerful empire due to conquering the [[mahajanapadas]].

Historically reliable details of Chandragupta's campaign against the [[Nanda Empire]] are unavailable, and legends written centuries later are inconsistent. Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu texts claim [[Magadha]] was ruled by the [[Nanda dynasty]], which was defeated and conquered by Chandragupta Maurya, with [[Chanakya]]'s counsel.{{sfn|Thapar|2013|pp=362–364}}{{sfn|Sen|1895|pp=26–32}}{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=272}} The conquest was fictionalised in the Gupta-era play ''Mudrarakshasa'', which embellished the legend with further narratives not found in earlier versions of the Chanakya-Chandragupta legend. Because of this difference, [[Thomas Trautmann]] suggests that most of it is fictional or legendary, without any historical basis.{{sfn|Trautmann|1971|p=43}} [[Radha Kumud Mukherjee]] similarly considers Mudrakshasa play without historical basis.<ref>Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, p.26-27 {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA27 |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |access-date=26 November 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127023139/https://books.google.fr/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA27 |archive-date=27 November 2016  |isbn=9788120804050 |last1=Mookerji |first1=Radhakumud |year=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. }}</ref>

Justin reports that Chandragupta met the Nanda king, angered him, and made a narrow escape.{{efn-la|"He was of humble Indian to a change of rule." Justin XV.4.15 "Fuit hic humili quidem genere natus, sed ad regni potestatem maiestate numinis inpulsus. Quippe cum procacitate sua Nandrum regem offendisset, interfici a rege iussus salutem pedum ceieritate quaesierat. (Ex qua fatigatione cum somno captus iaceret, leo ingentis formae ad dormientem accessit sudoremque profluentem lingua ei detersit expergefactumque blande reliquit. Hoc prodigio primum ad spem regni inpulsus) contractis latronibus Indos ad nouitatem regni sollicitauit." {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160201051124/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/texte15.html Justin XV.4.15]}}}}{{unreliable source?|date=April 2023}} According to several Indian legends, Chanakya travelled to [[Pataliputra]], [[Magadha]], the capital of the Nanda Empire where Chanakya worked for the Nandas as a [[Amatya|minister]]. However, Chanakya was insulted by the King [[Dhana Nanda]] when he informed them of Alexander's invasion. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire.<ref name="Namita20082">{{cite book|last1=Sugandhi|first1=Namita Sanjay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bdULPF4gNYC&pg=PA88|title=Between the Patterns of History: Rethinking Mauryan Imperial Interaction in the Southern Deccan|year=2008|isbn=9780549744412|pages=88–89 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> He had to flee in order to save his life and went to [[Taxila]], a notable center of learning, to work as a teacher. On one of his travels, Chanakya witnessed some young men playing a rural game practising a pitched battle near [[Vindhya Range|Vinjha]] forest. One of the boys was none other than Chandragupta. Chanakya was impressed by the young Chandragupta and saw imperial qualities in him as someone fit to rule.

The Buddhist ''Mahavamsa Tika'' and Jain ''Parishishtaparvan'' records Chandragupta's army unsuccessfully attacking the Nanda capital.{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=175–188}} Chandragupta and Chanakya then began a campaign at the frontier of the Nanda empire, gradually conquering various territories on their way to the Nanda capital.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=33}} He then refined his strategy by establishing garrisons in the conquered territories, and finally besieged the Nanda capital Pataliputra. There [[Dhana Nanda]] accepted defeat.{{sfn|Malalasekera|2002|p=383}}{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=33-34}} In contrast to the easy victory in Buddhist sources, the Hindu and Jain texts state that the campaign was bitterly fought because the Nanda dynasty had a powerful and well-trained army.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=28–33}}{{sfn|Sen|1895|pp=26–32}} These legends state that the Nanda emperor was defeated, deposed and exiled by some accounts, while Buddhist accounts claim he was killed.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=34}} With the defeat of Dhana Nanda, Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire.{{sfn|Roy|2012|p=62}}

Historically reliable details of Chandragupta's campaign into Pataliputra are unavailable and the legends written centuries later are inconsistent. While his victory, and ascencion of the throne, is usually dated at ca. 322-319 BCE,{{sfn|Roy|2012|pp=27, 61-62}}{{sfn|Jansari|2023|p=31}} which would put his war in the Punjab after his ascencion, an ascencion "between c.311 and c.305 bc" is also possible, placing his activity in the Punjab at ca. 317 BCE, "at the time Seleucos was preparing future glory":{{sfn|Jansari|2023|p=17-18, 31}}{{efn-la|name="dating"|See [[Chandragupta Maurya#cite note-dating-11|Note on the dating of Chandragupta]]{{Broken anchor|date=2025-07-30|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=Chandragupta Maurya#cite note-dating-11|reason= }}.}}
{{blockquote|Later, as he was preparing war against the prefects of Alexander, a huge wild elephant went to him and took him on his back as if tame, and he became a remarkable fighter and war leader. Having thus acquired royal power, Sandracottos possessed India at the time Seleucos was preparing future glory.|Justin XV.4.19<ref>"Molienti deinde bellum aduersus praefectos Alexandri elephantus ferus infinitae magnitudinis ultro se obtulit et ueluti domita mansuetudine eum tergo excepit duxque belli et proeliator insignis fuit. Sic adquisito regno Sandrocottus ea tempestate, qua Seleucus futurae magnitudinis fundamenta iaciebat, Indiam possidebat." {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170420013859/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html Justin XV.4.19]}}</ref>}}

====Dynastic marriage-alliance with Seleucus====
{{Main|Seleucid–Mauryan war}}
[[File:Hellenistic world and Maurya Empire 281 BCE.png|thumb|right|A map showing the north western border of Maurya Empire, including its various neighbouring states.]]

[[Seleucus I Nicator]], the Macedonian [[satrap]] of the Asian portion of Alexander's former empire, conquered and put under his own authority eastern territories as far as Bactria and the Indus.{{efn-la|{{blockquote|[[Appian]], ''History of Rome'', "The Syrian Wars" 55: "Always lying in wait for the neighbouring nations, strong in arms and persuasive in council, he [Seleucus] acquired Mesopotamia, Armenia, 'Seleucid' Cappadocia, Persis, Parthia, Bactria, Arabia, Tapouria, Sogdia, Arachosia, Hyrcania, and other adjacent peoples that had been subdued by Alexander, as far as the river Indus, so that the boundaries of his empire were the most extensive in Asia after that of Alexander. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_11.html|title=Appian, The Syrian Wars 11|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071103154609/https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_11.html|archive-date=3 November 2007|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}}}

In 303-302 BCE a [[Seleucid–Mauryan war|confrontation took place]] between Chandragupta and [[Seleucus I Nicator]], when Seleucus crossed the Indus with an army. [[Appian]]| ''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars: "He (Seleucus) crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship.<ref>[[Appian]]''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars [https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_11.html 55]</ref>

Possibly without entering into a real battle, the two rulers concluded a dynastic marriage alliance in ca. 302 BCE. According to Kosmin, "Seleucus transferred to Chandragupta's kingdom the easternmost satrapies of his empire, certainly [[Gandhara]], [[Parapamisadae]], and the eastern parts of [[Gedrosia]], and possibly also [[Arachosia]] and Aria as far as Herat."{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=33}}{{efn-la|name="ceded_territory"}} Seleucus I received 500 [[war elephant]]s, that were to have a decisive role in his victory against western [[Hellenistic]] kings at the [[Battle of Ipsus]] in 301&nbsp;BCE.{{sfn|R. C. Majumdar|2003|p=105}}<ref>Ancient India, (Kachroo, p.196)</ref><ref>''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' (Hunter, p.167)</ref><ref>''The evolution of man and society'' (Darlington, p.223)</ref><ref>W. W. Tarn (1940). "Two Notes on Seleucid History: 1. Seleucus' 500 Elephants, 2. Tarmita", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '''60''', p. 84–94.</ref>{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=37}} 
{{blockquote|After having made a treaty with him (Sandrakotos) and put in order the Orient situation, Seleucos went to war against [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus|Antigonus]].|[[Junianus Justinus]]|''Historiarum Philippicarum, libri XLIV'', {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030902205057/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html XV.4.15]}}}}

In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, [[Megasthenes]], to Chandragupta, and later [[Deimakos]] to his son [[Bindusara]], at the Mauryan court at [[Pataliputra]] (modern [[Patna]] in [[Bihar state|Bihar]]). Later, [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], the ruler of [[Ptolemaic Egypt]] and contemporary of [[Ashoka]], is also recorded by [[Pliny the Elder]] as having sent an ambassador named [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] to the Mauryan court.<ref>{{Cite book|last=s|first=deepak|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5NRDQAAQBAJ&q=Megasthenes%2C+Deimakos+and+Dionysius&pg=PA89|title=Indian civilization|date=25 October 2016|publisher=deepak shinde|language=en}}</ref><ref name="perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de">{{cite web|url=http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+6.21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728023626/http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.%2BNat.%2B6.21 |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 July 2013 |title=Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (eds. John Bostock, H. T. Riley) }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2016}}

Megasthenes in particular was a notable Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=38}} His book ''Indika'' is a major literary source for information about the Mauryan Empire. According to [[Arrian]], ambassador Megasthenes (c.&nbsp;350&nbsp;– c.&nbsp;290&nbsp;BCE) lived in Arachosia and travelled to [[Pataliputra]].<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://websfor.org/alexander/arrian/book5a.asp |chapter=Book 5 |title=Anabasis |title-link=Anabasis Alexandri |author-link=Arrian |author=Arrian |quote=Megasthenes lived with [[Sibyrtius]], satrap of Arachosia, and often speaks of his visiting [[Sandracottus]], the king of the Indians.}}</ref> Megasthenes' description of Mauryan society as freedom-loving gave Seleucus a means to avoid invasion, however, underlying Seleucus' decision was the improbability of success. In later years, Seleucus' successors maintained diplomatic relations with the Empire based on similar accounts from returning travellers.<ref name="greenwood">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEvN6XwWTk8C&pg=PA252|title=From Polis to Empire, the Ancient World, C. 800 B.C.-A.D. 500|date=2002|publisher=Greenwood Publishing|isbn=0313309426|access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref>

Classical sources have also recorded that following their treaty, Chandragupta and Seleucus exchanged presents, such as when Chandragupta sent various [[aphrodisiac]]s to Seleucus:{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=35}}
{{blockquote|And Theophrastus says that some contrivances are of wondrous efficacy in such matters [as to make people more amorous]. And Phylarchus confirms him, by reference to some of the presents which Sandrakottus, the king of the Indians, sent to Seleucus; which were to act like charms in producing a wonderful degree of affection, while some, on the contrary, were to banish love.|[[Athenaeus of Naucratis]], ''[[The deipnosophists]]'', Book I, chapter 32<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=turn&entity=Literature000701860036&isize=M&pview=hide|title=Problem while searching in The Literature Collection|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313151642/http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=turn&entity=Literature000701860036&isize=M&pview=hide|archive-date=13 March 2007|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}

====Chandragupta's state====
Chandragupta established a decentralised state{{efn-la|name="map_network_model"}} with an administration at Pataliputra, which, according to Megasthenes, was "surrounded by a wooden wall pierced by 64 gates and 570 towers."{{efn-la|In contrast to the ''[[Arthashastra]]'', which prescribes stone defences.}} [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], although not expressly quoting Megasthenes nor mentioning Pataliputra, described Indian palaces as superior in splendor to [[Ancient Iran|Persia]]'s [[Susa]] or [[Ecbatana]].<ref>"In the royal residences in India where the greatest of the kings of that country live, there are so many objects for admiration that neither [[Memnon (mythology)|Memnon]]'s city of [[Susa]] with all its extravagance, nor the magnificence of [[Ectabana]] is to be compared with them. ... In the parks, tame peacocks and pheasants are kept." [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], ''Characteristics of animals'' [https://archive.org/details/L449AelianCharacteristicsOfAnimalsIII1217 book XIII, Chapter 18], also quoted in ''The Cambridge History of India'', Volume 1, p411</ref> The architecture of the city seems to have had many similarities with Persian cities of the period.<ref>Romila Thapar (1961), ''Aśoka and the decline of the Mauryas'', Volume 5, p.129, Oxford University Press. "The architectural closeness of certain buildings in Achaemenid Iran and Mauryan India have raised much comment. The royal palace at Pataliputra is the most striking example and has been compared with the palaces at Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis."</ref>

According to [[Plutarch]], Chandragupta Maurya subdued all of India, and Justin also observed that Chandragupta Maurya was "in possession of India". These accounts are corroborated by Tamil Sangam literature which mentions about Mauryan invasion with their south Indian allies and defeat of their rivals at Podiyil hill in [[Tirunelveli district]] in present-day [[Tamil Nadu]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KItocaxbibUC&q=nanda+empire+extension&pg=PA157|title=Indian Civilization and Culture|last=Chatterjee|first=Suhas|date=1998|publisher=M.D. Publications |isbn=9788175330832|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LA91rqvCB2EC&q=podiyil+hill+maurya&pg=PA58|title=The Mauryan Polity|last=Dikshitar|first=V. R. Ramachandra|date=1993|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=9788120810235|language=en}}</ref>

===Bindusara===
{{Main|Bindusara}}
[[File:I42 1karshapana Maurya Bindusara MACW4165 1ar (8486583162).jpg|thumb|A silver coin of 1 [[karshapana]] of the Maurya empire, period of [[Bindusara]] Maurya about 297–272 BCE, workshop of Pataliputra. '''Obv:''' Symbols with a sun. '''Rev:''' Symbol. '''Dimensions:''' 14 × 11 mm. '''Weight:''' 3.4 g.]]

Bindusara was born to [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]], the founder of the Mauryan Empire. This is attested by several sources, including the various [[Puranas]] and the ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]''.{{sfn|Srinivasachariar|1974|p=lxxxvii}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2019}} He is attested by the Buddhist texts such as ''[[Dīpavaṃsa]]'' and ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]'' ("Bindusaro"); the Jain texts such as ''Parishishta-Parvan''; as well as the Hindu texts such as ''[[Vishnu Purana]]'' ("Vindusara").<ref name="VAS_Asoka">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/asokabuddhistemp00smitiala#page/18/mode/2up |title=Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India |author=Vincent Arthur Smith |year=1920 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9788120613034 |pages=18–19 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlQOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA10 |title= On the Early Life of Asoka |author=Rajendralal Mitra |journal=Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal |year=1878 |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bengal |page=10 |author-link= Rajendralal Mitra }}</ref> According to the 12th century Jain writer [[Hemachandra]]'s ''[[Parishishtaparvan|Parishishta-Parvan]]'', the name of Bindusara's mother was [[Durdhara]].<ref name="Rosalind_1993">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Po9tUNX0SYAC&pg=PA204 |title=The Clever Adulteress and Other Stories: A Treasury of Jaina Literature |chapter=The Minister Cāṇakya, from the Pariśiṣtaparvan of Hemacandra|translator=Rosalind Lefeber |editor=[[Phyllis Granoff]] |author=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1993 |pages=204–206 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |isbn=9788120811508 }}</ref> Some Greek sources also mention him by the name "Amitrochates" or its variations.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=35}}{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=108}}

Historian [[Upinder Singh]] estimates that Bindusara ascended the throne around 297 BCE.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} Bindusara, just 22&nbsp;years&nbsp;old, inherited a large empire that consisted of what is now, Northern, Central and Eastern parts of India along with parts of Afghanistan and [[Balochistan (region)|Baluchistan]]. Bindusara extended this empire to the southern part of India, as far as what is now known as [[Karnataka]]. He brought sixteen states under the Mauryan Empire and thus conquered almost all of the Indian peninsula (he is said to have conquered the 'land between the two seas' – the peninsular region between the [[Bay of Bengal]] and the [[Arabian Sea]]). Bindusara did not conquer the friendly [[Three Crowned Kings|Tamil kingdoms]] of the [[Chola Dynasty|Cholas]], ruled by King [[Ilamcetcenni]], the [[Pandyas]], and [[Chera Dynasty|Cheras]]. Apart from these southern states, [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]] (modern Odisha) was the only kingdom in India that did not form part of Bindusara's empire.{{sfn|Sircar|1971|p=167}} It was later conquered by his son [[Ashoka]], who served as the [[Uparaja|Viceroy]] of [[Avantirastra]] during his father's reign, which highlights the importance of the province.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HeJS3nE9cAC&pg=PA152 |title=The Greeks in Bactria and India |author=William Woodthorpe Tarn |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=9781108009416 |page=152 |author-link=William Woodthorpe Tarn }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Mookerji Radhakumud |title=Asoka |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&pg=PA8 |year=1962 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0582-8 |page=8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510200953/https://books.google.com/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&pg=PA8 |archive-date=10 May 2018}}</ref>

Bindusara's life has not been documented as well as that of his father Chandragupta or of his son Ashoka. Chanakya continued to serve as prime minister during his reign. According to the medieval Tibetan scholar Taranatha who visited India, Chanakya helped Bindusara "to destroy the nobles and kings of the sixteen kingdoms and thus to become absolute master of the territory between the eastern and western oceans".{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=109}} During his rule, the citizens of [[Taxila]] revolted twice. The reason for the first revolt was the maladministration of [[Susima]], his eldest son. The reason for the second revolt is unknown, but Bindusara could not suppress it in his lifetime. It was crushed by Ashoka after Bindusara's death.<ref name="EB_legends">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/legendsofindianb00burn#page/20/mode/2up |title=Legends of Indian Buddhism |author=Eugène Burnouf |publisher=E. P. Dutton |location=New York |year=1911 |pages=59 }}</ref>

Chandragupta's son [[Bindusara]] extended the rule of the Mauryan empire towards southern India. The famous [[Tamils|Tamil]] poet [[Mamulanar]] of the [[Sangam literature]] described how areas south of the [[Deccan Plateau]] which comprised [[Tamilakam]] was invaded by the Mauryan Army using troops from Karnataka. Mamulanar states that [[Vatuka|Vadugar]] (people who resided in Andhra-Karnataka regions immediately to the north of Tamil Nadu) formed the vanguard of the Mauryan Army.<ref name="Singh 2008"/>{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} He also had a Greek ambassador at his court, named [[Deimachus]].{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=32}}

Bindusara maintained friendly diplomatic relations with the Hellenic world. [[Deimachus]] was the ambassador of [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] king [[Antiochus I]] at Bindusara's court.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]] states that the king of Palibothra ([[Pataliputra]], the Mauryan capital) welcomed a Greek author, [[Iambulus]]. This king is usually identified as Bindusara.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] states that the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic]] king [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Philadelphus]] sent an envoy named [[Dionysius (ambassador)|Dionysius]] to India.<ref>"Three Greek ambassadors are known by name: Megasthenes, ambassador to Chandragupta; Deimachus, ambassador to [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta's]] son Bindusara; and Dyonisius, whom Ptolemy Philadelphus sent to the court of Ashoka, Bindusara's son", McEvilley, p.367</ref><ref>''India, the Ancient Past'', Burjor Avari, pp. 108–109</ref> According to Sailendra Nath Sen, this appears to have happened during Bindusara's reign.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}}

His son [[Bindusara]] 'Amitraghata' (Slayer of Enemies) also is recorded in Classical sources as having exchanged presents with [[Antiochus I]]:{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=35}}
{{blockquote|text=But dried figs were so very much sought after by all men (for really, as [[Aristophanes]] says, "There's really nothing nicer than dried figs"), that even Amitrochates, the king of the Indians, wrote to [[Antiochus I Soter|Antiochus]], entreating him (it is [[Hegesander (historian)|Hegesander]] who tells this story) to buy and send him some sweet wine, and some dried figs, and a [[sophist]]; and that Antiochus wrote to him in answer, "The dry figs and the sweet wine we will send you; but it is not lawful for a sophist to be sold in Greece. |author=[[Athenaeus]] |title=''[[Deipnosophistae]]'' XIV.67<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=goto&id=Literature.AthV3&isize=M&page=1044|title=The Literature Collection: The deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the learned of Athenæus (volume III): Book XIV|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011201316/http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=goto&id=Literature.AthV3&isize=M&page=1044|archive-date=11 October 2007|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}

Unlike his father Chandragupta (who at a later stage converted to [[Jainism]]), Bindusara believed in the [[Ajivika]] religion. Bindusara's guru Pingalavatsa (Janasana) was a Brahmin<ref>Arthur Llewellyn Basham, ''History and doctrines of the Ājīvikas: a vanished Indian religion'', pp. 138, 146</ref> of the Ajivika religion. Bindusara's wife, Empress [[Shubhadrangi|Subhadrangi]] was a [[Brahmin]]<ref>Anukul Chandra Banerjee, ''Buddhism in comparative light'', p. 24</ref> also of the Ajivika religion from [[Champapuri|Champa]] (present [[Bhagalpur district]]). Bindusara is credited with giving several grants to Brahmin monasteries (''Brahmana-bhatto'').<ref>Beni Madhab Barua, Ishwar Nath Topa, ''Ashoka and his inscriptions'', Volume 1, p. 171</ref>

Historical evidence suggests that Bindusara died in the 270s BCE. According to Upinder Singh, Bindusara died around 273 BCE.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=331}} [[Alain Daniélou]] believes that he died around 274 BCE.{{sfn|Alain Daniélou|2003|p=109}} Sailendra Nath Sen believes that he died around 273–272 BCE, and that his death was followed by a four-year struggle of succession, after which his son [[Ashoka]] became the emperor in 269–268 BCE.{{sfn|S. N. Sen|1999|p=142}} According to the ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]'', Bindusara reigned for 28 years.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBbznHuPrTYC&pg=PA33 |title=Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita |author=Kashi Nath Upadhyaya |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1997 |isbn=9788120808805 |page=33 }}</ref> The ''[[Vayu Purana]]'', which names Chandragupta's successor as "Bhadrasara", states that he ruled for 25 years.<ref name="HHW_Vishnu">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0943AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA188 |title=The Vishnu Purana |volume=IV |translator=[[Horace Hayman Wilson|H. H. Wilson]] |editor=[[Fitzedward Hall]] |publisher=Trübner & Co |year=1868 |pages=188 }}</ref>

===Ashoka===
{{Main|Ashoka}}
{{further|Kalinga War}}
{{multiple image
| perrow            = 2/2
| total_width       = 360
| caption_align     = center
| align             = right
| direction         = horizontal
| header            = '''Various depictions of the maximum territorial extent of the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka'''
| image1            = Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE.png
| caption1          = Depiction based on Kulke & Rothermund, arguing that large parts of the interior of South Asia were actually not controlled by the Maurya Empire{{efn-la|name="map_network_model"}}
| image2            = Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE 2.png
| caption2          = Traditional depiction, based on Ashoka's rock edicts, and a maximum interpretation of territories ceded by the Seleucid Empire in 303 BCE{{efn-la|name="ceded_territory"}}{{efn-la|name="map_solid_mass"}}
| image3            = 
| caption3          = 
| image4            = 
| caption4          = 
| footer            = 
}}

[[File:Sarnath capital.jpg|right|thumb|[[Lion Capital of Ashoka]] at [[Sarnath]]. c. 250 BCE.]]
[[File:Ashoka pillar at Vaishali, Bihar, India.jpg|thumb| Ashoka pillar at [[Vaishali (ancient city)|Vaishali]].]]
[[File:6thPillarOfAshoka.JPG|thumb|Fragment of the 6th Pillar [[Edicts of Ashoka|Edict of Ashoka]] (238 BCE), in [[Brāhmī script|Brahmi]], sandstone, [[British Museum]].]]
As a young prince, Ashoka ({{reign|272|232}}&nbsp;BCE) was a brilliant commander who crushed revolts in Ujjain and Taxila. As emperor he was ambitious and aggressive, re-asserting the Empire's superiority in southern and western India. But it was his conquest of [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]] (262–261&nbsp;BCE) which proved to be the pivotal event of his life. Ashoka used Kalinga to project power over a large region by building a fortification there and securing it as a possession.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States|last1=Allchin|first1=F. R.|last2=Erdosy|first2=George|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|location=Cambridge|pages=306}}</ref> Although Ashoka's army succeeded in overwhelming Kalinga forces of royal soldiers and citizen militias, an estimated 100,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in the furious warfare, including over 10,000 of Imperial Mauryan soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of people were adversely affected by the destruction and fallout of war. When he personally witnessed the devastation, Ashoka began feeling remorse. Although the annexation of Kalinga was completed, Ashoka embraced the teachings of Buddhism, and renounced war and violence. He sent out missionaries to travel around Asia and spread Buddhism to other countries. He also propagated his own ''[[Ashoka's policy of Dhamma|dhamma]].''{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

Ashoka implemented principles of ''[[ahimsa]]'' by banning hunting and violent sports activity and abolishing [[Slavery in ancient India|slave trade]]. While he maintained a large and powerful army, to keep the peace and maintain authority, Ashoka expanded friendly relations with states across Asia and Europe, and he sponsored Buddhist missions. He undertook a massive public works building campaign across the country. Over 40&nbsp;years of peace, harmony and prosperity made Ashoka one of the most successful and famous monarchs in Indian history. He remains an idealised figure of inspiration in modern India.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

The [[Edicts of Ashoka]], set in stone, are found throughout the Subcontinent. Ranging from as far west as Afghanistan and as far south as Andhra ([[Nellore District]]), Ashoka's edicts state his policies and accomplishments. Although predominantly written in Prakrit, two of them were written in [[Greek language|Greek]], and one in both Greek and [[Aramaic]]. Ashoka's edicts refer to the Greeks, [[Kambojas]], and [[Gandhara]]s as peoples forming a frontier region of his empire. They also attest to Ashoka's having sent envoys to the Greek rulers in the West as far as the Mediterranean. The edicts precisely name each of the rulers of the [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic world]] at the time such as ''Amtiyoko'' ([[Antiochus II Theos]]), ''Tulamaya'' ([[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Ptolemy II]]), ''Amtikini'' ([[Antigonus II Gonatas|Antigonos II]]), ''Maka'' ([[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]]) and ''Alikasudaro'' ([[Alexander II of Epirus]]) as recipients of Ashoka's proselytism.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}} The Edicts also accurately locate their territory "600 yojanas away" (1 yojana being about 7&nbsp;miles), corresponding to the distance between the center of India and Greece (roughly 4,000&nbsp;miles).<ref>[[Edicts of Ashoka]], 13th Rock Edict, translation S. Dhammika.</ref>

===Subhagasena (206&nbsp;BCE)===
[[Sophagasenus]] was an Indian [[Mauryan]] ruler of the 3rd century BCE, described in ancient Greek sources, and named Subhagasena or Subhashasena in [[Prakrit]]. His name is mentioned in the list of Mauryan princes,{{citation needed|date=June 2007}} and also in the list of the Yadava dynasty, as a descendant of Pradyumna. He may have been a grandson of [[Ashoka]], or [[Kunala]], the son of Ashoka. He ruled an area south of the [[Hindu Kush]], possibly in [[Gandhara]]. [[Antiochos III]], the [[Seleucid]] king, after having made peace with [[Euthydemus II|Euthydemus]] in [[Bactria]], went to India in 206&nbsp;BCE and is said to have renewed his friendship with the Indian king there:
{{blockquote|text=He (Antiochus) crossed the Caucasus and descended into India; renewed his friendship with Sophagasenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving [[Androsthenes of Cyzicus|Androsthenes]] of [[Cyzicus]] the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him.|author=[[Polybius]] |title=[[The Histories (Polybius)|The Histories]], 11.39<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/invalidquery.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0234:book=11:chapter=39|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307194743/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plb.+11.39|url-status=dead|title=No document found|archive-date=7 March 2008|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>}}

===Decline===
[[File:Mauryan head from Sarnath.jpg|thumb|upright|Figure of a foreigner, found in [[Sarnath]], 3rd century BCE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bachhofer |first1=Ludwig |title=Early Indian Sculpture Vol. I |date=1929 |publisher=The Pegasus Press |location=Paris |pages=239–240 |url=https://indianculture.gov.in/rarebooks/early-indian-sculpture-vol-i |language=en}}</ref> This is a probable member of the West Asian [[Pahlava]] or [[Saka]] elite in the [[Gangetic plain]]s during the Mauryan period.<ref name="Gupta 122">Page 122: About the [[Masarh lion]]: "This particular example of a foreign model gets added support from the male heads of foreigners from Patna city and Sarnath since they also prove beyond doubt that a section of the elite in the Gangetic Basin was of foreign origin. However, as noted earlier, this is an example of the late Mauryan period since this is not the type adopted in any Ashoka pillar. We are, therefore, visualizing a historical situation in India in which the West Asian influence on Indian art was felt more in the late Mauryan than in the early Mauryan period. The term West Asia in this context stands for Iran and Afghanistan, where the Sakas and Pahlavas had their base-camps for eastward movement. The prelude to future inroads of the Indo-Bactrians in India had after all started in the second century B.C."... in {{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Swarajya Prakash |author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan |year=1980 |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-391-02172-3 |pages=88, 122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}.</ref><ref name="Gupta 318">According to Gupta [[:File:Mauryan head from Sarnath.jpg|this is]] a non-Indian face of a foreigner with a conical hat: "If there are a few faces which are nonIndian, such as one head from Sarnath with conical cap ( Bachhofer, Vol . I, Pl . 13 ), they are due to the presence of the foreigners their costumes, tastes and liking for portrait art and not their art styles." in {{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Swarajya Prakash |author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan |year=1980 |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-391-02172-3 |page=318 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Annual Report 1907-08 |date=1911 |page=55 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.35434/page/n101/mode/2up}}</ref>]]

Ashoka was followed for 50&nbsp;years by a succession of weaker emperors. He was succeeded by [[Dasharatha Maurya]], who was Ashoka's grandson. None of Ashoka's sons could ascend to the throne after him. [[Mahinda (Buddhist monk)|Mahinda]], his firstborn, became a Buddhist monk. [[Kunala|Kunala Maurya]] was blinded and hence couldn't ascend to the throne; and [[Tivala]], son of [[Karuvaki]], died even earlier than Ashoka. Little is known about another son, [[Jalauka]].

The empire lost many territories under Dasharatha, which were later reconquered by [[Samprati]], Kunala's son. Post Samprati, the Mauryas slowly lost many territories. In 180 BCE, [[Brihadratha Maurya]], was killed by his [[Senapati|general]], [[Pushyamitra Shunga]] in a military parade without any heir, giving rise to the [[Shunga Empire]].

Reasons advanced for the decline include the succession of weak emperors after Ashoka Maurya, the partition of the empire into two, the growing independence of some areas within the empire, such as that ruled by [[Sophagasenus]], a top-heavy administration where authority was entirely in the hands of a few persons, an absence of any national consciousness,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077244.001.0001/acprof-9780198077244-chapter-7 |title=Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas |last=Thapar |first=Romila |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford Scholarship Online |isbn=9780198077244 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077244.003.0031}}</ref> the pure scale of the empire making it unwieldy, and invasion by the [[Greco-Bactrian Empire|Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]].

Some historians, such as [[Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri]], have argued that Ashoka's pacifism undermined the "military backbone" of the Maurya empire. Others, such as [[Romila Thapar]], have suggested that the extent and impact of his pacifism have been "grossly exaggerated".{{sfn|Singh|2012|p=131, 143}}

====Persecution of Buddhists====
Buddhist records such as the [[Ashokavadana]] write that the assassination of Brihadratha and the rise of the Shunga empire led to a wave of religious persecution for [[Buddhists]],<ref>According to the [[Ashokavadana]]</ref> and a resurgence of [[Brahmanism]].{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} According to [[John Marshall (archaeologist)|Sir John Marshall]],<ref>Sir John Marshall (1990), "A Guide to Sanchi", Eastern Book House, {{ISBN|81-85204-32-2}}, p. 38</ref> Pushyamitra may have been the main author of the persecutions, although later Shunga kings seem to have been more supportive of Buddhism. Other historians, such as [[Etienne Lamotte]]<ref>E. Lamotte, ''History of Indian Buddhism'', Institut Orientaliste, Louvain-la-Neuve 1988 (1958)</ref> and [[Romila Thapar]],<ref>Romila Thapar (1960), ''Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas'', Oxford University Press, p. 200</ref> among others, have argued that archaeological evidence in favour of the allegations of persecution of Buddhists are lacking, and that the extent and magnitude of the atrocities have been exaggerated.

====Establishment of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (180&nbsp;BCE)====
{{Main|Demetrius I's invasion of India}}
[[File:World in 200 BCE.png|thumb|300px|Map of the world in 200 BCE showing the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]], the Maurya Empire and the [[Yuezhi]] (Kushans)]]

The fall of the Mauryas left the [[Khyber Pass]] unguarded, and a wave of foreign invasion followed. The [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|Greco-Bactrian]] king [[Demetrius I of Bactria|Demetrius]] capitalised on the break-up, and he conquered southern Afghanistan and parts of northwestern India around 180&nbsp;BCE, forming the [[Indo-Greek Kingdom]]. The Indo-Greeks would maintain holdings on the trans-Indus region, and make forays into central India, for about a century. Under them, Buddhism flourished, and one of their kings, [[Menander I|Menander]], became a famous figure of Buddhism; he was to establish a new capital of Sagala, the modern city of [[Sialkot]]. However, the extent of their domains and the lengths of their rule are subject to much debate. Numismatic evidence indicates that they retained holdings in the subcontinent right up to the birth of Christ. Although the extent of their successes against indigenous powers such as the [[Shunga Empire|Shunga]]s, [[Satavahana]]s, and [[Kalinga (historical kingdom)|Kalinga]] are unclear, what is clear is that Scythian tribes, named [[Indo-Scythians]], brought about the demise of the Indo-Greeks from around 70&nbsp;BCE and retained lands in the trans-Indus, the region of [[Mathura, Uttar Pradesh|Mathura]], and Gujarat.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

== Military ==
The expansion and defence of the empire was made possible by what appears to have been one of the largest armies in the world during the [[Iron Age]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gabriel A |first=Richard |title=The Ancient World :Volume 1 of Soldiers' lives through history |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HscIwvtkq2UC&pg=PA301 |date=30 November 2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |page=28 |isbn=9780313333484 }}</ref> 

According to Megasthenes, the empire wielded a military of 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots and 9,000 war elephants besides followers and attendants.{{sfn|R. C. Majumdar|2003|p=107}} 

Megasthenes mentions military command consisting of six boards of five members each, (i) [[History of the Indian Navy|Navy]] (ii) [[Military transport]] (iii) [[Infantry]] (iv) [[Cavalry]] and [[Catapults]] (v) [[Ratha|Chariot divisions]] and (vi) [[War elephant|Elephants]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kangle|first=R. P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzxwTS0-nbUC&q=megasthenes+navy&pg=PA66|title=A Study|date=1986|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ.|isbn=978-81-208-0041-0|language=en}}</ref>

==Administration==
[[File:MauryaStatuettes.jpg|thumb|Statuettes of the Mauryan era]]

===Provinces===
Ashoka's empire consisted of five parts.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=68}} Magadha, with the imperial capital at [[Pataliputra]], and several former mahajanapadas next to it formed the center, which was directly ruled by the emperor's administration.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=68}} The other territories were divided into four provinces, ruled by princes who served as governors.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=68}} From Ashokan edicts, the names of the four provincial capitals are [[Tosali]] (in the east), [[Ujjain]] (in the west), [[Suvarnagiri]] (in the south), and [[Taxila]] (in the northwest). The head of the provincial administration was the [[Kumar (title)|''Kumar'']] (prince), who governed the provinces as emperor's representative. The ''kumara'' was assisted by [[Amatya|''mahamatyas'']] (great ministers) and council of ministers. This organisational structure was reflected at the imperial level with the Emperor and his ''Mantriparishad'' (Council of Ministers).{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}. The Mauryans established a well developed coin minting system. Coins were mostly made of silver and copper. Certain gold coins were in circulation as well. The coins were widely used for trade and commerce{{sfn|Sen|1999|p=160}}

===Network of core areas and trade routes===
Monica Smith notes that historiography has tended to view ancient states as vast territories, whereas they are better understood as networks of centers of power, a model that also applies to the Maurya Empire.{{sfn|Smith|2005}} Kulke and Rothermunf agree with her approach, noting that Ashoka's inscriptions reveal a regional pattern, demarcating the five parts of the empire, whereas the major rock edicts have only been found in the frontier provinces, but are absent in the centre.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=70}} Inscriptions and rock edicts are entirely absent in large parts of the territories supposedly under control of the empire, which means that "large parts of present Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh as well as Kerala and Tamil Nadu were not actually included in the Maurya empire."{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=70}} Controlling the main trade routes was essential for the empire, as they were threatened by undefeated tribes inhabiting large parts of the interior.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=70}}{{efn-la|name="map_network_model"}}

Even though large parts were under the control of Mauryan empire the spread of information and imperial messages was limited since many parts were inaccessible and were situated far away from capital of empire.<ref>{{cite book|title= History of India |first= Herman |last= Kulke |publisher= Routledge |year=2004 |page=79 |isbn= 9780415329200 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RoW9GuFJ9GIC&q=india++history}}</ref>

===Monarchical ownership===
Under the Mauryan system there was no private ownership of land as all land was owned by the emperor to whom tribute was paid by the labouring class. In return the emperor supplied the labourers with agricultural products, animals, seeds, tools, public infrastructure, and stored food in reserve for times of crisis.{{sfn|Boesche|2003|p=67–70}} The economy of the empire has also been described as "a socialized monarchy", "a sort of state socialism", and the world's first [[welfare state]].{{sfn|Boesche|2003|p=67–70}}

=== Local government ===
[[Arthashastra]] and [[Megasthenes]] accounts of [[Pataliputra]] describe the intricate municipal system formed by Maurya empire to govern its cities. A city counsel made up of thirty commissioners was divided into six committees or boards which governed the city. The first board fixed wages and looked after provided goods, second board made arrangement for foreign dignitaries, tourists and businessmen, third board made records and registrations, fourth looked after manufactured goods and sale of commodities, fifth board regulated trade, issued licences and checked weights and measurements, sixth board collected sales taxes. Some cities such as Taxila had autonomy to issue their own coins. The city counsel had officers who looked after public welfare such as maintenance of roads, public buildings, markets, hospitals, educational institutions etc.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MazdaWXQFuQC&q=pataliputra+local+government+system&pg=SL1-PA262|title=Indian History|date=1988|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=9788184245684|language=en}}</ref> The official head of the village was ''Gramika'' and in towns and cities was ''Nagarika''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.172447|title=India As Described By Megasthenes|last=Narain Singh Kalota|date=1978}}</ref> The city counsel also had some magisterial powers. The taking of census was regular process in the Mauryan administration. The village heads (''Gramika'') and mayors (''Nagarika'') were responsible enumerating different classes of people in the Mauryan empire such as traders, agriculturists, smiths, potters, carpenters etc. and also cattle, mostly for taxation purposes.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/explained-the-politics-behind-the-caste-census-in-bihar/articleshow/96916420.cms|title=Explained: History and politics of caste census in Bihar &#124; India News |website=The Times of India}}</ref>{{better source needed|reason=ToI is not a reliable source for history; also see [[Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 287#Times of India RFC]]|date=January 2023}} These vocations consolidated as castes, a feature of Indian society that continues to influence the Indian politics till today.

==Economy==
{{see also|Economic history of India|Coinage of India}}
[[File:MauryanStatuette2ndCenturyBCE.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Maurya statuette, 2nd century BCE.]]

In many ways, the economic situation in the Mauryan Empire is analogous to the [[Roman Empire]] of several centuries later. Both had extensive trade connections and both had organisations similar to [[corporation]]s. While Rome had organisational entities which were largely used for public state-driven projects, Mauryan India had numerous private commercial entities. These existed purely for private commerce and developed before the Mauryan Empire itself.<ref>[https://ssrn.com/abstract=796464 ''The Economic History of the Corporate Form in Ancient India.''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204000202/https://ssrn.com/abstract=796464 |date=4 February 2016 }} [[University of Michigan]].</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0 auto;"  align="center"  colspan="1" cellpadding="3" style="font-size: 80%;"
|align=center colspan=1 style="background:#F4A460; font-size: 100%;"| '''Maurya Empire coinage'''
|-
|<gallery mode="packed" heights="100px">
Hoard of mostly Mauryan coins.jpg|Hoard of mostly Mauryan coins.
File:MauryanCoin.JPG|Silver punch mark coin of the Maurya empire, with symbols of wheel and elephant. 3rd century BCE.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}
File:Mauryan coin with arched hill symbol on reverse.jpg|Mauryan coin with arched hill symbol on reverse.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}
File:Mauryan Empire. Circa late 4th-2nd century BC.jpg|Mauryan Empire coin. Circa late 4th-2nd century BCE.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}
Mauryan Empire. temp. Salisuka or later. Circa 207-194 BC.jpg|Mauryan Empire, Emperor [[Salisuka]] or later. Circa 207-194 BCE.<ref>[https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=304898 CNG Coins] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827130159/https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=304898 |date=27 August 2017 }}</ref>
</gallery>
|}

==Religion==
While [[Brahmanism]] was an important religion throughout the period of the empire,{{sfn|Nath Sen|1999|p=164, (215) 217}}{{efn-la|name="Brahmanism"}} the Mauryan Empire was centered in the non-Vedic Magadha realm, and favoured [[Jainism]],{{sfn|Smith|1981|p=99}}{{sfn|Dalrymple|2009}}{{sfn|Keay|1981|p=85-86}}{{efn-la|name="Jainism"}} [[Buddhism]],{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}{{sfn|Long|2020|p=255}}{{efn-la|name="Buddhism"}} and [[Ājīvika|Ajivikism]].{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}{{sfn|Long|2020|p=255}}{{efn-la|name="Ajivikism"}} Brahmanism, which had developed in the conquered [[Kuru kingdom|Kuru]]-[[Panchala]] realm, lost its privileges, which threatened its very existence, and pressured it to transform itself into a "socio-political ideology" which eventually became influential far beyond the confines of its original homeland,{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2011}}{{efn-la|name="Bronkhorst_Brahmanical_transformation"|{{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2011}}:
* This incorporation into a larger empire, first presumably by the Nandas, then by the Mauryas, took away all the respect and privileges that Brahmins had so far enjoyed, and might have meant the disappearance of Brahmins as a distinct group of people. The reason [110] why this did not happen is that Brahmanism reinvented itself. Deprived of their earlier privileges, Brahmins made an effort to find new ways to make themselves indispensable for rulers, and to gain the respect of others."
* "It [118] was because of the Maurya empire that Brahmanism had to reinvent itself. It was because of that empire that Brahmanism transformed itself from a ritual tradition linked to local rulers in a relatively restricted part of India into a socio-political ideology that succeeded in imposing itself on vast parts of South and Southeast Asia, together covering an area larger than the Roman empire ever had."}} resulting in the [[Hindu synthesis]] in which Brahmanical ideology, local traditions, and elements from the sramana-traditions, were synthesised.

[[File:Shravanabelagola2007 - 44.jpg|thumb|Bhadrabahu Cave, [[Shravanabelagola]] where [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]] is said to have died]]
While according to Greek traveller [[Megasthenes]], Chandragupta Maurya sponsored Brahmanical rituals and sacrifices,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lal bhargava |first=Purushottam |title=Chandragupta Maurya A Gem of Indian History |publisher=D.K Printworld |year=1996 |isbn=9788124600566 |pages=44}}</ref><ref name="India19602">{{citation |last1=Majumdar |first1=R. C. |title=An Advanced History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyIWMwEACAAJ |year=1960 |location=London |publisher=Macmillan & Company Ltd; New York: St Martin's Press |quote=If the Jaina tradition is to be believed, Chandragupta was converted to the religion of Mahavira. He is said to have abdicated his throne and passed his last days at Sravana Belgola in Mysore.  Greek evidence, however, suggests that the first Maurya did not give up the performance of Brahmanical sacrificial rites and was far from following the Jaina creed of ''Ahimsa'' or non-injury to animals. He took delight in hunting, a practice that was continued by his son and alluded to by his grandson in his eighth Rock Edict.  It is, however, possible that in his last days he showed some predilection for Jainism ... |last2=Raychauduhuri |first2=H. C. |last3=Datta |first3=Kalikinkar |author-link1=R. C. Majumdar |author-link2=H. C. Raychaudhuri}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sharma |first=Madhulika |title=Fire Worship in Ancient India |publisher=Publication scheme |year=2001 |isbn=9788186782576}}</ref> according to a Jain text from the 12th century, Chandragupta Maurya followed [[Jainism]] after retiring, when he renounced his throne and material possessions to join a wandering group of [[Jain monk]]s and in his last days, he observed the rigorous but self-purifying Jain ritual of [[santhara]] (fast unto death), at [[Shravana Belgola]] in [[Karnataka]],{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|pp=39-41}}{{sfn|Romila Thapar|2004|p=178}}{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|pp=64-65}}{{sfn|Samuel|2010|pp=60}} though it is also possible that "they are talking about his great-grandson."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mookerji |first=Radhakumud |title=Chandragupta Maurya and his times |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1966 |pages=40–50 |quote=There is also no evidence to prove the fact taken for granted without the need of any argument or demonstration by all Jain writers that Chandragupta ever became a convert to their religion after abdication. It is possible they are talking about his great grandson.}}</ref> [[Samprati]], the grandson of [[Ashoka]], patronised Jainism. Samprati was influenced by the teachings of Jain monks like [[Suhastin]] and he is said to have built 125,000 [[derasar]]s across India.{{sfn|John Cort|2010|p=142}} Some of them are still found in the towns of Ahmedabad, Viramgam, Ujjain, and Palitana.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} It is also said that just like Ashoka, Samprati sent messengers and preachers to Greece, [[History of Iran|Persia]] and the [[Middle East]] for the spread of Jainism, but, to date, no evidence has been found to support this claim.{{sfn|John Cort|2010|p=199}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Tukol |first=T. K. |author-link=T. K. Tukol |title=Jainism in South India |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/south.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191052/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm/affiliates/jainism/article/south.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Sanchi2.jpg|thumb|The [[stupa]], which contained the relics of Buddha, at the center of the [[Sanchi]] complex was originally built by the Maurya Empire, but the balustrade around it is [[Sunga]], and the decorative gateways are from the later [[Satavahana]] period.]]
[[File:Taxila1.jpg|thumb|The [[Dharmarajika]] [[stupa]] in [[Taxila]], modern Pakistan, is also thought to have been established by Emperor [[Asoka]].]]

The Buddhist texts ''[[Samantapasadika]]'' and ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]'' suggest that Bindusara followed Brahmanism, calling him a "''Brahmana bhatto''" ("devotee of the Brahmins").<ref name="SMH_2001">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOkQAQAAIAAJ |title=Buddhism in India and Sri Lanka (c. 300 BC to C. 600 AD) |author=S. M. Haldhar |publisher=Om |year=2001 |isbn=9788186867532 |page=38 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=79w9AAAAMAAJ |title=Asoka and His Inscriptions |volume=1 |author=Beni Madhab Barua |author-link=Benimadhab Barua|year=1968 |page=171 }}</ref>

[[Magadha]], the centre of the empire, was also the birthplace of Buddhism. In later life Ashoka followed Buddhism; following the [[Kalinga War]], he renounced expansionism and aggression. Ashoka sent a mission led by his son [[Mahinda (buddhist monk)|Mahinda]] and daughter [[Sanghamitta]] to [[Anuradhapura Kingdom|Sri Lanka]], whose king [[Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura|Tissa]] was so charmed with Buddhist ideals that he adopted them himself and made Buddhism the state religion. Ashoka sent many Buddhist missions to [[West Asia]], Greece and [[South East Asia]], and commissioned the construction of monasteries and schools, as well as the publication of Buddhist literature across the empire. He is believed to have built as many as 84,000 stupas across India, such as [[Sanchi]] and [[Mahabodhi Temple]], and he increased the popularity of Buddhism in Afghanistan and [[History of Thailand|Thailand]]. Ashoka helped convene the [[Buddhist Councils|Third Buddhist Council]] of India's and South Asia's Buddhist orders near his capital, a council that undertook much work of reform and expansion of the Buddhist religion. Indian merchants embraced Buddhism and played a large role in spreading the religion across the Mauryan Empire.<ref>Jerry Bentley, ''Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts in Pre-Modern Times'' (New York: Oxford University Press), 46</ref>

==Society==
The population of South Asia during the Mauryan period has been estimated to be between 15 and 30 million.<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-4b">{{harvnb|Dyson|2018|p=24}} Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 bce) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."</ref> According to Tim Dyson, the period of the Mauryan Empire saw the consolidation of [[Caste system in India|caste]] among the [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan people]] who had settled in the Gangetic plain, increasingly meeting tribal people who were incorporated into their evolving caste-system, and the declining rights of women in the [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan speaking]] regions of India, though "these developments did not affect people living in large parts of the subcontinent."<ref name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya-3b">{{harvnb|Dyson|2018|p=19}}</ref>

==Architectural remains==
{{Main|Edicts of Ashoka|Sanchi|Mauryan art}}
[[File:Barabar Caves 2.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Mauryan architecture in the [[Barabar Caves]]. [[Lomas Rishi Cave]]. 3rd century BCE.]]
[[File:Nandan Gadh Stupa Champaran Lauria.jpg|thumb|[[Nandangarh stupa]] built during the Mauryan period]]

The greatest monument of this period, executed in the reign of [[Chandragupta Maurya]], was the old palace at Paliputra, modern [[Kumhrar]] in [[Patna]]. Excavations have unearthed the remains of the palace, which is thought to have been a group of several buildings, the most important of which was an immense pillared hall supported on a high substratum of timbers. The pillars were set in regular rows, thus dividing the hall into a number of smaller square bays. The number of columns is 80, each about {{formatnum:{{#expr:9.75-2.74 round 0}}}} meters high. According to the eyewitness account of [[Megasthenes]], the palace was chiefly constructed of timber, and was considered to exceed in splendour and magnificence the palaces of [[Susa]] and [[Ecbatana]], its gilded pillars being adorned with golden vines and silver birds. The buildings stood in an extensive park studded with fish ponds and furnished with a great variety of ornamental trees and shrubs.<ref>"L'age d'or de l'Inde Classique", p23</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2016}} Later fragments of stone pillars, including one nearly complete, with their round tapering shafts and smooth polish, indicate that Ashoka was responsible for the construction of the stone columns which replaced the earlier wooden ones.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

[[File:Early stupa 6 meters in diameter with fallen umbrella on side in Chakpat near Chakdara.jpg|thumb|left|An early [[stupa]], 6 metres in diameter, with fallen umbrella on side. Chakpat, near [[Chakdara]]. Probably Maurya, 3rd century BCE.]]
During the Ashokan period, stonework was of a highly diversified order and comprised lofty free-standing pillars, railings of [[stupas]], lion thrones and other colossal figures. The use of stone had reached such great perfection during this time that even small fragments of stone art were given a high lustrous polish resembling fine enamel. This period marked the beginning of [[Buddhist architecture]]. Ashoka was responsible for the construction of several [[stupas]], which were large domes and bearing symbols of Buddha. The most important ones are located at [[Sanchi]], [[Bodhgaya]], [[Bharhut]], and possibly [[Amaravati Stupa]]. The most widespread examples of Mauryan architecture are the [[Pillars of Ashoka|Ashoka pillars]] and carved edicts of Ashoka, often exquisitely decorated, with more than 40 spread throughout the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref>"L'age d'or de l'Inde Classique", p22</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2016}}

The peacock was a dynastic symbol of Mauryans, as depicted by Ashoka's pillars at Nandangarh and Sanchi Stupa.{{sfn|R. K. Mookerji|1966|p=15}}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0 auto;"  align="center"  colspan="2" cellpadding="3" style="font-size: 80%; width: 100%;"
|align=center colspan=2 style="background:#F4A460; font-size: 100%;"| '''Maurya structures and decorations at [[Sanchi]]<br />(3rd century BCE)'''
|-
|align="center" style="font-size: 100%; width: 1%;"|[[File:Sanchi Great Stupa Mauryan configuration.jpg|250px]]<br />Approximate reconstitution of the Great Stupa at [[Sanchi]] under the [[Mauryan Empire|Mauryas]].
|
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Ashokan Pillar - Stupa 1 - Sanchi Hill 2013-02-21 4361.JPG|Remains of the [[Pillars of Ashoka|Ashokan Pillar]] in polished stone (right of the Southern Gateway).
File:Ashoka pillar remains near Southern Gateway Stupa 1 Sanchi.jpg|Remains of the shaft of the pillar of Ashoka, under a shed near the Southern Gateway.
Sanchi Ashoka pillar with schism edit in 1913.jpg|Pillar and its inscription (the "Schism Edict") upon discovery.
File:Sanchi_capital_right_side_view.jpg|The capital nowadays.<ref>Described in Marshall [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.532798 p.25-28 Ashoka pillar].</ref>
</gallery>
|}

==Natural history==
[[File:Patna Yakshas and inscriptions.jpg|thumb|The two [[Yaksha]]s, possibly 3rd century BCE, found in [[Pataliputra]]. The two [[Brahmi]] inscriptions starting with [[File:Gupta ashoka y.svg|14px]] [[File:Gupta ashoka khe.jpg|12px]]... (''Yakhe...'' for "Yaksha...") are [[paleography|paleographically]] of a later date, circa 2nd century CE [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ramaprasad |first1=Chanda |title=Indian Antiquary A Journal Of Oriental Research Vol.48 |date=1919 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.532716/page/n296 25]-28 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.532716}}</ref>]]
The protection of animals in India was advocated by the time of the Maurya dynasty; being the first empire to provide a unified political entity in India, the attitude of the Mauryas towards forests, their denizens, and fauna in general is of interest.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor|last=Allen|first=Charles|publisher=Hachette Digital|year=2012|isbn=978-1-408-70388-5|location=London|pages=274}}</ref>

The Mauryas firstly looked at forests as resources. For them, the most important forest product was the elephant. Military might in those times depended not only upon horses and men but also [[War elephants|battle-elephants]]; these played a role in the defeat of [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]], one of [[Alexander the Great]]'s former generals. The Mauryas sought to preserve supplies of elephants since it was cheaper and took less time to catch, tame and train wild elephants than to raise them.<ref name="IWH4">Rangarajan, M. (2001) India's Wildlife History, pp 7.</ref>

The Mauryas also designated separate forests to protect supplies of timber, as well as lions and tigers for skins. Elsewhere the ''Protector of Animals'' also worked to eliminate thieves, tigers and other predators to render the woods safe for grazing cattle.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

The Mauryas valued certain forest tracts in strategic or economic terms and instituted curbs and control measures over them. They regarded all [[Adivasi|forest tribes]] with distrust and controlled them with bribery and political subjugation. They employed some of them, the food-gatherers or ''aranyaca'' to guard borders and trap animals. The sometimes tense and conflict-ridden relationship nevertheless enabled the Mauryas to guard their vast empire.<ref name="IWH5">Rangarajan, M. (2001) India's Wildlife History, pp 8.</ref>

When [[Ashoka]] embraced Buddhism in the latter part of his reign, he brought about significant changes in his style of governance, which included providing protection to fauna, and even relinquished the royal hunt. He was the first ruler in history{{failed verification|date=September 2017}} to advocate [[Conservation (ethic)|conservation]] measures for wildlife and even had rules inscribed in stone edicts. The edicts proclaim that many followed the emperor's example in giving up the slaughter of animals; one of them proudly states:<ref name="IWH5"/>
{{blockquote|Our king killed very few animals.|[[Edicts of Ashoka|Edict on Fifth Pillar]]}}

However, the edicts of Ashoka reflect more the desire of rulers than actual events; the mention of a 100 'panas' (coins) fine for poaching deer in imperial hunting preserves shows that rule-breakers did exist. The legal restrictions conflicted with the practices freely exercised by the common people in hunting, felling, fishing and setting fires in forests.<ref name="IWH5"/>

==Contacts with the Hellenistic world==
[[File:MauryanRingstone.JPG|thumb|Mauryan ringstone, with standing goddess. Northwest Pakistan. 3rd century BCE]]

===Greek population in India===
[[File:AsokaKandahar.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Kandahar Edict of Ashoka]], a bilingual edict ([[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Aramaic]]) by king Ashoka, from [[Kandahar]]. [[Kabul]] Museum. (See image description page for translation.)]]

An influential and large Greek population was present in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent under Ashoka's rule, possibly remnants of Alexander's conquests in the Indus Valley region. In the [[Edicts of Ashoka|Rock Edicts of Ashoka]], some of them inscribed in Greek, Ashoka states that the Greeks within his dominion were converted to Buddhism:

{{blockquote|Here in the king's dominion among the [[Yona|Greeks]], the [[Kambojas]], the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the [[Andhras]] and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in [[Dharma]].|[[Edicts of Ashoka|(Rock Edict Number 13]])}}
{{blockquote|Now, in times past (officers) called [[Mahamatras]] of morality did not exist before. Mahdmatras of morality were appointed by me (when I had been) anointed thirteen years. These are occupied with all sects in establishing morality, in promoting morality, and for the welfare and happiness of those who are devoted to morality (even) among the [[Yona|Greeks]], [[Kambojas]] and [[Gandharas]], and whatever other western borderers (of mine there are).|([[Major Rock Edicts|Rock Edict Number 5]])}}

Fragments of Edict 13 have been found in Greek, and a full Edict, written in both Greek and Aramaic, has been discovered in [[Kandahar]]. It is said to be written in excellent Classical Greek, using sophisticated philosophical terms. In this Edict, Ashoka uses the word [[Eusebeia]] ("[[Piety]]") as the Greek translation for the ubiquitous "[[Dharma]]" of his other Edicts written in [[Prakrit]]:{{primary source inline|date=August 2016}}

{{blockquote|Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King Piodasses (Ashoka) made known (the doctrine of) Piety (''εὐσέβεια'', [[Eusebeia]]) to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing) living beings, and other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily. |Trans. by G.P. Carratelli {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20051103235517/http://www.afghanan.net/afghanistan/mauryans.htm]}} {{unreliable source?|date=August 2016}}}}

===Buddhist missions to the West (c. 250&nbsp;BCE)===
<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
AiKhanoumAndIndia.jpg|The distribution of the [[Edicts of Ashoka]].<ref>Reference: "India: The Ancient Past" p.113, Burjor Avari, Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415-35615-6}}</ref>
Asoka̠ Buddhist Missions.png|Map of the Buddhist missions during the reign of [[Ashoka]].
Territories conquered by the Dharma according to Ashoka.jpg|Territories "conquered by the Dharma" according to [[Major Rock Edicts|Major Rock Edict No. 13]] of Ashoka (260–218 BCE).{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=57}}<ref name=ME368>Thomas Mc Evilly "The shape of ancient thought", Allworth Press, New York, 2002, p.368</ref>
</gallery>
Also, in the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], Ashoka mentions the Hellenistic kings of the period as recipients of his Buddhist proselytism, although no Western historical record of this event remains:

{{blockquote|The conquest by [[Dharma]] has been won here, on the borders, and even six hundred [[yojana]]s (5,400–9,600&nbsp;km) away, where the Greek king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]] rules, beyond there where the four kings named [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus|Ptolemy]], [[Antigonus Gonatas|Antigonos]], [[Magas of Cyrene|Magas]] and [[Alexander II of Epirus|Alexander]] rule, likewise in the south among the [[Chola dynasty|Cholas]], the [[Pandya]]s, and as far as [[Tamraparni]] ([[Anuradhapura Kingdom|Sri Lanka]]). |[[Edicts of Ashoka]], 13th Rock Edict, S. Dhammika.{{primary source inline|date=August 2016}}}}

Ashoka also encouraged the development of [[herbal medicine]], for men and animals, in their territories:
{{blockquote|Everywhere within Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's [Ashoka's] domain, and among the people beyond the borders, the Cholas, the Pandyas, the [[Velir|Satiyaputras]], the [[Chera dynasty|Keralaputras]], as far as [[Tamraparni]] and where the Greek king [[Antiochus II Theos|Antiochos]] rules, and among the kings who are neighbors of Antiochos, everywhere has Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, made provision for two types of medical treatment: medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available I have had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals. |[[Edicts of Ashoka|2nd Rock Edict]]{{primary source inline|date=August 2016}}}}

The Greeks in India even seem to have played an active role in the spread of Buddhism, as some of the emissaries of Ashoka, such as [[Dharmaraksita]], are described in [[Pāli|Pali]] sources as leading Greek ("[[Yona]]") Buddhist monks, active in Buddhist proselytism (the [[Mahavamsa]], XII<ref>''Mahavamsa'' [http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chapters.html chapter XII] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905050433/http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chapters.html |date=5 September 2006 }}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=August 2016}}).

==Timeline==
*317–316&nbsp;BCE: Chandragupta Maurya conquers the Northwest of the Indian subcontinent.
*between 322 and 305 BCE: Chandragupta Maurya [[Nanda-Mauryan War|conquers the Nanda Empire]], founding Maurya dynasty.{{efn-la|name="dating"}}
*305–303&nbsp;BCE: Chandragupta Maurya gains territory by [[Seleucid–Mauryan war|defeating the Seleucid Empire]].
*298–269&nbsp;BCE: Reign of Bindusara, Chandragupta's son. He conquers parts of [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]], southern India.
*269–232&nbsp;BCE: The Mauryan Empire reaches its height under Ashoka, Chandragupta's grandson.
*261&nbsp;BCE: Ashoka [[Kalinga War|conquers the Kingdom of Kalinga]].
*250&nbsp;BCE: Ashoka builds Buddhist stupas and erects pillars bearing inscriptions.
*184&nbsp;BCE: The empire collapses when Brihadratha, the last emperor, is killed by [[Pushyamitra Shunga]], a Mauryan general and the founder of the [[Shunga Empire]].

== Family tree and List of rulers ==
{{main|List of Maurya Emperors}}

== Branches and claimed descendants ==
* [[Mauryas of Puri|Mauryas of Konkana]] 
** ruled the coastal [[Konkan]] region in present-day Goa and Maharashtra states of India){{sfn|A.M. Shastri|1995|p=52}}{{sfn|Durga Prasad Dikshit|1980|p=77}}{{sfn|Charles D. Collins|1998|p=12}}

==See also==
* [[Moriya (tribe)|Moriya Republic]]
* [[Magadha]]
*[[Pradyota dynasty]]
*[[Gupta Empire]]
*[[History of India]]
*[[List of Hindu empires and dynasties]]

==Notes==
{{notelist|35em|group=lower-alpha|refs=
<!-- A -->
<!-- "Ajivikism" -->
{{efn|name="Ajivikism"|Ajivikism:
* {{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}: "The brahmanized regions of north-western India were now governed by rulers who had no sympathy for Brahmins or their sacrificial culture, and whose natural sympathies lay with the religions of Greater Magadha, primarily Jainism, Jivikism, and Buddhism."}} 
<!-- "arthasastra_dating-composite_authorship" -->
<ref group=lower-alpha name="arthasastra_dating-composite_authorship">the ''Arthashastra'', a work previously attributed to [[Chanakya|Kautilya]], but now thought to be composed by multiple authors in the first centuries of the [[common era]] (see also [[Arthashastra#cite note-dating authorship-2|Arthashastra, note on dating and authorship]]):
* {{harvtxt|Stein|Arnold|2010|p=73}}: "... another source that enjoyed high standing as a description of the early Mauryan state was the Arthashastra, a treatise on power discovered in the early twentieth century."
* {{harvnb|Hansen|2012|p=47}}: "in the ''Arthashastra''.  This text, while it may be based on earlier texts, dates to the second to fourth centuries CE.  Attributed to Kautilya, the ''Arthashastra'' is a prescriptive text packed full of instructions about how to govern."
* {{harvnb|Singh|2021|p=Chapter 1}}: "Kautilya’s Arthashastra is a brilliant treatise on statecraft which discusses how a king can acquire, maintain, and enhance his power. At one time, it was thought to belong to the Maurya period, but recent research suggests a later period of composition, between c. 50 and 300 CE."
* {{harvnb|Singh|2017|p=98}}: "Patrick Olivelle has suggested that while the prehistory of the work may go back to the mid-first century BCE, the first major redacton was composed between circa 50 and 125 CE, and the second one between circa 175 and 300 CE. In view of the continuing debate over its age, it is best to treat the ''Arthashatra'' as a text whose composition ranged over several centuries, before and after the turn of the millennium.   ... When I refer to "Kautilya," I use the name as a short-hand for the various authors (including, probably, one named Kautilya) who must have contributed to creating the text that has come down to us."
* {{harvnb|Olivelle|2013|p=25}}: "''Date'': Given its compositional history outlined above, the very question regarding ''the date'' or ''the author'' of the Arthaśastra becomes moot.  We have to instead seek ''dates'' and ''authors'' in the plural. (p. 29) Given that the composition of the AŚ proper begins with this recension, we can conclude, with some confidence that Kautilya composed his treatise sometime between 50 and 125 C.E. (p. 30) If we allow at least a few decades for this new edition of the AŚ to reach a wider audience and to gain renown, then we can place the upper limit, the ''terminus ante quem'', of the Śastric Redaction to around 300 C.E. or perhaps a bit earlier.  This we should not be too far off the mark in dating the redaction to 175&ndash;300 C.E.  (p. 31) ''Authorship'' Just as with the dates, with regard to authorship we also have to speak in the plural; the AŚ as we have it has multiple authors corresponding to the three phases of its composition.  Beyond that, we should also inquire about the early history of its reception, especially the ascription of the ''AŚ'' to Canakya and to Visnugupta."
*{{harvnb|Coningham|Young|2015|p=451}}: "However, there are issues with a number of the key sources recording the Mauryan world as exemplified by the work of Thomas Trautmann, who undertook a statistical analysis of the Arthashastra and concluded that it had not been written by a single author but that it comprised sections from a number of sources and authors. Stating that parts included those of "previous teachers whose works, in condensed form perhaps were bound into a single work by a compiler who divided the work into chapters, added the terminal verses, composed the first and last chapters", Trautmann concluded that "[w]e can say with confidence that Kautilya cannot have been the author of the Arthashastra as a whole" (1971: 174-175). Attributed by Trautmann to a date of the second century CE (1971: 177), Basham commented in Trautmann's preface that "No a historian the results may appear at first destructive. But the edifice which successive generations of Indian historians have built rests on very shaky foundations" (Basham 1971: xi)."</ref>
<!-- B -->
<!-- "Boesche_2003_assassination" -->
{{efn-la|name="Boesche_2003_assassination"|{{harvtxt|Boesche|2003}}, referring to Radha Kumud Mookerji, ''Chandragupta Maurya and His Times'', 4th ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988 [1966]), 31, 28-33: "Just after Alexander's death in 323 B.C.E., Chandragupta and Kautilya began their conquest of India by stopping the Greek invaders. In this effort they assassinated two Greek governors, Nicanor and Philip, a strategy to keep in mind when I later examine Kautilya's approval of assassination. "The assassinations of the Greek governors," wrote Radha Kumud Mookerji, "are not to be looked upon as mere accidents.""}}
<!-- "Brahmanism" -->
{{efn|name="Brahmanism"|While {{harvtxt|Nath Sen|1999|p= 164, (215) 217}} states (p.164) "During the Mauryan period Brahmanism was an important religion" (Nath Sen distinguishes Brahmanism from Hinduism; p. (215) 217: [At the time of [[Chandragupta II]] (ca. 380-415 CE) of the [[Gupta Empire]]] [...] [i]n place of the old sacrificial Brahmanism, Hinduism had appeared"). Others offer differing views:
* {{harvtxt|Thapar|1960}}: "...the Mauryas did not conform to the accepted religion of most royal families of the time, Brahmanism."
* {{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2011}}: 
:* "We know that Aśoka’s personal leanings were toward Buddhism, and tradition testifies to the fact that all the other rulers of the Maurya empire had strong links with Jainism, sometimes Ajivikism, but never with Brahmanism. A persistent tradition maintains that Candragupta was a Jaina."
:* "The picture that is slowly gaining ground in modern research is that the establishment of the Maurya empire spelt disaster for traditional Brahmanism. Brahmins in earlier days performed rituals at the courts of kings in the Brahmanical heartland. This Brahmanical heartland was conquered by rulers from Pāṭaliputra, who had no respect for Brahmanical rituals and needed no Brahmins at their courts."
:* "the region of Magadha had not been brahmanized at the time of Candragupta."
* {{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}: "The brahmanized regions of north-western India were now governed by rulers who had no sympathy for Brahmins or their sacrificial culture, and whose natural sympathies lay with the religions of Greater Magadha, primarily Jainism, Jivikism, and Buddhism."
* {{harvtxt|Omvedt|2003|p=119}} "Magadha was considered by Brahmanic literature to be a ''mleccha'' (barbarian) land where Vedic sacrifices and Brahmanic rituals were not performed.}}
<!-- "Buddhism" -->
{{efn|name="Buddhism"|Buddhism:
* {{harvtxt|Bronkhorst|2020|p=68}}: "The brahmanized regions of north-western India were now governed by rulers who had no sympathy for Brahmins or their sacrificial culture, and whose natural sympathies lay with the religions of Greater Magadha, primarily Jainism, Jivikism, and Buddhism."}}
<!-- C -->
<!-- "ceded_territory" -->
<ref group=lower-alpha name="ceded_territory">Ceded territory: [[Seleucus I]] ceded the Indian territories of [[Gedrosia]] west of the Indus, [[Paropamisadae]] (or [[Gandhara]]), and the territories of [[Arachosia]] (modern Kandahar, Afghanistan) ({{harvnb|Tarn|1922|p=100}}, {{harvnb|Kosmin|2014|p=33}}): 
* Tarn (1922), ''The Greeks In Bactria And India'', [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.125997/page/n117/mode/2up?q=chandragupta p.100], referring to Eratosthenes, who states (in Tarn words) that: "Alexander [...] took away from Iran the parts of these three satrapies which lay along the Indus and made of them separate [...] governments or province; it was these which Seleucus ceded, being districts predominantly Indian in blood. In Gedrosia the boundary is known: the country ceded was that between the Median [[Hydaspes]] (probably the Purali) and the Indus."
* {{harvtxt|Kosmin|2014|p=33}}: "Seleucus transferred to Chandragupta's kingdom the easternmost satrapies of his empire, certainly Gandhara, Parapamisadae, and the eastern parts of Gedrosia, and possibly also Arachosia and Aria as far as Herat."

The acquisition of [[Aria (satrapy)|Aria]] (modern [[Herat]]) is disputed. According to Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee (1996), p.594, it "has been wrongly included in the list of ceded satrapies by some scholars [...] on the basis of wrong assessments of the passage of Strabo [...] and a statement by Pliny." According to {{harvtxt|John D Grainger|2014|p=109}}, "Seleucus "must [...] have held Aria", and furthermore, his "son [[Antiochus I Soter|Antiochos]] was active there fifteen years later".</ref>
<!-- C -->
<!-- "core_regions" -->
{{efn-la|name="core_regions"|{{harvtxt|Stein|Arnold|2010|p=73}}: "at present what is taken to be the realm of Ashoka is a discontinuous set of several core regions separated by very large areas occupied by relatively autonomous peoples. Four core regions have been identified as belonging to Ashoka’s time, in addition to the kingdom’s heartland in the eastern Gangetic plain around Pataliputra; each of these was apparently under the authority of close kin or servants of Ashoka himself: Taxila in the foothills of the Hindu Kush; Ujjain on the Malwa plateau; Kalinga extending southward along the east coast from the Ganges delta; and Suvarnagiri, in modern Karnataka, in the centre of the lower Deccan Plateau."}}
<!-- D -->
<!-- "Dyson2018-lead-maurya" -->
{{efn|name="Dyson2018-lead-maurya"|{{harvtxt|Dyson|2018|pp=16–17}}: "Magadha power came to extend over the main cities and communication routes of the Ganges basin. Then, under Chandragupta Maurya (c.321–297 bce), and subsequently Ashoka his grandson, Pataliputra became the centre of the loose-knit Mauryan 'Empire' which during Ashoka's reign (c.268–232 bce) briefly had a presence throughout the main urban centres and arteries of the subcontinent, except for the extreme south."}}
<!-- I -->
<!-- "Iori_2023_maintenance" -->
{{efn-la|name="Iori_2023_maintenance"|{{harvtxt|Iori|2023|pp=184, 219}}: "At the end of the farming year when the land was free of crops (end of October–April) and the water level low, it was the time for maintenance activities (e.g., clearing of wells and water infrastructure) and the time when manpower could be invested in other production and building activities both in rural and urban contexts. But above all, this was the time for movement and trade. The uttarāpatha, that is the main road linking eastern Afghanistan to India through the cities of Kabul, Charsadda, and Taxila down to Patna, is indeed a winter road typically used when local rivers (Kabul, Indus, and the rivers of Punjab) are at their lowest levels, so that they can be easily forded (Olivieri 2020: 645–646).}}
<!-- J -->
<!-- "Jainism" -->
{{efn|name="Jainism"|Jainism:
* {{harvtxt|Smith|1981|p=99}}: "the only direct evidence throwing light [...] is that of Jain tradition [...] it may be that he [Chandragupta] embraced Jainism towards the end of his reign [...] after much consideration I am inclined to accept the main facts as affirmed by tradition [...] no alternative account exists."
* {{harvtxt|Dalrymple|2009}}: "It was here, in the third century BC, that the first Emperor of India, Chandragupta Maurya, embraced the Jain religion and died through a self-imposed fast to the death."}}
<!-- L -->
<!-- "limited_control" -->
{{efn-la|name="limited_control"|{{harvtxt|Fisher|2018|p=72}}: "Chandragupta’s many military and diplomatic conquests extended his overlordship further than any previous Indian ruler: from Afghanistan to Bengal and from the Himalayas down into the northern Deccan. But his administration lacked the technology and infrastructure to penetrate very deeply into society outside of Magadha."}}
<!-- M -->
<!-- "map_network_model" -->
<ref group=lower-alpha name="map_network_model">The "Network-model map" shows the Mauryan Empire as a network of core cities and regios, connected by communication and trade routes, surrounding areas (autonomous tribes; forests and (Thar-)desert) with little connection to this network. The network-model has been explained and used by several authors, also with regard to the mauryan Empire.
* Archaeologist {{harvtxt|Smith|2005}} explains the basic difference between traditional maps and network-model maps: "With broad lines and dark shading, the cartographic depictions of ancient states and empires convey the impression of comprehensive political entities having firm boundaries and uniform territorial control. These depictions oversimplify the complexities of early state growth, as well as overstating the capacity of central governments to control large territories. Archaeological and textual evidence suggests that ancient states are better understood through network models rather than boundedterritory models." 
:* {{harvtxt|Smith|2005|pp=842–844}} explains the network-model with regard to the Maurya Empire, including several maps with possible networks;
:* [https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/smith/2005SmithNetworksTerritories.pdf#page=13 Map 2005]
* Historians [[Hermann Kulke]] and [[Dietmar Rothermund]] depict the Maury Empire with several "autonomous and free tribes" ([https://archive.org/details/a-history-of-india_202106/page/363/mode/2up?view=theater legenda]): 
:* {{harvtxt|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=TPVq3ykHyH4C&pg=PA69 69-70]}} for map and explanation;
[[File:Map of Mauryan realms in Kulke and Rothermund, 2016.jpg|thumb|Kulke and Rothermund (2016)]] 
:* Kulke and Rothermund (1998), ''A History of India'', [https://archive.org/details/a-history-of-india_202106/page/363/mode/2up?view=theater map p.364]. 
:* {{harvtxt|Talbot|1994}} states about their book: "Kulke's discussion of the Mauryan empire is noteworthy for its questioning of earlier assertions regarding the huge territorial extent and high level of centralization in this state [...] ''A History of India'' is a great advance on its similarly titled predecessor published by Penguin. It is the best single volume on Indian history currently available in paperback&mdash;let us hope that A History of India remains in print for a good long time."
* Archeologist [[Raymond Allchin|F. R. Allchin]]: {{harvtxt|Allchin|1995|p=208}}
:* [https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofear0000allc/page/208/mode/2up?view=theater Fig 10.5. Map of probable provincial groupings of the Mauryan empire, with cities graded according to their size (p. 208)].  
* Archaeologist Carla Sinopoli: 
:* {{harvtxt|Sinopoli|2006|pp=324, 349}} Figure 15.1 page 330, "The Mauryan empire: major sites and possible territorial boundaries (after Sinopoli 2001b)";
:* [https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/4954193/20110301042242109-libre.pdf?1391737113=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DEast_Asian_plant_domestication.pdf&Expires=1731515076&Signature=WxzofsmML0AXhWk2FNihVdeQCnzn35mN~TSDuM7w9sb10MfL~NkY5dZ-FkYMXfEJFRvTB~LGcbCgBGpd0CcU0OCvT6aO3NhXpDFRX5Wnhv15Tzxc3pXBtoUW-UjaCQaOIY2eP~p69equkpXqnAuqXeDJRK8McxYEkMDbE9~hSu1r-HUwCfTzj6h9ynDzpPSyDXBiCEnYWAUrJSldwrmrSMXZJ5yBNnAHIFbQy7pEv33du-EnB3vvohdJWZd94PF0TVDWf-xhyTYXWy90SOBaWYIqva8mGiT1r3I5ipMYf9SDf~cnLkHFqyQUWVP5wqNTs0INAI6nZ14pgtlRKTjbpg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA#page=347 Map, p. 330]
* Archeologist [[Robin Coningham]] and [[Ruth Young (archaeologist)|Ruth Young]], following Monica Smith (2005), explicitly present the Mauryan Empire as such a network; see {{harvtxt|Coningham|Young|2015|pp=451–466}} for their explanation; 
:* see {{harvtxt|Coningham|Young|2015|p=453}} for their map.
:* direct link [https://books.google.com/books?id=yaJrCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA453 Map 2008];
:* Coningham and Young refer to historian [[Romila Thapar]] for an explanation of this approach. {{harvtxt|Coningham|Young|2015|p=452}}: "Romila Thapar again returned to the study of Asokan edits and noted the presence of three distinct "areas of isolation" within the empire &ndash; in the lower Indus plain, the eastern part of Central India, and the far south, but commented that, elsewhere, the Mauryans established routes between emerging centres of exchange (Thapar 1996: 287). Thapar also drew attention to the notable absence of "northern artefacts" in central Karnataka despire the "heavy cluster of inscriptions in the area", further commenting that such phenomena "requires us to view the possible divergences in the relations between the Mauryan administration and the local people of a region" (ibid: 288).  Revising her earlier models, Thapar has now suggested that the empire comprised relationships of control between three very different spheres, the metropolitan state, the core areas of previously established ''Janapadas'' and ''Mahajanapadas'' and, finally, the peripheral regions of "lineage-based societies" which "would be relatively liberated from the control of the metropolitan state" (ibid. 318)."
:* Coningham and Young also refer to anthropologist [[Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah|Stanley Tambiah]], who further explains this approach. {{harvtxt|Coningham|Young|2015|p=454}}: "Such models are close to the model advocated by Stanley Tambiah with his concept of the 'galactic polity' (1976). Although based on later Mediaeval Thai polities, Tambiah recognised the presence of concentric ring or centre-periphery model in which the capital and arena of direct control was surrounded by a circle of provinces ruled by centrally appointed governors and princes with an outermost ring of "more or less independent 'tributary' polities" (1976: 112) Moreover, Tambiah predictied a highly fluid relationship between these units suggesting that "we have before us a galactic picture of a central planet surrounded by differentiated satellites, which are more or less 'autonomous' entities, held in orbit and within the sphere of influence of the centre. Now if we introduce at the margin other similar competing central principalities and their satellites, we shall be able to appreciate the logic of a system that is a hierarchy of central points continually subject to the dynamics of pulsation and changing spheres of influence" (ibid: 113)."
* Historians [[Burton Stein]] and [[David Arnold (historian)|David Arnold]] also endorse the idea of "core regions." {{harvtxt|Stein|Arnold|2010|p=74}}: "In the past it was not uncommon for historians to conflate the vast space thus outlined with the oppressive realm described in the Arthashastra and to posit one of the earliest and certainly one of the largest totalitarian regimes in all of history. Such a picture is no longer considered believable; at present what is taken to be the realm of Ashoka is a discontinuous set of several core regions separated by very large areas occupied by relatively autonomous peoples."
* Historian {{harvtxt|Ludden|2013|pp=29–30}} compares the Mauryan Empire with a spider: "The geography of the Mauryan Empire resembled a spider with a small dense body and long spindly legs. The highest echelons of imperial society lived in the inner circle composed of the ruler, his immediate family, other relatives, and close allies, who formed a dynastic core. Outside the core, empire travelled stringy routes dotted with armed cities. Outside the palace, in the capital cities, the highest ranks in the imperial elite were held by military commanders whose active loyalty and success in war determined imperial fortunes. Wherever these men failed or rebelled, dynastic power crumbled [...] Imperial society flourished where elites mingled; they were its backbone, its strength was theirs. Kautilya’s ''Arthasastra'' indicates that imperial power was concentrated in its original heartland, in old ''Magadha'', where key institutions seem to have survived for about seven hundred years, down to the age of the Guptas. Here, Mauryan officials ruled local society, but not elsewhere. In provincial towns and cities, officials formed a top layer of royalty; under them, old conquered royal families were not removed, but rather subordinated. In most ''janapadas'', the Mauryan Empire consisted of strategic urban sites connected loosely to vast hinterlands through lineages and local elites who were there when the Mauryas arrived and were still in control when they left."
* Historical demographer {{harvtxt|Dyson|2018|pp=16–17}} mentions "the main urban centres and arteries of the subcontinent": "Magadha power came to extend over the main cities and communication routes of the Ganges basin. Then, under Chandragupta Maurya (c.321–297 bce), and subsequently Ashoka his grandson, Pataliputra became the centre of the loose-knit Mauryan 'Empire' which during Ashoka's reign (c.268–232 bce) briefly had a presence throughout the main urban centres and arteries of the subcontinent, except for the extreme south."</ref>
<!-- "map_solid_mass" -->
<ref group=lower-alpha name="map_solid_mass">[[File:Joppen-India-250BC.jpg|thumb|Joppen-map (1907)]] For a long time, the Maurya Empire has been conceptualised as a solid mass of territory controlled by the Mauryas; see for example [https://archive.org/details/historicalatlaso00jopprich/page/n83/mode/1up Charles Joppen (1907)], or the following authors "to illustrate the historical perspective that Mauryas controlled all of the interior land (in contrast to some scholars who are now conceptualizing an interior "holes" at the tribal/forest/desert parts)" ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Avantiputra7#Update_map_as_per_en-wiki_caption. comment by Avantiputra7], who created a 'maximum solid-mass' map):
* [[Vincent Arthur Smith]]; {{harvtxt|Smith|1920|pp=104–106}} 
* [[R. C. Majumdar]]; {{harvtxt|Majumdar|Raychaudhuri|Datta|1950|p=104}}  
* [[Joseph E. Schwartzberg]]; {{harvtxt|Schwartzberg|1992}}: 
:* Plate III.B.4b, p.18 [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/pager.html?object=055 p.18]; 
:* Plate XIV.1a-c, p.145 [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/pager.html?object=182 p.145].

The western borders in these maps are based on a maximum interpretation of the [[Seleucid–Mauryan War#Ceded territories|Peace treaty between Seleucid and Chandragupta]] of 303 BCE. This maximum interpretation has been disputed for over a century; see Tarn (1922), ''The Greeks In Bactria And India'', [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.125997/page/n117/mode/2up?q=chandragupta p.100]: "Extravagant ideas have been put forard as to what Seleucus did cede." Tarn, referring to Eratosthenes, states that: "Alexander [...] took away from Iran the parts of these three satrapies which lay along the Indus and made of them separate [...] governments or province; it was these which Seleucus ceded, being districts predominantly Indian in blood. In Gedrosia the boundary is known: the country ceded was that between the Median [[Hydaspes]] (probably the Purali) and the Indus."
<!-- Older comment: see [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Avantiputra7#Update_map_as_per_en-wiki_caption. this] and [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Avantiputra7#Alignment_with_Joppen_Map_Boundaries_in_Recent_Map_Update this] discussion. -->

Further note: ancient Aria was at modern-day Herat, not the Sistan basin of the Helmand River.

Other maps showing the maximum extent, including the ceded Seleucid territories, by:
* [https://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.06445/page/n421/mode/1up Archeological Survey Of India]
* [https://archive.org/details/timescompacthist0000unse_g4l2/page/29/mode/1up Geoffrey Parker]
* [https://archive.org/details/philipsatlasofwo0000unse_u6t7/page/46/mode/1up Patrick K. O'Brien]
* [https://archive.org/details/atlasofworldhist0000danz/page/44/mode/1up Gerald Danzer]
* [https://archive.org/details/waysofworld0000robe/page/121/mode/1up Robert W. Strayer and Eric Nelson]
* [https://archive.org/details/asokabuddhistemp00smitiala/asokabuddhistemp00smitiala/page/n284/mode/1up Vincent Arthur Smith]
* [https://archive.org/details/historyatlasofas00ianb/page/43/mode/1up Ian Barnes]
</ref>
<!-- R -->
<!-- "Roy_2012a_p28_changes" -->
{{efn-la|name="Roy_2012a_p28_changes"|{{harvtxt|Roy|2012a|p=28}}: "This period is noted for three important changes. One change was the rise of religions that advocated nonviolence, thereby reducing sacrifices and expensive rituals. The emphasis on a frugal lifestyle and peaceful neighborly relations suited the mercantile temperament. Not surprisingly, merchants were the principal sponsors of these religions. Settlement sites have been found in the middle-Ganges plains for this earliest period of known commerce that indicate the presence of long-distance trade. A second change was the introduction of coinage in the sixth century BCE, which promoted regional monetary integration. The third change was the increasing use of writing, which may have indirectly helped long-distance and complex economic transactions.5 This process of change was centered in the eastern Gangetic plains, where settled agriculture had given rise to powerful landed communities yet where access to the sea and to river-borne trade remained the principal means of procuring precious metals and consumption goods. States, therefore, chose to sponsor merchants and the religion of the merchants, Buddhism. The Mauryan Empire revealed a combination of all of these elements: commerce, religion, agriculture, and coinage."}}
<!-- T -->
<!-- "territorial_extent" -->
{{efn-la|name="territorial_extent"|Territorial extent:
* {{harvtxt|Ludden|2013|p=47}}: "IMPERIAL BHARAT The Mauryas defined an ancient territory called Bharat. Marching along old trade routes, the empire acquired the geometrical shape of a tall triangle with a broad base, with its apex in Magadha. One long northern leg ran west up the Ganga, across Punjab, into the Hindu Kush; and one long leg ran south-west from Pataliputra, up the Son river valley, down the Narmada River into Berar, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. The broad base spanned Punjab, the Indus, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and western Maharashtra. The northwestern frontier revolved around Gandhara and Kashmir; the south-western frontier around Nasika, now Nasik, in Maharashtra. North of Kashmir and west of the Khyber Pass, Greek dynasties held sway. South of Nasika, the Mauryan presence consisted primarily of diplomatic missions."
* {{harvtxt|Stein|Arnold|2010|p=73}}: "In 305 BCE one of his successors attempted a reinvasion but was so fiercely resisted that he was forced to conclude a treaty with Chandragupta that accepted the latter’s sovereignty south of the Hindu Kush range."}} 
}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
* {{cite book |editor=A.M. Shastri |editor-link=Ajay Mitra Shastri |title=Viśvambharā, Probings in Orientology: Prof. V.S. Pathak Festschrift |volume=1 |year=1995 |publisher=Harman |isbn=978-8185151762 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fQ0wAQAAIAAJ }}
* {{cite book |author=Durga Prasad Dikshit |title=Political History of the Chālukyas of Badami |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lEB11tKmCgcC&pg=PA152 |year=1980 |publisher=Abhinav |oclc=8313041 }}
* {{cite book |author=Charles D. Collins |title=The Iconography and Ritual of Śiva at Elephanta |year=1998 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=9780791499535 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shgtik9gYnIC}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|40em}}
<!-- A -->
* {{cite book | editor-last =Allchin | editor-first =F. R. | last =Allchin | first =F. R.|author-link=Raymond Allchin|year=1995|title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States|chapter=The Mauryan State and Empire|pages=183&ndash;221|publisher=Cambridge University Press|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofear0000allc/page/208/mode/2up?view=theater}}
* {{cite book | last =Avari | first =Burjor | year =2007 | title =India, the Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Sub-continent from C. 7000 BC to AD 1200 |  publisher = Taylor & Francis | isbn =978-0415356152 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1e2V_4Um10C | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20221123134054/ | archive-date=23 November 2022}}
<!-- B -->
* {{cite book |last =Basham | first =Arthur Llewellyn Basham |year=1951 |author-link=Arthur Llewellyn Basham |others=foreword by L. D. Barnett |title=History and doctrines of the Ājīvikas: a vanished Indian religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5-cYAAAAIAAJ |edition=1 |publisher=Luzac |location=[[London]] }}
* {{cite book| last =Boesche | first =Roger | year =2003| title =The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra |publisher =Lexington Books |isbn =978-0-7391-0607-5 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=K85NA7Rg67wC&pg=PA670}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Boyce | first1=Mary |last2=Grenet |first2=F. |title=A History of Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule |date=January 1991 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-29391-5 |page=149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Euh5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA149 |language=en}}
* {{cite journal | last =Bronkhorst | first =Johannes | year =2011 | title =Candragupta Maurya and his importance for Indian history | journal = Indologica Taurinensia 37 (2011 [2014]), 107-121}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Bronkhorst | first1 =Johannes | date =July 2020 | author-link1 =Johannes Bronkhorst | chapter =Historical Context of early Asceticism | editor-last =Flood | editor-first =Gavin | title =The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice |publisher =Oxford University Press | isbn =978-0-19-873350-8 | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=fxT0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 | language=en}}
<!-- C -->
* {{cite book |author=John Cort |author-link=John E. Cort |title=Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDBpq23-0QoC |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-538502-1 }}
* {{citation | last1 =Coningham | first1 =Robin | last2 =Young | first2 =Ruth | year =2015 | title =The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE–200 CE | publisher =Cambridge University Press | isbn =978-1-316-41898-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaJrCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA453}}
<!-- D -->
* {{Cite book|last=Dalrymple|first=William|date=7 October 2009|title=Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4088-0341-7|language=en|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mc2IVc6obeAC&pg=PT21}}
* {{cite book |author=Alain Daniélou |title=A Brief History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xlwoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |year=2003 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-59477-794-3 }}
* {{citation | last =Dyson | first =Tim | year =2018| title =A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day | publisher =Oxford University Press | isbn =978-0-19-882905-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TRtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA16}}
<!-- F -->
*{{cite book|last=Fisher|first=Michael|title=An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century|location=Cambridge and London|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year =2018|isbn=9781316276044|doi=10.1017/9781316276044}}
<!-- G -->
* {{cite book |author=John D Grainger |title=Seleukos Nikator (Routledge Revivals): Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0TXKAgAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-317-80098-9 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Grant | first=R. G. | year =2010 | title=Commanders: History's Greatest Military Leaders | publisher =DK Publishing |isbn=978-0-7566-7341-3 |language=en | url =https://archive.org/details/epdf.pub_commanders-rg-grant-dk/page/n5/mode/2up?q=chandragupta}}
<!-- H -->
* {{cite journal | last= Iori | first =Elisa | year =2023 | title =Releasing Urban Religion beyond the City Wall: The Spatial Capital of Early Buddhist Monasticism in NW South Asia | journal =Numen | volume=70 | issue =2–3 | pages =184&ndash;219 | doi=10.1163/15685276-20231691 | doi-access =free | hdl =10278/5079362 | hdl-access =free }}
* {{cite book |author1=Irfan Habib |author2=Vivekanand Jha |title=Mauryan India |series=A People's History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUvGQgAACAAJ |year=2004 |publisher=Aligarh Historians Society / [[Tulika Books]] |isbn=978-81-85229-92-8 }}
* {{cite book|last=Hansen|first=Valerie|year=2012|title=The Silk Road: A New History|location=Oxford and New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515931-8}}
* {{citation |last=Hemacandra |translator=R.C.C. Fynes |title=The Lives of the Jain Elders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quNpKVqABGMC |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-283227-6}}
<!-- J -->
* {{cite book |author=Kailash Chand Jain |title=Lord Mahāvīra and His Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-TxcO9dfrcC |date=1991 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-81-208-0805-8 }}
* {{citation |last=Jansari |first=Sushma |title=Chandragupta Maurya: The creation of a national hero in India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BOG9EAAAQBAJ |year=2023 |publisher=UCL Press |isbn=9781800083882}}
<!-- K -->
* {{cite book |last1=Keay |first1=John |date=1981 |title=India: A History |publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic |isbn=978-0-8021-9550-0 |language=en|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IquM4BrJ4YC&pg=PT174 }}
* John Keay (2000). ''India, a History''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
* {{cite book |last1=Kosmin |first1=Paul J. |author-link=Paul J. Kosmin |title=The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UWdAwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-674-72882-0 }}
* {{cite book | last1 =Kulke | first1 =Hermann | last2 =Rothermund | first2 =Dietmar | year =2004| title=A History of India |edition=4th  |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[London]] |isbn=0-415-15481-2}}
<!-- L -->
* {{cite book | last =Lahiri | first =Nayanjot | year =2015 | title =Ashoka in Ancient India | publisher =Harvard University Press}}
* {{cite book |last1=Long |first1=Jeffery D.|author-link=Jeffery D. Long |title=Historical Dictionary of Hinduism |date=15 April 2020|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-2294-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWXRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA255 |language=en}}
* {{citation | last =Ludden | first =David | year =2013 | title =India and South Asia: A Short History | publisher =Oneworld Publications | isbn =978-1-78074-108-6 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=EbFHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA29}}
<!-- M -->
* {{citation|last1=Majumdar|first1=R. C.|last2=Raychaudhuri|first2=H. C.|last3=Datta|first3=Kalikinkar|title=An Advanced History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyIWMwEACAAJ|edition=Second|year=1950|publisher=Macmillan & Company|page=104}}
* {{cite book |author=R. C. Majumdar |author-link=R. C. Majumdar |title=Ancient India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNxiN5tzKOgC |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |year=2003 |orig-year=1952 |isbn=81-208-0436-8 }}
* {{citation |last=Malalasekera |first=Gunapala Piyasena |title=Encyclopaedia of Buddhism: Acala |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5UfYAAAAMAAJ |year=2002 |publisher=Government of Ceylon}}
* {{cite book |author=R. K. Mookerji |author-link=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA3 |year=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0405-0 }}
* {{citation |last=Mookerji |first=Radha Kumud |author-link=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and his times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C |edition=4th |year=1988 |orig-year=first published in 1966 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=81-208-0433-3}}
<!-- N -->
* {{cite book | last =Nath Sen | first =Sailendra | year=1999 | title =Ancient Indian History and Civilization| publisher =Routledge | page= 164, (215) 217 | isbn =9788122411980 |url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen}}
<!-- O -->
* {{cite book|last=Olivelle|first=Patrick|year=2013|author-link=Patrick Olivelle|title=King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya's Arthaśastra|location=Oxford and New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-989182-5}}
* {{cite book |last1=Omvedt |first1=Gail |date=18 August 2003 |title=Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-0-7619-9664-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rSF8b5hbyP0C&pg=PT70 |language=en}}
<!-- R -->
* {{cite book | last1 =Ray | first1 =Niharranjan | last2 =Chattopadhyaya | first2 =Brajadulal | year =2000 | title =A Sourcebook of Indian Civilization | publisher =Orient Blackswan}}
* {{cite book |author=H. C. Raychaudhuri |author-link=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri |chapter=India in the Age of the Nandas |editor=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |editor-link=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |title=Age of the Nandas and Mauryas |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoAwor58utYC&pg=PA11 |year=1988 |orig-year=1967 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=Delhi |isbn=978-81-208-0466-1 }}
* {{citation |last=Raychaudhuri |first=H. C. |author-link=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri |chapter=India in the Age of the Nandas / Chandragupta and Bindusara |editor=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |editor-link=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |title=Age of the Nandas and Mauryas |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://indianculture.gov.in/ebooks/age-nandas-and-mauryas-0 |year=1967 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass (1988 reprint) |isbn=978-81-208-0466-1 }}
* {{cite book |author1=H. C. Raychaudhuri |author1-link=H C Raychaudhuri |author2=B. N. Mukherjee |year=1996 |title=Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] }}
* {{citation |last=Roy |first=Kaushik |title=Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-107-01736-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRE3n1VwDTIC}}
*{{cite book|last=Roy|first=Tirthankar|author-link=Tirthankar Roy|title=India in the World Economy: From Antiquity to the Present|location=Cambridge and New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-00910-3|year=2012a}}
<!-- S -->
* {{cite book | last =Samuel | first=Geoffrey |year=2010 |title=The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
* {{cite book| last =Sinopoli|first=Carla M.|year=2006|chapter=Imperial Landscapes of South Asia| title=Archaeology of Asia|editor-last=Start|editor-first=Miriam T.|series=Blackwell Series in Global Archaeology|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Malden, MA, USA and Oxford UK|isbn=978-1-4051-0212-4}}
* {{cite book | last =Schwartzberg | first =Joseph E. | year =1992 | title =A Historical Atlas of South Asia | edition =2nd  | publisher =University of Minnesota | url =https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/ }}
* {{citation | last =Sen |first=R.K. |title=Journal of the Buddhist Text Society of India |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0ZBAQAAMAAJ |year=1895 |publisher=The Society |chapter=Origin of the Maurya of Magadha and of Chanakya}}
* {{cite book | last =Sen |first= Sailendra Nath | year =1999 | title =Ancient Indian History and Civilization |publisher= Routledge | isbn =9788122411980 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&q=maurya+dynasty+sen}}
* {{cite book | author =S. N. Sen | title =Ancient Indian History and Civilization |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC |year=1999 |publisher=New Age International |isbn=978-81-224-1198-0 }}
* {{cite book | author =Upinder Singh | title =A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GW5Gx0HSXKUC |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-81-317-1677-9 }}
* {{cite journal | last =Singh | first =Upinder |title=Governing the State and the Self: Political Philosophy and Practice in the Edicts of Aśoka |journal=South Asian Studies |year=2012 |publisher=University of Delhi |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=131–145 |doi=10.1080/02666030.2012.725581|s2cid=143362618 }}
* {{cite book|last=Singh|first=Upinder|year=2017|title=Political Violence in Ancient India|location=Cambridge, MA and London|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674975279}}
* {{cite book|last=Singh|first=Upinder|year=2021|author-link=Upinder Singh|title=Ancient India: Culture of Contraditions|publisher=Aleph|isbn=978-93-90652-61-7}}
* {{cite book | last =Sircar | first =Dineschandra | title=Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AqKw1Mn8WcwC&pg=PA167 | year=1971 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0690-0 }}
* {{citation| last =Smith | first =Vincent Arthur |year=1920|title=The Oxford History of India: From the Earliest Times to the End of 1911|publisher=Clarendon Press|pages=104–106|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2gxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA104}}
* {{cite book | last1 =Smith | first1 =vincent A. |date=1981 |title=The Oxford History Of India Part. 1-3, Ed. 4th |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.99999/page/n121/mode/2up}}
* {{cite journal | last =Smith | first =Monica L. | year =2005 | author-link =Monica L. Smith | title =Networks, Territories, and the Cartography of Ancient States | journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers | volume =95 | issue = 4 | pages =832–849 | doi =10.1111/j.1467-8306.2005.00489.x | bibcode =2005AAAG...95..832S | url =https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/smith/2005SmithNetworksTerritories.pdf}}
* {{cite book  | last =Srinivasachariar| first =M. |year=1974 | title=History of Classical Sanskrit Literature | publisher =Motilal Banarsidass | isbn=9788120802841 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4dVRvVyHaiQC&pg=PR87 }}
* Burton Stein (1998). ''A History of India'' (1st ed.), Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
: {{citation | last1 =Stein | first1 =Burton | first2 =David | year =2010 | title =A History of India | author-link1 =Burton Stein | last2 =Arnold | author-link2 =David Arnold (historian) | publisher =John Wiley & Sons | isbn =978-1-4443-2351-1| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC&pg=GBS.PA74}}
<!-- T -->
* {{cite journal|last1=Taagepera|first1=Rein|date=1979|title=Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D.|jstor=1170959|journal=[[Social Science History]]|volume=3|issue=3/4|page=132|doi=10.2307/1170959}}
* {{cite journal|last=Talbot|first=Cynthia|year=1994|title=Reviewed Work: ''A History of India'' by Hermann Kulke, Dietmar Rothermund|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=114|issue=1|pages=126–127|doi=10.2307/604988 |jstor=604988 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/604988|url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite book | last =Tarn | first =W. W. | year =1922 | title =The Greeks in Bactria and India | publisher =Cambridge University Press | url =https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.125997/page/n3/mode/2up}}
* {{cite journal | last =Thapar | first =Romila | year =1960 | title =Aśoka and Buddhism | journal =Past & Present |issue=18 |pages=43–51 | doi =10.1093/past/18.1.43 }}
* {{cite book | first1 =Romila | last1 =Thapar | year =1990 | title =A History of India, Volume 1 | publisher =Penguin Books | author-link =Romila Thapar | isbn =0-14-013835-8}}
* {{cite book | author =Romila Thapar |year=2004 | title =Early India: From the Origins to A.D. 1300 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5irrXX0apQC |orig-year=first published by Penguin in 2002 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24225-8 }}
* {{citation | last =Thapar | first =Romila | year=2013 | author-link =Romila Thapar | title =The Past Before Us|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aei9AAAAQBAJ | publisher =[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-72651-2 }}
* {{citation |first=Thomas R. |last=Trautmann |author-link=Thomas Trautmann |title=Kauṭilya and the Arthaśāstra: a statistical investigation of the authorship and evolution of the text |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3iDAAAAMAAJ |year=1971 |publisher=Brill }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Mauryan Empire}}
*[https://www.livius.org/man-md/mauryas/mauryas.html ''Livius.org'': Maurya dynasty]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226183742/https://www.livius.org/man-md/mauryas/mauryas.html |date=26 February 2012 }}.
*[http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/ancient/maurya.htm Extent of the Empire]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140328144411/http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html Ashoka's Edicts] (archived 28 March 2014)

{{S-start}}
{{Succession box
 | title = [[Magadha]]<br />Maurya Empire
 | years =
 | before = [[Nanda dynasty]]
 | after = [[Shunga dynasty]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Middle kingdoms of India}}
{{Empires}}
{{Uttarakhand}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maurya Empire}}
[[Category:Maurya Empire| ]]
[[Category:Ancient Indian monarchies]]
[[Category:Iron Age countries in Asia]]
[[Category:Iron Age cultures of South Asia]]
[[Category:Former empires]]
[[Category:Ancient history of Pakistan]]
[[Category:Ancient history of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Jain empires and kingdoms]]
[[Category:Buddhist dynasties of India]]
[[Category:Magadha]]
[[Category:4th century BC in India]]
[[Category:3rd century BC in India]]
[[Category:2nd century BC in India]]
[[Category:320s BC establishments]]
[[Category:States and territories established in the 4th century BC]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in the 2nd century BC]]
[[Category:4th-century BC establishments in India]]
[[Category:Former monarchies of India]]
[[Category:History of Nepal]]