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Maurya Dynasty

Capital from a palace of Ashoka;

Lahore museum

The Mauryas: Indian dynasty in the fourth-third centuries BCE, which unified thesubcontinent for the f irst time and contributed to the spread of Buddhism.

In the last weeks of 327 BCE, the Macedonian king Alexander the Greatinvaded the valley of the river Kabul, and in the next months, heconquered Taxila, defeated the Indian king Porus at the river Hydaspes,and reached the eastern border of the Punjab. He wanted to continue tothe kingdom of Magadha in the Lower Ganges valley, but his soldiersrefused to go any further, and Alexander was forced to go south. ManyIndians now resisted the invaders. By the end of 325, the Macedonianking had left the area of what is now Karachi, and his admiral Nearchuswas forced out of Patala.

Alexander's conquests had been spectacular, but he had not conqueredIndia. On the contrary. Not even the Punjab and the Indus valley weresafe possessions of his kingdom. Before Alexander had died in 323, hehad redeployed nearly all his troops west of the Indus. For the first time,he had lost part of his empire. On the other hand, his invasion changed the

course of Indian history. In Taxila, a young man named ChandraguptaMaurya had seen the Macedonian army, and - believing that anything aEuropean could do an Indian could do better - decided to train an army ona similar footing. In 321, he seized the throne of Magadha. The Mauryanempire was born.

Chandragupta Maurya (c.321-c.297)

Chandragupta was a pupil of a famous Brahman teacher, Kautilya. OnceChandragupta had conquered the Nanda throne, he invaded the Punjab -and he was lucky. In 317, one of Alexander's successors, Peithon, thesatrap of Media, tried to subdue the leaders of the eastern provinces, whounited against him. This civil war offered Chandragupta the opportunityhe needed and he was able to capture Taxila, the capital of the Punjab.

When the situation in Alexander's former kingdom had stabilized, one of his successors, Seleucus, tried to reconquer the eastern territories, but thewar was inconclusive, and the Macedonian offered a peace treaty toChandragupta. The latter recognized the Seleucid Empire and gave hisnew friend 500 elephants; Seleucus recognized the Mauryan empire and

gave up the eastern territories, including Gandara and Arachosia (i.e., thecountry northeast of modern Qandahar). Finally, there was epigamia,which can mean that either the two dynasties intermarried, or the unionsof Macedonians/Greeks with Indians were recognized.

Chandragupta had now united the Indus and Ganges valley - a formidableempire. There was a secret service, there were inspectors, there was alarge army, and the capital at Patna became a beautiful city. His adviser

Kautilya wrote a guide to statecraft which is known as  Arthasastra. AGreek visitor, Megasthenes, gives a very strange description of the caste

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system (accepting seven instead of the usual four classes of people), and itis likely that he describes an attempted reform. This is certainly notimpossible, because Chandragupta turned out to be not deeply attached toorthodox Brahmanism. According to the ancient scriptures of the Jainists,the king abdicated at the end of his life (in 297?) in favor of Bindusara,and converted to the Jaina faith; he died as an ascetic, having fasted todeath.

Bindusara Maurya (c.297-c.272)

Bindusara was the son of Chandragupta. His reign lasted a quarter of acentury, until 272, but of the three great Mauryan emperors, he is the leastknown. For example, he is mentioned as the man who conquered "thecountry between the two seas" (i.e., the Bay of Bengal and the ArabianSea), which suggests that he conquered central India, but the same deedsare ascribed to his son Ashoka. We can not choose between these two.

Bindusara had some contacts with the far west, where Antiochus I Soter

had succeeded his father Seleucus as king of the Seleucid empire.Bindusara approached him, asking for wine, figs, and a philosopher - theking sending him only the two first products, saying that philosopherswere not fit for export. Whatever one thinks about this anecdote, it provesthat there were diplomatic contacts. It comes as a surprise, therefore, thatBindusara is called  Amitrochates in Greek sources, which simply can notbe a rendering of Bindusara's name. A possible explanation is thatBindusara had accepted a throne name  Amitragatha, 'destroyer of enemies'. Possible. But why isn't this mentioned in Indian sources? Thisking remains a mystery.

Ashoka Maurya (c.272-c.232)Texts from southern India mention the Mauryan chariots invading thecountry "thundering across the land, with white pennants brilliant likesunshine". Indeed, Ashoka, who succeeded his father Bindusara in 272,was a great conqueror, and the first to unite the Indian subcontinent,except for the extreme south. However, the emperor came to hate war

after he had seen the bloodshed of the conquest of Kalinga in easternIndia, and he converted to Buddhism. He wanted to establish dhamma,'the law of justice', everywhere in India and Arachosia. In the rock edictshe left behind on several places in his realm, the emperor says:

The beloved of the gods [...] conquered Kalinga eight years after hiscoronation. One hundred and fifty thousand people were deported,one hundred thousand were killed and many more died from othercauses. After the Kalingas had been conquered, the beloved of thegods came to feel a strong inclination towards the dhamma, a lovefor the dhamma and for instruction in dhamma. Now the beloved of the gods feels deep remorse for having conquered the Kalingas.

Indeed, the beloved of the gods is deeply pained by the killing,dying and deportation that take place when an unconquered country

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Two boulders with rock edicts

near Shahbazgarhi (Pakistan)

is conquered. But the beloved of the gods is pained even more bythis -that Brahmans, ascetics, and householders of different religionswho live in those countries, and who are respectful to superiors, tomother and father, to elders, and who behave properly and havestrong loyalty towards friends, acquaintances, companions, relatives,servants and employees- that they are injured, killed or separatedfrom their loved ones. Even those who are not affected by all thissuffer when they see friends, acquaintances, companions and

relatives affected. These misfortunes befall all as a result of war,and this pains the beloved of the gods.

'Coin' of Chandragupta (©!!)

It seems that Ashoka was sincere when he proclaimed his belief in ahimsa

(non-violence) and cooperation between religions ("contact betweenreligions is good"). He never conquered the south of India or Sri Lanka,which would have been logical, and instead sent out missionaries -as faraway as Cyrenaica- to convert others to the same beliefs, and sent hisbrother to Sri Lanka. He erected several stupas, founded Buddhistmonasteries, softened the harsh laws of Bindusara and Chandragupta,forbade the brutal slaughter of animals, and organized a large Buddhistcouncil at Patna, which had to establish a new canon of sacred texts and

repress heresies.

Decline

After the death of Ashoka, the Mauryan empire declined. In c.240, theBactrian leaders -who were of Greek descent- revolted from theirSeleucid overlords, and although king Antiochus III the Great restoredorder in 206, the Bactrian leader Euthydemus declared himself 

independent within a decade. Not much later, the Graeco-Bactriankingdom expanded into Drangiana and Gandara.

The invasion of the Punjab, which took place in 184, revitalized the Greekculture in the region south of the Hindu Kush mountain range, where

Euthydemus' son Demetrius created a new kingdom, consisting of Gandara, Arachosia, the Punjab and even a part of the Ganges valley.Demetrius died in c.170 and left his kingdom to his sons, who continuedto fight against the Mauryan empire. However, they were divided. Butwhen king Menander reunited the Indo-Greek kingdom in c.125, thewesterners were able to invade the heartland of the already contractedMauryan empire, and even captured Patna. Never has a Greek armyreached a more eastern point.

Yet, the Indo-Greek kings had to accept the realities created by the

Mauryan empire. Buddhism was to be the religion of the future. KingMenander converted and became something of a Buddhist saint. One of the holy texts of Buddhism is called  Milindapañha, 'Questions of Menander'.

© Jona Lendering for

Livius.Org, 2006Revision: 26 March 201

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