Download Maurya Dynasty

Maurya Dynasty
Livius.Org
9/13/11 3:48 PM
Anatolia
Carthage
Egypt
Germ. Inf.
Greece
Judaea
Mesopotamia
Persia
Rome
Other
Maurya Dynasty
The Mauryas: Indian dynasty in the fourth-third centuries BCE, which unified the
subcontinent for the first time and contributed to the spread of Buddhism.
In the last weeks of 327 BCE, the Macedonian king Alexander the Great
invaded the valley of the river Kabul, and in the next months, he
conquered Taxila, defeated the Indian king Porus at the river Hydaspes,
and reached the eastern border of the Punjab. He wanted to continue to
the kingdom of Magadha in the Lower Ganges valley, but his soldiers
refused to go any further, and Alexander was forced to go south. Many
Indians now resisted the invaders. By the end of 325, the Macedonian
king had left the area of what is now Karachi, and his admiral Nearchus
was forced out of Patala.
Capital from a palace of Ashoka;
Lahore museum
Alexander's conquests had been spectacular, but he had not conquered
India. On the contrary. Not even the Punjab and the Indus valley were
safe possessions of his kingdom. Before Alexander had died in 323, he
had 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 Chandragupta
Maurya had seen the Macedonian army, and - believing that anything a
European could do an Indian could do better - decided to train an army on
a similar footing. In 321, he seized the throne of Magadha. The Mauryan
empire was born.
Chandragupta Maurya (c.321-c.297)
Chandragupta was a pupil of a famous Brahman teacher, Kautilya. Once
Chandragupta had conquered the Nanda throne, he invaded the Punjab and he was lucky. In 317, one of Alexander's successors, Peithon, the
satrap of Media, tried to subdue the leaders of the eastern provinces, who
united against him. This civil war offered Chandragupta the opportunity
he 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 the
war was inconclusive, and the Macedonian offered a peace treaty to
Chandragupta. The latter recognized the Seleucid Empire and gave his
new friend 500 elephants; Seleucus recognized the Mauryan empire and
gave up the eastern territories, including Gandara and Arachosia (i.e., the
country northeast of modern Qandahar). Finally, there was epigamia,
which can mean that either the two dynasties intermarried, or the unions
of Macedonians/Greeks with Indians were recognized.
Chandragupta had now united the Indus and Ganges valley - a formidable
empire. There was a secret service, there were inspectors, there was a
large army, and the capital at Patna became a beautiful city. His adviser
Kautilya wrote a guide to statecraft which is known as Arthasastra. A
Greek visitor, Megasthenes, gives a very strange description of the caste
http://www.livius.org/man-md/mauryas/mauryas.html
Page 1 of 3
Maurya Dynasty
9/13/11 3:48 PM
system (accepting seven instead of the usual four classes of people), and it
is likely that he describes an attempted reform. This is certainly not
impossible, because Chandragupta turned out to be not deeply attached to
orthodox 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 to
death.
Bindusara Maurya (c.297-c.272)
Bindusara was the son of Chandragupta. His reign lasted a quarter of a
century, until 272, but of the three great Mauryan emperors, he is the least
known. For example, he is mentioned as the man who conquered "the
country between the two seas" (i.e., the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian
Sea), which suggests that he conquered central India, but the same deeds
are 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 - the
king sending him only the two first products, saying that philosophers
were not fit for export. Whatever one thinks about this anecdote, it proves
that there were diplomatic contacts. It comes as a surprise, therefore, that
Bindusara is called Amitrochates in Greek sources, which simply can not
be a rendering of Bindusara's name. A possible explanation is that
Bindusara had accepted a throne name Amitragatha, 'destroyer of
enemies'. Possible. But why isn't this mentioned in Indian sources? This
king remains a mystery.
Ashoka Maurya (c.272-c.232)
Texts from southern India mention the Mauryan chariots invading the
country "thundering across the land, with white pennants brilliant like
sunshine". 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 eastern
India, and he converted to Buddhism. He wanted to establish dhamma,
'the law of justice', everywhere in India and Arachosia. In the rock edicts
he left behind on several places in his realm, the emperor says:
The beloved of the gods [...] conquered Kalinga eight years after his
coronation. One hundred and fifty thousand people were deported,
one hundred thousand were killed and many more died from other
causes. After the Kalingas had been conquered, the beloved of the
gods came to feel a strong inclination towards the dhamma, a love
for 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
http://www.livius.org/man-md/mauryas/mauryas.html
Page 2 of 3
Maurya Dynasty
9/13/11 3:48 PM
Two boulders with rock edicts
near Shahbazgarhi (Pakistan)
is conquered. But the beloved of the gods is pained even more by
this -that Brahmans, ascetics, and householders of different religions
who live in those countries, and who are respectful to superiors, to
mother and father, to elders, and who behave properly and have
strong loyalty towards friends, acquaintances, companions, relatives,
servants and employees- that they are injured, killed or separated
from their loved ones. Even those who are not affected by all this
suffer 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.
It seems that Ashoka was sincere when he proclaimed his belief in ahimsa
(non-violence) and cooperation between religions ("contact between
religions is good"). He never conquered the south of India or Sri Lanka,
which would have been logical, and instead sent out missionaries -as far
away as Cyrenaica- to convert others to the same beliefs, and sent his
brother to Sri Lanka. He erected several stupas, founded Buddhist
monasteries, softened the harsh laws of Bindusara and Chandragupta,
forbade the brutal slaughter of animals, and organized a large Buddhist
council 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, the
Bactrian leaders -who were of Greek descent- revolted from their
Seleucid overlords, and although king Antiochus III the Great restored
order in 206, the Bactrian leader Euthydemus declared himself
independent within a decade. Not much later, the Graeco-Bactrian
kingdom expanded into Drangiana and Gandara.
'Coin' of Chandragupta ( ©!! )
The invasion of the Punjab, which took place in 184, revitalized the Greek
culture 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 continued
to fight against the Mauryan empire. However, they were divided. But
when king Menander reunited the Indo-Greek kingdom in c.125, the
westerners were able to invade the heartland of the already contracted
Mauryan empire, and even captured Patna. Never has a Greek army
reached 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. King
Menander converted and became something of a Buddhist saint. One of
the holy texts of Buddhism is called Milindapañha, 'Questions of
Menander'.
Livius.Org
Anatolia
Carthage
Egypt
http://www.livius.org/man-md/mauryas/mauryas.html
Germ. Inf.
Greece
Judaea
Mesopotamia
© Jona Lendering for
Livius.Org, 2006
Revision: 26 March 2011
Persia
Rome
Other
Page 3 of 3