Mauryan empire

An ancient Indian state dating to the later 1st millennium bc, centred on Pataliputra (modern Patna) near the junction of the Son and Ganges rivers. After Alexander the Great's death in 323 bc, Candra Gupta founded a dynasty that encompassed most of the subcontinent except for the Tamil south, driving the Greeks out of India and establishing the Mauryan empire as an efficient and highly organized autocracy. The empire was characterized by a differentiated economy based on food-gathering tribes, pastoralists, various kinds of peasant cultivators, and traders. There was a standing army and a kind of civil service. The Buddhist Mauryan emperor Ashoka who reigned between c.265 and 238 bc is known for the stones erected throughout his realm bearing edicts; these are among the oldest deciphered original texts known in India. The Mauryan empire subsequently declined and was deposed by Sunga in 187 bc.