Mauryan empire
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Mauryan empire
( 321 185 ) In ancient India, a state centred at Pataliputra (later Patna) near the junction of the Son and Ganges (Ganga) rivers. After the death of Alexander the Great, Chandragupta Maurya (Candra Gupta), the dynastic founder, carved out an empire that encompassed most of the subcontinent except for the Tamil south. Ashoka (r. 269232 ), the famous Buddhist emperor, left stone edicts that include some of the oldest deciphered original texts of India. The empire declined after Ashoka's death, but in its heyday it was an efficient and highly organized autocracy. Gupta dynasty; Nanda dynasty.
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Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology:
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Mauryan empire
[CP]
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.
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