The Mauryas

After Alexander’s death, in 323 B.C. Chandragupta, who belonged to an unknown, non royal heritage, came to the throne. He took the help of his friend and adviser, Chanakya who was also called Kautalya, the son of a Brahmana of Taxila. Chandragupta took the name Maurya because it is said that his home was a land full of peacocks.

The Maurya Dynasty ruled over an empire known by its name. He may have been from somewhere in the North-west. Part of his early life was spent in Taxila (present day Pakistan). Asoka (268-232 BC), the third Maurya, is famous for his renunciation of war, propagating Dhamma (pious social conduct) and promotion of Buddhism. Asoka conquered Kalinga in a now famous battle (261) when he renounced violence. In the first century B.C Kalinga asserted independence.

Asoka ruled for thirty-seven years. After him Maurya kings ruled for fifty years. Then the empire broke up and India became a subcontinent divided into smaller kingdoms which rose and many were forgotten. Asoka’s homeland, Magadha, was not a part of the Maurya Empire but one kingdom of the Ganga valley with its capital at Pataliputra (Patna).

In the Deccan, between Rivers Narmada and Tapti, the Andhra (Telugus) ruled for several centuries and further south were kingdoms of the Pallava and other Tamil peoples. As in the past when the Aryans came to India, now one people after another from central Asia came through the Northwest mountain passes.

At this juncture important political and social changes took place in the North-West. Greeks, had followed Alexander, settled in Bactria and

crossed the Hindu Kush with kingdoms in what is now West Pakistan.

The Greek king, Menander, ruled in the second century B.C. and is known by the Indian name Milinnda. An ancient Indian writer says that there is none to equal Milinda. Menander is known in Indian history for strength, courage and wisdom He held councils of great men to discuss difficult questions and was hero of the book, Questions of Milinda.

The Scythians and Parthian came after the Greeks. The best known Parthian king was Gundaphar; entitled King of India reigned in the first century AD. It is said that Jesus’, Apostle, St Thomas, visited him and began the first teaching of Christianity in India. The Partisans were followed into India by Tartar peoples who had settled in Bactria in the time of the Chinese emperor Wu Ti.

The Kushans

The Kushans came to India and for some time the Kushan kings made an empire reaching from Afghanistan to the centre of India or northern Hindustan. The Empire was strongest in the second century A.D. The well known monarch, Kanishka, became a champion of Buddhism like Asoka. In his capital, Peshawar, he built a monastery which was famous for the study of Buddhism for a thousand years.

Round the coast of India from the mouths of Rivers Indus to the Ganga there were seaports which have vanished today. For example, the modern Kalyana stands where the ancient Calliena traded and near modern Pondicherry, the ruins of the ancient port, Podouke. The port, Masalia, was probably the ancient beginning of Masulipatam.

Traders sailed over the Indian Ocean for merchandise of rich products and treasures of India. A Greek pilot, Hippalus, taught sailors to use the Monsoon to make the voyage to from Roman lands to India shorter and safer than the long journey round the coasts of Arabia and Persia.

A Roman seaman wrote a kind of guide book for eastern merchants, Periplus of the Erythrean or Voyaging Round the Red Sea which meant the whole Indian Ocean.

So great was the desire for pepper among the Roman peoples that a Tamil poet may be quoted, “The beautiful western ships came with gold and returned with pepper”. Another Indian poet described a seaport “The sun shone over the open terraces with over the warehouses and over turrets with bright windows like the eyes of deer.” Merchants brought gold and silver coins, Greek coins have been found indicating trade. Clothing, glass, and copper and bronze ware, wines and honey came from Roman lands. Valuable merchandise from China was Silk which came not only by sea but rivers and caravan routes.

From these ports the “Wealth of the Indies” pearls, ivory diamonds and other precious stones, perfumes, silk, dyed cotton, spices and pepper, was gathered and sent over the seas to the West. At the harbor were sailors from many lands who lived together like one friendly family. Merchants had warehouses and homes here like the factories of the English, French and Portuguese, East India Companies, fifteen hundred years later.

Kings in India and Ceylon sent presents to Roman emperors: elephants, precious stones and pearls. Wonderful stories about India spread through the Western world. The emperor Trajan, when he was old, exclaimed that he would wish to be in India if he were young again.The last Nanda king, Danananda, had his capital at Pataliputra, and an enormous army. Chandragupta began extending his empire by conquering Avanti, north of River Narmada. He then fought against Seleukos Nikator, Alexander’s general who was trying to take over north India. Chandragupta won the battle and prevented Seleukos from advancing. He signed a treaty with Seleukos in 303B.C. and probably married a Greek princess.

Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador lived in Chandragupta’s court and described what he saw in a book, Indika. According to Jain sources, after ruling for twenty-four years Chandragupta Maurya I became a Jain monk and went on pilgrimage to Sravana Belgola and starved to death, as do Jain monks. This is depicted on a sculpted panel Chandragiri and the cave where he spent his last days.

On the death of Chandragupta in 297 B.C his son Bindusara came to the throne. The Greeks called Bindusara, Amitrochates which came from the Sanskrit Amitraghata which means the Slayer of foes. It is said that Bindusara conquered sixteen states and extended his empire from sea to sea. Tamil poets tell us about Mauryan chariots with white flags racing across their land. Ambassadors from Syria and Egypt lived at Bindusara court.

Bindusara died in 273-272 B.C. Asoka, his son came to the throne after fighting his brothers for four years and defeating them. The name Asoka means without sorrow and that is what the king devoted the best part of his life to.

We know a great deal about Asoka and his reign from the edicts and inscriptions, stone pillars he had engraved on rocks to be remembered and known ‘for as long as the sun and moon existed’. These inscriptions are found from the north-west (Afghanistan) to Karnataka in the south. They are mainly all the area under Asoka’s control and written mostly in Pali and Prikrit which are simple forms of Sanskrit used so that the common people understood them.

After eight years rule, in 261 -260 B.C Asoka attacked Kalinga, Orissa in the east, from where important routes passed. He won the war but the king was unhappy at the bloodshed and as the Thirteenth rock edict declares: one hundred and fifty thousand people were captured and many times that number died.

Asoka who was given to Buddhism vowed never to kill again. He called himself, the beloved of the gods, Devanampiya (Devanam priya, priyadarsini). Asoka tried to remove sorrow from his kingdom, inscribing dhamma on rocks and pillars. He appointed officials called Dhamma Mahamatta. Animals were not to be killed unnecessarily; Brahmana were to be respected and parents too. He had trees planted, wells dug, and hospitals built for animals and people.

Asoka died in 232 B.C after ruling for thirty-seven years. After him Maurya kings ruled for fifty years. The empire was breaking up; this could have been because of Asoka’s non-violent ways and the heavy financial burden of nonviolent rule or perhaps there were no strong kings. In the north-west there were the Indo-Greeks, Scythians, and Parthians. In Magadha and the Gangetic valley there were the Shungas followed by the Kanvas.