This final part in our series on Ancient India will focus on the Mauryan Empire’s expansion under Chandragupta, Bindusara, and Ashoka the Great.
Having conquered the Nanda Empire and acceded to the Magadh throne, Chandragupta cemented his position through marriage to the daughter of Dhana Nanda, whose life he spared. Chandragupta, along with his advisor Chanakya, developed the Empire into a more centralised state than under the Nanda’s, the client rulers of the Mahajanapada were replaced by imperial governors and a series of economic, military, and legal reforms were enacted. While the exact details are lacking, their general effectiveness cannot be doubted as all the sources stress the prosperity and safety of the state under his rule. The Mauryan military similarly became infamous throughout India, with notable mentions in the texts from the Chola regions of Southern India. However, much of Chandragupta’s foreign policy was directed against the Macedonian Empires on his western frontier. Chandragupta was able to take advantage of the new war between the Diadochi which spread to the upper Satrapies in 318-6 BC, drawing away much of the Macedonian military strength. No Macedonian Satrap of India is attested after Eudamus (executed by Antigonus in 316), who had assassinated Chandragupta’s ally, King Porus, and taken control over the Indian lands previously. And it is likely that Chandragupta took control in the Indus valley, defeating Eudamus’ deputy, Nicanor, while the Macedonians were fighting for dominance in Iran.
The Macedonians returned East in 305 BC, this time led by Seleucus Nicator, who after defeating Antigonos in Babylon, sought to regain the upper Satrapies. Seleucus crossed the Indus fighting a War with Chandragupta. The details are again completely missing, in the ensuing treaty, Seleucus ceded his eastern lands to Chandragupta – as far west as Kandahar – in exchange for 500 elephantry, and after concluding some form of marriage alliance. Seleucus returned west. This concluded the Indo-Macedonian conflicts and was used as a diplomatic coup by Chandragupta who could justifiably claim to have liberated the western Mahajanapada from more than 200 years of outside dominance and unified all of northern India. He had also gained sizable Greek and Persian minority populations providing a route for later cultural interaction between the Hellenistic and Indian worlds. Chandragupta is said to have abdicated the throne in 297 BC retiring to southern India, becoming a Jain monk, and fasting to death. He was succeeded by his son Bindusara.
Little is known of Bindusara’s 25-year reign. He integrated Chandragupta’s western conquests, maintaining friendly contact with the Seleucids, and consolidated the Mauryan Empire, suppressing several revolts. What he is most famous for, however, is the military conquest of the Deccan plateau and southern India (while nominally independent, the Tamil and Chola were obliged to recognise Mauryan suzerainty). These expeditions left most of the subcontinent under Mauryan rule, when Bindusara’s son, Ashoka succeeded him.
Ashoka, ruling until 232 BC, would lead the Empire at the height of its military and political power. However, he was not crown-prince and a four-year interregnum followed Bindusara’s death in 272 in which many of his sons were killed. Ashoka ultimately won the civil war after assassinating his elder brother Susima, following which he embarked on the conquest of the last major independent Indian Kingdom, Kalinga. The Kalinga war was allegedly extremely bloody, and while victorious, the Mauryans suffered high losses. This, and the concurrent civilian deaths, would lead to Ashoka’s adoption of the Buddhist faith, and to his abandonment of military expansionism. The adoption of Buddhism by Ashoka is one of the epochal events in the history of religion, as it made what had previously been a fairly peripheral Indian religion, to one of the foremost religions in the ancient world. The King erected a number of rock-cut inscriptions across the Empire proclaiming his conversion and that spiritual conquest was superior to military conquest, followed by lists of nations where he had fostered Buddhism. These include the nations of southern India, areas of south-east Asia and the lands of the Hellenistic kings; Antiochus (Seleucid Empire), Antigonus (Macedon), Alexander (Epirus), Ptolemy (Egypt), and Magas (Cyrenaica). In other words, Ashoka’s conquest by Dharma covered nearly the entire world known in Pataliputra at the time. This golden age wouldn’t long outlive Ashoka, however. The Mauryan dynasty would continue to rule for only another 50 years, during which the imperial lands would shrink exponentially until it controlled only the area around Magadha in 184 BC when Brihadratha, the last Mauryan Emperor, was assassinated.
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