Maurya Empire

The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power based in Magadha and founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated the Indian subcontinent between 322 and 185 BCE.

Magadha played an important role in the development of Jainism and Buddhism, and two of India's greatest empires, the Maurya Empire and Gupta Empire, originated in Magadha.

The empire was the largest political entity that has ever existed in the Indian subcontinent, extending over 5 e6km2 at its zenith under Ashoka.

Ashoka (Brāhmi: 𑀅𑀲𑁄𑀓, Asoka, IAST: Aśoka, ) sometimes Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty, who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from c.

Comprising the majority of South Asia, the Maurya Empire was centralized by the conquest of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and its capital city was located at Pataliputra (modern Patna).

Ancient Patna, known as Patliputra, was the capital of the Magadh Empire under the Haryanka, Nanda, Mauryan, Shunga, Gupta and Pala empires.

Chandragupta Maurya raised an army, with the assistance of Chanakya (also known as Kauṭilya), and overthrew the Nanda Empire in c.

The last Nanda king was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire, and the latter's mentor Chanakya.

At its greatest extent, the empire stretched along the natural boundary of the Himalayas, to the east into Assam, to the west into Balochistan (southwest Pakistan and southeast Iran) and the Hindu Kush mountains of what is now eastern Afghanistan.

The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander III of Macedon, the Seleucid Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, the Gupta Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Afghan Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire (partially) and, most recently, the British Indian Empire.

The dynasty expanded into India's southern regions by the reign of the emperors Pushkar and Bindusara, but it excluded Kalinga (modern Odisha), until it was conquered by Ashoka.

c. 297 – c. 273 BCE)) was the second Mauryan emperor of India.

Comprising the majority of South Asia, the Maurya Empire was centralized by the conquest of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and its capital city was located at Pataliputra (modern Patna).

460 or 420–325 BCE), the Maurya Empire (c.

At its greatest extent, the empire stretched along the natural boundary of the Himalayas, to the east into Assam, to the west into Balochistan (southwest Pakistan and southeast Iran) and the Hindu Kush mountains of what is now eastern Afghanistan.

The land has historically been home to various peoples and has witnessed numerous military campaigns, including those by Alexander the Great, Mauryas, Muslim Arabs, Mongols, British, Soviets, and by the United States with allied countries.

The Mauryan Empire then defeated Seleucus I, a diadochus and founder of the Seleucid Empire during the Seleucid–Mauryan war, thus acquiring territory west of the Indus River.

Having come into conflict in the east (305 BC) with Chandragupta Maurya of the Maurya Empire, Seleucus I entered into an agreement with Chandragupta whereby he ceded vast territory west of the Indus, including the Hindu Kush, modern-day Afghanistan, and the Balochistan province of Pakistan and offered his daughter in marriage to the Maurya Emperor to formalize the alliance.

The dynasty expanded into India's southern regions by the reign of the emperors Pushkar and Bindusara, but it excluded Kalinga (modern Odisha), until it was conquered by Ashoka.

The ancient kingdom of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE resulting in the Kalinga War, coincides with the borders of modern-day Odisha.

The Mauryan Empire then defeated Seleucus I, a diadochus and founder of the Seleucid Empire during the Seleucid–Mauryan war, thus acquiring territory west of the Indus River.

Seleucus' wars took him as far as India, where, after two years of war (305–303 BC), he was defeated by the armies of the Maurya Empire and made peace by marrying his daughter to king Chandragupta, whereupon he was rewarded a considerable force of 500 war elephants, which would play a decisive role against Antigonus at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC and against Lysimachus at the Battle of Corupedium in 281 BC.

Comprising the majority of South Asia, the Maurya Empire was centralized by the conquest of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and its capital city was located at Pataliputra (modern Patna).

Later, the Maurya Empire extended over much of South Asia in the 3rd century BCE.

After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced nearly half a century of centralized rule under Ashoka.

262 BCE) was fought in what is now India between the Maurya Empire under Ashoka and King Raja Anantha of the state of Kalinga, an independent feudal kingdom located on the east coast, in the present-day state of Odisha and north of Andhra Pradesh.

The Arthashastra and the Edicts of Ashoka are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times.

The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the pillars, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE.

The Mauryan Empire then defeated Seleucus I, a diadochus and founder of the Seleucid Empire during the Seleucid–Mauryan war, thus acquiring territory west of the Indus River.

It started when Seleucus I Nicator, of the Seleucid Empire, sought to retake the Indian satrapies of the Macedonian Empire which had been occupied by Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, of the Maurya Empire.

The empire was the largest political entity that has ever existed in the Indian subcontinent, extending over 5 e6km2 at its zenith under Ashoka.

Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW).

It developed beginning around 700 BC, in the late Vedic period, and peaked from c. 500–300 BC, coinciding with the emergence of 16 great states or mahajanapadas in Northern India, and the subsequent rise of the Mauryan Empire.

For example, peacock figures are found on the Ashoka pillar at Nandangarh and several sculptures on the Great Stupa of Sanchi.

The monuments at Sanchi today comprise a series of Buddhist monuments starting from the Maurya Empire period (3rd century BCE), continuing with the Gupta Empire period (5th century CE), and ending around the 12th century CE.

The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power based in Magadha and founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated the Indian subcontinent between 322 and 185 BCE.

Chandragupta Maurya (reign: 321–298 BCE) was the founder of the Maurya Empire in ancient India.

Chandragupta Maurya's embrace of Jainism increased socio-religious reform across South Asia, while Ashoka's embrace of Buddhism and sponsorship of Buddhist missionaries allowed for the expansion of that faith into Sri Lanka, northwest India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Egypt, and Hellenistic Europe.

In 250 BC, Mahinda, a bhikkhu and the son of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka arrived in Mihintale carrying the message of Buddhism.

The dynasty expanded into India's southern regions by the reign of the emperors Pushkar and Bindusara, but it excluded Kalinga (modern Odisha), until it was conquered by Ashoka.

In the 3rd century BCE, the region came under Mauryan control as a result of the Kalinga War.

The Maurya Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, with help from Chanakya, at Taxila, a noted center of learning.

Some ruins at Taxila date to the time of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE, followed successively by Mauryan Empire, Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian, and Kushan Empire periods.

The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power based in Magadha and founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated the Indian subcontinent between 322 and 185 BCE.

The Mauryan Empire was the first political entity to unite most of the Indian subcontinent and expand into Central Asia.

Another one of his edicts (Minor Rock Edict No. 3) mentions the titles of several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era.

The Arthashastra and the Edicts of Ashoka are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times.