Maurya Empire(322 – 185)

Mauryan Empire

The first empire to unify most of the Indian subcontinent.

Maurya Empire

What you need to know

  • First pan-Indian empire
  • Capital at Pataliputra
  • Zenith under Ashoka the Great
  • Administered per the Arthashastra

Ruler succession

Events

The First Indian Empire

p>The Maurya Empire (322–185 BCE) was the first state to unify nearly the whole of the Indian subcontinent. Governed from Pataliputra, it combined a powerful standing army with an elaborate bureaucracy and reached its greatest extent under Ashoka.</p>

Administration and the Arthashastra

p>Mauryan governance drew on the <em>Arthashastra</em>, the treatise on statecraft attributed to Chanakya. The empire was divided into provinces under royal princes, with a network of officials, spies and inspectors overseeing revenue, trade and justice, and a graded system of taxation on land and commerce.</p>

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