In 321 BC, exiled general Chandragupta Maurya, under direct patronage of the genius of Chanakya, founded the Maurya dynasty after overthrowing the reigning king Dhana Nanda.This period was known as the "Golden Age of India." during which Hinduism and Buddhism spread to much of south-east Asia.
Originating from the kingdom of Magadha in the Indo-Gangetic plains (modern Bihar and Bengal) in the eastern side of the sub-continent, the empire had its capital city at Pataliputra (near modern Patna).Rapidly expanding his power westwards across central and western India taking opportunistic advantage of the disruptions of local powers in the wake of the withdrawal westward by Alexander the Great's Macedonian and Persian armies. By 316 BC the empire had fully occupied Northwestern India, defeating and conquering the satraps left by Alexander.
At its greatest extent, the Empire stretched to the north along the natural boundaries of the Himalayas, and to the east stretching into what is now Assam. To the west, it reached beyond modern Pakistan and significant portions of what is now Afghanistan, including the modern Herat and Kandahar provinces. The Empire was expanded into India's central and southern regions by Emperor Bindusara, but it excluded a small portion of unexplored tribal and forested regions near Kalinga.
The Mauryan Empire was perhaps the largest empire to rule the Indian subcontinent until the arrival of the British. Its decline began fifty years after Ashoka's rule ended, and it dissolved in 185 BC with the foundation of the Sunga Dynasty in Magadha.
Under Chandragupta, the Mauryan Empire conquered the trans-Indus region, which was under Macedonian rule.Under Chandragupta and his successors, both internal and external trade, and agriculture and economic activities, all thrived and expanded across India thanks to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration and security.
Chandragupta Maurya succeeded to the Nanda throne in 321 B.C. He was then a young man of about 25 and was the protégé of Brahmin Kautilya, who was his guide and mentor both in acquiring the throne and in keeping it. The acquisition of Magadha was the first step in establishing the new dynasty. Chandragupta belonged to the Moriya tribe, but his caste was low. Young Maurya and his supporters were inferior in armed strength to the Nandas. And it was here that Kautilya strategy came in useful.
They began by harassing the outlying areas of the Nanda kingdom, gradually moving towards the center: this strategy being based, on the morale drawn from the fact that the Kautilya saw a woman scolding her child for eating from the center of the dish, since the center was bound to be much hotter than the sides. Once the Ganges valley was under his control, on Kautilya's advice Chandragupta moved to the north-west to exploit the power vacuum created by Alexander's departure. The areas of the north-west fell to him rapidly until he reached the Indus. Here he paused for the moment, as the Greek Seleucid dynasty had fortified itself in Persia and was determined to hold the trans Indus region.
Chandragupta moved to Central India for a while and occupied the region north of the Narmada river. But 305 B.C. saw him back in the north-west involved in a campaign against Seleucus Nikator, which Chandragupta finally won in 303 B.C. The Seleucid provinces of trans Indus, which today would cover large parts of Afghanistan were ceded to the Mauryas. The territorial foundation of the Mauryan empire had been laid, with Chandragupta controlling the Indus and the Ganges plain and the far north-west - a formidable empire by Indian standards.
Despite the campaign against Seleucids, there was considerable contact of a friendly nature between the two civilizations. Sandrocottos (Chandragupta) is frequently referred to in the Greek accounts. The treaty of 303 B.C. also included a marriage between Seleucus's daughter Helen with Chandragupta Maurya. Seleucus's ambassador Megasthenes accompanied Chandragupta to his court and gives a interesting and informative account about him and Kautilya.
Towards the end of his life, Chandragupta is supposed to have converted to Jainism and that he abdicated in favour of his son,
Bindusara and became an ascetic. Together with one of the Jain saints and many other monks, he went to south India, and there he ended his life by deliberate slow starvation in the orthodox Jain manner.
Chandragupta's grandson Ashokavardhan Maurya, better known as Ashoka the Great (ruled 273- 232 BC), is considered by contemporary historians to be perhaps the greatest of Indian monarchs . As a young prince, Ashoka was a brilliant commander who crushed revolts in Ujjain and Taxila. As monarch he was ambitious and aggressive, re-asserting the Empire's superiority in southern and western India. But it was his conquest of Kalinga ( The Kalinga War 265-264 BC was a war fought between the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka the Great and the state of Kalinga, located on the coast of the present-day Indian state of Orissa ) which proved to be the pivotal event of his life. Although Ashoka's army succeeded in overwhelming Kalinga forces of royal soldiers and civilian units, an estimated 100,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in the furious warfare, including over 10,000 of Ashoka's own men. Hundreds of thousands of people were adversely affected by the destruction and fallout of war. When he personally witnessed the devastation, Ashoka began feeling remorse, and he cried 'what have I done?'. Although the annexation of Kalinga was completed, Ashoka embraced the teachings of Gautama Buddha, and renounced war and violence. For a monarch in ancient times, this was an historic feat.
Ashoka implemented principles of ahimsa by banning hunting and violent sports activity and ending indentured and forced labor (many thousands of people in war-ravaged Kalinga had been forced into hard labor and servitude). While he maintained a large and powerful army, to keep the peace and maintain authority, Ashoka expanded friendly relations with states across Asia and Europe, and he sponsored Buddhist missions. He undertook a massive public works building campaign across the country. Over 40 years of peace, harmony and prosperity made Ashoka one of the most successful and famous monarchs in Indian history. He remains an idealized figure of inspiration in modern India
Originating from the kingdom of Magadha in the Indo-Gangetic plains (modern Bihar and Bengal) in the eastern side of the sub-continent, the empire had its capital city at Pataliputra (near modern Patna).Rapidly expanding his power westwards across central and western India taking opportunistic advantage of the disruptions of local powers in the wake of the withdrawal westward by Alexander the Great's Macedonian and Persian armies. By 316 BC the empire had fully occupied Northwestern India, defeating and conquering the satraps left by Alexander.
At its greatest extent, the Empire stretched to the north along the natural boundaries of the Himalayas, and to the east stretching into what is now Assam. To the west, it reached beyond modern Pakistan and significant portions of what is now Afghanistan, including the modern Herat and Kandahar provinces. The Empire was expanded into India's central and southern regions by Emperor Bindusara, but it excluded a small portion of unexplored tribal and forested regions near Kalinga.
The Mauryan Empire was perhaps the largest empire to rule the Indian subcontinent until the arrival of the British. Its decline began fifty years after Ashoka's rule ended, and it dissolved in 185 BC with the foundation of the Sunga Dynasty in Magadha.
Under Chandragupta, the Mauryan Empire conquered the trans-Indus region, which was under Macedonian rule.Under Chandragupta and his successors, both internal and external trade, and agriculture and economic activities, all thrived and expanded across India thanks to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration and security.
Chandragupta Maurya succeeded to the Nanda throne in 321 B.C. He was then a young man of about 25 and was the protégé of Brahmin Kautilya, who was his guide and mentor both in acquiring the throne and in keeping it. The acquisition of Magadha was the first step in establishing the new dynasty. Chandragupta belonged to the Moriya tribe, but his caste was low. Young Maurya and his supporters were inferior in armed strength to the Nandas. And it was here that Kautilya strategy came in useful.
They began by harassing the outlying areas of the Nanda kingdom, gradually moving towards the center: this strategy being based, on the morale drawn from the fact that the Kautilya saw a woman scolding her child for eating from the center of the dish, since the center was bound to be much hotter than the sides. Once the Ganges valley was under his control, on Kautilya's advice Chandragupta moved to the north-west to exploit the power vacuum created by Alexander's departure. The areas of the north-west fell to him rapidly until he reached the Indus. Here he paused for the moment, as the Greek Seleucid dynasty had fortified itself in Persia and was determined to hold the trans Indus region.
Chandragupta moved to Central India for a while and occupied the region north of the Narmada river. But 305 B.C. saw him back in the north-west involved in a campaign against Seleucus Nikator, which Chandragupta finally won in 303 B.C. The Seleucid provinces of trans Indus, which today would cover large parts of Afghanistan were ceded to the Mauryas. The territorial foundation of the Mauryan empire had been laid, with Chandragupta controlling the Indus and the Ganges plain and the far north-west - a formidable empire by Indian standards.
Despite the campaign against Seleucids, there was considerable contact of a friendly nature between the two civilizations. Sandrocottos (Chandragupta) is frequently referred to in the Greek accounts. The treaty of 303 B.C. also included a marriage between Seleucus's daughter Helen with Chandragupta Maurya. Seleucus's ambassador Megasthenes accompanied Chandragupta to his court and gives a interesting and informative account about him and Kautilya.
Towards the end of his life, Chandragupta is supposed to have converted to Jainism and that he abdicated in favour of his son,
Bindusara and became an ascetic. Together with one of the Jain saints and many other monks, he went to south India, and there he ended his life by deliberate slow starvation in the orthodox Jain manner. Chandragupta's grandson Ashokavardhan Maurya, better known as Ashoka the Great (ruled 273- 232 BC), is considered by contemporary historians to be perhaps the greatest of Indian monarchs . As a young prince, Ashoka was a brilliant commander who crushed revolts in Ujjain and Taxila. As monarch he was ambitious and aggressive, re-asserting the Empire's superiority in southern and western India. But it was his conquest of Kalinga ( The Kalinga War 265-264 BC was a war fought between the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka the Great and the state of Kalinga, located on the coast of the present-day Indian state of Orissa ) which proved to be the pivotal event of his life. Although Ashoka's army succeeded in overwhelming Kalinga forces of royal soldiers and civilian units, an estimated 100,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in the furious warfare, including over 10,000 of Ashoka's own men. Hundreds of thousands of people were adversely affected by the destruction and fallout of war. When he personally witnessed the devastation, Ashoka began feeling remorse, and he cried 'what have I done?'. Although the annexation of Kalinga was completed, Ashoka embraced the teachings of Gautama Buddha, and renounced war and violence. For a monarch in ancient times, this was an historic feat.
Ashoka implemented principles of ahimsa by banning hunting and violent sports activity and ending indentured and forced labor (many thousands of people in war-ravaged Kalinga had been forced into hard labor and servitude). While he maintained a large and powerful army, to keep the peace and maintain authority, Ashoka expanded friendly relations with states across Asia and Europe, and he sponsored Buddhist missions. He undertook a massive public works building campaign across the country. Over 40 years of peace, harmony and prosperity made Ashoka one of the most successful and famous monarchs in Indian history. He remains an idealized figure of inspiration in modern India
0 comments:
Post a Comment