In this guide
When the Greek ambassador Megasthenes arrived at the court of Chandragupta Maurya around 300 BCE, he found a city unlike any he had seen in the Greek world. Pataliputra stretched for miles along the Ganga, surrounded by a timber palisade with hundreds of towers and gates, and a deep moat. The royal palace, he wrote, surpassed the palaces of Persia. That city lies beneath modern Patna — and it was the capital of the first empire to unite most of the Indian subcontinent.
Founding the empire
- Chandragupta Maurya, with the help of Chanakya (Kautilya, Vishnugupta), overthrew the last Nanda king, Dhanananda, around 321 BCE.
- He took over the northwest after Alexander's departure, and defeated Seleucus Nicator, Alexander's general, around 305 BCE. By the resulting treaty, Seleucus ceded territories in the northwest; Chandragupta gave him 500 elephants; and a marriage alliance is mentioned. Megasthenes was sent to Pataliputra as ambassador.
- According to Jain tradition, Chandragupta later became a Jain monk and went to Shravanabelagola (Karnataka) with Bhadrabahu.
The Mauryan rulers
| Ruler | Highlights |
|---|---|
| Chandragupta Maurya (c. 321–297 BCE) | Founded the empire; defeated Seleucus |
| Bindusara (c. 297–273 BCE) | Called Amitraghata ("slayer of enemies"); extended the empire south; relations with Greek rulers; patron of the Ajivikas |
| Ashoka (c. 268–232 BCE) | The Kalinga war; Dhamma; inscriptions (see our guide on Ashoka) |
| Later Mauryas | Weaker rulers; the last, Brihadratha, was killed by his general Pushyamitra Shunga (c. 185 BCE) |
Sources
| Source | Nature |
|---|---|
| Arthashastra (Kautilya) | Treatise on statecraft, economy, law and administration (its dating and authorship are debated) |
| Indica (Megasthenes) | Lost; survives in quotations by later Greek and Roman writers |
| Ashokan inscriptions | Rock and pillar edicts across the subcontinent |
| Mudrarakshasa (Vishakhadatta) | A later Sanskrit play about Chanakya and Chandragupta |
| Buddhist and Jain texts | Accounts of the rulers |
| Archaeology | Excavations at Kumhrar and Bulandibagh (Patna) and elsewhere |
Pataliputra: what Megasthenes described
- A city about 80 stadia long and 15 stadia wide along the river (roughly 14–15 km by 3 km).
- A wooden wall with 570 towers and 64 gates, and a moat.
- The city was administered by six committees of five members each — looking after industries, foreigners, births and deaths, trade, manufactured goods, and the collection of taxes on sales.
Megasthenes also described Indian society as divided into seven classes — a description that does not match the varna system and shows how an outsider interpreted what he saw.
Mauryan administration
| Level | Features |
|---|---|
| Centre | The king, advised by a council of ministers (mantriparishad); officials called adhyakshas (superintendents) for different departments — trade, agriculture, mines, weights and measures, and more |
| Provinces | Governed by princes (kumaras) at centres such as Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali and Suvarnagiri; Pataliputra directly controlled the core |
| Districts | Officials such as the rajuka, pradeshika and yukta |
| Villages | Village headmen |
| Espionage | An extensive network of spies, described in the Arthashastra |
| Army | A large standing army |
Economy
- Agriculture was the basis; the state collected a share of the produce.
- State control of mines, forests and some industries, as described in the Arthashastra.
- Trade along river and land routes, including the Uttarapatha (the northern route).
- Punch-marked coins of silver.
Art and architecture
- Pillars of polished sandstone, with animal capitals (the Sarnath lion capital — now India's national emblem).
- The Mauryan polish — a glossy finish on stone.
- Rock-cut caves — the Barabar and Nagarjuni caves in Jehanabad district, Bihar, dedicated to the Ajivikas by Ashoka and his successor Dasharatha. The Lomas Rishi cave's carved entrance is among the earliest examples of rock-cut architecture in India.
- The Didarganj Yakshi — a life-size polished sandstone sculpture of a woman holding a fly-whisk, found at Didarganj, Patna, in 1917; now in the Bihar Museum. Its dating (Mauryan or later) is debated, but it is often associated with Mauryan art.
Excavations in Patna
| Site | Findings |
|---|---|
| Kumhrar | Remains of a large pillared hall (often called the "80-pillared hall"), believed to be Mauryan |
| Bulandibagh | Remains of the wooden palisade of Pataliputra |
Decline of the empire
Historians cite several reasons:
- weak successors after Ashoka;
- division of the empire;
- financial strain of maintaining a large army and bureaucracy;
- pressure from the northwest;
- the assassination of Brihadratha by Pushyamitra Shunga (c. 185 BCE), who founded the Shunga dynasty.
Some older historians blamed Ashoka's pacifism; most modern historians see this as an oversimplification.
Practice
Prelims-style:
- Who defeated Seleucus Nicator, and what did the treaty involve?
- Which Mauryan ruler was called Amitraghata?
- Where are the Barabar caves, and to which sect were they dedicated?
- What was found at Bulandibagh?
- Who killed the last Mauryan ruler?
Mains-style:
- "The Mauryan empire was the first pan-Indian state." Examine its administrative structure.
- Discuss the importance of Pataliputra in ancient Indian history.
A note on dates and numbers. Exam patterns, vacancies and schedules change from year to year. Always confirm the current details in the latest notification on the Bihar Public Service Commission website .
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