June 26th, 2009 
Aman
Maurya Empire: The most powerful empire in the history of ancient India was Maurya’s. Mauryan Dynasty ruled on India from 321 t 185 BC. The origin of Maurya Empire was in the Indo-Gangetic plains, which was kingdom of Magadha which is the modern Bihar, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bengal. The capital of Maurya Empire was Pataliputra which is the modern Patna. The founder of Maurya Empire Chandragupta Maurya was found Empire in 322 BC. He defeated Nanda Dynasty and ruled over central and western India. The empire had fully established his majesty on the Northwestern India by 320 BC. At its great extent, he stretched north and east area which is modern Assam. In the west side he reached beside modern Pakistan. The empire was the one of the largest empire ruled over ancient India. The empire was dissolved with the foundation of Sunga Dynasty in 185 BC. The empire rule came into its end after fifty year of Ashoka’s rule.
Magadha Defeat: To take over rule on Magadha, Chanakya encouraged Chandragupta and his army. Chanakya was a very intelligent professor and had wide network. Chandragupta used his network and gathered many young men from across Magadha and other provinces. They also encouraged Nanda Dynasty men to fight against their cruel emperor King Dhana. The people of Nanda Dynasty were very upset with their emperor. So they were ready to fight against him. The men included in the war against Magadha were former general of Taxila, students of Chanakya and the rulers of small state.
Chandragupta achievements: Under his ruling period, agriculture and economics activities expanded across India. He defeated trans-Indus region under Macedonian. Seleucus I, an Alexander’s army general attacked on Chandragupta but he defeated him.
He established a centralized state with administration of Pataliputra. He was the much disciplined nature personality. He lived a simple and honest life during his administration. He did not know how to write.
Ashoka the Great: The grandson of Chandragupta was Ashokavardhan Maurya. He was better known as Ashoka the great was a brilliant commander. He was ambitious and aggressive ruler but he proved his sincerity by defeating Kalinga. This was a pivotal war in the history of ancient India. Near about 100,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in this war. Out of which about 10,000 were Ashoka’s own men. There were many people and families which were affected badly during this war. When Ashoka came to know about all this he felt very badly and started crying and said what he had done? Ashoka implemented principles of Ahimsa. He banned hunting and violent sports. He maintained a powerful army to maintain peace and authority. He made good relation with states across Europe and Asia. Ashoka grasped the teaching of Gautama Buddha and sponsored Buddhist missions. Maurya Empire under Ashoka’s rule experienced peace and security for near about half a century after Kalinga War. Under his rule India was stable empire and had great economic and military power. India was a pros porous empire.
Arthashastra: A great treatise which was written by Chandragupta‘s minister Kautilya Chanakya. Arthashastra is on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy. Kautilya Chanakya was professor of Taxila University and later become prime minister of Maurya Empire. There are many contradictions about the date and authorship of Arthashastra. Edicts of Ashoka and Arthashastra are the primary source of Mauryan time’s records.
Edicts of Ashoka: A collection of 33 inscriptions on Pillars of Ashoka made by emperor Ashoka during his dynasty from 272 to 231 BC. These inscriptions represent the tangible evidence of Buddhism. These were distributed through out the area of modern day Nepal, Pakistan and India.
Theedicts describe the detail wide expansion of religion Buddhism as the most powerful king of Indian history sponsored this religion. The edicts described that Ashoka believed in the concept of dharma and put his all efforts to develop dharma.
Religion: The different religions respected by Maurya Empire were Jainism, Buddhism and Brahmanism. Chandragupta was the first monarch to initiate transformation of religion at top level. He himself adopted Jainism. He was the follower of Acharya Bhadrabahu. The grandson of Ashoka Samprati also followed Jainism. He was influenced by teachings of Arya Suhasti Suri, a Jain monk. Samrat Samprati is best known to build Jain temples. He built 125,000 Jain temples across India. A few temples are still found in Ujjain, Palitana, and Ahmadabad. He also spread the messages of Jainism to Persia, Greece. In southern India Chandragupta and Samprati spread Jainism. Ashoka embraced Buddhism after Kalinga war. He sponsored Buddhism and sent a message to Srilanka’s king Tissa through a mission led by his son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta. Tissa was so influenced by the teachings of Buddhism and adopted the religion. Not only had this he was also declared Buddhism as state religion. Like this Ashoka sent many mission to Greece, West Asia. He had also built many monasteries, schools of Buddhist literature across the Empire. He also increased the popularity of Buddhism in Afghanistan, Thailand. As Ashoka was Buddhist but he respected Brahmanism. He retained the membership of Brahman priests. He retained the position of Brahman minister in the court. Although Buddhism religion gained so much popularity because of him but he never forced anybody to adopt Buddhism as religion. He had provided full freedom to adapt any religion.
Animal’s protection: Maurya dynasty was very much serious about the protection of animals. They were very much concerned about animals and forests. They mentioned many rules and instructions to protect the wildlife and forests. The most important forest product for the Mauryas was elephants as elephants played a great role in battle and also helped them to defeat. The Mauryas also protect supplies of timber, lions and tigers. Their sincerity towards forest and animals showed by Ashoka’s step taken against all the hunters by mentioned 100 panas fine for hunting deer. He was the first ruler in the history of India who had supported wildlife. He described many rules to protect wildlife.
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