Rise Of The Mauryan Empire

The Mauryan Empire is one of the earliest Indian empires. The empire began in 321 BCE when Chandragupta seized power from the Nandas in Northern India and took control of the capital city Pataliputra. The Mauryan Empire then expanded under the rule of Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka, who would unify India under one ruler for the first time and became the most dominant ruler of India until the nineteenth century CE. The rise of the Mauryan Empire and Ashoka's key role in its expansion and organization is one of the most important periods in India's early history. The early beginnings of the Mauryan Empire, Ashoka’s expansion of the empire and its organization will be examined. In the 330s BCE, the Magadhan state had expanded its control over …show more content…
Historians believe that Chandragupta was under the care of philosopher Kautilya who wrote the Arthashstra, the most influential political treatise in Indian history. Kautilya greatly influenced Chandragupta’s first attempt to seize power from the Nandas by using discontent over Nanda taxation and the threat to religious order posed by Nanda rulers to back a palace revolt by Chandragupta. The revolt was unsuccessful causing Kautilya and Chandragupta to flee to the city of Taxila where they met Alexander the Great. Between 327 and 326 BCE Alexander invaded northern India in trying to expand his empire. After meeting Chandragupta in Taxila, Alexander abandoned his attempt to invade India and withdrew to Persia. Alexander’s attempted invasion of India caused dislocations in the northwest of the Magadhan state, allowing Chandragupta to secure the most vulnerable and least contended of the Nandas’ client states before surrounding and conquering Magadha. This makes Alexander the Great and Kautilya the two most influential …show more content…
The empire was formed by Chandragupta taking control of Pataliputra but it was not until his grandson Ashoka became ruler that the empire was able to unify India. Ashoka organized his empire to align with his personal ideas of dharma, which led to the government checking on everyone’s adherence to dharma in an attempt to uplift the people’s morality and supervise their happiness. In addition to promoting the dharma, Ashoka’s government advocated creating standards which led to increased trade and wealth. This wealth allowed the government to sponsor many public works. The organization of Ashoka’s government shows an early attempt at constructing a workable moral order, a pattern seen in many later attempts by states to become world