Sources of Mauryan History

Explore the rich historical resources of the Mauryan Empire. Immerse yourself in ancient inscriptions such as the Edicts of Ashoka, which offer insight into the governance, ethics, and social norms of the time. Discover archaeological finds from places like Pataliputra and Sarnath that shed light on Mauryan architecture and culture. Discover the stories of foreign travelers such as Megasthenes, who chronicled the royal court and daily life during the Mauryan era. Explore Buddhist and Jain texts to provide valuable stories about Emperor Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism and its impact on the region. Delve into Greek and Roman records and offer insights into India’s connection with the outside world. Explore the Mahavamsa, a chronicle of Sri Lanka, for outside perspectives on Mauryan influence beyond India. These diverse sources converge to paint a vivid picture of one of ancient India’s most influential dynasties, offering a window into a past that continues to fascinate historians and enthusiasts alike.

The Sources of Mauryan History

Introduction

The sources of Mauryan history, both contemporary and later, can be categorized as follows:

• (1) Epigraphic evidence
• (2) Literary sources
• (3) Foreign sources
• (4) Archaeological excavations
• (5) Art Evidence and
• (6) Numismatic evidence

(1) Epigraphic evidence

Epigraphic evidence is the most authentic source of Mauryan history. The Edicts of Ashoka are the oldest, best preserved, and most accurately dated epigraphic records of India. The mystery of these epigraphs was revealed by James Princep in 1837 when he deciphered the Asokan Brahmi script of these epigraphs and identified the “Piyadassi” king of the edicts with Asoka based on the testimony of the Sri Lankan chronicles Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa, in which the title Piyadassi was given to Asoka.

(a) Asoka’s inscription

Asoka’s inscriptions are of two kinds. A smaller group consists of statements by the king as a lay Buddhist, which describe his own acceptance of Buddhism and his relationship to the Samgha. A second group of important scriptures, described as proclamations (Sasanas), consisting of major and minor rock edicts and pillar edicts describe his famous Dhamma policy. These inscriptions, engraved on rocks and pillars, were installed in prominent places, either near cities, on important trade and travel routes, or near religious centers and places of religious significance. Pillar edicts were installed to commemorate events of some significance. Several inscriptions have been moved from their original places. Two pillars – one from Topra (Ambala District, Haryana) and the other from Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) were moved by Firuz Tughlaq to Delhi. It was believed that the Allahabad pillar was originally at Kaushambi and Akbar moved it to Allahabad. Bairat (Jaipur, Rajasthan) was relegated to Kolkata by Cunninghan. Based on content, character, and chronology, these decrees are classified into nine groups.

(i) Fourteen Major Rock Edicts

These 14 major rock edicts written on large boulders were located at Kalsi (Dehradun, U.P.), Mahshara (Hazara district, Pakistan) and Shahbazgari (in Peshawar district, Pakistan), Girnar (Gujarat), Sopara (near Mumbai, Maharashtra), Dhauli and Jaugada (both in Odisha), Maski and Yerragudi (both in Andhra Pradesh).

(ii) Minor Rock Edicts

These minor rock edicts and inscriptions have been found at Bairat, Rupnath, Sahsaram, Rupnath, Brahmagiri, Gavimath, Jatinga-Rameshwar, Maski (which mentions the king’s personal name Asoka for the first time), Palkigundu, Rajula-Mandagiri, Suvarnagiri. , Siddapura, Yerragudi, Gujjara and Aha-aura.

(iii) Northern Edicts

Of the two northern edicts, the one found in Taxila (Pakistan) is written in Aramaic script and the other found in Kandahar (Afghanistan) is bilingual and is written in Greek and Aramaic.

(iv) The Seven Pillar Edicts

Seven pillar edicts exist at Allahabad, Delhi-Topra, Delhi-Meerut, Nigali-Sagar, Lauriya-Araraja, Lauriya-Nandangarh and Rampurwa. An Ashokan pillar at Allahabad contains two other later inscriptions: one of the Gupta ruler Samudragupta (Prayaga Prashasti written by the poet Harisena) describing his conquests, and another of the Mughal emperor Jahangir.

(v) Edicts of subsidiary pillars

Smaller pillar edicts have been found at Sarnath, Sanchi, and Kausam-bi. The fourth minor pillar edict is known as the Queen’s Edict. These edicts were written to control schism in the Buddhist Samgha. For example, in the first three edicts, Asoka ordered that “whoever, monk or nun, breaks the Samgha must be made to wear white clothes and take up residence in a place other than a monastery”. Two commemorative pillar inscriptions have been found at Rummindea (Lummini or Lumbini), the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, and at Nigliva, where Asoka expanded the Konakmana Buddha stupa.

(vi) Two Kalinga Rock Edicts

Two separate Kalinga Rock Edicts that complete the series of 14 Rock Edicts are located at Dhauli and Jaugada (Orissa). These edicts describe Asoka’s paternal concept of monarchy: “All men are like my children. As on behalf of my own children, I wish that they may be granted complete well-being and happiness both in this world and in the next, the same that I desire. also for (all) men.” These edicts further describe the humane principles of governance by which the newly conquered province of Kalinga was to be governed.

(vii) Bhabru Edict

It is cut on a boulder, now in Calcutta, which was removed from the top of a hill at Bairat. This shows Asoka’s respect for Buddhism.

(viii) Cave inscriptions

Three cave inscriptions of Asoka have been found in the Barabara Hills near Gaya in Bihar, which describe the donation of these caves by Asoka to the Ajivikas sect. The name of Barabara Hill in the time of Asoka was Khalatika Hill. In the adjacent Nagar-Juni cave are three cave inscriptions of Dasaratha, the grandson of Asoka.

(ix) Sannata Minor Rock Edicts

The latest discovery of three other Asokan minor rock edicts was made in the village of Sannatai in the Gulbarga district of Karnataka. With this discovery, historians believe that Asoka annexed the northern part of Karnataka and the adjoining parts of “Andhra Desa” during the third century BCE. The rock edicts are identical in content, script, style, and language to those found at Yerragudi in Kur-Nool District (Andhra Pradesh).

(b) Post-Moorish inscription

Other inscriptions directly related to the Mauryan period and not necessarily belonging to Asoka include the Priyadarshi inscription at Taxila, Lampaka, or the Lamghan inscription (on the banks of the Kabul river near Jalalabad, Afghanistan), the Sohgaura copper plate inscription (Gorakhpur district, U.P.) and the Mahasthan inscription in the Bogra district of the third century BC. The last two inscriptions deal with relief measures to be taken during a famine. The Junagarh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman of 150 CE contains a secondary reference to the Mauryas.

(c) Information from Ashoka inscriptions

The edicts of Asoka give us direct information about his administrative, religious, ethical, foreign, and domestic policies and indirectly we can infer the extent of the Mauryan Empire based on the location of these edicts as well as contemporary social and religious beliefs.

(d) Script and Language of the Asokan Inscriptions

The Asokan inscriptions are written in two scripts known as Kharosthi and Brahmi. The first is a cursive script written from right to left. Of the Asokan inscriptions, only those at Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra are written in this script. The other inscriptions of Asoka are all written in the popular left-to-right Brahmi, the mother of all Indian scripts, including Burmese, Tibetan, Sinhalese, etc. The two northern inscriptions found near Taxila and Kandahar are written in Aramaic and Greek scripts. Except for the Kandahar inscription, in any case, the language is Prakrit with regional variations. Interestingly, Asoka consistently used Prakrit, the language spoken by the common masses, and not Sanskrit, the language of the elite.

(2) Literary sources

Literary sources on the history of the Mauryas can be divided into religious literature and secular literature.

(a) Buddhist and Jain texts

• (i) Among religious sources, Buddhist literature is of great importance. The Jataka stories, describing the stories of Gautama Buddha’s previous lives, tell us about the prevailing social order, the existence of guilds, folk customs, and the general picture of the social and economic conditions of the Buddhist period, which essentially continued up to the Mauryan age.
• (ii) Ashokavadana and Divyavadana are two other Buddhist texts containing a collection of legends built around the personality of Asoka and preserved outside India mainly in Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist sources. These two Avadanas contain information about Bindusara, Asoka’s expeditions to Taxila to suppress the rebellion, and his conversion to Buddhism. The Sri Lankan Chronicles, Dipavamsa, and Mahavamsa can also be considered as source materials as they describe in great detail the role played by Asoka in the spread of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The Dipavamsa was compiled between the third century B.C. and the fourth century CE, and the Mahavamsa, a historically outstanding work, is believed to have been written in the 5th century CE. A commentary on the Mahavamsa known as the Mahavamsatika or Vamsatthapakasini, composed around the 10th century CE, contains many legends about the Mauryas.
• (iii) Among the Buddhist non-canonical works may be mentioned the Mahayana work Manjushri Mula Kalpa which covers a wide historical period from the seventh century BC. to the eighth century CE and contains many important facts including those about the Nandas and the Mauryas.
• (iv) The Jain work Sthaviravali-Charitra or Parisisthaparvan (biography of Chanakya) by Hemacandra gives very interesting information about Chandragupta Maurya, such as his early life, the conquest of Magadha, and conversion to Jainism in the latter part of his reign.
• (v) Among the Brahmanical works the Puranas, collections of legends interspersed with religious teachings, give some information about the history of the Mauryan empire. The Puranas contain some old traditions and provide a chronology of the Mauryas, which is somewhat confusing. The Vishnu Purana describes the origin of the Nandas and their overthrow by Kautilya and Chandragupta Maurya.

(b) Arthashastra of Kautilya

Of all the secular literary sources on Mauryan history, the most important source is the Arthasashtra written by Kautilya, also known as Vishnugupta and Chanakya. This work is a comprehensive treatise on statecraft and public administration. It is divided into fifteen Adhikarans (sections) and 180 prakarans (chapters) and is written in both prose and verse in Sanskrit. There is no mention of Chandragupta or the Mauryan rulers of Pataliputra in the Arthashastra, but the colophon records that the book was composed by “a person who owned the land that was under the control of the Nanda kings”. Ever since the discovery of the Arthashastra by R. Sam Shastri in 1924, there has been considerable debate among scholars about the date of the Arthashastra. Winternitz, Jolly, H.C. Raychaudhuri, and some other historians have argued that the Arthashastra is a later work and as such cannot be accepted as source material for the Mauryan period. However, R.K. Mookerji, K. A. N. Sastri, Krishna Rao, Romila Thapar, and others believe on the basis of various evidences that it was originally a Mauryan work and was authored by Prime Minister Chandragupta Maurya. The similarities between the administrative terms used in the Arthashastra and the Ashoka Edicts would certainly indicate that the Mauryan rulers were familiar with this work.

(c) Other literary sources

Of the remaining literary sources, the Mudrarakshasa of VisaKhadatta, a Sanskrit drama of the 4th century AD, describes the overthrow of the Nanda dynasty by Kautilya. Other secular literary sources dealing with Mauryan history include Rajatarangini of Kalhana written in the 12th century AD, Kathasaritasagara of Somadeva, and Brihatkathamanjari of Kshemendra.

(3) Foreign sources

As a result of Alexander’s invasion of India, a number of Greek travelers visited India. They were the first to communicate to the outside world a more or less accurate knowledge of India. Of the companions of Alexander on his campaigns, three are known for their writings on India, viz. (i) Near Chus, whom Alexander commissioned to explore the coast between the Indus and the Persian Gulf; (ii) Onesicritus, who took part in the voyage with Nearchus and then wrote a book about it and India, and (iii) Aristobulus, who was entrusted by Alexander with specific tasks in India. After these writers came to the Mauryan court ambassadors from the Hellenic kingdoms, whose preservation of India was based on a wider and closer knowledge of the country. Among them, the most famous was Megasthenes, who was sent as an ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya by Seleucus Nikator, the Greek ruler of Persia and Babylon. Other Greek ambassadors or travelers who followed Megasthenes were: Deimachus, who resided for a long time at Pataliputra as ambassador to the court of Bindusara; Patrocles, admiral of Seleucus; Timosthenes, admiral of the fleet of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and Dionysius, who was also sent as ambassador to India. But none of them seem to have added anything important to what Megasthenes stated about India. His account of Mauryan India, abrogated in the Indica, in fact, marks the culmination of the knowledge ancient Europe ever possessed of India. As his original work (Indika) has been lost, we learn of his observations from quotations from later Greek authors, among which may be noted the following:

• (a) Strabo (C64 BC – AD 19) wrote an important geographical work, Chapter I of which deals with India based on the material. drawn from the companions of Alexander and Megasthenes. Strabo refers to a marital alliance between Seleucus and Chandragupta Maurya and the latter’s female bodyguards.
• (b) Diodorus (1st century BC) who lived up to 36 BC and wrote an account of India taken from Megasthenes. His account is the earliest available Greek account of India.
• (c) Pliny the Elder (1st century CE), author of Natural History, an encyclopedic work published around 75 CE, gives information about India based on Greek sources and reports of Western traders.
• (d) Arrian (c. 130–172 AD), who gave the best available account of Alexander’s challenge and Indian geography and social life, drew extensively on the writings of Nearchus, Megasthenes, and Eratosthenes, the Greek geographer (276–195 BC).
• (e) Plutarch (C. 45-125 AD), whose Lives include chapters on the life of Alexander and a general account of India, mentions Chandragupta as Androcottus and writes that he “saw Alexander” as a youth.
• (f) Justin (2nd century AD), author of the Epitome, gives an account of Alexander’s campaigns in India and the rise to power of Chandragupta Maurya. His work is based on Greek works from the 1st century BC. Justin writes of Chandragupta’s role in overthrowing Greek rule from north-west India: “India, after the death of Alexander, shook the yoke of slavery from her neck, so to speak, and put to death its governors. The architect of this liberation was Sandrocottus (Chandragupta Maurya).”
• (g) J.W. McCrindle compiled these Greek and Latin sources in his three famous books: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian (Calcutta, 1877), Ancient India as Described by Ptolemy (Calcutta, 1927), and Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature (London 1901). ). These Greek and Latin sources are extremely useful for the study of the Mauryas.
• (h) Besides the sources mentioned above, the travel accounts of the famous Chinese travelers Fahien and Huen-Tsang who visited India during the fourth and seventh centuries AD are also relevant to the study of Mauryan history. While writing about their travels in India, both referred to a number of Mauryan monuments.

(4) Archaeological excavations

During the last fifty years, archaeological excavations have been carried out at a number of Mauryan sites in northwestern India and the Ganges basin. Excavations at Kumrahar and Bulandi Bagh near Patna have found the remains of the grand palace of Chandragupta Maurya. Excavations at Kaushambi, Rajagriha, Pataliputra, Hastinapuri, Taxila etc. have enabled us to reconstruct the historical development of this period. Northern Black Polished Ware (NBP) was a common type of pottery used throughout the Mauryan Empire, except in the southernmost regions.

(5) Proof of art

Similar to the archaeological evidence is the associated material referred to by some historians as “art remains”, which include the remains of Mauryan Stupas, Viharas, and animal heads surmounting the pillars on which some of the edicts were written. We will discuss these artifacts in detail at the end of this chapter.

(6) Numismatic evidence

• (i) The Mauryan Empire was based on a money economy. Long before the rise of the Nandas and Mauryas, India developed its own monetary system based on indigenous standards. In the Arthasashtra the silver tablet with subdivisions is evidently recognized as the standard coin, while the copper Mashaka token with its divisions is regarded as currency. The coins in circulation during the Mauryan period are known as punch coins which do not bear the name of any of the Mauryan rulers or bear any date. Most of these coins are struck or struck only with symbols such as a railing with a tree, the sun, the moon, a mountain, animals, birds, etc. As the legend is absent from these coins, our estimate of their date must rest largely on the meaning of their symbols.
• (ii) The term coinage generally refers to early Indian coins of mostly silver, with a few copper coins, which are actually pieces of metal of various shapes, sizes, and weights, and on which one or more symbols are struck. them. Mintage coins exist only in silver and copper, but these are rare. The symbols on these coins probably had some connection with local trade, such as guilds, local or provincial administration, and royal and dynastic symbols. It is interesting to note that from most of the Mauryan sites, NBP wares and minted coins are found together during excavations, indicating that these sites were inhabited during the Mauryan period. As to the monetary conditions of the Mauryan Empire in the last years of Asoka, we have valuable data in the form of the Taxil hoard of minted coins.

Conclusion

The Mauryan Empire, which ruled most of India from 321 BC to 185 BC, was the first pan-Indian empire. It extended into central and northern India as well as present-day Iran. Literary and archaeological, epigraphic, and numismatic sources have provided insight into the history of the empire. Current literature and archaeological findings are a valuable source of information.

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