Old NCERT Summary (RS Sharma): Territorial States & The First Magadhan Empire- 1 - History for UPSC CSE

The Mahajanapadas

• In the age of the Buddha we find 16 large states called Mahajanapadas, they were mostly situated north of the Vindhyas and extended from the north-west frontier to Bihar. Of these Magadha, Koshala, Vatsa and Avanti seem to have been considerably powerful. Beginning from the east we hear of the kingdom of Anga which covered the modern districts of Monghyr and Bhagalpur. It had its capital at Champa, Eventually the kingdom, of Anga was swallowed by its powerful neighbour Magadha.
  
• Magadha embraced the former districts of patna, Gaya and parts of Shahbad, and grew to be the leading state of the time. North of the Ganga in the division of Tirhut was the state of the Vajjis which included eight clans. But the most powerful were the Lichchhavis with their capital at Vaishali which is identical with the village of Basarh in the district of Vaishali. The Purnas push the antiquity of Vaishali to a much earlier period, but archaeologically Basarh was not settled until the sixth century B.C.
• Further west we find the kingdom of Kashi with its capital at Varanasi. In the beginning Kashi appears to be the most powerful of the states, but eventually it had to submit to the power of Koshala.
• Koshala embraced the area occupied by eastern Uttar Pradesh and had its capital at Shravasti, which is identical with Sahet-Mahet on the borders of Gonda and Bahraich districts in Uttar Pradesh. But we see the beginnings of a mud fort. Koshala contained an important city called Ayodhya, which is associated with the story in the Ramayana. Koshala also included the tribal republican territory of the Shaky as of Kapilvastu. The capital of Kapilavastu has been identified with Piprahwa in Basti district. Lumbini, which lies at a distance of 15 km from Piprahwa in Nepal served as another capital of the Shakyas. In an Ashokan inscription it is called the birthplace of Gautama Buddha and it was here that he was brought up.
• In the neighbourhood of Koshala lay the republican clan of the Mallas, One of the capitals of the Mallas lay at Kushinara where Gautama Buddha passed away. Kushinara is identical with Kasia in Deoria district. Further west lay the kingdom of the Vatsas, along the bank of the Yamuna, with its capital at Kaushambi near Allahabad. The Vatsas were a Kuru clan who had shifted from Hastinapur and settled down at Kaushambi. Kaushambi was chosen because of its location near, the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna. We also hear of the older states of the Kurus and the Panchalas which were situated in western Uttar Pradesh, but they no longer enjoyed the political importance which they had attained in the later Vedic period.
• In central Malwa and the adjoining parts of Madhya Pradesh lay the state of the Avantis. It was divided into two parts. The northern part had its capital at Uggain, and the southern part at Mahishamati.

• Magadha came into prominence under the leadership of Bimbisara, who belonged to the Haryanka dynasty.
  He was a contemporary of the Buddha. He started the policy of conquest and aggression which ended with the Kalinga war of Ashoka. Bimbisara acquired Anga and placed it under the viceroyaity of his son Ajatas hatru at Champa. He also strengthened his position by marriage alliances. He took three wives. His first wife was the daughter of the king of Koshala and the sister of Parsenajit. His second wife Chellana was a Lichchh avi princess from Vaishali who gave birth to Ajatashatru and his third wife was the daughter of the chief of the Madra clan of Punjab.
• Magadha’s most serious rival was Avanti with its capital at Ujjain. Its king Chanda Pradyota Mahasena fought Bimbisara, but ultimately the two thought it wise to become friends. Later when Pradyota was attacked by jaundice, at the Avanti king’s request Bimbisara sent the royal physician Jivaka to Ujjain.
• The earliest capital of Magadha was at Rajgir, which was called Girivraja at that time. If was surrounded by five hills, the openings in which were closed by stone-walls on all sides. This made Rajgir impregnable. According to the Buddhist chronicles, Bimbisara ruled for 52 years. roughly from 544 B.C. to 492 B.C. He was succeeded by his son Ajatashatru (492-460 B.C.). Ajatashatru killed his father and seized the throne for himself. Throughout his reign he pursued an aggressive policy of expansion. This provoked against him a combination of Kashi and Koshala. There began a prolonged conflict between Magadha and Koshala. Ultimately Ajatashatru got the best of the war, and the Koshalan king was compelled to purchase peace by giving his daughter in marriage to Ajatashatru and leaving him in sole possession of Kashi.
• Although his mother was a Lichchhavi princess, this did not prevent him from making war against Vaishli. He created dissensions in the ranks of the Lichchhavis and finally destroyed their independence by invading their territory and by defeating them in battle. It took him full 16 years to destroy Vaishali. Eventually he succeeded in doing so because of a war engine which was used to throw stones like catapults. He also possessed a chariot to which a mace was attached, and it facilitated mass killings. The Magadhan empire was thus enlarged with the addition of Kashi and Vaishali.
• Ajatashatru faced a stronger rival in the ruler of Avanti. Avanti had defeated the Vatsas of Kaushambi and now threatened an invasion of Magadha. To meet this danger Ajatashatru began the fortification of Rajgir. The remains of the walls can be still seen. However, trie invasion did not materialize in his lifetime.
• Ajatashatru was succeeded by Uday in (460-444 B.C.) His reign is important because he built the fort upon the confluence of the Ganga and Son at Patna. This was done because Patna lay in the centre of the Magadhan kingdom, which now extended from the Himalayas in the north to the hills of Chotanagpur in the south.
• Udayin was succeeded by the dynasty of Shishunagas, who temporarily shifted the capital to Vaishali. Their greatest achievement was the destruction of the power of Avanti with its capital at Ujjain. This brought to an end the 100 year old rivalry between Magadha and Avanti. From now onwards Avanti became a part of the Magadhan empire and continued to be so till the end of the Maurya rule.
• The Shishunagas were succeeded by the Nandas, who proved to be the most powerful rulers of Magadha. So great was their power that Alexander, who invaded Punjab at that time, did not dare to move towards the east.

  The nandas added to the Magadhan power by conquering Kalinga from where they brought an image of the Jina as a victory trophy. All this took place in the reign of Mahapadma Nanda. He claimed to be ekarat, the soles overeign who destroyed all the other ruling princes. It seems that he acquired not only Kalinga but also Koshala which had probably rebelled against him.

• The later Nandas turned out to be weak and unpopular. Their rule in Magadha was supplanted by that of the Maurya dynasty under which the Magadhan empire reached the apex of glory.

The Age of the Mauryas

➢ Chandragupta Maurya

• THE MAURYA dynasty was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, who seems to have belonged to some ordinary family.
  
  According to the brahmanical tradition he was born of Mura, a shudra woman in the court of the Nandas. But an earlier Buddhist tradition speaks of the existence of a kshatriya clan called Mauryas living in the region of Gorakhpur adjoining the Nepalese terai. In all likelihood, Chandragupta was a member of this clan. He took advantage of the growing weakness and unpopularity of the Nandas in the last days of their rule. With the help of Chanakya, who is known as Kautilya, he overthrew the Nandas and established the rule of the Maurya dynasty. The machinations of Chanakya against Chandragupta’s enemies are described in detail in the Mudrarakshasa, a drama written by Vishakhadatta in the ninth century. Several plays have been based on it in modern times.
• Justin, a Greek writer, says that Chandragupta overran the whole of India with an army of 600,000. But Chandragupta liberated north-western India from the thraldom of Selucus, Chandragupta thus built up a vast empire which included not only Bihar and good portions of Orissa and Bengal but also western and northwestern India, and the Deccan. Leaving Kerala, Tamilnadu and parts of north-eastern India the Mauryas ruled over the whole of the subcontinent. In the north-west they held sway over certain areas which were not included even in the British empire.

➢ Imperial Organization

• The Mauryas organized a very elaborate system of administration. We know about it from the account of Megasthenes and the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Megasthenes was a Greek ambassador sent by Seleucus to the court of Chandragupta Maurya. He lived in the Maurya capital of Pataliputra and wrote an account not only of the administration of the city of Pataliputra but also of the Maurya empire as a whole. The account of Megasthenes have been published in the form of a book called Indika, which throws valuable light on the administration, society and economy of Maurya times. The account of Megasthenes can be supplemented by the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Arthashastra gives authentic information about the Maurya administration and economy. On the basis of these two sources we can draw a picture of the administrative system of Chandra-gupta Maurya. If we believe in a statement of the Arthashastra, the king had set a high ideal the happiness of his subjects lay his happiness and in their troubles lay his troubles. According to Megasthenes the king was assisted by a council.
• The empire was divided into a number of provinces, and each province was placed under a prince who was a scion of the royal dynasty. The provinces were divided into still smaller units, and arrangements were made for both rural and urban administration. Excavations The administration Pataliputra, which was the capital of the Mauryas, was carried on by six committees, each committee consisting of five members. These committees were entrusted with sanitation, care of foreigners, registration of birth and death, regulation of weights and measures and similar other functions.
• The most striking feature of Chandragupta’s administration is the maintenance of a Huge army. According to the account of a Roman writer called Poiny, Chandragupta maintained 600,000 foot-soldiers, 30,000 cavalry and 9000 elephants the Mauryas also maintained a navy. The administration of the armed forces, according to Megasthenes, was carried on by a board of 30 officers divided into six committees, consisting of five members.

➢ Ashoka (273-232 B.C.)

• Chandragupta Maurya was succeeded by Bindusara, whose reign is important for continued links with the Greek princes. His son, Ashoka, is the greatest of the Maurya rulers. According to Buddhist tradition he was so cruel in his early life that he killed his 99 brothers to get the throne. But since the statement is based on a legend, it may well be wrong. His biography, prepared by Buddhist writerters, is so full of finction that it cannot be taken seriously.
  
  

➢ Ashokan Inscriptions

• The history of Ashoka is reconstructed on the basis of his inscriptions. These inscriptions, numbering 39, are classified into Major Rock Edicts, Minor Rock Edicts, Separate Rock Edicts, Major Pillar Edicts and Minor Pillar Edicts. The name of Ashoka occurs only in copies of Minor Rock Edict found at three places in Karnataka and at one in Madhya Pradesh.
  
• All the other inscriptions mention only devanamptya piyadasi, dear to gods, and leave out the word Ashoka. The Ashokan inscriptions are found in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Altogether they appear at 47 places, and their total versions number 182. They were generally placed on ancient highways. Composed in Prakrit, they were written in Brahmi script in the greater part of the subcontinent. But in its northwestern part they appeared in Aramaic language and Kharoshthi script, and in the Afghanistan they were written in both Aramaic and Greek scripts and languages. He is the first Indian king to speak directly to the people through his inscriptions which carry royal orders. The inscriptions throw light on the career of Ashoka, his external and domestic polices, and the extent of his empire.

➢ Impact of the Kalinga War

• The ideology of Buddhism guided Ashoka’s state policy at home and abroad. After his accession to the throne, Ashoka fought only one major war called the Kalinga War. According to him, 100,000 people were killed in this war, several lakhs perished, and 150,000 were taken prisoners. At any rate it seems that the king war moved by the massacre in this war. So he abandoned the policy of physical occupation in favour of policy of cultural conquest. In other words, bherighosha was replaced with dhammaghosha. We quote below the worlds of Ashoka from his Thirteenth Major Rock Edict:
  
  Kalinga War
• Ashoka no longer treated foreign dominions as legitimate areas for military conquest. He tried to conquer them ideologically. He took steps for the welfare of men and animals in foreign lands, which was a new thing considering the condition of those days. He sent ambassadors of peace to the Greek kingdoms in West Asia and Greece. He sent mission-aries for the propagation of Buddhism to Sri Lanka and Central Asia. As an enlightened ruler Ashoka tiled to enlarge his area of political influence through propaganda.
• It would be wrong to think that the Kalinga war made Ashoka an extreme pacifist. On the other hand he adopted a practical policy of consolidating his empire. He retained Kalinga after its conquest and incorporated it into his empire. There is also nothing to show that he disbanded the huge army maintained from the time of Chandragupta Maurya. Within the empire he appointed a class of officers known as the rajukas, who were vested with the authority of not only rewarding people but also punishing them, wherever necessary.

➢ Internal Policy and Buddhism

• Ashoka was converted to Buddhism as a result of the Kalinga war. According to tradition he became a monk, made huge gifts to the Buddhists and undertook pilgrimages to the Buddhist shrines. The fact of his visiting the Buddhist shrines is also suggested by the dhamma yatras mentioned in his inscriptions. According to tradition the Buddhist council (Sangiti) was held by Ashoka and missionaries were sent not only to south India but also to Sri Lanka, Burma and other countries to covert the people there. Brahmi inscriptions of the second and first centuries B.C. have been found Sri Lanka.
• Ashoka set a very high ideal for himself, and this was the ideal of paternal kingship. He repeatedly asked his officials to tell the subjects that the king looked upon them as his children. As agents of the king, the official were also asked to take care of the people. Ashoka appointed Dhammama-hamatras for propagating dharma among various social groups including women. He also appointed rajukas for the administration of justice in his empire.
• He disapproved of rituals, especially those observed by women. He forbade killing certain birds and animals, and completely prohibited this laughter of animals in the capital. He interdicted gay social functions in which people indulged in revelries.

➢ Ashoka’s Place in History

• It is said that the pacific policy of Ashoka rained the Maury a empire, but this is not true. On the country Ashoka has a number of achievements to his credit. He was certainly a great missionary ruler in the history of the ancient world. He worked with great zeal and devotion to his mission and achieved a lot, both at home and abroad.
• Ashoka brought about the political unification of the country. He bound it further by one dharma, one language and practically one script called Brahmi which was used in most of his inscriptions. In unifying the country he respected such scripts as Brashmi, Kharoshthi, Aramaci and Greek. Evidently he also accommodated such languages as Greek, Prakrit and Sanskrit and various religious sects. Ashoka followed a tolerant religious policy. He did not try to foist his buddhist faith on his subjects. 
• On the other hand he made gifts to non-Buddhist and even anti-Buddhist sects. Ashoka was fired with zeal for missionary activities. He deputed officials in the far-flung parts of the empire. This helped the cause of ad-ministration and also promoted cultural contacts between the developed Gangetic basin and the backward distant provinces. The material culture, typical of the heart of the empire, spread to Kalinga and the lower Deccan and norther Bengal. Above all ashoka is important in history for his policy of peace, nonaggression and cultural conquest. 
• He had no model in early Indian history for pursuing such a policy; nor did such an example exist in any country except Egypt where Akhnaton had pursued a pacific policy in the fourteenth century B.C. But it is obvious that Ashoka was not aware for his Egyptian predecessor.
• However, Ashoka’s policy did not make any lasting impression on his viceroys and vassals, who declared themselves independent in their respective areas after the retirement of the king in 232 B.C. Similarly, the policy could not convert his neighbours, who swooped on the northwestern frontier of his empire within 30 years of Ashoka’s exit from power in 232 B.C.