Rail Adda

     THE MAURYAS

     (321-185 BC) 

              Chandragupta Maurya (321-297 BC)

·      He was the founder of the Maurya dynasty under the guidance of Kautilya.

·      He defeated Seleucus .

·      Seleucus sent Megasthenes as his ambassador to the court of Chandragupta.

·      The Junagarh Inscription says that he constructed a lake in Saurashtra region called Sudarshana Lake for irrigation purpose.

·      He adopted Jainism and went to South India with Bhadrabahu.

                     Bindusara (297-272 BC)

·      Bindusara was son of Chandragupta. He is also known as Amitrochates or Amitraghata(Killer of enemies).

·      Bindusara appointed his eldest son sumana as his viceroy at Taxila and Ashoka at Ujjain.

·      He expended the borders towards south India upto Karnataka.

·      Bindusara followed Ajivaka Sampradaya.

·      Ashoka killed his six brothers became king in 272 BC.

               Ashoka (272-232 BC)

·      Ashoka’s mother name was Subhadrangi or Janapada kalyani.

·      Ashoka was the first king in the Indian history who has left his records engraved on stones.

·      In 260 BC , Ashoka fought Kalinga war in which he killed many people.

·      He was moved by the massacre in the Kalinga war.

·      He issued inscriptions like Darius-1 who was the king of Iran.

·      Ashoka had three queens namely Padmavati, Asandhimatta and Karuvaki.

·      He had four sons namely Mahendra, Tivara, Kunala and Jaulaka.

·      He had four daughters Sanghamitra and Charumati.

·      Mahedra and sanghamitra became Buddhists and went to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism.

v  Ashokan Inscriptions

·      The Ashokan inscriptions are found in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

·      They were composed in Prakrit language and Brahmi script in the greater part of subcontinent But in North western part these appeared in Aramaic language and Kharoshthi script.

·      In Afghanistan, they were written both in Aramaic and Greek scripts and language.

·      Ashokan inscriptions can be classified into Rock Edicts and Pillar Edicts.

·      The name of Ashoka occurs only in copies of Minor Rock Edict 1. All other inscriptions refer him as Devanampriya and Piyadasi.

·      In his Bhabru Edict he says he had full faith in Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

·      Major Rock Edicts are fourteen in number and are found on the borders of the empire.

·      Rock Edict 13 is the longest among all the Edicts which describes the horrors of Kalinga War.

·      There are ten Pillar Edicts, in which seven are Major pillar Edicts and three are Minor Pillar Edicts.

·      Minor Pillar Edicts 1 is called  Sachism Edicts.

·      Ruminidei Pillar Edicts talks about the birth of Buddha.

·      The pillar Edicts of Kaushambi was shifted to Allahabad by Jahangir.

·      The pillar Edicts of Sopara and Meerut were shifted to Delhi by Firuz Tughlaq.

The land tax was 1/4^th to 1/6^th of the produce.

The income from the king’s own land was known as Sita.

The Pana and Masika were the punch marked coins of silver and copper, respectively . Kakini was one fourth of that of Masika.

The important provinces were directly under Kumaras.

Maurya maintained very large army and bureaucracy based on Saptanga theory  of Kautilya.

SUNGAS(185-75 BC)

·      The Maurya were succeeded by the Sungas.

·      Sungas were brahmans.

·      One of the rulers among the later kings was Bhagvata in whose court Heliodorous. The ambassador of Antialkidas, stayed, Heliodorous and Bhagvata erected the Besnagar Pillar

·      The last Sunga king was Devabhuti.

·      Sungas were replaced by Kanvas.

KANVAS(75-25 BC)

·      They ruled in western part of India.

Kanvas were replaced by the Satavahanas