Ashoka and his successors

Question 1

Ashoka and his successors

Answer 1

• Bindusara was succeeded by his son Ashoka, either directly in 272 bce or, after an interregnum of four years, in 268 bce
• The first major event in Ashoka’s reign, which he describes in an edict, was a campaign against Kalinga in 260 bce. The suffering that resulted caused him to reevaluate the notion of conquest by violence, and gradually he was drawn to the Buddhist religion.
• Ashoka ruled for 37 years. After his death a political decline set in, and half a century later the empire was reduced to the Ganges valley alone.

Question 2

Financial base for the empire

Answer 2

• The Mauryan achievement lay in the ability to weld the diverse parts of the subcontinent into a single political unit and to maintain an imperial system for almost 100 years.
• The financial base for an imperial system was provided by income from land revenue and, to a lesser extent, from trade. The gradual expansion of the agrarian economy and improvements in the administrative machinery for collecting revenue increased the income from land revenue.
• The nature of land revenue has been a subject of controversy. Some scholars maintain that the state was the sole owner of the land, while others contend that there was private and individual ownership as well.
• Another source of income, which acquired increasing importance, was revenue from taxes levied on both internal and foreign trade.

Question 3

Mauryan society

Answer 3

• comprised seven occupational groups: philosophers, farmers, soldiers, herdsmen, artisans, magistrates, and councillors

Question 4

Mauryan government

Answer 4

• The Mauryan government was organized around the king. Ashoka saw his role as essentially paternal: “All men are my children.”
• The empire was divided into four provinces, each under a prince or a governor.
• Fines constituted the most common form of punishment, although capital punishment was imposed in extreme cases
• The village was the basic unit of administration and has remained so throughout the centuries.

Question 5

Ashoka’s edicts

Answer 5

• Ashoka issued edicts that carried his message concerning the idea and practice of dhamma
• carries a variety of meanings depending on the context, such as universal law, social order, piety, or righteousness; Buddhists frequently used it with reference to the teachings of the Buddha
• Ashoka addressed his edicts to the entire populace, inscribing them on rock surfaces or on specially erected and finely polished sandstone pillars, in places where people were likely to congregate
• Ashoka defines the main principles of dhamma as nonviolence, tolerance of all sects and opinions, obedience to parents, respect for the Brahmans and other religious teachers and priests, liberality toward friends, humane treatment of servants, and generosity toward all.
• His own activities under the impact of dhamma included attention to the welfare of his subjects, the building of roads and rest houses, the planting of medicinal herbs, the establishment of centres for tending the sick, a ban on animal sacrifices, and the curtailing of killing animals for food.

Question 6

Mauryan decline

Answer 6

• disintegration of the Mauryan empire was an aftermath of Ashoka’s policies and actions and that his pro-Buddhist policy caused a revolt among the Brahmans. The edicts do not support such a contention.
• the economy may have weakened, putting economic pressure on the empire
• expansion of agriculture did not keep pace with the expansion of the empire, and, because many areas were nonagricultural, the revenue from the agrarian economy may not have been sufficient for the maintenance of the empire

Question 7

The concept of the state

Answer 7

• existence of the state was primarily dependent on two factors: danda (authority) and dharma (in its sense of the social order—i.e., the preservation of the caste structure)
• Artha-shastra, moreover, refers to the seven limbs (saptanga) of the state as the king, administration, territory, capital, treasury, coercive authority, and allies
• emergence of the Mauryan empire strengthened the political notion of monarchy

Question 8

From 150 bce to 300 ce

Answer 8

• disintegration of the Mauryan empire gave rise to a number of small kingdoms
• Punjab and Kashmir regions were drawn into the orbit of Central Asian politics
• lower Indus valley became a passage for movements from the north to the west
• Ganges valley assumed a largely passive role except when faced with campaigns from the northwest
• northern Deccan there arose the first of many important kingdoms that were to serve as the bridge between the north and the south

Question 9

Indo-Greek rulers

Answer 9

• Diodotus I, the Greek governor of Bactria, rose in rebellion against the Seleucid king Antiochus II Theos and declared his independence, which was recognized by Antiochus about 250 bce
• A later Bactrian king, Demetrius (reigned c. 190–c. 167 bce), took his armies into the Punjab and finally down the Indus valley and gained control of northwestern India
• best-known of the Indo-Greek kings was Menander

Question 10

Central Asian rulers

Answer 10

• Kujula Kadphises, the Yuezhi chief, conquered northern India in the 1st century ce
• administrative and political nomenclature in northern India at this time reflected that of western and Central Asia.

Question 11

Oligarchies and kingdoms

Answer 11

• Punjab and Rajasthan were the nucleus of a number of oligarchies, or tribal republics whose local importance rose and fell in inverse proportion to the rise and fall of larger kingdoms
• there were small monarchical states, such as Ayodhya, Kaushambi, and the scattered Naga kingdoms, the most important of which was the one at Padmavati (Gwalior). Ahicchatra (now the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh) was ruled by kings who bore names ending in the suffix -mitra.