The Mauryan Empire

Conditions for the Rise of Large States (like Magadha): From the sixth Century BC onwards, the increasing use of iron in eastern UP and western Bihar created conditions for the formation of large territorial states.

Armed with iron weapons, the warrior class now played an important role. The new agricultural tools and implernents enabled the peasants to produce far more food grains than they required for consumption.

The extra produce could be collected by the princes to meet their military and administrative needs. The surplus could also be made available to the towns that had sprung up in fifth century BC. These material advantages naturally enabled the people to remain on their land, and also to expand at the cost of the neighbouring areas. The rise of large states with towns as their base of operations strengthened the territorial idea. People owed strong allegiance to the janapada or the territory to which they belonged rather than to their jana or tribe.

The Mahajanapadas A few janapadas arose towards the end of the Vedic period. However, with progress in agriculture and settlement by 500 BC, they became a common feature. Around 450 BC, over forty janapadas covering even Afghanistan and south-eastern Central Asia are mentioned by Panini. However, the major part of southern India was excluded. The Pali texts show that the janapadas grew into mahajanapadas, that is large states or countries. These texts mention sixteen of them. Nine of them also occur in Panini not as mahajanapadas but as janapadas.

In the age of the Buddha we find sixteen large states called mahajanapadas. Most of these states arose in the upper and mid-Gangetic plains, including the doab area covered by the Ganges, Yamuna, and their tributaries. 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 powerful. Beginning from the east, we hear of the kingdom of Anga which covered the modern districts of Monghyr and Bhagalpur. If had its capital at Champa, which shows signs of habitation in the fifth century BC, and there is a mud fort dating to that century. Eventually the kingdom of Anga was swallowed by its powerful neighbour Magadha.

Magadha embraced the former districts of Patna, Gaya, and parts of Shahabad, and grew to be the leading state of the time. Its earlier capital was Rajgir, and later Fataliputra. Both were fortified, and show signs of habitation around the fifth century BC. North of the Ganges, in Tirhut division lay the state of the Vajjis which included eight clans.

However, the most powerful dynasty was that of the Lichchhavis with their Capital at Vaishali which is coterminous with the village of Basarh in Vaishali archaeologically Basarh was not settled until the sixth century BC.

district. The Puranas push the antiquity of Vaishali to a much earlier period, but Further west we find the kingdom of Kashi with its capital at Varanasi. Excavations at Raighat show that the earliest habitations started around 500 BC, and the city was enclosed by mud embankments at about the same time. Initially Kashi appears to have been the most powerful of the states, but eventually it crumbed to the power of Koshala. Koshala embraced the area occupied by eastern UP and had its capital at Shravasti, which is coterminous with Sahet. Mahet on the borders of Gonda and Bahraich districts of UP. Diggings indicate that Sahet-Mahet was barely settled in the sixth century BC, but we see the beginnings of a mud fort. Koshala had an important city called Ayodhya which is associated with the story in the Ramayana.

Excavations however show that it was not settled on any scale before the fifth century BC. Koshala also included the tribal republican territory of the Shakyas of Kapilavastu. The capital of Kapilavastu is identified with Piprahwa in Basti district. Habitation at Piprahwa did not occur earlier than c. 500 BC. Lumbini which is situated at a distance of 15 km from Piprahwa in Nepal, served as another capital of the Shakyas. In any Ashokan inscription, it is called the birthplace of Gautama Buddha. In the neighbourhood of Koshala have the republican clan of the Mallas, whose territory touched the northern border of Vajji state. One of the capitals of the Mallas was at Kushinara where Gautama Buddha passed away. Kushinara is coterminous with Kasia in Deoria district. Further west was 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 at Kaushambi. Kaushambi was chosen because of its location near the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna. In the fifth century BC, it had a mud fortification, as excavations reveal.

We also hear of the older states of the Kurus and the Panchalas which were situated in western UP, but they no longer enjoyed the political significance they had attained in the Later Vedic period. In central Malwa and the adjoining parts of MP lay the state of Avanti. It was divided into two parts, the northern part with its capital at Ujjain, and the southern part at Mahishamati. Both these towns became fairly important from the fifth century BC onwards, though eventually Ujjain surpassed Mahishamati. It developed large-scale working in iron and erected strong fortifications.

The word 'Dhamma' is the Prakrit form of the Sanskrit word Dharma. There have been attempts to define and find equivalent English words for it, such as "piety", "moral life" and "righteousness” but scholars could not translate it into English because it was coined and used in a specific context. The word Dharma has multiple meanings in the literature and thought of ancient India. The best way to understand what Ashoka means by Dhamma is to read his edicts, which were written to explain the principles of Dhamma to the people of that time throughout the empire. Dhamma was not a particular religious faith or practice, or an formulated royal policy. Dhamma related to generalized norms of social behaviour and activities; Ashoka tried to synthesize various social norms which were current in his time. It cannot be understood by assuming it is one of the various religions that existed at that time. To understand why and how Ashoka formulated Dhamma and its meaning, one must understand the characteristics of the time in which he lived and to refer to Buddhist, Brahminical and other texts where  norms of social behaviour are explained.

Maurya Empire at the Age of Ashoka : The empire stretched from Afghanistan to Bangladesh/Assam and from Central Asia (Afghanistan) to South India. The Mauryan period saw a change in the economic structure of the society. The use of iron resulted in surplus production, and the economy changed from being a simple, rural economy to a pattern of economy in which urban centres became important. It has been generally argued that the use of the Northern Black Polished Ware pottery is an indicator of material prosperity in the period. The use of Punch-marked silver coins and some other varieties of coins, the conscious intervention of the State to safeguard trade routes and the rise of urban centers point to a structural change in the economy, requiring adjustments in the society. The commercial classes had come to the forefront of society. The emergence of urban culture demanded a flexible social organization. The incorporation of tribes and peoples from the outlying areas into the social fabric also presented a problem.

The response of the Brahminical social order, which was based on the four-fold varna division, was to make the caste system more rigid and deny a higher status to the commercial class. The rigidity of the Brahminical class system sharpened the divisions within the society. The lower orders turned to various heterodox sects and this created social tensions. It was this situation which emperor Ashoka inherited when he ascended the Mauryan throne. The Brahminical hold over society, assiduously built through the Later Vedic period, was coming under increasing attack. The privileges of the priests, the rigidity of the caste system and the elaborate rituals were being questioned. The lower orders among the four sects began to favour new sects. The vaishyas, who were technically included in the higher social category, were treated as inferior to both Brahmans and Kshatriyas. The opposition of the commercial class to Brahmanism was to give a fillip to the other sects of the society. Buddhism began as schismatic movement from the more orthodox outlook of Brahmanism. Its basic tenet was an emphasis on misery and advocacy of the middle path. It was a set of ethical principles. Buddhism opposed the dominance of the Brahmans and the concept of sacrifices and rituals. It thus appealed to lower social orders and to emerging social classes. The human approach to relations in society preached by Buddhism further attracted different sections to itself. The Mahajanapadas of sixth century B.C. marked the beginning of the state system in many parts of India. Only a small section of society came to have a monopoly of power, which they exercised over the rest of the society. There were gana-samghas in which the rulers were a group of hereditary Kshatriya or members of a clan. By the time Ashoka ascended the throne, the state system had grown very elaborate.

The political supremacy of one region (Magadha) over a vast territory which comprised many previous kingdoms, gana-samghas, and areas where no organised states had previously existed; Existence within this vast territory of geographical regions, cultural areas, and of different faiths, beliefs and practices; Monopoly of force by a ruling class of which the emperor was the supreme head. Appropriation of a very substantial quantity of surpluses from agriculture, commerce and other sources. The complexity of the state system demanded an imaginative policy from the emperor which required minimal use of force in such a large empire having diverse forms of economy and religions. It could not have been controlled by an army alone. A more feasible alternative was the propagation of a policy that would work at an ideological level and reach out to all sections of the society. The policy of Dhamma was such an endeavour.

In the world context, the New Stone Age began in 9000 B.C. The only Neolithic settlement in the Indian subcontinent attributed to 7000 B.C. lies in Mehrgarh, which is situated in Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan. The people of this age used tools and implements of polished stone. They particularly used stone axes, which have been found in large numbers in good part of the hilly-tracts of the country. This cutting tool was put to various uses by the people, and in ancient legends Parashurama became an important axe-wielding hero. The Neolithic people lived there on a lake-side in pits, and probably had hunting and fishing economy. They seem to have been acquainted with agriculture. The people of Gulfkral (literally the 'cave of the potter'), a Neolithic site 41 km south-west of Srinagar, practiced both agriculture and domestication of animals. Bone implements were found in India in Chirand, which is 40 km west of Patna on the northern side of the Ganga. The people of Burzahom used coarse grey pottery. It is interesting that the Burzahom domestic dogs were buried with their masters in their graves. Pit dwelling and the placing of domestic dogs in the graves of the masters do not seem to be the practice with Neolithic people in any other part of India. The second group of Neolithic people lived in south India, south of the Godavari River. They usually settled on the tops of granite hills or on plateaus near the river banks. The third area from which Neolithic tools have been recovered is in the hills of Assam. Neolithic tools are also found in the Garo hills in Meghalaya on the north- eastern frontier of India.

Numerous religious sects arose in the middle Gangetic plains in the sixth century B.C. We hear of as many as 62 religious sects.  Many of these sects were based on regional customer and rituals practiced by different peoples living in north-east India. Of these sects Jainism and Buddhism were the most important, and they emerged as the most potent religious reform movement.

In post: Vedic times society was clearly divided into four varnas, Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras. Each varna was assigned well-defined functions, although it was emphasized that varna was based on birth and the two higher varnas were given some privileges. The Kshatriyas ranked second in the varna hierarchy. They fought and governed, and lived on the taxes collected from the peasants. The Shudras along with women were barred from taking to Vedic studies. Naturally, the varna divided society seems to have generated tensions. Vardhamana Mahavira, who founded Jainism, and Gautama Buddha, who founded Buddhism belonged to the Kshatriya clan and both disordered the authority of the Brahmanas. But the real cause of the rise of these new religions lay in the introduction of a new agricultural economy in north-eastern India.

The agricultural economy based on the iron ploughshare required the use of bullocks and it could not flourish without animal husbandry. The Vedic practice of killing cattle indiscriminately in sacrifices stood in the way of the progress of new agriculture. The cattle wealth slowly decimated because the cows and bullocks were killed in numerous Vedic sacrifices. The tribal people living on the southern and eastern fringes of Magadha also killed cattle for food. But if the new agrarian economy had to be stable, this killing had to be stopped.

The Vaishyas extended generous support to both Mahavira and Gautama Buddha. First, Jainism and Buddhism in the initial stage did not attach any importance to the existing varna system. Second, they preached the gospel of non-violence, which would put an end to wars between different kingdoms and consequently promote trade and commerce. Third, the Brahminical law books, called the Dharmasutras decried lending money on interest. A person who lived on interest was condemned by them. Therefore, the Vaishyas, who lent money on account of growing trade and commerce, were not held in esteem and were eager to improve their social status. In other words, we find the same kind of reaction against the changes in material life in north-eastern India in the sixth century B.C. as we notice against the changes introduced by the Industrial Revolution in modern times

Samgam Literature: Sangam literature refers to a body of classical Tamil literature created between the years 300 BCE and 600 CE. This collection contains 2381 poems written by 473 poets, some 102 of whom remain anonymous. The period during which these poems were written is commonly referred to as the 'Sangam Age' referring to the prevalent Sangam legends claiming literary academies lasting thousands of years, giving the name to the corpus of literature. Sangam literature is primarily secular dealing with everyday themes in a South Indian context. The poems belonging to the Sangam literature were composed by Tamil poets, both men and women, from various professions and classes of society. These poems were later collected into various anthologies, edited and had colophons added by anthologists and annotators around 1000 CE. Sangam literature fell out of popular memory soon thereafter, until they were rediscovered in the 19th century by scholars such as C.W. Thamotharampillai and U.V. Swaminatha Iyer. Sangam literature deals with emotional and material topics such as love, war, governance, trade, and bereavement. Much of the Tamil literature believed to have been written in the Sangam period is lost to us, though detailed lists of works known to the 10th century compilers have survived. The available literature from this period was categorized and compiled in the 10th century into two categories based roughly on chronology the categories are - The Major Eighteen Anthology Series comprising the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Idylls and the Minor Eighteen Anthology Series.