The features of the administration system of the Mauryan Empire:

 (i) There were five major political centres in the empire-the capital Pataliputra and provincial centres of Taxila, Ujjayini, Tosali and Suvarnagiri.

 (ii) The administrative control was strongest in areas around the capital and the provincial centres.

The examples:

 (i) The settlements is divided into two sections, one smaller but higher and other much larger but lower.

 (ii) Archaeologists designate these as the Citadel and Lower Town respectively. The citadels owes its height to the fact that buildings were constructed on mud brick platforms. It was walled, which meant that it was physically separated from the lower town.

 (iii) One of the most distinctive features of Harappan cities was the carefully planned drainage system. The roads and streets were laid out along an approximate grid pattern, intersecting at right angles.

 (iv) The lower Town at Mohenjodaro provides examples of residential buildings. Every house had its own bathroom paved with bricks, with drains connected through the wall to street drains.

 (v) Many houses had wells, often in a room that could be reached from the outside and perhaps used by passer-by. Some houses have remains of staircases to reach a second storey or the roof.

It was composed under the leadership of a noted Indian Sanskritist, V.S. Sukthankar.

 The elements considered:

 (i) They selected the verses that appeared common to most versions.

 (ii) There were several common elements in the Sanskrit versions of the story, evident in manuscripts found all over the subcontinent.

 (iii) When issues of social history were explored for the first by historians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they tended to take these texts at face value-believing that everything that was laid down in these text was actually practiced.

 (iv) The studies indicated that the ideas contained in normative Sanskrit texts were, on the whole, recognized as authoritative: they were also questioned and occasionally even rejected.

Buddha’s teaching:

 (i) The world is transient and constantly changing; it is also soulless as there is nothing permanent.

 (ii) Sorrow is intrinsic to human existence. It is by following the path of moderation between severe penance and self-indulgence that human beings can rise above these worldly troubles.

 (iii) In the earliest form of Buddhism existence of god was irrelevant. Buddha regarded the social world as the creation of humans rather than of divine origin. Therefore, he advised kings to be humane and ethical. Individual effort was expected to transform social relations.

 (iv) The Buddha emphasised individual agency and righteous action as a means to escape from the cycle of rebirth and attain self-realization and Nibbana.

 (v) The extinguishing of the ego and desire would thus end the cycle of suffering. 

(14.1) Harishena, the court poet of Samudragupta, had written the above Prashasti. Historians often attempt to draw factual information from such compositions, those who composed and read them often treasured them as works of poetry.

 (14.2)  Samudragupta is compared to gods as:

  (i) He was without an antagonist on earth and was adorned by Hundreds for multitude of overflowing good qualities.

 (ii) He being the cause of the prosperity of the good and destruction of the bad.

 (14.2) under patriliny, sons could claim the resources including the throne in the case of kings of their fathers when the latter died. Sometimes there were no sons, in that situations brothers succeeded one another and sometimes other kinsmen claimed the throne.

 (14.3)  The citizens of Hastinapura express their preference for the Pandavas as they were more capable and virtuous than the Kauravas.