21-11-2012, 01:53 PM
MAURYAS TO GUPTAS
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IDEA OF AN EMPIRE
“ The Mauryan Empire was the culminating epoch of a few centuries of rational enquiry and cultural advance”… Romila Thapar (Asoka and Decline of the Mauryas).
The permanent settlements near the Ganges river revolutionalized the economic patterns of those times (from the later Vedic period). The commercial classes began to assert themselves
but they were denied social status and this resentment was expressed in many schools of thought. These schools boasted of empirical knowledge as oppose to revealed knowledge of the Brahmans.
Sixth century urban culture brought these tensions to the forefront and it became necessary to revise the existing social and cultural norms.
ASOKA
At the death of Bindusara, the whole sub-continent was under the sway of the Mauryas except one hostile kingdom of Kalinga (modern Orissa).
Asoka led a successful campaign against this kingdom and made the Mauryan Empire the biggest empire India will ever see (till the 19th century under British colonialism).
POLITICAL IDEOLOGY OF THE MAURYAS
The political ideology of the Mauryas was basically derived from the Arthashastra, the treatise on government, is said to have been written by the prime minister of Chandragupta Maurya. Although often compared to Machiavelli's Prince because of its sometimes ruthless approach to practical politics, Kautilya's work is far more varied--and entertaining--than usual accounts of it indicates.
THE CENTRALIZING TENDENCIES
The nucleus of the Mauryan empire was the king, and the increasing power of the king was accompanied by a similar increase in the power of the chief priest (purohita), who by now had begun to assume the function of the chief minister, his religious status receded in the background (example: Kautilya).