The Rise of Empires

How Magadha grew into the Maurya Empire, Kautilya’s Arthashastra and the seven parts of a kingdom, and what Ashoka’s edicts tell us.

Key ideas

• An empire is a large state in which one ruler controls many smaller kingdoms or territories.
• Magadha had fertile plains, forests with elephants, iron ore and rivers for transport.
• Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire, with its capital at Pataliputra.
• Kautilya (Chanakya), a teacher at Takshashila, wrote the Arthashastra on governance and economics.
• The Greek envoy Megasthenes described Chandragupta’s court in the Indika.
• Ashoka’s edicts, mostly in Prakrit and the Brahmi script, record his own words and show how far the empire spread.
• Ashoka had shade trees planted, wells dug and rest houses built along roads for travellers.
• India’s national emblem is the lion capital from Sarnath, and the Ashoka Chakra is on the national flag.

Remember

Watch out

• Mixing up Chandragupta Maurya (the founder) with Ashoka (his grandson).
• Adding BCE dates to find the gap: subtract the smaller from the bigger.
• Thinking the bigger BCE year is later: 268 BCE came before 232 BCE.

Worked example