History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0059/00593.txt

Text File | 1992-10-11 | 10KB | 189 lines

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$Title{Civilizations Past And Present
The First Indian Empire}
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$Author{Wallbank;Taylor;Bailkey;Jewsbury;Lewis;Hackett}
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$Subject{empire
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indian
chandragupta
mauryan
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ashoka
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$Date{1992}
$Log{See Ashoka's Empire*0059301.scf
}
Title:       Civilizations Past And Present
Book:        Chapter 4:  The Asian Way Of Life
Author:      Wallbank;Taylor;Bailkey;Jewsbury;Lewis;Hackett
Date:        1992

The First Indian Empire

     By the end of the Later Vedic Age about 500 B.C., a thousand years after
the collapse of the Indus civilization, the Aryan invaders of India had
established sixteen major kingdoms and tribal oligarchies in northern India,
stretching from modern Pakistan to Bengal. The shock of Alexander the Great's
invasion of India provided the spark that led to the unification of India.

     In 326 B.C. Alexander the Great, continuing his conquest of the Persian
Empire (see ch. 2), brought his phalanxes into the easternmost Persian satrapy
in the Indus valley, defeating local Punjab rulers. When his weary troops
refused to advance further eastward into the Ganges plain, Alexander
constructed a fleet and explored the Indus to its mouth. From there he
returned overland to Babylon, while his fleet skirted the coast of the Arabian
Sea and reached the Persian Gulf.

     After Alexander's death in 323 B.C., the empire he had built so rapidly
quickly disintegrated, and by 321 B.C. his domain in the Punjab had completely
disappeared. But he had opened routes between India and the West that would
remain open during the following Hellenistic and Roman periods, and by
destroying the petty states in the Punjab he facilitated - and perhaps
inspired - the conquests of India's own first emperor.

Chandragupta Maurya, India's First Emperor

     In 322 B.C., shortly after Alexander's death, a new era began in India.
In that year Chandragupta Maurya seized the state of Magadha in the Ganges
valley. Over the next twenty-four years Chandragupta conquered northern India
and founded the Maurya Dynasty, which endured until about 185 B.C. At its
height the empire included all the subcontinent except the extreme south.

     India's first empire reflected the imperial vision of its founder. He
created an administrative system whose efficiency was not surpassed until the
advent of British rule in the nineteenth century. Chandragupta was also a
brilliant general and administrator. He was responsible for the first military
victory of the East over the West; in 305 B.C. he defeated Seleucus, the
general who had inherited the major part of Alexander's empire and had crossed
the Indus in an attempt to regain Alexander's Indian conquests. Seleucus gave
up his Indian claims in return for five hundred war elephants and established
friendly diplomatic relations with the Indian emperor.

Life In The Mauryan Empire

     Seleucus' ambassador to the court of Chandragupta, whose name was
Megasthenes, wrote a detailed account of India, fragments of which have
survived. They give a fascinating picture of life in the empire. Pataliputra,
Chandragupta's capital known today as Patna, covered eighteen square miles and
was probably the largest city in the world. Outside its massive wooden walls
was a deep trench used for defense and the disposal of sewage.

     The remarkably advanced Mauryan empire was divided and subdivided into
provinces, districts, and villages whose headmen were appointed by the state.
The old customary law, preserved and administered by the Brahmin priesthood,
was superseded by an extensive legal code that provided for royal interference
in all matters. A series of courts ranging from the village court presided
over by the headman to the emperor's imperial court administered the law. So
busy was Chandragupta with the details of his surprisingly modern
administration that, according to Megasthenes, he had to hear court cases
during his daily massage.

     Two other agencies were very important in holding the empire together.
One was the professional army, which Megasthenes reports was an incredibly
large force of 700,000 men, 9000 elephants, and 10,000 chariots. The other was
the secret police, whose numbers were so large that the Greek writer concluded
that spies constituted a separate class in Indian society. So great was the
danger of conspiracy that Chandragupta lived in strict seclusion, attended
only by women who cooked his food and in the evening carried him to his
apartment, where they lulled him to sleep with music.

     Complementing this picture of an efficient but harsh bureaucracy is a
remarkable book, Treatise on Material Gain (Arthashastra), written by
Chandragupta's chief minister, Kautilya, as a guide for the king and his
ministers. Kautilya exalts royal power as the means of establishing and
maintaining "material gain," meaning political and economic stability. The
great evil is anarchy, such as had existed among the small warring states in
northern India. To achieve the aims of statecraft, Kautilya argues, a single
authority is needed that will employ force when necessary. Like Machiavelli,
the Renaissance Italian author of a famous book on statecraft (The Prince),
Kautilya advocates deception or unscrupulous means to attain desired ends.

     The Mauryan state also controlled and encouraged economic life.
Kautilya's treatise, which is thought to reflect much actual practice, advises
the ruler to "facilitate mining operations," "encourage manufacturers,"
"exploit forest wealth," "provide amenities" for cattle breeding and commerce,
and "construct highways both on land and on water." Price controls are
advocated because "all goods should be sold to the people at favorable
prices," and foreign trade should be subsidized: "Shippers and traders dealing
in foreign goods should be given tax exemptions to aid them in making
profits." Foreign trade did flourish, and in the bazaars of Pataliputra were
displayed goods from southern India, China, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor.
Agriculture, however, remained the chief source of wealth. In theory, all land
belonged to the state, which collected one fourth of the produce as taxes.
Irrigation and crop rotation were practiced, and Megasthenes states that there
were no famines.

Ashoka, India's Greatest King

     Following Chandragupta's death in 297 B.C., his son and grandson expanded
the empire southward into the Deccan Peninsula. However, Chandragupta's
grandson Ashoka (269-232 B.C.), the most renowned of all Indian rulers, was
more committed to peace than to war. His first military campaign was also his
last; the cruelty of the campaign horrified him, and he resolved never again
to permit such acts of butchery. Soon thereafter he was converted to Buddhism,
whose teachings increased his aversion to warfare.

     Throughout his empire, Ashoka had his edicts carved on rocks and stone
pillars. They remain today as the oldest surviving written documents of India
and are invaluable for appreciating the spirit and purpose of Ashoka's rule.
For example, they contain his conception of the duty of a ruler:

     He shall ... personally attend the business ... of earth,
     of sacred places, of minors, the aged, the afflicted, and
     the helpless, and of women .... In the happiness of his
     subjects lies his happiness. ^2

[Footnote 2: Quoted in Vincent Smith, The Oxford History of India (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1958), p. 131]

     Although a devout Buddhist, Ashoka did not persecute the Brahmins and
Hindus but proclaimed religious toleration as official policy:

     The king ... honors every form of religious faith ... ;
     whereof this is the root, to reverence one's own faith and
     never to revile that of others. Whoever acts differently
     injures his own religion while he wrongs another's. ^3

[Footnote 3: Quoted in Charles Drekmeier, Kingship and Community in Early
India (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962), p. 175]

     Ashoka was a successful propagator of his faith. He sent Buddhist
missionaries to many lands - the Himalayan regions, Tamil Land (India's far
south), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma, and even as far away as Syria and Egypt -
and transformed Buddhism from a small Indian sect to an aggressive missionary
faith. Modern Indians revere his memory, and the famous lion on the capital of
one of his pillars has been adopted as the national seal of the present Indian
republic.

[See Ashoka's Empire]

Fall Of The Mauryan Empire

     Almost immediately after Ashoka's death in 232 B.C., the Mauryan Empire
began to disintegrate. The last emperor was assassinated about 185 B.C. in a
palace revolution led by a Brahmin priest. Some five centuries of
disintegration and disorder followed. Northern India was overrun by a series
of invaders, and the south broke free from northern control.

     The sudden collapse of the powerful Mauryan state, and the grave
consequences that ensued have provoked much scholarly speculation. Some
historians have felt that the fall of the Mauryas can be traced to a hostile
Brahmin reaction against Ashoka's patronage of Buddhism. Others believe that
Ashoka's doctrine of nonviolence curbed the military ardor of his people and
left them vulnerable to invaders. More plausible explanations for the fall of
the Mauryan state take into account the communications problems facing an
empire than included most of the Indian subcontinent, the difficulty of
financing a vast army and bureaucracy, and the intrigues of discontented
regional groups within the empire.