How important was the empire?

The Mauryan Empire was once seen as the crowning achievement of early India, but historians now ask a sharper question: how important was it really? The answer is more measured than the old nationalist pride suggested.

When British-era historians first pieced together early Indian history in the nineteenth century, they treated the rise of the Mauryan Empire as a major landmark. India was then under colonial rule, part of the British empire, so the discovery of an ancient Indian empire felt both challenging and exciting to Indian historians of the time. It gave them a powerful counter-narrative to colonial claims that India had never been united before the British.

Several things made the Mauryas seem spectacular. Archaeologists found stone sculpture and other material remains that were considered typical of imperial art — grand, centralised, and impressive. More strikingly, the inscriptions of Asoka carried a message very different from that of most other rulers. Instead of boasting with grandiose titles, Asoka came across as powerful yet humble, industrious yet self-reflective. This contrast made him an inspiring figure for twentieth-century nationalist leaders.

But the empire’s actual importance needs a cooler look. The Mauryan Empire lasted only about 150 years — not a very long time in the vast span of subcontinental history. Look at a map of the empire: it did not cover the entire subcontinent. Even within its frontiers, control was not uniform. By the second century BCE, new chiefdoms and kingdoms had already emerged in several parts of the subcontinent, showing that the empire’s grip was neither total nor permanent.

What the king’s officials did

We get a glimpse of Mauryan administration from the account of Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador at the Mauryan court. He describes a class of officials who:

• Superintended the rivers and measured the land (like in Egypt)
• Inspected the sluices that let water from main canals into branches, to ensure equal supply
• Had charge of huntsmen, with power to reward or punish them
• Collected taxes
• Supervised occupations connected with land — woodcutters, carpenters, blacksmiths, and miners