Why is the Mauryan Empire called the "Golden Age" in Indian History?

ABSTRACT + INTRODUCTION 

“The period of the Mauryan Empire has been called a “golden age” in Indian history” (Rajeev Dahejia and Vivek Dahejia, page:146)¹ 

Do you wonder why so? 

Figure 1. Region of the Mauryan Empire

In this essay I have discussed two possible answers to why was the Mauryan Era is called the “Golden Age” in Indian History. 

Also, the Indian flag has “Ashoka Chakra” (Ashoka’s wheel of values) in its centre.

Figure 2. Ashoka's wheel in the centre of the Indian flag. the image is overlaid with the image of Ashokan lion pillar that appears on Indian Currency,IDs and government documents. 

 Ever wondered why is there a wheel like design in the centre of the Indian flag? In addition to that, all government IDs, documents and currency printed in India have a pillar with a lion on top of it. I bet if you have seen Indian currency you might have wondered why so? Well the answer to the Lion pillar is that it is a picture of a pillar erected by Emperor Ashoka somewhere around () BC. But why would the Indians use symbols of a man who lived 2500 years ago now, when they did not even know he existed until 120 years ago (early 1900s)? 

I’m going to answer all of these questions, (why “golden age”; why Ashoka’s symbols on Indian flag and currency?) but in order to understand my reasoning and conclusion, first you have to have a summary of the tale of Emperor Ashoka. 

So, I have begun with summary of Ashoka’s story, then later on I discuss my answers for all the questions stated above. 

ASHOKA’S STORY – A DETAILED SUMMARY 

Figure 3. The man on the chariot in this sculpture is Ashoka the Great.

To write this summary, I have taken the help of the script provided by Matt Hollis² and Lkin Gambar. Okay let’s begin. The citation for all the images is at the end. 

So around 334 BC, Alexander the Great begun his conquest over the ancient world. After his death, his conquests in turn paved a way for constant warfare among his successors to become more powerful and conquer more lands. India too like the whole word, was experiencing a “revolutionary change”, which resulted in the Mauryan empire coming to power, which in turn resulted in Ashoka the Great ruling over almost the whole Indian Subcontinent. 

Alexander the great entered India then because he faced resistance from a very powerful kingdom there, he decided to retreat. But Alexander’s attempt at conquering India, disrupted the northern region of India. Please make note of this as this plays a key role in what happened next.

Because of the destabilization, Chandragupta Maurya came into power and he kickstarted the Mauryas’ strong-hold in Indian territory.

Figure 4. The region of the Indian subcontinent which Chandragupta Maurya conquered and ruled over.

 After Chandragupta, came his son Bindusara, who continued his father’s reign over India and ruled with wise and compassionate policies (like religious tolerance). 

Bindusara even began to expand the empire into the southern region of India, into the Deccan plateau. 

Figure 5. The region that Bindusara Maurya ruled over

Bindusara was blessed with 3 sons, Ashoka, Susima and Tishya.

Figure 6. An artist's depiction of Ashoka and his brothers.

Susima was the heir to the throne as he was the eldest, but Ashoka, who was Susima’s half-brother (Ashoka’s mother was a commoner while Susima’s mother was a royal princess) was greedy for the throne. In 274 BC, after Bindusra passed away, overcome by his greed, he assassinated his elder half-brother Susima in a civil war and rose to the throne in 270 BC.

Figure 7. An artist's depiction of Ashoka rising to power in 270 BC

Figure 8. An artist's depiction of Ashoka meeting his wife Devi.

After he had become the next Emperor, Ashoka fell in love and married Devi, who was a trader’s daughter and a dedicated follower of the Siddhartha clan (the clan of Gautam Buddha himself). 

Devi and Ashoka had two kids together, Mahendra (son) and Sanghamitra (daughter). Because she was a follower of Buddha, I’m 99.99% sure that she had faith in the Buddhist religion. There were only two prevalent religions in India that time, Hinduism and Jainism; Buddhism was not that popular.  

After Ashoka rose to the throne, he continued the Mauryan tradition of expanding the empire and begun conquering more land to add to the Mauruyan empire. 

Historians believe the reason for which was that the Mauryan empire used to survive on taxes, so the more land they conquered, the more people they would have to pay them tax, which meant more income for the Royal Treasury. However, the administrative costs required to maintain the new land also kept going up with more conquests so in order to cover for that they conquered more and more land. This resulted in an endless cycle of violence. 

Fun-fact: the Mauryans before Ashoka had conquered majority of the Indian Subcontinent with one exception Kalinga (modern day Orissa). To add salt to the wound, Kalinga was located in the heart of the Mauryan empire. 

So, while Ashoka kept expanding the empire outwards, he was troubled that there was the Kalinga region whose ruler had still not bowed down to his greatness. 

Figure 9. Illustration of Mauryan empire that was passed on to Ashoka to rule over. notice one green spot, that spot is not conquered by Ashoka yet and is named "Kalinga" region.

So, it is inscribed in SKRE (Special Kalinga rock edict) of Ashoka: 

“Beloved of the Gods (Ashoka referred to himself as “beloved of the gods” in his inscriptions) decided to attack Kalinga with as many as 200,000 soldiers to match their 100,000.” 

Thus, in 262 BC, Ashoka attacked Kalinga with a mighty army, and emerged victorious after a long and vicious battle, but the cost of the victory was too high for an educated, emotional being like him to bear; 100,000 people had lost their lives while 150,000 were critically injured. 

To add to the Emperor’s woes, when he saw the destruction in the battlefield 

Figure 10. An artist's depiction of Ashoka witnessing the horror of war at the "Kalinga" battlefield.

and walked around his Kingdom after the victory, he saw countless families devasted as a result of WAR. 

Figure 11. Asoka's empire after he had conquered "Kalinga". compare this to the illustration of the empire he inherited you'll notice this illustrations does not have a green spot in the centre of the Empire region 

It was then he did something which no ruler before him had done – he humbly admitted to the people of his kingdom that “He felt horror and remorse after the battle”. Ashoka reffered to himself as "Beloved of the Gods" in his inscriptions. 

Figure 12 

His inscriptions tell us that this was his moment of “enlightenment”; 

Figure 13. Artist's imaginary depiction of all "chakras" or "energy gates" in the body being activated as a result of Enlightenment.

Ashoka, being an educated and emotional individual couldn’t bear to see the destruction his personal conquest had caused his beloved people.

This was certainly not the same man speaking who had once murdered his brother to get the throne of the empire. It was a mature, reformed man finally repenting his actions. 

Thus, declared Ashoka the Great – “I’m not going to be provoked into picking up weapons again”. In addition to that, he also vowed to dedicate his life & dig into the “royal treasure” to set up a society where people lived peacefully, following the rules of virtue and good behaviour. 

DISCUSSION OF TERM “GOLDEN AGE OF INDIA” 

This unexpected turn of events eventually led Ashoka to follow the footsteps of Buddha. 

Figure 14. Artist's depiction of Ashoka embracing Buddhism.

He received great support from his wife as like I mentioned earlier, she was a follower of Buddhism herself. Then he started his good work for the society, planting palm trees at the sides of the roads so travellers can escape the burning sun; talking to local people to make sure they were content and happy; 

Figure 15. Artist's depiction of Ashoka talking to local people in his kingdom and inquiring whether they are content and happy. First image is of him going hunting before his conversion to Buddhism, the 2nd and 3rd are his actions after converting to Buddhism. 

Not only that, but also he begun digging wells so travellers can quench their thirst whenever they wanted around his kingdom and most importantly, erecting pillars and rock edicts (23 in total) around his kingdom to pen down his understanding of life and documenting the history that had just been made. 

Figure 16. Ashokan pillar inscription at the "Lauriya" site. Please note : this is a real picture, not an illustration.

Figure 17. Ashoka's inscription at the "Kandahar" site. This inscription is in Greek and Aramaic script.

Figure 18. Ashoka's one pillar with lion at the top. This lion pillar is printed on Indian currency and IDs. 

The Ashokan edicts are divided into four categories, according to their size (Minor or Major) and according to their medium (Rock or Pillar). (Namita Sugandhi, p 230)

Figure 19. The locations and categories the edicts are divided into. 

I have put a map too showing the locations of the various edicts on a map.

Add caption

Figure 20. Ashoka's pillar inscription at the "Lumbini" site. This inscription, he is telling us that Lumbini is the birth-place of Buddha.

Here is the Translation of above pillar edict

The translation credit goes to Wikipedia. 

Ashoka's edicts were divided by content into three sub-groups:

Moral percepts : Right behavior, Benevolence, Kindness to prisoners, Respect for animal life 

Religious Precepts : Buddhism, Belief in a next world, Religious exchange 

Social and animal welfare: Medicinal treatments, Roadside facilities, Officers of faith. 

Interestingly, Ashoka was the first king to become a Buddhist and it was because Buddhism got royal support from him, it became popular.

Figure 22. Modern day picture of Buddha statue and a Buddhist temple. (Buddhist temple is where Buddhist people go to worship).

After Ashoka’s conversion a lot of people followed him in his footsteps, so now, India had three main religions – Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. 

Figure 23. Illustration of Ashoka's religious tolerance of Hinduism and Jainism, along with the new Buddhism.  It is hard to illustrate an entire religion so the artist has just drawn the holy symbols of each religion.

Because of all the good he did for the society; people lovingly gave him the title “Ashoka the Great” and he himself started to pen himself down as “Beloved of the Gods in his inscriptions” 

Don’t you find it fascinating that Alexander was given the title of “the great” because of his conquests around the world and Ashoka was given the same title because of him advocating for peace, benevolence and non-violence? 

In one of his inscriptions, carved on a rock, he stated that “should one blame other religions, or over glorify one’s own religion, they are instead doing harm to in, an act which should not be done.” 

Figure 24. Another one of Ashoka's quote which he left behind on an inscription.

Ashoka then studied under Buddhist monks and sent his children to countries like China to teach more people about Buddhism. 

It is because of his inscriptions that we have documented knowledge of India’s history 2500 years ago. (documented knowledge here is referring to archeological evidence that was found around his pillars, 

Figure 25. Archeological evidence of settlements around the Ashoka Pillars and edicts.

The edicts have been useful for many historical discussions, including in painting this depiction of a traditional Mauryan city layout 

Figure 26. Drawing of the layout of a typical Mauryan city, made from the details provided in Ashoka's Inscriptions.

Most probably if the pillars were not there we would not have discovered the precious historic material that we did (imagine how hard it is to find a needle in a haystack) and lately, because of developments in radiocarbon-dating techniques, the time period his pillars were erected in, was pushed back from the original time period 

 

Figure 27. Latest dates determined on which the pillars and edicts were erected by Ashoka.

Since the most popular writing scripts of that time were Greek, Brahmi, Kharosthi and Aramaic , the pillars used all of these scripts. I was surprised that he used Greek as a script as he was in India and as far as my knowledge went Greek was not used in India; but after researching, I found that Greek was used in majority of locations around the world 2500 years ago.

Figure 28. Four scripts used by Ashoka in his inscriptions. Brahmi - top left; Kharosthi - top right; Greek -  bottom left; Aramaic - bottom right. 

And because a lot of people at that time were illiterate, he had men specially appointed to read out the inscriptions to the common public. (name given to those people) 

But, remember that Ashoka was an emperor above all else, not a philosopher/religious teacher, so he continued to hold a firm grip over his empire by punishing those who deserved it and making sure other kings do not assume that he had become weak and attack () 

Despite Ashoka’s remorse, he still had the power and will to punish people if they committed crimes. 

When he passed away, he was 74 years old and had ruled Indian subcontinent for 38 years. 

Figure 29. H.G. Wells quote on Ashoka the Great.
H. G. Wells was an english writer and scholar. 

The locations of his pillars and rock edicts didn’t have a lot of people settled around but because of his support for the Buddhist religion and his principles of peace, virtues, benevolence, etc people started to migrate and set up settlements near his monuments. Here are a few maps proving it. 

Figure 30. Population density around inscription sites before Ashoka had erected his pillars and rock edicts. 

Figure 31. Population Density around the Inscription sites in the Indian Subcontinent 200 years after Ashoka erected his pillars and rock edicts.

Figure 32. Population density near the inscription sites 400 years after Ashoka Erected his pillars and rock edicts. 

To conclude, No doubt that such a big empire would find it difficult to operate on tax revenue alone and even if it did how would people make money to pay the taxes? The answer to that question is by trading their goods with other countries. There is evidence that the Mauryans traded silk, textiles, rugs, perfumes, precious stones, ivory and gold with China, Sumatra, Ceylon, Egypt and Persia. (Rajeev Dahejia and Vivek Dahejia,p146)³. 

“This was possible because the silk routes from Europe to China put India at the centre of a vibrant land trade route” (Rajeev Dahejia and Vivek Dahejia, p 146)⁴.

It would not be worth it to call a time period “golden” unless there was actual abundance of wealth present. 

Furthermore, “golden age” can also refer to a period where lot of knowledge is produced, books were written, and discoveries were made alongside the mass wealth that is in the economy. To satisfy this version of the answer, there was a man named Chanakya who played a major role in the Mauryan Society. Think of him like the King’s advisor. He was an ancient philosopher, teacher, jurist, economist and royal advisor – all in one. 

He is known for his most famous book “Arthashasta” and for authoring the Indian political treatise. Arthashastra translates to “science of wealth” and here is one concept of the book explained with a flow chart. 

Figure 33. Duties of individual as depicted in the Arthashastra (Science of Wealth) by Chanakya

The duties mentioned in the book were enforced by the people in power. 

Chanakya is nicknamed “Indian Machiavelli”. (Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, writer, playwright and poet of the Renaissance period). 

Figure 34. Teachings of Chanakya's book summarized in a mind map.

Mauryans used this book of Chanakya to guide them in decision making. 

To sum up, the literature, the political treatise and the first instance of trade with other countries in the world, are the reasons the Mauryan time period is known as the “Golden Age” in India. 

DISCUSSION WHY THE ASHOKA CHAKRA APPEARS ON THE INDIAN FLAG.

Lastly, one final question that I posed, but haven’t answered yet is why is the Ashoka chakra (Ashoka’s wheel) in the centre of the Indian flag and why is Ashoka’s lion pillar used in Indian currency and IDs? My best educated guess is because Ashoka’s character in history stand to teach us a lesson that “If you feel your chosen path is wrong, do not hesitate to change yourself” But contrastingly, when I researched about it, I found that it is present in the Indian flag as a symbol that the Government of India hopes to recreate a society like Ashoka’s society where crime was very low, everyone lived in peace and did not fight with each other. 

Figure 35 Ashoka Chakra (wheel) in one of the temples he built 

Figure 36. Ashoka Chakra (Ashoka Wheel) is in the centre of the Indian Flag. Each line in the wheel represents a principle that an individual should follow when living their life. There are 24 lines to represent 24 principles that Ashoka told his people to follow. Some of the 24 principles that the lines represent are - love, courage, patience, self-sacrifice, truthfulness, righteousness, spiritual knowledge and faith, among others. 

So, keeping everything in mind, I have come to the conclusion that it is fair that the  Mauryan period is known as the "golden age of India" because that period is the first known period when Indian's started trading with other countries, lots of good literature and philosophy was written at that time and the economic policies of Emperor Ashoka were such that everyone in the kingdom was content and happy. In regards to the Ashoka wheel on the Indian flag, I feel a sense of pride seeing my country employing an artifact from its history onto its flag.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I have put numbers where I have taken the help of other sources. There are two kinds of numbers. 1,2,3,4,etc in superscript next to the text, is for text and figure 1, figure 2, figure 3, etc is for pictures.

Citation for text references

1,3 and 4 - Dehejia, Rajeev H., and Vivek H. Dehejia. “Religion and Economic Activity in India: An Historical Perspective.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 52, no. 2, 1993, pp. 145–153. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3487047.

2:   Hollis, Matt. Ashoka the Great - Rise of Mauryan Empire Documentary. . Youtube, 18 Apr. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed6UZtVTI64.

and 

        Gambar, Lkin. Ashoka the Great - Rise of Mauryan Empire Documentary. . Youtube, 18 Apr. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed6UZtVTI64.


Citations for the pictures I have used 

Figure 25 and 27 :  Sugandhi, Namita. "Conquests of Dharma: Network Models and the Study of Ancient Polities." Archaeological Papers of the AAA, vol. 22, no. 1, 2012, pp. 145-163. ProQuest, http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/1459555581?accountid=14771, doi:http://dx.doi.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1111/apaa.12008.

Figures 30,31 and 32 : Smith, Monica L., et al. "Finding history: the locational geography of Ashokan inscriptions in the Indian subcontinent." Antiquity, vol. 90, no. 350, 2016, p. 376+. Gale In Context: Canada, https://link-gale-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/apps/doc/A453287341/CIC?u=utoronto_main&sid=CIC&xid=7240a994. Accessed 5 Dec. 2019.

Figures 4, 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,23, 24 and 29 : Oğuz, Tunç. Ashoka the Great - Rise of Mauryan Empire Documentary. . Youtube, 18 Apr. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed6UZtVTI64.

Figures 1,2,3,16,17, 18,20,25,28,35 and 26 :  SUGANDHI, NAMITA. “Context, Content, and Composition: Questions of Intended Meaning and the Aśokan Edicts.” Asian Perspectives, vol. 42, no. 2, 2003, pp. 224–246. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42928578.

Figures 26, 33 and 34 : Murthy, Vijaya, and Jim Rooney. "The Role of Management Accounting in Ancient India: Evidence from the Arthasastra: JBE JBE." Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 152, no. 2, 2018, pp. 323-341. ProQuest, http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/2111492605?accountid=14771, doi:http://dx.doi.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1007/s10551-016-3271-y.