he Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power based in Magadha and founded by Chandragupta Maurya, which dominated the Indian subcontinent between 322 and 185 BCE. Comprising the majority of South Asia, the Maurya Empire was centralized by the conquest of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and its capital city was located at Pataliputra (modern Patna).[15][16] The empire was the largest political entity that has existed in the Indian subcontinent, extending over 5 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) at its zenith under Ashoka.[17]Chandragupta Maurya raised an army, with the assistance of Chanakya, author of Arthasastra,[18] and overthrew the Nanda Empire in c. 322 BCE. Chandragupta rapidly expanded his power westwards across central and western India by conquering the satraps left by Alexander the Great, and by 317 BCE the empire had fully occupied northwestern India.[19] The Mauryan Empire then defeated Seleucus I, a diadochus and founder of the Seleucid Empire, during the Seleucid–Mauryan war, thus acquiring territory west of the Indus River.[20][21]
At its greatest extent, the empire stretched along the natural boundary of the Himalayas, to the east into Bengal, to the west into what is present-day Balochistan, Pakistan and the Hindu Kush mountains of what is now eastern Afghanistan.[22] The dynasty expanded into India's southern regions[23][24] by the reign of the emperor Bindusara, but it excluded Kalinga (modern Odisha), until it was conquered by Ashoka.[25] It declined for about 50 years after Ashoka's rule, and dissolved in 185 BCE with the foundation of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha.
Under Chandragupta Maurya and his successors, internal and external trade, agriculture, and economic activities thrived and expanded across South Asia due to the creation of a single and efficient system of finance, administration, and security. The Maurya dynasty built the Grand Trunk Road, one of Asia's oldest and longest trade networks, connecting the north of the Indian subcontinent from east to west.[26] After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced nearly half a century of centralized rule under Ashoka. Chandragupta Maurya's embrace of Jainism increased socio-religious reform across South Asia, while Ashoka's embrace of Buddhism and sponsorship of Buddhist missionaries allowed for the expansion of that faith into Sri Lanka, northwest India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Egypt, and Hellenistic Europe.[27]
The population of the empire has been estimated to be about 50–60 million, making the Mauryan Empire one of the most populous empires of antiquity.[28][29] Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW). The Arthashastra[30] and the Edicts of Ashoka are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times. The Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath is the national emblem of the modern Republic of India.
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