Question

Do you think that the Mauryan Empire was a centralised one? State reasons in support of your answer.

Answer 1

Yes.

I think that the Mauryan Empire was a centralised one.

• The Indo-Greeks would maintain holdings on the trans-Indus region, and make forays into central India, for about a century.

Answer 2

Answer:

Explanation:

The Mauryan Empire was divided into four provinces, each governed by the Kumara, who served as the king’s representative.

Emperor Ashoka maintained a massive standing army to protect the Mauryan Empire and instill stability and peace across West and South Asia.

Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka’s grandfather, had established a single currency across India, a network of regional governors and administrators, and a civil service to provide justice and security for merchants, farmers and traders that continued throughout the Mauryan Dynasty.

The Mauryan international network of trade extended to the Greek states and Hellenic kingdoms in West Asia and into Southeast Asia.

Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire, ruled from 324-297 BCE, before voluntarily abdicating in favor of his son, Bindusara, who ruled from 297 BCE until his death in 272 BCE. This led to a war of succession in which Bindusara’s son, Ashoka, defeated his brother, Susima, and rose to the throne in 268 BCE, eventually becoming the greatest ruler of the Maurya Dynasty.

Before the Mauryan Empire, the Indian subcontinent was fragmented into hundreds of kingdoms. These were ruled by powerful regional chieftains with small armies that engaged in internecine warfare. The Mauryan Army eliminated regional chieftains, private armies, and even gangs of bandits, who sought to impose their own supremacy in small areas.