Ancient India: From State to Empire, Mauryas to Guptas
What it is
Unit II runs from Magadha to the Mauryan empire, through the post-Mauryan powers, the Sangam south and early-CE trade and art, to the Gupta-Vakataka age, Harsha, and the Salankayanas and Vishnukundins of Andhradesa. Questions lean on inscriptions, ruler–event matching, art-school contrasts and land-grant vocabulary.
Core concepts
Magadha, Alexander and Mauryan expansion. Magadha rose on south Bihar's iron, the fertile Ganga plain, elephants and river-guarded capitals: Bimbisara annexed Anga, Ajatashatru crushed the Vajjis, Udayin moved the capital to Pataliputra. Alexander defeated Porus at the Hydaspes (Jhelum) in 326 BCE and turned back at the Beas; the invasion opened north-western routes and gave a chronological anchor (William Jones equated Sandrokottos with Chandragupta). Chandragupta Maurya (c. 321–297 BCE), guided by Kautilya, ousted the Nandas and won the trans-Indus provinces from Seleucus for 500 elephants; Megasthenes came as envoy. Asoka (c. 268–232 BCE) conquered Kalinga eight years after his consecration; Rock Edict XIII counts 150,000 deported and 100,000 killed.
Mauryan polity, society and economy. The Arthashastra treats dandaniti (the science of rule by coercion) and the saptanga state: swami, amatya, janapada, durga, kosha, danda, mitra; its mandala theory rings the vijigishu (would-be conqueror) with enemies and allies. Officials: samaharta (revenue chief), sannidhata (treasurer), adhyakshas; under Asoka, rajukas, yuktas and dhamma-mahamattas, with princes at Taxila, Ujjayini, Tosali and Suvarnagiri. Megasthenes describes six five-member city boards and seven classes, and wrongly says India had no slaves. Revenue was bhaga (usually one-sixth) and bali, and vishti (forced labour) was exacted. Debated: a centralised empire versus Thapar's metropolitan, core and peripheral zones.
Asoka's Dhamma and edicts. Dhamma was a moral code, not a creed: respect for elders, kindness to slaves, restraint in killing, tolerance of sects (RE XII). Dhamma-mahamattas came thirteen years after his consecration (RE V), and RE XIII proclaims dharmavijaya, conquest by righteousness, naming five Greek kings. Its nature is debated: Buddhist piety (the Bhabru edict addresses the sangha), statecraft for a plural empire (Thapar), or personal ethic. The edicts are Prakrit, mostly in Brahmi, with Kharosthi (right to left) at Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra and Greek and Aramaic at Kandahar. The name Asoka appears at Maski, Gujarra, Nittur and Udegolam; elsewhere he is Devanampiya Piyadasi. The Rummindei pillar frees Lumbini of bali and cuts its bhaga to one-eighth.
Mauryan art and decline. Polished Chunar sandstone pillars carry animal capitals: Sarnath's four lions (the national emblem), Rampurva's bull. Asoka gave the Barabar caves to the Ajivikas. A stupa is a solid relic mound (anda, harmika, chhatra, railing), a chaitya a shrine hall with a stupa, a vihara a monastery. Decline is debated: Asoka's pacifism (H.C. Raychaudhuri), Brahmanical reaction (H.P. Shastri), fiscal crisis (D.D. Kosambi), weak successors, over-centralisation (Thapar). Pushyamitra Sunga killed Brihadratha c. 185 BCE.
Regional powers after the Mauryas. The Indo-Greeks issued the first coins firmly attributable to named kings; Menander (Milinda) questions Nagasena in the Milindapanho, and the Besnagar pillar names Heliodorus, envoy of Antialcidas, a devotee of Vasudeva. Pushyamitra Sunga performed two ashvamedhas. Gautami Balashri's Nasik inscription hails the Satavahana Gautamiputra Satakarni as destroyer of Shakas, Yavanas and Pahlavas; Satavahana grants to Brahmanas and Buddhist monks are the earliest epigraphic land grants. The Shaka Rudradaman I's Junagadh inscription (150 CE) is the first long one in chaste Sanskrit. The Kushana Vima Kadphises issued gold widely; Kanishka's accession year (78 CE or later) is debated. Kharavela of Kalinga, a Jain, left the Prakrit Hathigumpha inscription.
Sangam polity and society. The corpus (broadly 3rd century BCE–3rd century CE) is the Tolkappiyam (grammar), the eight anthologies and ten idylls; the later eighteen minor works include the Tirukkural. Poems are akam (love) or puram (war, public life), set in five tinai: kurinji (hills), mullai (pasture-forest), marutam (farmland), neytal (coast), palai (arid land). The muvendar were the Cheras (Vanji; port Muziris), Cholas (Uraiyur; port Puhar) and Pandyas (Madurai; port Korkai). Society had arasar, vellalar landholders, bards and labourers; memorial stones (natukal) honoured warriors killed in cattle raids.
Trade, Rome and Mahayana. Roman demand for pepper (yavanapriya), pearls, gems and muslin drew Roman gold and silver coins, wine and amphorae; the Periplus credits Hippalus with using the monsoon winds. Ports: Barygaza (Bharuch), Muziris, Arikamedu (Indo-Roman, with Arretine ware). Srenis took deposits: Ushavadata's Nasik inscription endows weavers' guilds. Mahayana arose now: the bodhisattva delays nirvana to save others, the Buddha is worshipped in images, texts shift to Sanskrit, Nagarjuna founds Madhyamika; Kanishka's Fourth Council met in Kashmir.
Post-Mauryan art and architecture. Bharhut and Sanchi gateways show the Buddha only by symbols (tree, wheel, footprints). Rock-cut chaityas and viharas spread in the western Deccan (Bhaja, Karle with the largest chaitya). Gandhara used grey schist and stucco with Greco-Roman wavy hair and drapery; Mathura used spotted red sandstone, indigenous in style, for Buddhist, Jain and Brahmanical images; Amaravati (Krishna valley) used white limestone for crowded narrative reliefs. Which school made the first Buddha image is debated.
Gupta-Vakataka polity, land and coins. The Gupta era began in 319–320 CE under Chandragupta I, husband of the Lichchhavi Kumaradevi. Harishena's Prayag prashasti says Samudragupta uprooted the kings of Aryavarta and captured and released twelve kings of Dakshinapatha. Chandragupta II defeated the Shakas, wed his daughter Prabhavatigupta to the Vakataka Rudrasena II, and hosted Faxian. Provinces were bhuktis, districts vishayas. Agraharas were tax-free grants to Brahmanas; bhumi-chhidra-vidhana-nyaya gave tax-free rights to whoever first tilled waste land; kara-bhoga-bhaga means tax, periodic supplies and crop share; vishti is forced labour. The Guptas issued the most gold coins (dinaras). The Eran inscription (510 CE) first records sati; the Katyayana Smriti defines stridhana, a woman's own property.
Temples, religion, literature and science. Structural temples began: flat-roofed Sanchi Temple 17, brick Bhitargaon, and Deogarh's Dashavatara with an early shikhara; later styles are Nagara (northern curvilinear shikhara), Dravida (southern stepped vimana) and Vesara (Deccan hybrid). Puranic Hinduism centred on images, bhakti and Vishnu's avataras (Udayagiri's Varaha). Kalidasa wrote Abhijnanashakuntalam and Meghaduta, Shudraka the Mricchakatika, Vishakhadatta the Mudrarakshasa. Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya (499 CE) taught the earth's rotation and gave pi as about 3.1416; Varahamihira wrote the Brihatsamhita; Charaka and Sushruta framed medicine and surgery; the Mehrauli iron pillar resists rust.
Harsha and Andhradesa. Harsha (606–647 CE) moved from Thanesar to Kanauj; Banabhatta's Harshacharita and Xuanzang describe him. Pulakeshin II stopped him on the Narmada. He wrote Ratnavali, Priyadarshika and Nagananda, held the Kanauj assembly and five-yearly gifts at Prayag, patronised Nalanda and, per Xuanzang, paid officials in land. In Andhradesa the Salankayanas ruled from Vengi (4th–5th centuries; Hastivarman of Vengi is in Samudragupta's list); the Vishnukundins followed, with the Undavalli caves attributed to them, until the Eastern Chalukyas took Vengi.
Worked example
Match each inscription to its ruler, then order the rulers.
| Inscription | Ruler | Language | Date anchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Hathigumpha | Kharavela | Prakrit | c. 1st century BCE (some say 2nd) |
| B. Nasik prashasti | Gautamiputra Satakarni | Prakrit | early 2nd century CE |
| C. Junagadh, Saka 72 | Rudradaman I | Sanskrit | 72 + 78 = 150 CE |
| D. Prayag prashasti | Samudragupta | Sanskrit | 4th century CE |
| E. Aihole | Pulakeshin II | Sanskrit | Saka 556 + 78 = 634 CE |
Step 1: Kharavela is BCE on either dating, so A is first. Step 2: Gautamiputra uprooted the Kshaharatas before Rudradaman (150 CE) won western lands back from the Satavahanas, so B precedes C. Step 3: the Gupta era (319–320 CE) and Aihole (634 CE) follow. Recheck: 72 + 78 = 150; 556 + 78 = 634. Answer: A, B, C, D, E.
Common traps
- The Junagadh rock bears Asoka's edicts and records of Rudradaman and Skandagupta; the Allahabad pillar bears Asoka's edicts, Samudragupta's prashasti and a Jahangir inscription.
- Only a few minor edicts name "Asoka"; elsewhere he is Devanampiya Piyadasi.
- Not all edicts are in Brahmi: Kharosthi in the north-west, Greek and Aramaic at Kandahar.
- Bhaga is the crop share; bhoga is periodic supplies.
- Hastivarman of Vengi was a Salankayana, not a Vishnukundin.
Speed technique
- Saka year + 78 = CE; Gupta year + 319 or 320 = CE.
- By stone: grey schist is Gandhara, spotted red sandstone Mathura, white limestone Amaravati.
- Mauryan, Satavahana and Kharavela records are Prakrit; long Sanskrit epigraphy starts with Rudradaman.
Check yourself
- Which edict records the Kalinga war and proclaims dharmavijaya?
Show answer
Rock Edict XIII — it also names five Greek kings. - Who composed the Prayag prashasti, and on what monument?
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Harishena, on Asoka's Allahabad pillar — for Samudragupta. - What does bhumi-chhidra-vidhana-nyaya mean?
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Tax-free rights for whoever first tills waste land — a land-grant rule. - Which school used spotted red sandstone?
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Mathura — Gandhara used grey schist. - Who stopped Harsha on the Narmada?
Show answer
Pulakeshin II — recorded in the Aihole inscription, 634 CE.
Try it: Ancient India: From State to Empire, Mauryas to Guptas questions
Real questions from the NET History bank on exactly this skill. Pick an answer to see the full solution — the intuition, the worked steps, the faster methods and the traps.
Harsha shifted his capital from Thanesar to:
Show the answer and worked solution
Answer: option B
Harsha (606–647 CE) began his rule at Thanesar and then made Kanauj, on the Ganga, his capital.
Banabhatta's Harshacharita and Xuanzang's account describe his reign, including the assembly he held at Kanauj.
So Harsha moved his capital from Thanesar to Kanauj, option B.
Which of Asoka's inscriptions describes the Kalinga war and its toll of the deported and the dead?
Show the answer and worked solution
Answer: option A
Major Rock Edict XIII records the Kalinga war, fought about eight years after Asoka's consecration, with 150,000 people deported and 100,000 killed.
The same edict expresses Asoka's remorse and proclaims dharmavijaya, conquest by righteousness, naming five Greek kings.
So the Kalinga war is described in Major Rock Edict XIII, option A.
In early Indian revenue terminology, vishti denotes:
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Answer: option C
Vishti is forced or unpaid labour that the state could demand from its subjects; it appears in Mauryan and Gupta-period sources.
The crop share was bhaga and periodic supplies were bhoga, while market levies had other names.
So vishti means forced labour exacted by the state, option C.
Aryabhata completed the Aryabhatiya in 499 CE. Expressed in the Saka era, the year is about:
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Answer: option B
The Saka era begins in 78 CE, so a CE year converts to the Saka era by subtracting 78.
499 − 78 = 421; checking in reverse, 421 + 78 = 499, so the year is about Saka 421.
So the Aryabhatiya's year in the Saka era is about 421, option B.
Match List – I with List – II and choose the correct answer from the options. List – I (Inscription) | List – II (Ruler recorded) --- | --- (a) Prayag prashasti | (i) Asoka (b) Nasik inscription of Gautami Balashri | (ii) Kharavela (c) Hathigumpha inscription | (iii) Samudragupta (d) Rummindei pillar inscription | (iv) Gautamiputra Satakarni
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Answer: option D
Harishena's Prayag prashasti praises Samudragupta (a – iii), and the Nasik inscription of Gautami Balashri hails her son Gautamiputra Satakarni (b – iv).
The Prakrit Hathigumpha inscription at Udayagiri near Bhubaneswar is Kharavela of Kalinga's record (c – ii), and the Rummindei pillar is Asoka's (d – i).
So matching List I, from "Prayag prashasti", gives a – iii, b – iv, c – ii, d – i, option D.
Answer above — every one shows its working.