By ARCHANA MASIH
Chandragupta Maurya is considered to be the first king to establish an empire in India.
On the ground floor of the impressive Bihar Museum in Patna is a gallery that wonderfully captures the glory of the Mauryan Empire — and the epic story of its greatest ruler Ashoka, Chandragupta’s grandson.
That one is witnessing this story in Patna, adjacent to Patliputra, the ancient capital of the Mauryans, makes it even more meaningful.
Imagine Chandragupta, Chanakya, Ashoka, Buddha himself must have walked on these lands.
The Nandas were the first dynasty to attempt to form an empire in India. They had a formidable army including infantry, cavalry, thousands of elephants and chariots.
The Nandas could not build an empire like Chandragupta did.
Around 323 BCE, Chandragupta defeated the Nandas who held sway in northern India and became the king of Magadha.
Magadha University in Bodh Gaya and the Magadha Express train are some entities still bearing the ancient name of Magadha in Bihar.
For decades, Hotel Maurya remained Patna’s leading luxury hotel and Mauryalok, an upmarket shopping centre before the mushrooming of malls in the city.
Chanakya, the master of statecraft, was believed to be Chandragupta’s mentor and shrewd advisor. With Chanakya by his side as prime minister, Chandragupta expanded his kingdom extensively and gained control of the Gangetic Plains made fertile by the Ganga, Gandak and Son rivers.
Agriculture and river trade flourished, rice fields bore good crops, copper and iron mining made it all a wealthy region.
The Bihar Museum’s elegant display of pictures and easy to read text tells us how Chandragupta established diplomatic links with Seleucus Nikator, Alexander the Great’s successor in the Indian subcontinent and married Nikator’s daughter in a political alliance.
Megasthenes, Nikator’s ambassador, also visited Patliputra. The account of his visit was titled Indica where he describes the capital as a great city with ‘mighty walls, towers and gates’.
The Mauryan Empire at its peak extended from Afghanistan in the west to Kalinga in the east in modern Odisha.
Chandragupta Maurya was an empire builder. In less than 10 years of overthrowing the Nandas, he gained control of land east of the Ganga and the large kingdom of Avanti in central India.
His successor Bindusara went on to capture lands in the west and south.
A map on display in the museum shows the expansive extent of the Great Mauryan Empire which sprawled across most of the Indian Subcontinent bordered by the Greek Seleucid empire in West Asia and the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas in the South.
The Mauryan expansion peaked when Ashoka conqured the elusive kingdom of Kalinga in 260 BC.
Ashoka the Great was the third Mauryan king. He reigned from 268-231 BCE and came to the throne after his father Bindusara’s death.
The museum description says that ‘Ashoka is believed to have killed many of his brothers who were rivals for the throne and Buddhist texts state that he was a ruthless ruler during his early reign.’
Ashoka was filled with remorse with the carnage at the Battle of Kalinga and vowed to give up violent conquests. He took to the path of non violence and actively incorporated Buddhist principles in his rule.
Ashoka communicated his message and the principles of his rule through edicts engraved on rock pillars. The Ashokan pillars were erected throughout his empire so that his subjects could read the pinciples.
The inscription was written in Prakrit, the language of common folk, rather than Sanskrit, which was the language of scholars and used in ceremonial and formal settings. He used the Brahmi script from which most modern Indian scripts are derived.
The Brahmi script subsequently fell out of use and was lost after the 4th century. It was deciphered by James Prinsep of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in the early 19th century.
The Ashokan edicts were single sandstone, exquisitely polished pillars 9 to 15 metres high. At its top was an animal sitting on an inverted lotus.
The museum reveals that the sandstone was brought from Chunar near Varanasi on boats which is the reason why most Ashokan pillars are found near the Ganga.
Only three pillars with the lion capital survive today.
The Ashokan pillar with the Lion Capital that was erected in Sarnath near Varanasi by Ashoka after the Buddhist Sangha was adopted as the national emblem of India after Independence.
The pillar had fallen and was excavated in the early 20th century. It remains at its location while the bust of the lions is displayed in the Sarnath museum and is a must see.
The Bihar Museum also has on display a beautiful wooden wheel with 24 spokes similar to the Ashoka Chakra which is a depiction of the Dharmachakra.
The Ashok Chakra depicts the 24 principles that should be present in a human being.
The four lions on the circular abacus with the wheel with 24 spokes along with an elephant, bull, horse and lion is the Indian symbol.
Ashoka is believed to have built 84,000 stupas and enshrined the relics of the Buddha in them. The Ashokan pillars, stupas and Mauryan art are testament to a fine carving tradition.
One of the best pieces of Mauryan craft and the piece de resistance at the Bihar Museum is Didarganj Yakshi.
Carved in a single sandstone, the gleaming polished statute of a bejeweled woman is 2,300 years old.
She was discovered from the Ganga river bed, face down in 1917. Its back was being used as a slab to wash clothes by villagers! Imagine that!
The Yakshi is gorgeously stunning and is the most visited artifact in the museum.
The Mauryan Empire started by Chandragupta still has a part in India’s everyday life because of the Ashokan Lion capital. We encounter the Mauryan monarch every day — on our currency notes, coins, passports and all national IDs.
Chandragupta Maurya abdicated the throne for his son and became a Jain ascetic. The man who established India’s first empire died a humble monk.
The article appeared in the rediff