The Mauryan Empire: Chandragupta, Ashoka's Dhamma & Edicts, the Arthashastra, Administration, Art and Decline

Start Here — Why the Mauryas Are a Prelims and Mains Staple

🎯 Exam priority: High-yield (T1). The Mauryan chapter produces a Prelims question in almost every cycle and underpins Mains answers on administration, art and Dhamma. Over the last decade UPSC has asked: who deciphered the edicts (2016), the Kanganahalli relief naming "Ranyo Ashoka" (2019), an inscription-quote identification (2020), edict-site-to-state pairs (2022), Kautilya on slavery (2022) and the roles of the Pradeshika, Rajuka and Yukta (2025).

Notice the pattern. UPSC no longer asks "who was Ashoka?" It asks about the evidence — where the inscriptions are, who read them, which officers they name — and about Kautilya's text rather than the story of the king. This article is built around that: one clean map of the evidence, then the rulers, then administration, economy and art, then decline and the Mains angles. Cross-links: the Buddhist backdrop is in the Buddhism article, and the stupas, pillars and caves are treated again as art in the Architecture article of Part C.

• Highest-weight sub-topics: Ashokan edicts (sites, scripts, content) → Arthashastra concepts → administrative terms → Mauryan art (pillars, Barabar caves) → causes of decline.

• Cross-period hooks: Ashoka's Dhamma is the natural comparison for Akbar's sulh-i-kul (Mains 2025 asked Akbar's religious syncretism), and the Mauryan state for the Gupta and Chola ones.

The Evidence — What We Know and How

History is only as good as its sources. Three streams reach us for the Mauryas:

How the lost king was found again

• For centuries Ashoka survived only in Buddhist legend. The inscriptions spoke of a king called Devanampiya Piyadassi ("beloved of the gods, of gracious looks") — a name that matched no king-list.

• James Prinsep deciphered Brahmi in 1837 (UPSC 2016 asked who first deciphered the edicts), after earlier work by others; the script, derived from Aramaic-influenced models, writes Prakrit and Sanskrit.

• The Ceylonese chronicles supplied the missing link: they call Ashoka "Piyadassi". The proof came in 1915 at Maski (Karnataka), whose Minor Rock Edict reads "Devanampiya Asoka" — the first inscription to give both the title and the personal name together.

• The identification of the Greek "Sandrokottos" in the historians of Alexander with Chandragupta Maurya (Sir William Jones, 1793) fixed the Mauryan chronology to the Greek calendar — which is why we can date the empire to the year.

The Rulers at a Glance

Chandragupta Maurya — the founder

• Origins are debated. Brahmanical tradition makes him the son of Mura, a shudra woman at the Nanda court; an earlier Buddhist tradition speaks of a kshatriya clan of Moriyas near Gorakhpur. Either way he rose from outside the great dynasties.

• With Chanakya (Kautilya) he overthrew the unpopular Nandas and took Pataliputra; the play Mudrarakshasa dramatises the contest.

• Seleucus Nicator, Alexander's general in the east, invaded about 305 BCE and was checked. The peace gave Chandragupta the lands west of the Indus — eastern Afghanistan, Baluchistan and the Hindu Kush frontier (Kabul, Herat, Kandahar) — for 500 elephants; Megasthenes came to Pataliputra as envoy.

• A late inscription of Rudradaman (c. 150 CE) at Junagadh preserves a Mauryan footprint in Gujarat: the Sudarshana lake was built under Chandragupta's governor Pushyagupta and improved with channels under Ashoka's governor Tushaspa — evidence of irrigation works and a provincial machinery reaching the west coast.

Ashoka, Kalinga and the Birth of Dhamma

Ashoka governed Ujjain and Taxila as prince, fought a succession struggle, and was consecrated about four years after his accession. The Buddhist story of "Chandashoka" killing ninety-nine brothers rests on legend and finds no echo in his own words. What we do have is the 13th Major Rock Edict.

Kalinga, 261 BCE

• In the eighth year after his consecration Ashoka conquered Kalinga (coastal Odisha — the fertile, trade-rich land the Nandas had held earlier). His own figures: about 1,00,000 killed and 1,50,000 deported, and many more died of the consequences.

• The edict records remorse — and that the greatest suffering fell on brahmanas, shramanas and householders. He then took to Dhamma and announced that "conquest by Dhamma" (dhammavijaya) is the foremost conquest.

• It did not make him a naive pacifist: he kept Kalinga, kept his army, and warned the forest tribes (atavis) of punishment if they erred; the rajukas kept judicial power.

• At Dhauli and Jaugada — inside Kalinga — the 13th edict is omitted and replaced by Separate Edicts addressed to the officers there: "All men are my children." The reason is plain politics: do not re-open the wound.

His conversion and Buddhism

• Ashoka became a lay Buddhist (upasaka) and, a little later, drew closer to the Sangha. The Bairat (Bhabru) Minor Rock Edict addresses the Sangha directly and names Buddhist passages he recommends; the Schism Edicts (Sarnath, Sanchi, Kosam) threaten monks who split the order.

• Lumbini (Rummindei) pillar: in his 20th year he visited the Buddha's birthplace, exempted the village from the bali tax and reduced the bhaga to one-eighth. Nigali Sagar: he enlarged the stupa of the earlier Buddha Konakamana. He made 256-night pilgrimages and, tradition says, built 84,000 stupas.

• Sri Lankan chronicles credit him with sending his son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta to Sri Lanka, and with the Third Buddhist Council at Pataliputra (c. 250 BCE) under Moggaliputta Tissa. These are tradition, not in the edicts.

• RE XIII names five Hellenistic kings to whom he sent Dhamma envoys — Antiochus II (Syria), Ptolemy II (Egypt), Antigonus Gonatas (Macedonia), Magas (Cyrene) and Alexander (Epirus or Corinth) — and the southern kingdoms of the Cholas, Pandyas, Satiyaputras, Keralaputras and Tamraparni (Sri Lanka). This is a fixed anchor for the chronology.

What was Dhamma?

Not a creed. Ashoka defines it in MRE XI and Pillar Edict II as a handful of ethical habits: obedience to parents, respect for teachers and elders, generosity to brahmanas, shramanas and the poor, kindness to slaves and servants, non-injury to living beings, truthfulness and few sins, many good deeds. He never speaks of nirvana; he promises heaven and well-being. Romila Thapar reads it as a policy of social responsibility that could bind a vast, plural empire — which is exactly how Mains wants it analysed.

• Instruments of Dhamma: the Dhamma-mahamattas (13th year), the stri-adhyaksha-mahamattas for women, dhamma-yatras in place of hunting tours, roads, wells, shade trees, hospitals for men and animals, and the edicts themselves.

• Limits: it was a top-down, state-sponsored ethic; it left caste and slavery intact and did not outlast him.

The Edicts — A Complete Map

This is the single densest scoring area. Read it as three lists: what is said, where it is, in which script.

1. The 14 Major Rock Edicts (MRE)

2. Where the edicts are

3. Facts UPSC loves

• There are 44 royal orders in all, many in several copies; they stand mostly on ancient highways and in frontier zones.

• Language Prakrit; script Brahmi, except Kharosthi in the north-west (Shahbazgarhi, Mansehra) and Greek and Aramaic in Afghanistan.

• Only four inscriptions give his personal name "Asoka": Maski, Gujjara, Nittur, Udegolam. Elsewhere he is Devanampiya Piyadasi.

• Kanganahalli (Sannati), on the Bhima in Karnataka: a stupa relief with the inscription "Ranyo Ashoka" beside a carved figure — widely regarded as the only surviving ancient portrait of him (UPSC 2019). Nearby Sannati preserved edict fragments, found after a temple roof fell in 1986.

• The Sohgaura copper plate (Gorakhpur, UP) and the Mahasthan plaque (Bogra, Bangladesh) are Mauryan famine-relief records in Brahmi with storehouse (koshthagara) provisions — and Sohgaura is not a Harappan site (a 2019 distractor).

• Pillars were polished monoliths of buff sandstone from Chunar, hauled hundreds of kilometres; capitals carried lion, bull, elephant or horse. Dating by regnal years: the Major Pillar Edicts belong to the 26th–27th years.

Administration — Centre, Provinces, Districts, Villages

The Mauryan state is the first bureaucratic, salaried, centralised empire in India. Our evidence is Kautilya, Megasthenes and Ashoka himself, and they agree on the outline though not on every detail.

Centre

• The king was an autocrat assisted by a council of ministers (mantriparishad); the highest functionaries (the 18 tirthas in Kautilya) were the minister (mantrin), priest (purohita), commander (senapati) and crown prince (yuvaraja), who received 48,000 panas a year, against 60 panas for the lowest rank.

• Revenue was run by the samaharta (chief collector) and the sannidhata (chief custodian of the treasury and storehouse).

• Kautilya lists 27 superintendents (adhyakshas) regulating agriculture (sita), trade, weights and measures, mines, spinning and weaving, ships and more.

Provinces and local government

• Provinces were governed by princes of the royal house (kumara / aryaputra), with mahamatras to assist.

• Ashoka's edicts name the field staff: the Yukta (junior officer/accountant), the Rajuka (revenue-and-judicial officer with the power to reward and punish; Pillar Edict IV widens his discretion) and the Pradeshika (district-level head). MRE III orders the three to tour every five years. The 2025 PYQ asked exactly this: district-level administration.

• In Kautilya, the Sthanika and Gopa managed groups of villages; the village headman (gramika) was the base.

• Pataliputra was run by six committees of five members each (sanitation, foreigners, births and deaths, trade, manufactures and sale tax, per Megasthenes), while the military had a parallel board of 30 in six committees (infantry, cavalry, chariots, elephants, navy, transport).

• Spies (gudhapurushas) — stationary (sansthas) and wandering (sancharas) — were the nervous system of the state.

• Army (per Pliny): 6,00,000 foot, 30,000 cavalry, 9,000 elephants, paid in cash from the treasury; roughly three times the Nanda army.

Justice

Kautilya divides courts into dharmasthiya (civil) and kantakashodhana (criminal and police matters). Ashoka made the rajukas independent in awarding punishment and offered prisoners respite; his edicts also remind officers not to torture townsmen without cause, and he rotated officials at Tosali, Ujjain and Taxila.

Economy, Society and Material Culture

• State-heavy economy. Land revenue ranged from one-fourth to one-sixth of the produce (the bhaga); other levies included bali, pindakara and hiranya; irrigated land paid more, and tolls and customs (sulka) were collected at town gates. The state held monopolies in mining, liquor and the manufacture of arms.

• Crown lands (sita) were run by the sitadhyaksha with slave, hired and captive labour. New villages were planted with settlers drawn from over-populated regions, with tax holidays, cattle and seed — an early planned colonisation.

• Currency: silver punch-marked coins (the pana, with symbols like peacock-on-hill, crescent-on-hill, sun and wheel) formed the imperial coinage. Salaries were paid in cash.

• Trade: royal roads linked Pataliputra to Nepal, Taxila, Kalinga and the Deccan; ports and entrepôts such as Tamralipti on the Bay of Bengal and Bharukachchha (Bharuch) on the west coast; guilds (shrenis) regulated crafts.

• Material culture: NBP ware, extensive iron use (socketed axes, sickles, ploughshares), burnt bricks and ring wells spread outward from the Gangetic core to Bengal, Kalinga, Andhra and Karnataka.

Megasthenes versus Kautilya: two lenses

• Megasthenes described seven occupational classes (philosophers, farmers, herdsmen, artisans, soldiers, overseers, councillors) and claimed there was no slavery in India.

• Kautilya does discuss slaves and hired labourers and their rights — which is why the 2022 PYQ tested his slave laws. Slaves were used on crown farms for the first time on a large scale, but ancient India was not a "slave society" in the Greek-Roman sense: the shudras, collectively, performed that labour.

The Arthashastra — What to Remember

• Structure: 15 books (adhikaranas), around 150 chapters and 180 sections, in Sanskrit prose. Manuscript found by R. Shamasastry in 1904, edited 1909, translated 1915. It covers kingship, the 27 superintendents, law, the "thorns" (criminals), the forms of policy, war and the king's own safety.

• Authorship and date: "Kautilya" is the author's name in the text; Chanakya and Vishnugupta are the traditional equivalents. It was compiled in layers — an early core of Mauryan date, with additions that run into the early centuries CE — so the text reflects Mauryan practice rather than prescribing only it.

• Saptanga (seven limbs of the state): swami (king), amatya (minister), janapada (territory and people), durga (fort), kosha (treasury), danda (army/force) and mitra (ally).

• Mandala theory: the ambitious king (vijigishu) sees the immediate neighbour as the natural enemy (ari) and the neighbour's neighbour as a natural friend; beyond them lie the madhyama and udasina states.

• Shadgunya (six-fold policy): sandhi (peace), vigraha (war), asana (neutrality), yana (march), samshraya (seeking shelter) and dvaidhibhava (double policy).

• Four upayas: sama (conciliation), dana (gifts), bheda (dissension) and danda (force).

• Law and slavery (2022 PYQ): Kautilya sets rules for bonded labour and for slaves' rights; UPSC's key accepts that a female slave who bore her master a son was freed and that the son took the father's status, while treating "slavery by judicial punishment" as outside the tested provisions (some modern readings do list it, so follow UPSC's key on this item).

Kautilya versus Ashoka

Mauryan Art and Architecture

Think of two Mauryan arts: a court art (palace, pillars, polish) and a popular art (caves, yakshas, terracotta, stupas).

Court art

• Palace at Pataliputra: Megasthenes compared it with the Persian capitals. Excavations at Kumrahar (Patna) revealed fragments of an 80-pillared hall — evidence of stone masonry on a large scale, with polished pillars like the Northern Black Polished ware.

• Ashokan pillars: monolithic shafts (single stone, tapering), a bell-shaped lotus capital, an abacus with decoration and a crowning animal (lion, bull, elephant, horse). The shiny finish is the Mauryan polish. The idea of the proclamatory pillar and the bell capital shows Persian (Achaemenid) influence; the execution is Indian.

• Sarnath lion capital: four Asiatic lions back-to-back above an abacus with a frieze of elephant, bull, galloping horse and lion between four 24-spoked wheels (Dharmachakra), on an inverted lotus; originally crowned by a large wheel. It was made the State Emblem of India on 26 January 1950 (three lions visible; "Satyameva Jayate" added). The Ashoka Chakra in the national flag is the same 24-spoked wheel.

Popular art

• Barabar and Nagarjuni caves (Bihar): the earliest rock-cut caves in India — hard granite excavated and given a mirror polish inside, plain outside. Brahmi inscriptions record Ashoka's gift of the Sudama ('banyan-tree') and Visva Zopri caves to the Ajivikas in his 12th regnal year and of Karan Chaupar in his 19th. Lomas Rishi has the most famous facade — an ogee-arched (chandrashala) front copying wooden architecture — but carries no Ashokan dedication (its inscription is a later Maukhari one). His grandson Dasharatha gifted the Nagarjuni caves.

• Sculpture: the polished Didarganj Yakshi (chauri-bearer) from the Ganga bank at Patna; the Parkham Yaksha (Mathura); the Dhauli rock-cut elephant (Odisha); terracotta figurines. Stupas were multiplied by Ashoka, and the core of the Great Stupa at Sanchi dates to him.

Cross-link: all of this is revisited — with the Buddhist and Jain rock-cut caves, stupas and temples — in the Part C architecture articles.

Why the Empire Fell — and How to Argue It

The Mauryas lasted barely 137 years (322–185 BCE). The last king, Brihadratha, was killed by his general Pushyamitra Shunga about 185 BCE.

• Financial strain: a giant army and bureaucracy against a base that could not expand after Kalinga; large grants to the Sangha; tradition speaks of melting gold images in the last phase. Some scholars link this to debased silver coinage.

• Oppressive officials: Taxila complained under Bindusara and again under Ashoka; the Kalinga edicts show his worry. When the centre weakened, outlying provinces broke away.

• Spread of material culture: iron technology and burnt brick reached the Deccan, Kalinga and central India, so those regions no longer depended on Magadha — they became the homes of the Shungas, Kanvas, Chedis and Satavahanas.

• North-west frontier: the Central Asian movements that pushed Bactrian Greeks, Shakas and Parthians into India went unanswered by the Mauryas (Shih Huang Ti built the Great Wall in the same era).

• The "brahmanical reaction" theory (Haraprasad Shastri) argues that Ashoka's ban on sacrifices hurt brahmanas. The other view, associated with Romila Thapar, is that this overstates it; the more convincing causes are structural — an over-centralised, personality-dependent state with no representative base, weak successors and division of the empire into eastern and western halves.

The balanced Mains sentence: the Mauryan collapse was less one cause than the exhaustion of a system that depended on one strong king.

Answer Framework — Importance of the Ashokan Inscriptions (Mains 2026)

The 2026 Mains (22 August 2026) asked, for 10 marks and 150 words: Analyze the importance of Ashokan inscriptions for reconstructing Mauryan history. Use this skeleton.

• Introduction (2 lines). Ashoka is the first Indian king to speak directly to his people. Forgotten for centuries, he was recovered through his edicts after Prinsep's decipherment of Brahmi (1837) and the Maski discovery (1915); the 44-odd orders in Prakrit on rocks, pillars and caves are the best contemporary source for the dynasty.

• What they tell us. (1) Political — the Kalinga war, the extent of the empire (from Kandahar and Shahbazgarhi to Karnataka and Odisha, with Girnar and Sopara in the west), relations with Hellenistic kings and southern kingdoms (RE II and XIII). (2) Administration — mahamatras, rajukas, pradeshikas, yuktas, dhamma-mahamattas, prativedakas, the tours every five years, rotation of officers, the provinces and Tosali. (3) Ideology — Dhamma, paternal kingship, tolerance, welfare (roads, wells, hospitals, trees). (4) Religion — his personal Buddhism (Bairat, Schism edicts, Lumbini, Nigali Sagar). (5) Social and economic — the bhaga reduced to one-eighth at Lumbini, forest tribes, slaves and servants, women officers. (6) Language, script and culture — Prakrit in Brahmi and Kharosthi, Greek and Aramaic in Afghanistan; the roots of Indian epigraphy.

• Why they are reliable. They are original, dated by regnal years, placed on highways and frontiers, and they can be checked against Indica, the Arthashastra, archaeology (NBP, punch-marked coins, Barabar caves, Kumrahar) and the Sri Lankan chronicles — and they refute legends such as 'Chandashoka'.

• Limits. They are royal propaganda; silent on the army, taxes beyond a few hints, the succession, and the Mauryan decline; regional gaps (the far south and east); the edicts do not tell us about the common people's lives; so they must be combined with other sources.

• Conclusion. They turned Mauryan history from legend to documented history and show a rare state that tried to rule by ethical persuasion.

How UPSC Has Asked It — And What Could Come Next

The first half of this table is what UPSC has actually asked; the second half is our analysis of the adjacent facts that are one question-setter's twist away.

Patterns in the last decade

• Evidence questions. Prinsep (2016); Kanganahalli and "Ranyo Ashoka" (2019); Sohgaura as a non-Harappan site (2019); inscription quote (MRE XII, 2020); edict sites to states (2022); officer roles from the edicts (2025).

• Kautilya questions. Slavery provisions (2022). UPSC is now testing close reading of the Arthashastra.

Likely next (analysis, not prediction of a specific paper)

• Site-state pairs again, with different sites — Rupnath (MP), Sahasram (Bihar), Maski (Karnataka), Girnar (Gujarat), Sopara (Maharashtra), Brahmagiri (Karnataka), Mansehra (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). Learn the state for every site in the table above.

• "Which edict" quote questions: the Kalinga passage (RE XIII), the Lumbini bali/bhaga text, the "all men are my children" Separate Edict, and Pillar Edict VII.

• Script and language statements: Kharosthi in the north-west, Greek-Aramaic in Kandahar, "all edicts are in Pali" (false — Prakrit).

• Arthashastra statements: saptanga, mandala, shadgunya, spy types, "27 adhyakshas", Kautilya's six-fold policy; "the Arthashastra names Chanakya" (the text calls its author Kautilya).

• Mauryan art: which capitals carried which animals; Barabar caves for Ajivikas; Didarganj Yakshi; the abacus frieze of Sarnath (elephant, bull, horse, lion).

• Cross-period comparison Mains: Ashoka's Dhamma versus Akbar's sulh-i-kul; Mauryan versus Gupta administration; "Was Mauryan India a welfare state?"

Common traps

• Confusing the Third Council (Ashoka, Pataliputra) with the Fourth (Kanishka, Kashmir).

• Treating Ashoka's Dhamma as "Buddhism" — MRE XIII–XIV and PE II–VII never mention nirvana.

• Assuming the National Emblem shows four lions and the lotus — it shows three, with the motto added.

• Forgetting that Ashoka's personal name appears in only four inscriptions.

Why this matters now

• Sarnath's lion capital returned to the news in July 2022 when a large bronze State Emblem was installed on the new Parliament building and critics debated the lions' expression — a reminder that the Mauryan symbol is a living icon.

• The ASI's conservation plan for the Sannati–Kanaganahalli Buddhist site (Karnataka) was reported in July 2022.

Further Reading

• Standard NCERT-level texts and reference books on ancient, medieval and cultural Indian history (any UPSC reading list).

Test Yourself: Practice Questions & PYQs

The Mauryan questions are evidence questions. Before opening an answer, say aloud the site, the state and the script.

Practice Questions

Q1. Which Major Rock Edict records the Kalinga war and Ashoka's remorse?

• (a) Major Rock Edict XII

• (b) Major Rock Edict XIII

• (c) Major Rock Edict V

• (d) Major Rock Edict VIII

Q2. In which of these four inscriptions does Ashoka's personal name 'Asoka' appear?

• (a) Girnar

• (b) Maski

• (c) Kalsi

• (d) Dhauli

Q3. Which edicts are inscribed in Kharosthi script?

• (a) Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra

• (b) Dhauli and Jaugada

• (c) Girnar and Sopara

• (d) Rupnath and Sahasram

Q4. The Separate Kalinga Edicts at Dhauli and Jaugada are notable because they:

• (a) Omit Major Rock Edict XIII and declare that all men are the king's children

• (b) Mention Chandragupta

• (c) Record the Third Buddhist Council

• (d) Are in Greek

Q5. Which pair of province and capital in the Mauryan empire is correct?

• (a) Dakshinapatha — Suvarnagiri

• (b) Uttarapatha — Ujjain

• (c) Kalinga — Pataliputra

• (d) Avantirata — Taxila

Q6. In the saptanga theory of the state in the Arthashastra, 'danda' stands for:

• (a) Fort

• (b) Treasury

• (c) Force or army

• (d) Ally

Q7. Which of the following is NOT part of the Arthashastra's six-fold foreign policy?

• (a) Asana

• (b) Dhammaghosha

• (c) Dvaidhibhava

• (d) Sandhi

Q8. The Barabar caves, the earliest rock-cut caves in India, were gifts to:

• (a) Buddhist monks

• (b) Vaishnavas

• (c) Jain monks

• (d) Ajivikas

Q9. The State Emblem of India is adapted from the lion capital at:

• (a) Sarnath

• (b) Lauriya Nandangarh

• (c) Rampurva

• (d) Sanchi

Q10. Which statement about Megasthenes is correct?

• (a) His work 'Indica' survives in full

• (b) He was the ambassador of Seleucus Nicator at Chandragupta's court

• (c) He served at Ashoka's court

• (d) He described Taxila as the capital

UPSC Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

Real UPSC Prelims questions on the Mauryas, 2016–2025, with answers matched to UPSC's official key. Explanations in our own words.

Q11. (UPSC Prelims 2016) Who of the following had first deciphered the edicts of Emperor Ashoka?

• (a) Max Müller

• (b) Georg Bühler

• (c) William Jones

• (d) James Prinsep

Q12. (UPSC Prelims 2019) Which one of the following is not a Harappan site?

• (a) Kot Diji

• (b) Chanhudaro

• (c) Sohgaura

• (d) Desalpur

Q13. (UPSC Prelims 2019) In which of the following relief sculpture inscriptions is 'Ranyo Ashoka' (King Ashoka) mentioned along with the stone portrait of Ashoka?

• (a) Sohgaura

• (b) Shahbazgarhi

• (c) Kanganahalli

• (d) Sanchi

Q14. (UPSC Prelims 2020) Who among the following rulers advised his subjects through this inscription? "Whosoever praises his religious sect or blames other sects out of excessive devotion to his own sect, with the view of glorifying his own sect, he rather injures his own sect very severely."

• (a) Harshavardhana

• (b) Krishnadeva Raya

• (c) Samudragupta

• (d) Ashoka

Q15. (UPSC Prelims 2022) Consider the following pairs: Site of Ashoka's major rock edicts : Location in the State of 1. Dhauli : Odisha 2. Erragudi : Andhra Pradesh 3. Jaugada : Madhya Pradesh 4. Kalsi : Karnataka How many pairs given above are correctly matched?

• (a) Only two pairs

• (b) All four pairs

• (c) Only three pairs

• (d) Only one pair

Q16. (UPSC Prelims 2022) According to Kautilya's Arthashastra, which of the following are correct? 1. A person could be a slave as a result of a judicial punishment. 2. If a female slave bore her master a son, she was legally free. 3. If a son born to a female slave was fathered by her master, the son was entitled to the legal status of the master's son. Select the correct answer using the code given below.

• (a) 1, 2 and 3

• (b) 1 and 2 only

• (c) 1 and 3 only

• (d) 2 and 3 only

Q17. (UPSC Prelims 2025) Ashokan inscriptions suggest that the 'Pradeshika', 'Rajuka' and 'Yukta' were important officers at the

• (a) provincial administration

• (b) level of the central administration

• (c) village-level administration

• (d) district-level administration

Mains Practice Questions

Use these to frame full-length answers. You don't have to answer one exactly — they show the angles UPSC tests, so let them guide which points you cover.

• Was Ashoka's Dhamma a religion, a moral code or a political strategy? Discuss with evidence from the edicts.

• Compare Kautilya's statecraft with Ashoka's Dhamma as instruments of governance.

• Account for the rapid disintegration of the Mauryan empire after Ashoka.

• Mauryan art has been called 'court art' and 'popular art'. Illustrate with examples.

• Evaluate the claim that the Mauryan state was a welfare state.

Mains PYQs — Last 10 Years (UPSC GS-I)

The exact questions UPSC has actually asked on this topic over the last decade. Practise writing full-length answers to these.

• Analyze the importance of Ashokan inscriptions for reconstructing Mauryan history. (UPSC GS-I, 2026)

• The rock-cut architecture represents one of the most important sources of our knowledge of early Indian art and history. Discuss. (UPSC GS-I, 2020)