MAIN TRENDS IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE EARLY MAURYA EMPIRE SINCE

INDEPENDENCE
Author(s): Shankar Goyal
Source: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute , 1995, Vol. 76, No. 1/4
(1995), pp. 51-68
Published by: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41694369

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 MAIN TRENDS IN
THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE EARLY MAURYA EMPIRE
SINCE INDEPENDENCE

By

Shankar Goyal

In the beginning of the Independence era, Indian historian

early Maurya empire followed the same approaches which they
following before 1947. For example, in The Age of Imperial Uni
R. C. Majumdar and A. D. Pusalker, first published in 1951 ), th
Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusãra and Ašoka was written by R. K
while an Appendix on the date of Ašoka was added by H. C. Ray
The views and attitudes of both of them were already well-known
works ( Chandragupta Maurya and His Times and Ašoka of R. K.
and Political History of Ancient India of H. C. Raychaudhuri
before 1947. The case of the Age of the Nandas and Mauryas ( e
N. Sastri, first published in 1952 ) and A Comprehensive Histor
Vol. II ( published in 1957 ) was mutatis mutandis similar.
* * *

Among
early ye
Ašoka M
in which
1956 saw
Eggermo
A study
tory stu
the dem
mainly t
and eval
Sudhaka
in the m
Romila T
the pub
( Oxford

In his B
differen

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52 Annals BORI, LXXVI ( 1993 ß

he bas not always exercised his critical judgement. For example, Meru
evidence has been cited to prove that Chandragupta Maurya had esta
his rule in Avanti by 313-312 B. C. ( p. 88 ). Now, there cannot be any
about the inclusion of Avanti in the Mauryan empire in the days of
and it may also have been part of the Magadhan empire in the t
Chandragupta or even earlier. But should such a late author as Merut
be taken as authoritative on this point, especially when Chattopa
refuses to admit the validity of a Buddhist tradition about Asoka
KuçSla, on the ground of its belonging to the time of Kanishka, and
sses doubt about the authenticity of a very late Jaina tradition of a
years' famine engulfing the Mauryan empire during the last days of C
gupta which led him to abdicate in favour of his son, Bindus9ra ( p.
Still, he accepts the contention that " It was possibly at the onset of
famine that Chandragupta abdicated and the situation had to be tackled
son Bindusara. " Further without assigning convincing reasons he attr
the Sohgaura bronze plaque and the Mahasthan ( fragmentary ) stone in
tion to the time of Bindusara ( pp. 91-95 ).

It is curious that referring to Asoka's paternalism, Chattopadhy

described it as a " religious-cum-political move. " Again, distinguishi
ween the paternal theory and contractual theory ( particularly for th
clans ), he avers that the latter theory was nothing but an extension
former and Ašoka maintained a uniform standard. But on page 166 h
tradicts himself by declaring that Ašoka " maintained a benevolent pa
cum-contractual attitude of kingship. " Strangely, he takes Strabo's
rence to Chandragupta's daily change of bed as a precautionary meas
mean his " unpopularity " in the face of Kautilya's prescription to that
as' a normal measure of the ruler's personal security ( p. 159).

While discussing the inscriptional references to the different categor

of mahãmãtra-s, Chattopadhyaya comments : '• Thus the Civil Servic
under dual control, that of ih¿ state under the Kumãras or Äryaputras
taneously with the control of the Emperor himself. " ( p. 172 ). I
understood how the modern concepts of delimitation of jurisdiction b
the states and the centre could be applicable to the Mauryan polity, p
larly when he himself states that " it will hardly be right to impute
motives and thought-process to a pre-Christian statement. " Similarly
analysing the forces leading to the downfall of the Mauryan emp
underscores the correct historical approach when he states, " We mu
more objective than speculative. " But in the same context he remark
" There was another defect in Indian character. The sense of nationa

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 Goyal : Historiography of the Early Maurya Empire Sì

had not dawned as yet " ( p. 206 ), an observation which can hardly be called
objective.

In his Studies in Indian History and Civilization (Agra, 1962) Buddha

Prakash wrote several illuminating chapters on the early Mauryas. His
chapter II deals with the history of Poros in the concluding portion of which
he tries to show that after the return of Alexander from India Poros and
Chandragupta Maurya concluded an alliance against the Greeks, became
leaders of the revolution and swept away the foreigners in no time. Then,
relying on somewhat late traditions he suggests that the allies succeeded in
conquering Magadha but Poros became the victim of a conspiracy of Chãna-
kya and Chandragupta, and was killed. In the next Chapter Buddha
Prakasha examines the problem of the origin and original home of the
Mauryas and very logically argues that they belonged to the Moriya tribe
which had nothing to do with the Šakyas and existed even before the destru-
ction of the latter by Vidüdabha. He locates the original home of the
Mauryas in More, a town of Patna district.

In Chapter IV of his work Buddha Prakash tries to reconstruct the

early history of Chandragupta Maurya with the help of the Shãhanãmõ of
Firdausi, and in Chapter V identifies Meroes of the Classical writers with
Chandragupta Maurya. But the reconstruction of events in both these
Chapters is rather fanciful because Shãhanãmã is a very late work and the
Classical writer knew Chandragupta as Sandrocottos, not Meroes. His attem-
pts to impart historicity to soma characters of the Mudrãrãksasa ( Chapter
VI ) also demands too much stretching of imagination.
* * *

With D
Indian H
India in
Maurya p
of Asiatic Mode of Production with some reservations. However for
him Marxism was not ' a substitute of thinking ' but ' a tool of analysis '
For him every state rests on some class base. He defines history as " the
presentation in chronological order of successive changes in the means of and
relations of production. " He complains : " The principal aim of history, as
hitherto written, has been the presentation of great events in a chronological
sequence. However, the relative importance of events rarely appears the
same to the people of another time, place, civilization and class bias, so that
a mere chronicle does not suffice. The course of social development, the
inner causes which ultimately manifest themselves in the striking events, the

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¿4 Annals BORI, LXXVl ( 1995)

driving forces which underlie great movements, have to be made c

any work can be dignified by the name of serious history. "

Like many other historians D. D. Kosambi attributes the Art

of Kautilya to the age of the Mauryas. According to him the Mau
witnessed an unprecedented expansion of village-economy, because
lya state itself was " the main land clearing agency, the greatest l
the principal owner of heavy industry, and even the greatest pr
commodities. The Mauryan government flourished on a powe
economy and a vast salaried bureaucracy includiug the develo
system for coercion. But Ašoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, mu
ed the coercive power of the Mauryan state by introducing serio
in the administration. This can be inferred not only from the prac
quinquennial tours of the empire by the king and his high admin
officers but also from the fact that there came into being a " ne
plenipotentiary supervisors ( dharmamahãmãtra-s ) with control ov
and special funds. "

According to Kosambi during Asoka's reign the Mauryan sta

to have fallen into financial straits. For, we are told, the state mo
metals was gradually being lost ; copper mines in Bihar had begu
water level ; Magadhan supply of iron fell short of total demand f
sources of iron had been located and developed to some extent in A
Mysore, but the expansion of the Mauryan power beyond the river
the north into the less fertile Deccan was precluded by the increasing
difficulties that faced the administration. Here much of what Kosambi tells
us is conjectural, but the continued debasemeat of coinage, to which he has
referred at several places, may indeed indicate that the Mauryan treasury was
impoverished.

One may differ with Kosambi not only on broad generalisations but
also in matters of detail. His unusual faith in the totemic origin of names
and gotra- s goes to irritating lengths. His statement that the Mauryas deriv-
ed their name from peacock totem does not sound convincing; for it is men-
tioned in the list of birds killed for the royal kitchen till Asoka's time. In
fact Kosambi's approach suffers from obvious limitations. Marxists generally
attempt at analysis in positive terms and hence face the danger of making
statements which may be sometimes erroneous particularly in view of the
limited or partial nature of the evidence. But the importance of Kosambi's
interpretation cannot be minimised. His conclusions remain a set of valua-
ble hypotheses which future researches will do well to examine.
* *> *

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 Goyal : Historiography of the Early Maurya Empire 55

Romila Thapar's study A&oka and the Decline of the Mauryas

(Oxford, 1961 ) raised Maurya historiography to a new level. She attempts
to place Ašoka in historical perspective against the background of the third
century B. C. in India and to distinguish, as far as possible, between Ašoka
the man and Ašoka the monarch. The greatness of Ašoka, according to her,
is to be understood in the context of his times and en explanation to be
offered for the rapid decline of' the Mauryan empire after the death of such
an illustrious monarch. Thapar seeks to reinterpret the available material
regarding Ašoka. The inscriptions of Ašoka, the Purãnas, the Buddhist
sources and finally the Arthaiãstra (which she ascribes to the Maurya
period ), all are duly consulted with a critical insight and a careful sifting.
With a very judicious use of all this material she has given an account of
Ašoka's early life, chronology, his internal administration and policy of
of Dhamma. The later Mauryas have been given one chapter in which an
attempt is made to construct a reliable account as well as a chronology of
these kings out of the conflicting accounts of the sources, the Purãnas. One
chapter has been devoted to a study of the causes of the decline of the
Mauryan empire. The account of the Ašokan period is made complete by a
full discussion of the society and economic activity during those times.

Romila Thapar is at her best while explaining the concept of Asoka's

Dhamma with the help of the Edicts. This Dhamma, it is held, ' is not to
be equated with the Buddhist Dhamma or any other accepted system which
was called by this generic term' (p. 181 ). Asoka's Dhamma was an attempt
to reform the narrow attitude of religious teaching, to protect the weak
against the strong, and ' to promote throughout the empire a consciousness
of social behaviour so broad in its scope that no cultural group could object
to it With all this in mind, one do¿s doubt the possibility of the Dhamma
being understood or practised in any other manner than the one current in
Buddhism, especially in centuries that were so near to the Buddha himself
and which really saw the Canon shaped. And one does not really find much
difference between these two concepts. The concept that the King was the
father to the people and that the happiness of the people was his happiness is
a doctrine that can be traced to the Brãhmanical sources and need not be
regarded as new concept, an impact of Buddhism on Indian polity. Ašokan
period, according to Thapar, was a period of political centralisation and of
a social order which did not permit of much individual liberty (p. 213 ).

Giving an entirely new estimate of Ašoka Romila Thapar states : " It

has been said on occasions that Ašoka was amongst those who stood in
opposition to his age. This we believe to bs a false view. Hi was, as we

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56 Annals BORI LXXVl ( 1993 )

shall see, in many ways representative of his time. His greate

recognition lies in the Fact that he understood his age, and in te
Indian background, realized the requirements it demanded. He
narrow religious sectarian, as some have made him out to be, for
mate aims covered both the religious and secular aspects of life.
seems to hold that the causes of the decline of the Mauryas were
mely centralised administration and the absence of the concept of
nation. The other theories of military inactivity, Brãbmaça re
popular uprisings or economic pressure appear to her as unsatisfac
nations. True, but the causes adduced by her hold good in the
the empires known to Indian history. This is true of the Gup
Indian polity with its insistence on a personal supervision and inte
administration on the port of the king has always advocated a hig
lised administration which, therefore, can only be doubtfully re
Mauryan weakness. The chances of the realisation of the ideal of
polity always depended on the appearance of strong personalities l
Samudragupta, Chandragupta and few others.

Romila Thapar gave her interpretation of Maurya history in

History of India, I, also published in 1966, that is only five years
publication of the Ašoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. By that
views had not much changed. However, here she gives the history o
gupta in greater detail. While discussing the origin of the 'im
she not only gives i mphasis on the economic factor, but considers ' a v
factors '. S.milarly, while examining the cause of the decline of th
she sugges's that not only ' the Maurya economy wí.s under co
pressure' but also points out to other factors which brought abou
cline. According to her, Maurya administration was highly centr
the ruler as key figure and all loyalty dircctcd to the person of th
factor of political loyalty implies amongst its essential* loyalty to
but by now the concept of state had receded into the background
now loyalty was directed to social order, that is caste was accordod
status than any political institution.

In her chaptcr ' Ašokan India and tho Gupta Age ' contributed
Cultural History of India, edited by A. L. Basham ( Oxford, 1975,
43) Romila Thapar discusses the mechanics of the centralized emp
Mauryas. She draws attention to the role of economy, bureaucrat
standing army, paternalistic ideal of kingship, development of mea
munication, use of šudras as free labour, development of towns a
çulture, evolved mode of manufacturing goods and distribution sy

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 Goyal j Historiography of the Early Maurya Empire 57

of guilds in caste-based society, growth of heterodox religion, etc. in the

formation of the Maurya imperial system. She admits that Aioka was perso-
nally a Buddhist and that much of the ideology of his Dhamma was inspired
by Buddhism, but also argues that to equate it totally with Buddhism and to
suggest that Ašoka was propagating Buddhism as the state religion is to read
more into the edicts than was intended by the monarch " ( p. 42 ).

The Mauryas Revisited ( New Delhi, 1987 ) by Romila Thapar is a

collection of two lectures delivered by her as Deuskar Lectures at the Centre
for Studies in the Social Sciences, Calcutta. The first lecture is essentially a
re-interpretation of the Mauryan state in its role as empire, in the light of
discussions on the concept of empires in the ancient world during the last
couple of decades. Here she is concerned with assessing the degree to which
the Mauryan state was an empire and its duration as such After a discussion
of various views she argues that for the Mauryas the need to conquer un-
doubtedly arose due to the necessity to extend the availability of resources
from the more limited Ganges plain to the wider arena of the subcontinent.
But other considerations were also important. The initial Mauryan expansion
may have been justified as a defence of the Ganges valley against the succe-
ssors of Alexander in the north-west, which situation was brought to a head
in the hostilities between Chandragupta Maurya and Seleucus Nicator. The
north-west gave access to routes through the Hellenistic kingdoms to the
markets of the eastern Mediterranean. The lower Indus region bred fine
quality horses, an asset to any imperial army. The Mauryan movement into
central India was almost certainly an attempt to control the route to the
peninsula, the daksinapatha. Further south, beyond the trade route to
Sopara in the vicinity of Bombay, lay the gold bearing areas of Karnataka,
which could be approached from two directions : south of Sopara on the west
coast and along the Krishna valley on the east. The latter route may also
have tapped the diamond mines of the peninsula. The reconquest of Kaliàga
may well have been to recover lost territory, particularly one that was rich in
agriculture, trade and elephants, as well as to defend Magadha from the south-
east and to protect the coastal route down the east coast. ' Thus the need for
the Mauryas to conquer was in part to extend the availability of resources.

As compared to other early empires, such as the Achaemenid, Han,

Roman, the Mauryan was short-lived. Rising with the conquests of Chandra-
gupta and reaching its peak with his grandson Ašoka, it seems to have -decli-
ned rather rapidly after this. As an imperial structure it survived at most
for a century. This may well have had to be with what seems to have been
a relatively limited economic restructuring of the area under its control.
8 Annals [ BORI )

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58 Annals BORI, LXXVI ( 1995 )

A differentiation of politico- economic systems is reflected in M

sources. Reference is made to the hunters and gatherers and to fore
( ãtavika or arariyacara )-settled both in the interior regions as well
the borders. Royal policy tends to treat them with a certain patern
pathy except that stern action is also threatened if they fail to ob
containment of forest tribes at the borders may have had a variety of r
They generally formed the buffer zones separating well-developed a
fear that they could act as predators on core areas incorporating a
settlements and caravan routes, could have encouraged their isolation
state. The officer incharge of the border in the Arthašastra is also
in charge of pasture lands suggesting that forests and grasslands wer
border lands between core areas.

The segregation of core areas was also in the interests of imper

cy and would be one way of keeping them under control without t
input of army and administration. The cbiefships of the gana sañgh
could in some cases be classified as core areas find mention in the Ar
where it is suggested that they should not be conquered and annexed
but should be weakened by dissensions and gradually brought under
tn agriculturally rich areas which constituted core areas there was a
agrarian tenures as is indicated by the listing of taxes such as bhãg
plnda-kara ( accumulated ), sadbhãga ( one-sixth ), kara and so on. I
cases land was privately owned and taxes were paid to the state. Su
were generally associated with earlier states in the Ganges plain. Som
were crown lands ( the si íã land ) where cultivators were given the
work them under the supervision of the sïtâdhyaksa or superinten
agriculture. The sít 3 lands were again worked on a variety of ten
employment or hired labourers and slaves, the dãsa-bhrtaka or
karmakãra, or the employment of those who were serving a penal s
or share-cropping or the payment of a share of the produce.

" All this is not to suggest ", Thapar clarifies, " that the Mau
economy was static. It was a period of substantial economic change
both agriculture and trade were stimulated. The formation of new
the commercial prosperity of the subcontinent from the first cent
onwards was founded on the developments of the Mauryan period
growth required for sustaining an empire or even the reproduction of t
ing resources appears to have been limited. When to this were add
factors of a different kind the empire declined." She therefore, con

In a definition of an empire of the ancient world, the two featur

extensive territorial control and the governance of peoples of

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 Goyal : Historiography of the Early Maurya Empire 59

erent culture - what used to be called euphemistically ' other

nations • - remain valid. But to these may be added the further
dimension of the relation between the metropolitan state and other
areas. An empire would require that revenue, labour and resources
from other areas should enrich the metropolitan state and its rela-
tion to the other areas was, therefore, exploitative. An empire
should register a range of difference in the manner in which the
metropolitan state seeks to integrate the various areas which it con-
trols. The variations are significant, for imperial policy was not
necessarily one with which a variety of economics were restructured
to the needs of the metropolitan state which would be an important
consideration in the survival of empires. Often these variations and
the degree of restructuring is more visible in the forms of the
successor states than in the empire, for empires do encourage at least
the pretence of uniformity.

The Mauryan state was an empire to the extent that it did

control a large territory with culturally differentiated peoples and its
nucleus, the state of Magadha, was enriched by the flow of revenue
and resources from other regions. That it was unable to restruc-
ture to a greater degree the economy of the core and peripheral areas
would perhaps explain why it was short-lived. Its primary concern
was with extracting revenue from existing resources and probably not
to the same extent with creating new resource bases. This might in
part also explain why the imperial idea never really took root in the
Indian sub-continent in early times in spite of the rhetoric of texts
and inscriptions ; where exploitative states were plentiful but where
the overwhelming power of metropolitan states remained curtailed.
* * *

In the w
more exp
mic pro
in Ancie
1958), P
Delhi, 19
šastra of
ist histo
because t
given th
on Marx
of Maury

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60 Annals BORI, LXXVI ( 1995 )

" distinguishing feature of Maurya economy is the state co

ture, industry and trade and levy of all variétés of taxes fr
The need of huge surplus in cash and kind arose because th
of huge standing army required to keep the peasantry unde
defend the different parts of the far-flung empire. Secon
kept their treasury filled up against emergencies and also ke
cracy. The Mauryas, in the opinion of Sharma, made im
bution to the development of rural economy by founding new s
rehabilitating the decaying ones by drafting surplus settler
lated areas. Even Šfldras were encouraged to settle in these
the aid granted to them by the state. Sharma also explains
the middle Gangetic material culture seem to have been transfer
fications to northern Bengal, Kaliñga, Andhra, Karnatak
and the tribal belt of central India from Chhota Nagpur to
Their contact with the dharmamahãmãtra-s appointed by A
opportunities for the transfer of higher culture to them.
In this sense Ašoka launched a deliberate policy of accu
is the meaning, Sharma surmises, of his claim that as a resul
of dhamma men would mingle with gods. Actually this im
and other peoples would take to the habits of settled tax
society and develop respect for paternal royal authority, m
officers. His policy succeeded. Ašoka claims that hunters an
given up killing and practised dhamma. This means the fo
persuaded to take to a sedentary agricultural life.
* * *

D. N. Jh
1981 ) als
the admi
same line
whole of
with the
tained an
all sphere
who are
des for 2
of them
dharmast

... The g
increasin
heavy e

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 Goyal : Historiography of the Early Maurya Empire 61

imperial exchequer, therefore, had to be found. This seems to have

been the guiding principle of the Maurya state in undertaking and
regulating numerous economic activities which brought in profit.
It founded new settlements and sought to rehabilitate the decaying
ones by drafting surplus population from overpopulated regions.
The shudras for the first time were aided by the state in setting down
as farmers in these settlements. They were either enticed away from
other places or deported from areas where population density was
high. Deportation of 150,000 people after the Kalinga war was
apparently in keeping with the Maurya policy of founding new
settlements. In order to bring the virgin soil under the plough, the
shudra settlers were granted fiscal exemption and other concessions
by way of the supply of cattle, seeds and money in the hope of
future repayment. - The expansion of village settlements under the
aegis of the state was necessarily accompanied by the growth of
trade, which was fostered by the development of the internal
communication system. - The use of currency, which began in the
earlier period, became a fairly common feature of the Maurya period
because of the developed commerce. Money was used not only for
trade ; even the government paid its officers in cash. The scale of
salaries ranging from 48,000 pana-s to 60 pana-s per year makes
impressive reading in the Arthasãstra. The state functioned on the
basis of a powerful cash economy. The largest number of punch-
marked ( mostly silver ) coins hitherto brought to light are assign-
able to the Maurya period, and come from eastern UP and Bihar
which constituted the necleus of the empire.
* * *

Among w
History o
Levin sta
rely with
A Multid
of this p
a manusc
Mauryan
cally exa
importan
USSR on
works Bo
tical hist

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62 Armais BORI, LXXVI ( 1995 )

and religious and philosophical trends. However, a bulk of th

presented by him is concerned with the Ganga valley and one asp
lacking is a detailed analysis of the nature of various regions that
part of Mauryan India. It in now held that the best way to defin
Indian empires is to analyse the relationship between their compon
the metropolitan state, core regions and peripheral regions. ( Cf
Thapar, the Mauryas Revisited, Calcutta, 1987, supra). Thus
which formed the nucleus of the Mauryan Empire may be called
politan area whereas core regions comprised the regions of
Kaliňga, Saurãstra, etc. A large part of peninsular India, how
be best described as a peripheral region. It is the dynamics of in
between these component units that determined the nature and
empires in ancient India. An analysis of the Maurya empire on th
lacking in his works.

On certain points Bongard-Levin's observations are diffic

accepted. For example, his assumption that slavery was wid
Magadha and the neighbouring areas whereas in some of the mor
regions, the tribal system still prevailed (p. 176 ), is difficult to b
A distinction should be made between domestic slavery which was
at that time and slavery for production which was not the b
Mauryan economy. Similarly, in spite of the injunctions of the
which refer to the settling of new land, there is little eviden
sources of colonies or settlements on waste lands. Tribes inhabiti
lands and forests do not seem to have used as labour or as slaves a
have been left alone. Similarly, both agrarian tenures and exchang
in the Mauryan period were marked by complexity and a wide v
listing of taxes by various terms such as bhõga, bali, pindakara,
kara and so on indicates the diversity in the nature of agricultural
Ganga plains and also reflects the range of village settlements
India. A crucial aspect of acculturation under the Mauryan empir
ing to Bongard- Levin, was Asoka's Dftamma and the role o
ideology. His definition of dhamma as an ethical principle was an
to provide a common factor for the assimilation of diverse c
ethnic groups of his empire. At the same time, literary refe
inferential evidence indicate his patronage to the Buddhist Chur
was a close interaction between the ruler and the Church, the form
ing patronage and the latter forging communication networks whi
loyalty and were supportive of political needs.
In his A Complex Study of Ancient India ( Delhi, 1986 ) B
Levin studies several problems of Maurya history and makes num

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 Goyal : Historiography of the Early Maurya Empire 63

resting observations. For example, " Judging by the available data, a village
community comprised a large number of patriarchal families, which were
gradually disintegrating into individual ones. " " It is possible to reconstruct
the general appearance of a grama " ( p. 108 ). The village community
" retained many features of united collective, common traditions and insti«
tutions"(p. 110). "Religious unity was a further cementing force, for
each village had a deity of its own. " " On many occasions the village acted
as a single unit in its relation with individuals, other villages and the State"
(p. Ill ). On the question of slavery in ancient india he notes that " there
can be no single solution which would apply to whole of India " (p. 113 ).
" In all likelihood classified lists did not exhaust all possible cases of reducing
people to slavery "(p. 117). "In the Mauryan age a great diversity of
social patterns existed in India. In some areas of the subcontinent, tribal
relations still prevailed, and it is possible that Megasthenes' evidence ( on
slavery ) applied only to one of the areas which he visited - or got acquain-
ted " ( p. 125 ),

Bongard-Levin's chapter ' Society and State in Ancient India ' written
in collaboration with A. A. Vigasin, is based on Sanskrit sources, especially
the Arthaiästra of Kautilya. They draw attention to the fact that a charac-
teristic feature of the ancient Indian society, especially of the Arthaiästra, is
the communal structure in the full sense of the word. They also opine that
now the view regarding the excessively despotic nature of state in ancient
India should be given up. Here they also discuss the centre of power in
republican and monarchical state. According to them " Comparison of data
about the class organization in monarchical and non-monarchical states
reveals that while in monarchies the chief divisions were between the free men
and the slaves and between the " twice-born especially, the first two
varna-s, and the " once-born in republics ( especially, in those of aristo-
cracy ), with their basic divisions also into the free men and the slaves and the
position of šQdras sharply differing from the status of other varna- s, the
varna- s were divided by their belonging or not belonging to the ruling kçatriya
families. The ksatriya clearly stayed apart from the rest of the free popula-
tion, which, despite the existence in its midst of clear divisions according to
varna-s, formed a kind of a general, non-k?atriya group. "

On the problems of political history of the Nanda-Maurya period,

Bongard-Levin has much to say. He identifies Agrammes of the Classical
writers not with DhanSnanda but with the first Nanda and places the accession
of Chandragupta Maurya in 317 B. C. He even finds the echo of the acti-
vities of ChSpakya in the Graeco-Roman tradition, though other scholars

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64 Annals BORI, LXXVl ( 1995 )

would hardly agree with it. He analyses the history of the

Asoka's reign afresh not reducing Indian history of his period
phy. He subjects Asoka's religious and missionary activitie
analysis and tries to discover political foundations in his relig
ganda. His dharmavijaya policy is seen as a means for securing
the country. He tries to prove that Ašoka gradually turned f
tolerance to a pro-Buddhist policy and it was precisely this that
sition at the end of his reign. Analysis of the avadâna- s and
Ašokan edicts make it possible to conclude that he was deprived
towards the last year of his reign.

According to Bongard-Levin, " Within the topic of Indian

Graeco-Roman world two important problems are ( a ) to ident
and the directness of the cultural, economic, political and diplo
India with the Graeco-Roman world, and ( b ) to establish the r
Iadian tradition to the Graeco-Roman culture. In the process,
borne in mind that the history of the interrelationships between t
ancient civilisations - the Indian and the Graeco-Roman -
complex set of contacts, the meeting of different ethno-cultura
different social organisms and religious philosophical traditions

To provide a reliable evaluation of the authenticity of th

references to India, above all, to clarify how and why the im
changed in the Graeco-Roman tradition, Bongard-Levin ide
periods in the perception of early India by the Graeco-Roman t

The 1st period - one before Alexander's campaign ( from t

tury B. C. to the twenties of the 4th century B. C. ), the tim
accidental and unconnected notiohs basically about that part o
was included in the Achaemenid empire ( Hecateus, Herodotus
was a period in which one traces the inception of the two main
classical tradition regarding India, namely: (a) that India
treasures and wonders ; and ( b ) the theme of the " In
( Sophistai ).

The Und period - one of Alexander's campaign, the time

interaction of cultures, which marked the start of a largely aut
cal tradition about India ( Ones ieri tus, Nearchus, Aristobulus,
other participants of the campaign ). These works, as is known
ved only as fragments in the works of later authors ( Stra
Arrian, Curtius, Rufus, Plutarch, and others ), who used mainl
pts from the notes of Alexander's officers, which had to do wit

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 Goyàl i Historiography of the Early Maurya Empire 65

tions of the military operation of the Graeco-Macedonian army and of the

story about Alexander's dispute with the Indian sages.

The Illrd period - In the perception of India's image in the classical

literature, this period can roughly be termed as " the period of embassies 99
( from the end of the 4th to the start of the 3rd century B. C. ). It is linked
with the names of Megasthenes, ambassador of Seleucus I to Chandragupta
Maurya, and of Deimachus, ambassador of Antiochus I to BindusSra. While
numerous fragments have remained from the work of Megasthenes, practi-
cally nothing has reached us from the " Indica " by Deimachus.

In lhe Graeco-Roman tradition, Megasthenes' work enjoyed great

popularity, with many Greek and Roman authors using it as the basis for
their descriptions of India. But Bongard-Levin laments that though Megas-
thenes fragments are utilised on a broad scale, no attempt is being made to
find for them some correspondence in Indian sources dating back to different
periods. These are, above all, the Arthašastra , Dharmašastra- s and epic
stoíies, although in his view the most reliable way lies through comparison,
including terminology, with Ašokan inscriptions and direct references, even
in later sources, to the empire of the Mauryas (p. 189 ).

Bongard-Levin pays special attention to the Graeco-Roman tradition

on the religious-philosophical currents in Maurya India, specially the refer-
ence by Megasthenes to Šramanas, Brãhmanas, Heracles, Dionysius, etc.
He opines that " researches of ancient India should make a more thorough .
study of the Graeco-Roman tradition of India and fuller use of Graeco-Ro-
man sources in analysing concrete phenomena of India's social, political and
cultural life in that epoch. "
* * #

S. R. Goy
approach t
with relat
than thre
several bo
and source
as evaluation of the views of other established scholars. His works on the
Maurya period include Prãchi na Bharatiya Abhilekha Sangraba ( Prän-Guptä -
Yugina ) ( Jaipur, 1982), Kautilya and Megasthenes ( Meerut, 1985 ), Chandra -
gupta Maurya ( Meerut, 1987), Priyadarsî Ai o ka (Meerut, 1987), Nanda -
Maurya Sãmrãjya kã ltihãs (Meerut, 1988) and Mãgadha-Sãtavãhana-Kus -
häng, Sãmrãjyom kã Yuga ( also published from Meerut in 1988 ). In these
works he raises discussion on problems of Maurya history to a high level.
For example, his treatment of the religion of Chandragupta Maurya tajees in-
? [Annals [BORII

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66 Armais BORI , LXXVl ( 1993 ß

to account those materials which are not found discussed in any other work
dealing with this ruler. Similarly, his analysis of the relationship of Ašoka
with Buddhism is on entirely new lines. He pleads afresh, and with new evi-
dences and new emphasis, that Asoka's policy played a great role in the
decline of the Maurya dynasty. ( He distinguishes between decline and fall
of the Maurya dynasty and collapse of the Magadhan empire. )

But the greatest of the historiography of Goyal is that he goes much

beyond the deeds and dates of Maurya kings and studies political events of th
period in their situational context. He is particularly interested with develop-
ing research methodology appropriate to new theoretical positions for study-
ing political events and movements against the background of various factors
and forces - social, economic, religious etc. - operating in society, an appro-
ach which he had so brilliantly used in his doctoral thesis, entitled A History
òf the Imperial Guptas , published in 1967,

Goyal believes that political history should not be merely a record of

kings and their dynasties, for political events have as much to do with the
social, economic, geographical and religious conditions of their age as the
acts of individuals. He realizes the need of analysing the role of effective
groups or segments of society in close association of the kings. Politica
history, he argues, is the backbone of history, for the sequence of events
cannot be understood without taking the records of the dynasties into account.
But he also believes that political events and the achievements of kings are
also, in a sense, the reflection or political manifestation of the socio-econo
mic and religious conditions of a community or communities in a given age
and given region i. e. in time and space. Though he has given sufficien
weight to the individual leanings, tastes and zeal of kings which played thei
role in the formation of new trends in society such as by the expansion of
frontiers and annexation of new regions comprising strange or foreign com-
munities etc., his writings on political history reflect a comprehensive outlook
which incorporates almost all the dimensions of history in the understanding
of political history. Though one may or may not agree to all his interpreta-
tions and arguments, it will be accepted by all that nowhere does he appea
to be evasive or dishonest in putting the threads together as far as his ow
vision permits him to reach.

Goyal is one of those historians who have sharply reacted to the grow-
ing gross misrepresentation and distortion of historical events and over-gene
ralization of historical trends due to the bias and subjective approach of som
historians during the past three or four decades. He particularly refers to
the Marxist analysis of Indian history initiated by D. D. Kosambi and usually
crudely imitated by historians following his footprints who have been explain-

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 Goyal : Historiography of the Early Maurya Empire 67

ing and analysing the evolution of Indian history only in terms of the means
and relations of production, so mcth so that they look upon the Gitã as a
manual of feudal ideology. 1

Goyal explains the growth of the Magadhan empire along with the
broadening concept of geographical boundary of the home of the Aryan Civi*
lization in stages i. e. from Saptasindhu to Brahmãvarta, Ãryavarta and the
whole subcontinent. ( Goyal, Mãgadha-Sãtavãhana-Kushãna Sãmrãjyom ka
Yuga , pp. 28-34 ). He suggests that Magadhan expansion first began with
the ambition of the rulers of controlling the Gañga Valley, not the whole of
India, which was in fact beyond their political horizon ( Ibid., p. 143). He
points out that cultural and religious expansion often preceded political ex*
pansion. He is of the opinion that in India political forces were usually
busy in reconciling and integrating different sects and cultural units rather
than promoting or protecting any particular faith. Goyal believes that secu»
larism was the very fabric of the Indian polity right from the earliest histori-
cal times ( ibid., p. 6 ). But at the same time, he points out that a secular
policy of any king or dynasty may be analysed at different levels. In this
view most of the modern scholars consider it sufficient to cite a few examples
of the appointment of high officials and ministers belonging to different faiths
by a king to indicate his secular behaviour. But secularism could be of
different shades. On the one hand, it could imply complete indifference to-
wards all the religious faiths and rituals, and, on the other, it could express
itself merely in tolerant behaviour towards different sects, the king himself
giving protection and liberal patronage to a particular faith, usually his own,
There could be many other levels of secular behaviour between these two ej>
tremes. Thus Goyal feels it necessary to analyse the exact nature of seculQ*
rism of the state or the kings. ( Ibid . )

In the ' Preface ' of his Nanda- Maurya Sãmrãjya kã Itihãs and in
his Priyadarši Ašoka Goyal conceives the Mauryan empire as the climax of
the Chakravarti ideal. He argues that Ašoka was tempted to practise the
Dhamma-Chakkavatti ideal of Buddhism which was a form of the modern
secularism or sarvadharmasamabhãva and was not at all a sectarian ideal.
He further adds that whatever measures were adopted by Ašoka to practise
the ideal, they helped not only in the consolidation of the empire but also in.
fostering the political and cultural unity of India. However, he maintains
that the objective of Ašoka was not to encourage the tendencies of political
and cultural unity ; Ašoka merely wanted to become a Dhamma-Chakkavattl

1 See, Goyal, S. R., A Religious History of Ancient India , Vol. II, Meerut, 1986,
p. 102.

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66 Annals BORI. LXXVI ( 1995 f

and was keen to spread Buddhism. The political and cultural unity was on
a by-product of his aim of becoming Dhamma-Chakkavattï just as the awa
ness of unity of India in the modern age was a by-product of the administ
tive measures adopted by the Britishers in India. This perception of Goy
runs counter to Romila Thapar's view according to which the dhamma of
Ašoka was devised to promote integration of his large empire.
» * *

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