Exploring Society I · Chapter 5 — The Rise of Empires

Imagine riding a horse for nearly two months and still being inside the lands of one ruler, passing through many villages, towns and even smaller kingdoms that all accept his authority. That is the scale of an empire.

The word. 'Empire' comes from the Latin imperium, meaning 'supreme power'. An empire is a collection of smaller kingdoms or territories over which a powerful ruler, or group of rulers, holds power, often after defeating them in war. The smaller territories usually kept their own rulers, but these rulers became tributaries (also called vassals) of the emperor.

Tribute. A tributary ruler accepts the emperor as overlord and pays tribute: money, gold or other precious metals, grain, livestock, elephants or other valuable goods, as a sign of submission, loyalty or respect. In return, emperors generally let regional kings and chiefs go on governing their own areas.

Sanskrit titles. Ancient texts used titles that show this idea of a ruler above other rulers: samraj ('lord of all' or 'supreme ruler'), adhiraja ('overlord') and rajadhiraja ('king of kings').

What an empire does.

• Keeps an army to control tributary states, expand, and defend against attack.
• Runs an administration with officials to manage territories, collect taxes and keep law and order.
• Makes laws, issues coins, fixes weights and measures and regulates trade.
• Controls access to resources: mines, forests, farm produce and labour.
• Builds and maintains communication networks: roads, river and sea routes, and other infrastructure.
• Encourages art, literature, religions, schools of thought and centres of learning.

Why would a king want an empire? Some reasons: the ambition to 'rule the world' and be remembered by posterity (future generations); the wish to control large areas and their resources to build economic and military strength; and the desire for great wealth.

A long story. Indian history is full of empires that rose, expanded, declined and disappeared. In this chapter we start at the beginning: India's first empires in the 6th to 2nd centuries BCE.

An army marching far from home needs food, clothing, weapons, pay for its soldiers and care for its horses and elephants. Who pays for all this? Mostly the wealth produced by farming and trade.

Why trade mattered to empires. Running an army and an administration is very costly. It needs economic power, a workforce and resources. So production and trade were among the keys to keeping an empire strong and its people prosperous, which a good ruler should care about. More trade meant more income for producers and more tax for the ruler. That is why rulers tried to set up and control trade routes across their empire and beyond, and to control rivers and trade networks that carried precious goods.

What was traded? Literature and archaeology show that the main goods included textiles, spices, farm produce, gems and other luxury items, handicrafts and various animals. Indian goods also travelled to distant countries by land and sea.

Great routes and cities. From about 500 BCE important routes linked cities across the Subcontinent: the Uttarapatha in the north and the Dakshinapatha going south, with branches to ports on both coasts. Cities on these networks included Takshashila, Mathura, Kaushambi, Pataliputra, Ujjayini, Tamralipti on the east coast and Bharukachchha on the west coast.

Guilds. Traders soon saw the benefit of joining forces. They formed guilds called shrenis: powerful associations of traders, craftsmen, moneylenders or farmers. A guild usually had an elected head and executive officers who were expected to be honest and ethical.

An ancient text says that cultivators, traders, herders, moneylenders and artisans had the authority to lay down rules for their own groups.

A long legacy. Guilds spread over large parts of India and lasted for centuries; their spirit can still be seen in Indian business. Guilds, like village councils and committees, show the self-organising ability of Indian society. A wise ruler let such local institutions work and did not interfere when they worked well.

Of the sixteen mahajanapadas, why did Magadha, in today's south Bihar, become the centre of India's first empire? The answer lies largely in its geography and resources.

A time of change. Between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE north India changed deeply. Magadha rose in importance under powerful early kings such as Ajatashatru. Two of the world's most famous religious teachers, Gautama Buddha and Mahavira, lived in Ajatashatru's time.

Magadha's advantages.

A carved panel at the Sanchi stupa shows soldiers on elephants, horses and foot besieging the city of Kusinara (Kushinagar) to recover relics of the Buddha. It reminds us how important iron weapons and war elephants were in this age.

The Nanda dynasty. Around the 5th century BCE, Mahapadma Nanda rose to power in Magadha and founded the Nanda dynasty. He unified many smaller kingdoms and spread his rule over parts of eastern and northern India. As the economy thrived he issued punch-marked silver coins, a sign of economic power. Greek accounts say the Nandas kept a very large army.

An unpopular king. The last Nanda ruler, Dhana Nanda, was very rich but, according to various accounts, became highly unpopular because he oppressed and exploited his people. This opened the way for the Nanda empire to be conquered and absorbed into the Maurya empire.

A great scholar of the age. The Sanskrit grammarian Panini lived around the 5th century BCE, in the time of the Nandas. His work, the Ashtadhyayi, sets out the rules of Sanskrit grammar in 3,996 short sutras. A sutra is a short, carefully crafted phrase that packs important ideas into a form that is easy to remember and pass on. India Post has issued a stamp in his honour.

While Magadha was growing in the east, a young king from far-off Macedonia was marching across Asia, determined to reach what he called the 'end of the world'.

The northwest. India's northwest had smaller kingdoms along an ancient route linked to the Mediterranean. Among them, according to Greek accounts, were the Pauravas, led by King Porus.

Alexander's campaigns.

Interestingly, in the earlier Persian invasions of Greece, some Indian soldiers from the Persian-ruled northwest had fought against the Greeks.

Porus. After the battle, Alexander asked Porus how he wished to be treated. Porus answered, 'Like a king.' Alexander left Porus at the head of his kingdom as a satrap. Satraps were governors of provinces in the Persian and Greek empires; far from the overlord, they had a lot of power and freedom.

Resistance and retreat. Local tribes and rulers fought fiercely, and Greek records say that in some battles women fought beside the men. Alexander massacred the people of several cities and was himself seriously wounded. His tired, homesick soldiers refused to go further east towards the Ganga. He retreated by the southern coastal route and through Iran's harsh deserts, losing many troops to thirst, hunger and disease. After his death his huge empire was divided among his generals and satraps.

The Gymnosophists. Alexander met Indian sages whom the Greeks called Gymnosophists, 'naked philosophers', probably because they wore very little. He tested them with tricky riddles, threatening death for wrong answers. They replied calmly and wisely, and he spared them all. Asked which is stronger, life or death, one replied 'Life'; asked how a man can be most loved, the reply was that he should be most powerful yet not inspire fear. Historians see such stories as a meeting of Greek and Indian philosophy.

The impact. Alexander's campaign had a limited political effect on India, but it opened the door to Indo-Greek cultural contact.

A teacher insulted and thrown out of a royal court vows to end that king's rule, and with a young leader he helps build one of India's greatest empires. That, according to tradition, is how the Maurya story begins.

Kautilya's vow. Buddhist texts say Kautilya, also called Chanakya or Vishnugupta, taught at the famous centre of learning at Takshashila (Taxila). He warned Dhana Nanda to change his oppressive ways. The angry king insulted him and threw him out of court, and Kautilya vowed to end Nanda rule.

The Maurya empire. Around 321 BCE, a few years after Alexander left, Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the Nandas and took Magadha, ruling from Pataliputra (near modern Patna). Many stories are told of his early life, but they agree on this. Using Magadha's geography, economy and trade, and Kautilya's advice, he expanded steadily. He defeated the Greek satraps Alexander had left in the northwest, and built an empire from the northern plains to the Deccan plateau.

Megasthenes. After defeating the Greeks, Chandragupta kept diplomatic ties with them and hosted the Greek historian and diplomat Megasthenes. His book Indika was the first such written account of India; it is lost, but excerpts survive in later Greek writers.

The Arthashastra. Kautilya's famous work, the Arthashastra ('the science of governance and economics'), gives directions on defence, economics, administration, justice, town planning, farming and welfare. His idea of saptanga, the seven parts of a kingdom, is central:

Kautilya stressed law and order, a strong administration, laws against corruption and punishments for harming people's welfare. A kingdom was to be kept by war or by peace through alliances, as needed.

Welfare first. Kautilya taught that a king's happiness lies in his subjects' happiness and his welfare in theirs. He also said a king grows powerful by caring for the countryside, the source of all economic activity, and should reward those who build embankments, bridges and roads or protect villages.

Few rulers in history have publicly admitted the horror of their own wars. Ashoka did, carving it on stone for everyone to read.

An ambitious start. Ashoka, Chandragupta's grandson, ruled from about 268 to 232 BCE. He inherited a vast empire and expanded it to cover almost the whole Subcontinent, except the far south, including present-day Bangladesh and Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan.

The Kalinga war. According to one of his edicts (official declarations), Ashoka marched on Kalinga (modern Odisha) and fought a ferocious war. Seeing the enormous death and destruction, he chose to give up violence as far as possible and to follow the Buddha's path of peace and non-violence. He sent emissaries (people on special, often diplomatic, missions) to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Central Asia and beyond to spread the Buddha's message.

A great communicator. Ashoka had his messages engraved on rocks and pillars across his empire, at places such as Girnar, Sanchi, Sarnath, Dhauli, Kalsi and Kandahar. Most were written in Prakrit, a popular language of the time, in the Brahmi script, the ancestor of all of India's regional scripts. Remember: a language is what we speak; a script is how we write it. Hindi and Marathi, for example, are different languages written in the same Devanagari script.

His titles. In the edicts he called himself Devanampiya Piyadasi: 'Beloved of the Gods' and 'one who regards others with kindness'.

Welfare claims in the edicts.

• Medical care for people and animals, even beyond his empire.
• A ban on hunting and cruelty to animals, an early step towards protecting wildlife.
• Rest houses and wells along main roads, with fruit and shade trees planted.
• Encouragement to all sects to respect and study each other's best teachings.
• Officials told to be fair and even-tempered, and never to imprison or torture people without good reason; inspectors sent on tour every five years to check.

Historians remind us that we need not take every claim literally. Still, in line with Kautilya's ideas, Ashoka clearly cared about his subjects' welfare and tried to reach out to them.

Dharma. Ashoka urged people to follow dharma (dhamma in Prakrit). In simple terms it means moral law and one's ethical duties to family, community and country; at a deeper level it means living in harmony with the order of the universe (rita). It combines duty, law, truth, order and ethics.

Look at a rupee note or an official government letter, and you will find the lions of an Ashokan pillar. The Mauryas still appear in our daily lives more than 2,200 years later.

City life. Cities like Pataliputra were busy centres of government and commerce, with palaces, public buildings and planned streets. Picture wooden ramparts with watchtowers, a moat with a drawbridge, and markets selling silk from China and spices and gems from the south. Officials, merchants and artisans such as blacksmiths, potters, carpenters and jewellers lived there. A good tax system and brisk trade kept the treasury strong.

What Megasthenes and later accounts describe.

• Most people farmed, and farming was a key source of revenue.
• Two crops a year were grown, since rain fell in both summer and winter, so famines were rare and granaries were well stocked.
• Farmers were protected even when war raged nearby.
• Cities had street signs, couriers carried messages, houses of wood rose up to two storeys, and vessels of water stood along streets in case of fire.
• People wore cotton garments, and some wore decorated leather shoes with thick soles.

An early record. The Sohgaura copper plate from Uttar Pradesh, of the 4th-3rd century BCE, is one of India's earliest known administrative records. Written in Prakrit in Brahmi script, it mentions setting up a granary as a precaution against famine, a sign of the state's concern for food security.

Art and architecture. The Mauryas are famous for highly polished stone pillars. The lion capital (the top of a pillar) at Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first teaching, shows four lions standing for royal power, with an elephant, a bull, a horse and a lion on the ring below, and the dharmachakra, the wheel of dharma. Other treasures include the Great Stupa at Sanchi, first built of brick and later enlarged in stone (its central dome, the anda, is circled in worship); the life-size rock elephant at Dhauli in Odisha; rock-cut caves in the Barabar hills for monks; and terracotta figurines of dancers, deities and horses.

The legacy. The Mauryas strengthened trade routes and the economy, used coins widely, built well-planned towns, created an elaborate administration and promoted art and architecture.

Build a tower of blocks taller and taller, and it becomes easier to topple. Empires are a little like that: the bigger they grow, the harder they are to hold together.

After Ashoka. The Maurya empire lasted about half a century after Ashoka's death. His successors could not hold it together; many smaller kingdoms broke away and became independent. Around 185 BCE the Maurya period ended and India entered a new phase, which you will study in the next chapter.

Why empires decline. Historians still debate the causes of the decline of great empires everywhere, such as the Roman, Persian, Ottoman, Spanish, Russian and British empires. Some common causes:

The paradox of empires. A paradox is something that seems to contradict itself. Empires are both:

• Uniting: they can bring political unity, as the Mauryas did to almost the whole Subcontinent, reduce wars between small kingdoms and, when well managed, bring more prosperity than many warring kingdoms.
• Fragile: they are almost always created by war and kept by force and repression, which makes them unstable over time.

Putting the period together.

Thinking like a historian. When you study any empire, ask: how was it built, what held it together, how did ordinary people live, and why did it fall apart?