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Mauryan empire
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Side-by-side historical maps of the Indian subcontinent. The left map shows India around 500 BC with major kingdoms and regions labeled, such as Kamboja, Gandhara, Magadha, and Avanti. The right map depicts Ashoka's empire at its greatest extent around 250 BC, shaded in purple, covering much of northern, central, and eastern India, with marked sites of Ashokan rock and pillar edicts and the probable boundary of the empire. Chandragupta Ashokan pillar
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Side-by-side historical maps of the Indian subcontinent. The left map shows India around 500 BC with major kingdoms and regions labeled, such as Kamboja, Gandhara, Magadha, and Avanti. The right map depicts Ashoka's empire at its greatest extent around 250 BC, shaded in purple, covering much of northern, central, and eastern India, with marked sites of Ashokan rock and pillar edicts and the probable boundary of the empire.
Ashoka's empire c. 250 bce (Left) India c. 500 bce and (right) Ashoka's empire at its greatest extent, c. 250 bce.

Mauryan empire

ancient state, India
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Mauryan empire, in ancient India, a state centred at Pataliputra (later Patna) near the junction of the Son and Ganges (Ganga) rivers. It lasted from about 321 to 185 bce and was the first empire to encompass most of the Indian subcontinent. The Mauryan empire was an efficient and highly organized autocracy with a standing army and civil service. That bureaucracy and its operation were the model for the Artha-shastra (“The Science of Material Gain”),...

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