What were the main features of the Mauryan administration?

 The brahmanical law-books again and again stressed that the kind should be guided by the laws laid down in the Dharamshastra and by the customs prevalent in the country. Ashoka promulgated dharma and appointed officials to inculcate and enforce its essentials throughout the country.

Assertion of royal absOlutism was a natural culmination of the policy of military conquest adopted by the princes of Magadha. Anga, Vaishali, Kashi, Kashala, Avanti, Kalinga, etc. were annexed to the Magadhan empire on by one. The military control over these areas eventually turned into coercive control of all aspects of life of the people.

 

In order to control all spheres of life the state had to maintain a vast bureaucracy. In no other period of ancient history we hear of so many officers as in Maurya times. Important functionaries were called tirthas. It seems that most functionaries were paid in cash: The highest functionaries were minister (mantrin), high priest (purohita), commander-in-chief (senapati) and crown-prince (yuvaraja), who were paid generously. If we rely on the Arthashastra of Kautilya it would appear that the state appointed 27 superintendents (adhayakshas) mostly to regulate the economic activities of the state.

 

They controlled and regulated agriculture, trade and commerce, wrights and measures, crafts such as weaving and spinning, mining and so on. The state also provided irrigation facilities a regulate water supply for the benefit of agriculturists. Megasthenes informs us that in the Maurya Empire the officials measured the land as in Egypt and inspected the channels through which water was distributed into smaller channels.

 

The location of Ashokan inscriptions on important highways suggests that Maurya control over the settled parts of the country may have matched that of the Mughals and perhaps of the East India Company. The Maurya period constitutes a landmark in the system of taxation in ancient India. Kautily a names many taxes to be collected from peasants, artisans and traders. This required strong and efficient machinery for assessment, collection and storage.

 

The growth of Magadha culminated in the emergence of the Mauryan Empire. Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the empire (c. 321 BCE), extended control as far northwest as Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and his grandson Asoka, arguably the most famous ruler of early India, conquered Kalinga (present-day Orissa).

Such a huge empire needed a strong administration, hence here are the main features of how the empire was administered.

1.  Division of empire into five major political centres- This centres were located at very strategic location for example both Taxila and Ujjayini were situated on important long-distance trade routes, while Suvarnagiri (literally, the golden mountain) was possibly important for tapping the gold mines of Karnataka.
2. Standing army- Such a diverse and vast region needed a strong army to control and protec it. Hence as Megasthenes has shown that the Mauryan had a very strong army. And he mentions six different committee with six subcommittees for coordinating military activity. Of these, one looked after the navy, the second managed transport and provisions, the third was responsible for foot-soldiers, the fourth for horses, the fifth for chariots and the sixth for elephants.

1. Appointing royal princes as the governor of the major political centres, because being a royal princes they could be trusted.
2. During Asoka, he tried to hold his empire together by propagating dhamma, the principles of which were simple and
3. virtually universally applicable. This, according to him, would ensure the well-being of people in this world and the next.
4. Strong means of communication along land and rivers were developed aso as to administer the vast empire. Among the five points we see that it was his attempts to hold the empire using dhamma as means to be most prominent theme in the inscription which were inscribed on natural stones, pollished pillars.

 

The main features of Mauryan administration were:

• There were five important political centres in the Mauryan Empire: Patliputra (the capital city) and the provincial centres of Taxila, Ujjayini, Tosali and Suvarnagiri.
• It was not possible for such a large empire to have a uniform administrative system so historians believe that the administrative control was perhaps strongest in the capital and in provincial centres.
• Communications along the land and riverine routes were developed to administer the Empire.
• The army was an important tool for not only extending the territories of the empire but also for administering them.

• Committees and sub-committees were formed for coordinating military activities. They looked after the navy, horses, chariots, elephants, recruiting soldiers and managing transport and food supplies for soldiers.
• Asoka held his Empire together by propagating the doctrine of Dhamma, whose principles were simple and universally applicable. The doctrine propagated the ideas of peace, non-violence and respect towards elders. Dhamma mahamatt as were appointed to spread the principles of Dhamma.
• The last feature of the Mauryan administration is evident in the Asokan inscriptions that we have studied. It is because Ashoka inscribed the main features of his policy of ‘dhamma’. According to the inscriptions, he had also appointed Special officers called Dhamma Mahamtras to spread Dhamma.

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