Literary Activity It is difficult to assign any extant Indian work definitely to the Maurya age. Three works, the Kautiliya Arthasastra, the Kalpasutra of Bhadrabahu and the Buddhist Katha v... Read more
Medium of Exchange Foreign commerce brought a large quantity of specie to India, and we have already referred to Pliny’s complaint about the drainage of Roman coins to this country. In... Read more
Games and Recreations Inscriptions of the period refer frequently to utsava and samaja, festivities and merry gatherings. Kings considered it a duty to give practical demonstration of their... Read more
Social Conditions Varna (caste) and asrama (period or stages of religious discipline), the two characteristic institutions of the Hindu social polity, reached a definite stage in the Maurya... Read more
The cost of civil and military administration even at the centre must have been enormous. The chief sources of revenue from villages mentioned in an inscription of Asoka are the bhaga and th... Read more
Forms of Government IN the period under review we have for the first time in the history of this country great empires extending from the Hindukush to the valleys of the Godavari and the Kri... Read more