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Block 3 -- India: Buddhism and Unification of India

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Saved by MaggieF
on February 6, 2011 at 9:02:33 pm
 

The Mauryan Family and the Unification of India

 

 

The Mauryas were the first family to unify India under one ruler.  This was a huge accomplishment because India was a very large and diverse area that covered over one million square miles.

 

Chandragupta:

 

In 315 B.C.E., India was divided into many small kingdoms controlled by different leaders.  These leaders had become weak and wasted their resources fighting amongst themselves. In the early 320's, Chandragupta Maurya noticed this and used an army of 700,000 soldiers and 9,000 elephants to overthrow the rulers of these kingdoms.  He eventually conquered all of the kingdoms of northern India and united them under his rule, creating the Mauryan empire.

 

Chandragupta was a very harsh and forceful ruler.  He was incredibly scared of his enemies, so he used a powerful army, spies, and even torture to keep his subjects in line.  However, Chandragupta also did a few things to benefit his people.  He created a strong central government, wrote laws, helped farmers make sure they had plenty of water, and built a road over 1,000 miles long to connect the parts of his empire.

 

Towards the later part of his life, he gave up all of his power.  Indian legend says that he became an ascetic (a person who has given up all worldly pleasures).  He lived in poverty and travelled with monks (simple holy men).  Meanwhile, his descendants made his empire grow larger.  By the time of his grandson, King Ashoka, it included nearly the entire Indian subcontinent.

 

 This is a map of the Mauryan Empire.  The blue area is the area conquered by Chandragupta.  The purple area was the extent of the empire at the time of Ashoka.

 

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