The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age power in South Asia with its base in Magadha. Chandragupta Maurya founded it around 320 BCE, and it existed in a loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE, with Pataliputra near present-day Patna as its capital. Through conquest and diplomacy Chandragupta defeated the Nanda dynasty and extended his suzerainty west as far as Afghanistan below the Hindu Kush and south to the northern Deccan. Under his grandson Ashoka the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the subcontinent, and the main written sources for the period are the Edicts of Ashoka and the lost history of Megasthenes.
Facts
Classification
Sovereignty StatusHistorical or Dissolved State 1 Independence or Founding Year In the Other Atlases
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Sources
1. Maurya Empire (Wikipedia)
Lead (independence-year)
Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE
Lead (sovereignty-status)
it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE
On Continent: Asia, Lead
a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia
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