‘THE MAURYAN ADMINISTRATION ‘TheMauryanadministration was well-defined. Most ‘of our knowledge about Mauryan administration is derived from Megasthenes’s Indica and Chanakya’s Arthashastra, Megasthenes was sent by Scleucus Nicator as the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, He wrote of his experiences ina book called Indica. ‘The Mauryan administration was founded on the guidelines of effective and good govemance based ‘on Chanakya’s Arthashastra, The king held supreme power. He took important decisions only after consulting his ministers (mantri parishad). Since the Mauryan empire was very large, it was divided into provinces such as Suvarnagiri and Takshila. Provinces were further divided into districts, which comprised several towns or villages. Each village had a headman called the gramika. Pataliputra, the capital city, and its surrounding territories were directly administered by the emperor with the help of officials appointed by him. These officials, variously called amatyas, mahamatras and yuk collected taxes from the people. They we responsible for the administration of law and justice. The Mauryan state actively encouraged the extension of agriculture as land revenue was its main source of income. It was between ‘one-fourth and one-sixth of the total agricultural produce, Taxes were levied on providing water for irrigation. In the Arthashastra, we find a reference to udakabhaga or tax on water. The other sources of revenue were taxes on trade and crafts, forest produce, output from mines as well as fines. Iso MAURYAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE Most of the information that we have about the Mauryan period comes from the Ashokan edicts, viharas, pillars and stupas, The earliest viharas RRR excctiveocers under he Marys were rock-cut caves made during this period. Thi were carved out of granite hills. ‘The Lomas Rishi Cave at Barabar and the Nagarjuna Cave near Gaya in Bihar are still intact. Ashoka built over 84,000 stupas throughout the kingdom, of which the Sanchi stupa is one of the most famous. The highly polished monolithic pillars are a cause of wonder even today. The Ashoka Chakra is found on the Indian flag. The Mauryan ruler also built many impressive palaces. @ The carved entrance to the Lomas Rishi caves at Barabar Hills near Gaya. The caves were used by Buddhist monks, DECLINE OF THE MAURYAN EMPIRE Let us now learn about some of the to the decline of the Mauryan emp: ses that led * After Ashoka’s death in 232 ace, the Mauryan empire disintegrated mainly because the successors of Ashoka were weak. They could not efficiently manage the huge expenditure on the army or economic crisis that might have existed. ‘mahamatras: special officials appointed for purposes of administration under the Mauryas, yuktas: executive officers under the Mauryas ‘vihara: Buddhist monastery for monks and nuns stupa: semi-spherical mound containing the relics of the Buddha