India Map 1
		India: Unification The maps below show stages in the process of Indian unfiication under the Maurya dynasty. For the pre-Maurya situation we still [2 May 02] lack a useful map. On the map below, distinguish the Indus River system (upper left, flowing generally south) and the Ganga (Ganges) River system (upper right, flowing generally east). In approximately 0318, Chandragupta Maurya conquered most north Indian states, beginning with the northwestern area into which Alexander had earlier penetrated. His home state was Magadha, at the eastern end of his domain. How much further east his own territory extended is open to doubt (see below): Later rulers continued to extend the Maurya boundaries southward. The last conquest of the third Maurya ruler Asoka was the southeastern kingdom of Kalinga: South of Kalinga were the Andhra tribes, which had been previously subjugated. The conquest of Kalinga then led to the following boundaries (here contrasted with the initial Maurya territory). Pataliputra was the Maurya capital: Notice that Ceylon continued to lie outside the Maurya domain. It was, by Asoka's own account, his conquest of Kalinga that sickened him of war, and turned him toward the Dharma (Buddhism). His further efforts in the south were missionary, not military: sending his son to transmit Buddhist doctrine to Ceylon.   All lectures and abstracts posted on this site are Copyright © by their authors.   2 May 2002 / Contact The Project / Conferences Page