After the decline of the Harappan civilization in India, little or no organized political system existed until the arrival of Alexander the Great. Though northwestern India was considered a part of Alexander’s empire, after his death the struggling inheritors of his lands could not pay attention to the distant reaches of India. The consolidation that had taken place gave an opportunity to a regional Indian prince, Chandragupta, to fill the power vacuum left by Alexander’s death. He came to power in 323B.C.E. and cleared the northwest regions of India of Greek troops. One of Alexander’s successors, Seleucus, reinvaded India in 305 B.C.E., but could not defeat Chandragupta’s forces. Seleucus agreed to cede the Indian lands Alexander had conquered in return for 500 war elephants. This action confirmed Chandragupta’s power and extended the reach of his control.

Once solidly in control, Chandragupta organized an efficient government machinery to oversee economic and military affairs. He kept a standing army of about one-quarter the size of his wartime conscripted army, described by a Seleucid ambassador as 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, and 9,000 elephants. He also maintained a river fleet for both the Ganges and Indus, which may have protected the coastlines as well. His reserves were in the form of “guild levies,” groups of craftsmen who trained together and were called up in time of emergency. One of history’s first political manuals was written for Chandragupta by his closest adviser, Kautilya: the Arthasastra, or Manual of Politics. Like Machiavelli’s The Prince, it spelled out the necessities for a ruler to maintain power, and included extended sections on military organization, structure, and function.

Chandragupta began the Mauryan Empire, but its greatest expansions came through his successors. His son Bindasura attacked southward and brought almost all of India under his rule, excepting only the subcontinent’s southernmost tip and the island of Ceylon. Bindasura’s son Asoka (or Ashoka) accomplished the last conquests, securing the eastern coast. Under Asoka, the Mauryan Empire was not only at its political extreme, it reached cultural heights previously unknown in India. Asoka became disgusted with the destruction caused by warfare and turned to Buddhism. He mandated the establishment of a Buddhist bureaucracy to maintain honesty in government affairs. Asoka spent his wealth on the construction of monasteries and temples and the erection of inscribed stone pillars extolling his accomplishments. He sent Buddhist missionaries to Ceylon, Burma, and Java, and stretched India’s trading empire to those distant areas.

It is difficult to know for certain how strong the Mauryan hold in India was, or if the emperors were lords to vassal nobles who exercised local power. Whatever the case, the empire did not last long after Asoka’s death in 232 B.C.E. The succeeding emperors lacked the will or vision of the first three, and local revolts coupled with a return of the Seleucids in 206 B.C.E. brought the empire down.