NATURE OF MAURYAN EMPIRE

NATURE of the MAURYAN EMPIRE

Many historians initially claimed that the Mauryan empire was a centralized one as all the powers were concentrated in the hands of the king. Historians like R.K. Mukherjee, Romila Thapar and others suggested that there existed a centralized pattern of administration in the Mauryan empire. According to them, the king possessed all the powers in his own hands. Ministers and officials were appointed and paid a salary by the king, which allowed greater powers to remain with the king.

However, this assumption has been challenged by Gerard Fussman, who stated that due to slow communications, it was very difficult to maintain control over different parts of the empire. The Mauryan empire was a huge empire.In the absence of fast means of communication it was very difficult for the monarch to give instructions to the officials and governors in the remote parts of his empire. In such a situation, certain freedom was given to the local governors. Fussman says that one cannot depend on the evidence given in Arthashastra as we are not sure that it was entirely a Mauryan document.

There is eveidence to suggest that certain autonomy was given to lower officials, particularly in the provinces. For example, the content and language of the inscriptions that were issued in different parts of Mauryan empire were decided by the local officials. In north western India, the local officials were given the autonomy to issue inscriptions in the local language, while in central India and South India Prakrit was used in the inscriptions. Most of the officials in South India belonged to North India.

Romila Thapar suggested that different parts of the empire like the core, the metropolis and the peripheries were administered in different ways. Thus there did not exist a uniform method of administration in the whole of Mauryan empire. While the core and the metropolis were directly administered by the state; the periphery region was given more autonomy as more importance was given to the collection of taxes and tributes from these regions.