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Administration, economy, society and decline

मराठीत स्पष्टीकरण

The Mauryan empire · Part 3 / 3 · Fact-checked on 8 November 2026 · how we check

Written with AI from the sources listed at the bottom of this page, then fact-checked by a separate AI.

How the Mauryas governed: the saptanga state, the council, superintendents, the samaharta and sannidhata, spies and the two kinds of courts; provinces under princes and the officers of districts and villages; Megasthenes' six boards; land, taxes, crafts, guilds, coins and trade routes; the seven classes of Megasthenes; the later Mauryas, Pushyamitra Shunga and the explanations of the decline; and the Mauryan legacy in the State Emblem and the national flag.

Each idea is explained first in Marathi (मराठी), ending with the English and Hindi exam terms, followed by the same point in exam English. UPSC Prelims is in English or Hindi, so understand it in Marathi and revise it in English.

आतापर्यंत मौर्य राजांची गोष्ट पाहिली; आता ते कोणत्या यंत्रणेद्वारे राज्य करत होते ते पाहू. एवढ्या मोठ्या साम्राज्यासाठी अधिकारी, कर, रस्ते लागतात. याचे तीन प्रकारचे पुरावे: अर्थशास्त्र 'राजाने असे राज्य करावे' सांगणारा ग्रंथ — बांधलेले घर नव्हे, घराचा आराखडा; मेगॅस्थिनीज म्हणजे परदेशी राजदूताने पाहिलेले; अशोकाचे लेख म्हणजे खरे आदेश. (→ English: Arthashastra · Megasthenes · हिन्दी: अर्थशास्त्र · मेगस्थनीज़)

In exam EnglishParts 1 and 2 followed the Mauryan kings; this part looks at the machinery they ruled through and at how it came apart. Governing a realm that reached from Kandahar to Karnataka needed officials, revenue and roads on a scale India had not known before. Three kinds of evidence describe that machinery, and they do not always agree. The Arthashastra sets out how a king ought to govern, so it gives an ideal rather than a record. Megasthenes reports what a foreign envoy saw, or believed he saw, at Pataliputra. Ashoka's edicts name real officers and real orders. The part moves from the king and his ministers to the provinces and villages, then to taxes, trade and society, and ends with the fall of the dynasty and what it left behind.

अर्थशास्त्र राज्याला सात अवयवांचे शरीर मानते — हाच सप्तांग सिद्धांत: राजा, मंत्री, प्रदेश व प्रजा, किल्ला, खजिना, सैन्य, मित्रराष्ट्र. एक अवयव कमजोर झाला तरी शरीर अडखळते ना. राजा पुढे, पण मंत्रिपरिषदेचा सल्ला घेऊनच निर्णय घ्यावा. जेवत असतानाही प्रजेच्या बातम्या आपल्यापर्यंत पोहोचाव्यात, असा अशोकाचा आदेश होता. (→ English: Arthashastra · saptanga · mantriparishad · हिन्दी: अर्थशास्त्र · सप्तांग · मंत्रिपरिषद)

In exam EnglishAt the centre stood the king. The Arthashastra describes the state as a body with seven limbs, the saptanga theory: the king (swami), the ministers (amatya), the territory and its people (janapada), the fortified capital (durga), the treasury (kosha), the army or power to punish (danda) and the ally (mitra). The king is the first limb, but the treatise expects him to consult a council of ministers (mantriparishad) and a small circle of trusted advisers before he acts. Ashoka's edicts confirm that a council (parisa) existed. Major Rock Edict VI shows how closely the king meant to follow public business: reporters (pativedakas) were to bring him news of the people at any time and wherever he was, even while he was eating. Mauryan rule was personal and centralised, yet it rested on a large body of salaried officers.

अर्थशास्त्रात प्रत्येक कामासाठी एक खाते, प्रत्येक खात्यावर एक अध्यक्ष — व्यापार, वजन-मापे, खाणी, जंगले, विणकाम... असे. सर्व उत्पन्न गोळा करणारा समाहर्ता; खजिना आणि धान्यकोठारे सांभाळणारा सन्निधाता. घरात एकजण कमावून आणतो आणि दुसरा कपाटाची किल्ली सांभाळतो तसे. पगारसुद्धा पणांत लिहिलेले आहेत. (→ English: Arthashastra · adhyaksha · samaharta · sannidhata · हिन्दी: अर्थशास्त्र · अध्यक्ष · समाहर्ता · सन्निधाता)

In exam EnglishThe Arthashastra fills its pages with departments, each under a superintendent (adhyaksha). It names superintendents of trade, of weights and measures, of agriculture on crown land, of mines, of shipping, of tolls, of forests, of weaving and of liquor, among many others. Two great officers stand above the revenue system. The samaharta was the chief collector, answerable for income from every source, and the sannidhata was the treasurer and keeper of stores, who built and ran the treasury and the granaries. The treatise even fixes salaries in silver panas: 48,000 panas a year for the highest office-holders, such as the chief minister, the royal priest, the commander of the army and the crown prince. The plan shows how much of economic life the state hoped to manage.

अर्थशास्त्रात हेर संन्यासी, विद्यार्थी, व्यापारी अशा वेषांत फिरतात. न्यायासाठी दोन प्रकारची न्यायालये: धर्मस्थीय — कर्ज, लग्न, मालमत्तेचे वाद (आजच्या दिवाणी खटल्यांसारखे); कंटकशोधन — 'काटे काढणे', म्हणजे गुन्हे (फौजदारी खटल्यांसारखे). शिक्षा कठोर. अशोकाने हे थोडे मवाळ केले: रज्जुकांना स्वतंत्र अधिकार, सर्वांना एकच पद्धत, फाशीची शिक्षा झालेल्यांना तीन दिवसांची मुदत. (→ English: Arthashastra · dharmasthiya · kantakashodhana · rajuka · हिन्दी: अर्थशास्त्र · धर्मस्थीय · कंटकशोधन · रज्जुक)

In exam EnglishA large secret service watched officials and subjects alike. The Arthashastra describes spies (gudhapurusha) disguised as ascetics, students, householders or traders; some were posted in one place and others kept moving. Justice was handled by two kinds of courts. Dharmasthiya courts heard disputes between people, over contracts, debts, marriage or inheritance, while kantakashodhana courts, literally the courts for 'removing thorns', dealt with crimes and threats to public order. The punishments in the treatise are harsh, from fines to mutilation and death. Ashoka softened this system without taking it apart. Pillar Edict IV gives the rajukas independence in judging and punishing, asks that procedure and penalties be the same for all, and allows three days' respite to prisoners sentenced to death, so that their relatives could plead for them or the prisoners could prepare for the next world.

एवढे मोठे राज्य फक्त पाटलिपुत्रातून चालवता येत नव्हते. मगधाभोवती राजा थेट राज्य करत असे; बाकीचे प्रांतांत विभागले: वायव्येला तक्षशिला, पश्चिमेला उज्जैन, कलिंगात तोसली, दक्षिणेला सुवर्णगिरी. मोठ्या कौटुंबिक व्यवसायात प्रत्येक गावची शाखा एकेक मुलगा सांभाळतो तसे — इथे राजपुत्र (कुमार, आर्यपुत्र) राजप्रतिनिधी. ब्रह्मगिरी, सिद्धापूरचे लेख सुवर्णगिरीहूनच काढलेले आहेत. (→ English: Taxila · Ujjain · Tosali · Suvarnagiri · aryaputra · हिन्दी: तक्षशिला · उज्जैन · तोसली · सुवर्णगिरि · आर्यपुत्र)

In exam EnglishThe empire was too large to be governed from Pataliputra alone. The lands around Magadha were ruled directly, and the rest was divided into provinces, each with its own capital. Ashoka's inscriptions name four of these: Taxila in the northwest, Ujjain in the west, Tosali in Kalinga, and Suvarnagiri in the south, whose exact site is still uncertain. Princes of the royal house (kumaras or aryaputras) governed them as viceroys, as Ashoka himself had done at Taxila and Ujjain. The Separate Kalinga Edicts mention the princes at Ujjain and Taxila sending officers out on inspection tours, and the minor rock edicts at Brahmagiri and Siddapur in Karnataka are issued from Suvarnagiri in the name of the aryaputra and the mahamattas there. Princes at the provincial capitals were the threads that tied the distant regions to the court.

प्रांतांखाली जिल्हे आणि गावे. युक्त, रज्जुक, प्रादेशिक यांनी दर पाच वर्षांनी दौरा करून नेहमीच्या कामासोबत धम्माचीही शिकवण द्यावी, असा अशोकाचा आदेश. रज्जुक हे नाव शेत मोजायच्या दोरीवरून (रज्जू) — आजचा भूमापक आठवतो ना. वरिष्ठ अधिकारी महामात्र; अशोकाने नवे धम्म महामात्र नेमले. गावात गावप्रमुख (ग्रामिक); पाच-दहा गावांचा हिशोब गोप ठेवतो. (→ English: dhamma · dhamma mahamatta · rajuka · gramika · हिन्दी: धम्म · धम्म महामात्र · रज्जुक · ग्रामिक)

In exam EnglishBelow the provinces came districts and villages. Major Rock Edict III orders the yuktas, rajukas and pradeshikas to go on tour every five years, to teach dhamma as well as to do their ordinary work. The rajukas, whose title is linked with the rope (rajju) used to measure fields, seem to have been senior rural officers who also judged cases; the pradeshikas were probably in charge of districts; and the yuktas were junior officers who kept accounts and records. Mahamatta was a general word for a high officer at any level, and Ashoka added a new kind, the dhamma mahamatta. In the village the headman (gramika) looked after local affairs. The Arthashastra adds the gopa, who kept the records of a group of five or ten villages, and the sthanika, who supervised a quarter of a district.

मेगॅस्थिनीजनुसार पाटलिपुत्र शहर 30 अधिकारी, पाच-पाचांच्या सहा मंडळांत चालवत: कारागिरी, परदेशी लोक, जन्म-मृत्यू नोंद, व्यापार-वजनमापे, तयार मालाची विक्री, विक्रीवर दहावा हिस्सा कर. आजच्या नगरपालिकेच्या वेगवेगळ्या समित्यांसारखे. सैन्यासाठीही अशीच सहा मंडळे. पण अर्थशास्त्रात ही मंडळे नाहीत — एकच नगराध्यक्ष (नागरक) आहे. (→ English: Arthashastra · Megasthenes · nagaraka · हिन्दी: अर्थशास्त्र · मेगस्थनीज़ · नागरक)

In exam EnglishMegasthenes paints a tidier picture of the capital. He says Pataliputra was run by thirty officers divided into six boards of five members each. One board looked after the industrial arts, a second cared for foreigners, a third registered births and deaths, a fourth supervised trade and the weights and measures, a fifth oversaw the sale of manufactured goods, and a sixth collected a tax of one-tenth on the price of goods sold. The army, he says, was managed in the same way, by six boards of five dealing with the navy, transport and supplies, the infantry, the cavalry, the chariots and the elephants. The Arthashastra knows nothing of these boards and places a single city superintendent (nagaraka) over the capital, one reason historians handle the boards with care.

Megasthenes' six boards of five
Board	City of Pataliputra	Army
1	Industrial arts	Navy
2	Care of foreigners	Transport and supplies
3	Registration of births and deaths	Infantry
4	Trade, weights and measures	Cavalry
5	Sale of manufactured goods	Chariots
6	Tax of one-tenth on sales	Elephants

उत्पन्नाचा मुख्य आधार जमीन. अर्थशास्त्रात राजाची स्वतःची जमीन 'सीता'; सामान्य शेतकऱ्यांची जमीन वेगळी. मुख्य कर 'भाग' — पिकातला राजाचा वाटा, साधारण सहावा हिस्सा (मेगॅस्थिनीज चौथा हिस्सा म्हणतो). त्यावर 'बली' नावाचा आणखी एक कर आणि पाणीपट्टी. अशोक लुंबिनीला गेला तेव्हा त्याने त्या गावाचा बली माफ केला आणि भाग आठव्या हिश्शावर आणला — तीर्थक्षेत्राला दिलेल्या करसवलतीसारखे. (→ English: Arthashastra · sita · bhaga · bali · Rummindei · हिन्दी: अर्थशास्त्र · सीता · भाग · बलि · रुम्मिनदेई)

In exam EnglishLand was the main source of the state's income. The Arthashastra separates crown land (sita), farmed under the superintendent of agriculture with hired workers and convicts or given out to sharecroppers, from land held by ordinary cultivators. The chief tax was the king's share of the harvest (bhaga), normally one-sixth in the treatise, though Megasthenes reports that farmers paid a quarter. On top of it came bali, a further levy whose exact nature is debated, and a charge for water from state irrigation works. The Rummindei pillar shows these taxes in practice: when Ashoka visited Lumbini, the Buddha's birthplace, he made the village free of bali and reduced its bhaga to one-eighth. The state also built and repaired irrigation works, as the Sudarshana lake in Saurashtra, met in Part 1, makes clear.

राज्य फक्त कर गोळा करत नव्हते, स्वतः उत्पादन आणि व्यापारही करत होते: खाणी, मीठ, शस्त्रे राजाच्या ताब्यात; सरकारी विणकाम केंद्रे. खासगी कारागीर आणि व्यापारी श्रेणी नावाच्या संघांत असत — आजच्या व्यापारी संघटनेसारखे, स्वतःचे नियम, स्वतःचे प्रमुख. व्यवहारासाठी चांदीची आहत नाणी (कार्षापण, पण) वापरत. तक्षशिलेपासून पाटलिपुत्रमार्गे ताम्रलिप्तीपर्यंत उत्तरापथ, दख्खनकडे दक्षिणापथ. (→ English: Arthashastra · shreni (guild) · punch-marked coins · uttarapatha · हिन्दी: अर्थशास्त्र · श्रेणी · आहत सिक्के · उत्तरापथ)

In exam EnglishThe state was a producer and trader as well as a tax collector. The Arthashastra keeps mines, salt and the making of weapons under royal control, runs state workshops for spinning and weaving, and wants forests guarded for their timber and elephants. Private crafts were organised in guilds (shreni (guild)) of artisans and merchants, each with its own rules and headmen. Payments were made in silver punch-marked coins, called karshapanas or panas, and in copper coins, and the treatise names a superintendent of the mint (lakshanadhyaksha). Merchants travelled the great northern route (uttarapatha), which ran from Taxila across the Ganga plain to Pataliputra and on towards the port of Tamralipti in Bengal, while the southern route (dakshinapatha) led into the Deccan. Northern Black Polished Ware, the glossy pottery of the age, spread along these roads.

मेगॅस्थिनीजने भारतीयांचे सात वर्ग केले: तत्त्वज्ञ, शेतकरी, पशुपालक-शिकारी, कारागीर, सैनिक, निरीक्षक, सल्लागार. हे चार वर्ण नव्हेत — परदेशी प्रवाशाने व्यवसायावरून केलेली विभागणी, गावातल्या लोकांची 'कोण काय काम करतो' अशी मोजणी केल्यासारखी. 'भारतात दास नव्हते' हे चुकीचे; अर्थशास्त्रात दासांचे नियम आहेत. राजसेवेत स्त्रिया — अंगरक्षक, हेर, विणकाम करणाऱ्या. (→ English: varna · Arthashastra · seven classes · dasa · हिन्दी: वर्ण · अर्थशास्त्र · सात वर्ग · दास)

In exam EnglishMegasthenes divided the people of India into seven classes: philosophers, farmers, herders and hunters, artisans, soldiers, overseers who reported to the king, and councillors who advised him and filled the high offices. These seven classes are not the four varnas; they are groups sorted by occupation, the way a foreign visitor saw them. He was also wrong to say that India had no slaves, since the Arthashastra lays down rules for slaves (dasa), and Ashoka's edicts ask for proper treatment of slaves and servants (dasa-bhataka). Women appear in royal service as well: the treatise speaks of armed women guarding the king and of women working as spies and as spinners in state workshops, and Major Rock Edict XII mentions mahamattas who looked after the affairs of women.

अशोक साधारण इ.स.पू. 232 मध्ये वारल्यानंतर साम्राज्य फार काळ टिकले नाही. नातू दशरथाने नागार्जुनी टेकड्यांतील गुहा आजीविकांना दिल्या; दुसरा नातू संप्रती जैन धर्माचा आश्रयदाता. घराण्याच्या शाखांनी वेगवेगळे प्रदेश वाटून घेतले — वडिलोपार्जित मालमत्ता भावांनी वाटून घेतल्यासारखे. शेवटचा राजा बृहद्रथ सैन्याची पाहणी करत असताना त्याचाच सेनापती पुष्यमित्र शुंग याने साधारण इ.स.पू. 185 मध्ये त्याला ठार केले; शुंग वंश आला. (→ English: Brihadratha · Pushyamitra Shunga · later Mauryas · हिन्दी: बृहद्रथ · पुष्यमित्र शुंग · परवर्ती मौर्य)

In exam EnglishAshoka died around 232 BCE, and the empire did not long outlive him. The later Mauryas are known mainly from king-lists that do not agree with one another. Dasharatha, a grandson of Ashoka, gave caves in the Nagarjuni hills of Bihar to the Ajivikas and, like Ashoka, called himself Devanampiya in the inscriptions there. Jain tradition remembers another grandson, Samprati, as a great patron of Jainism. Different branches of the family seem to have held different regions, and Kalhana's Rajatarangini names Jalauka, a son of Ashoka, as a ruler of Kashmir. Greek kings from Bactria began to push into the northwest. The last Mauryan king, Brihadratha, was killed around 185 BCE by his own commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga, while the king was reviewing the army, as Bana's Harshacharita tells it, and the Shunga dynasty took over Magadha.

साम्राज्य का कोसळले याला एकच कारण पुरेसे नाही: ब्राह्मण प्रतिक्रिया (हरप्रसाद शास्त्री), अशोकाच्या शांतताधोरणाने सैन्य कमजोर झाले (रायचौधुरी), राजाभोवतीच फिरणारे प्रशासन (रोमिला थापर), पैशांची चणचण — हिणकस आहत नाणी (कोसंबी). प्रत्येक मतात त्रुटी आहे. पण वारसा टिकला: सारनाथचे सिंहशीर्ष 26 जानेवारी 1950 रोजी राजमुद्रा; त्यातले 24 आऱ्यांचे चक्र आपल्या राष्ट्रध्वजाच्या मध्यभागी. (→ English: punch-marked coins · State Emblem · Sarnath lion capital · हिन्दी: आहत सिक्के · राजचिह्न · सारनाथ सिंह-शीर्ष)

In exam EnglishNo single explanation of the fall satisfies historians. Haraprasad Shastri saw a Brahmanical reaction against Ashoka's pro-Buddhist policy, yet Ashoka honoured Brahmanas and all sects. H. C. Raychaudhuri blamed Ashoka's pacifism for weakening the army, yet Ashoka kept his army, and the end came half a century later. Romila Thapar points to a government so centred on the king that it worked only under able rulers, and D. D. Kosambi read money trouble in debased later punch-marked coins. The legacy outlasted the dynasty. The lion capital of Ashoka's pillar at Sarnath became the State Emblem of India on 26 January 1950, with Satyameva Jayate from the Mundaka Upanishad beneath it, and its 24-spoked wheel sits at the centre of the national flag adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 July 1947.

Why did the Mauryan empire fall? Four explanations
Historian	Explanation	Main objection
Haraprasad Shastri	Brahmanical reaction to Ashoka's pro-Buddhist policy	Ashoka respected Brahmanas and all sects
H. C. Raychaudhuri	Ashoka's pacifism weakened the army	Ashoka kept his army; the fall came about 50 years later
Romila Thapar	Over-centralised government that needed able kings	Explains weakness, not the exact timing
D. D. Kosambi	Financial strain, seen in debased later coins	Coin evidence is limited and hard to date

Exam traps

The Arthashastra describes how a king should rule; it is a treatise, not a record that every rule was practised. Megasthenes survives only in quotations by later writers.
Samaharta = chief collector of revenue; sannidhata = treasurer and keeper of stores. Do not swap them.
Dharmasthiya courts heard civil disputes; kantakashodhana ('removing thorns') courts dealt with crimes.
The six boards of five for Pataliputra (and six more for the army) come from Megasthenes, not from the Arthashastra, which has a single city superintendent (nagaraka).
Bhaga is usually one-sixth in the Arthashastra, a quarter in Megasthenes; at Lumbini Ashoka cut it to one-eighth and removed bali.
Megasthenes' seven classes are occupational groups seen by a foreigner, not the four varnas; his claim that India had no slaves is wrong.
Brihadratha, the last Mauryan, was killed by his own commander Pushyamitra Shunga about 185 BCE, not by a foreign invader.
The State Emblem comes from the Sarnath lion capital (adopted 26 January 1950); Satyameva Jayate is from the Mundaka Upanishad, not from an Ashokan edict.

Recap

Three sources: the Arthashastra (an ideal), Megasthenes (an outsider's view, second-hand) and Ashoka's edicts (real orders).
Saptanga: king, ministers, territory, fort, treasury, army, ally; the king consulted a mantriparishad (parisa in the edicts).
Adhyakshas ran departments; samaharta collected revenue, sannidhata kept the treasury; top salary 48,000 panas.
Spies in disguise; dharmasthiya (civil) and kantakashodhana (criminal) courts; Pillar Edict IV: rajukas, equal justice, three days' respite.
Provincial capitals: Taxila, Ujjain, Tosali, Suvarnagiri, under princes (kumaras, aryaputras).
Yuktas, rajukas, pradeshikas toured every five years (Major Rock Edict III); gramika, gopa and sthanika lower down.
Megasthenes: six boards of five for the city and six for the army.
Taxes: bhaga (usually one-sixth), bali and water charges; Lumbini freed of bali, bhaga cut to one-eighth.
Ashoka died about 232 BCE; Brihadratha killed by Pushyamitra Shunga about 185 BCE; Sarnath lion capital is the State Emblem.

Practice questions

Q1. In the Arthashastra, the samaharta was the officer responsible for

collecting revenue from all sources
keeping the treasury and the granaries
running the network of spies
commanding the royal army

Show answer

Answer: A. collecting revenue from all sources

Answer (a). The samaharta was the chief collector of revenue. Keeping the treasury and stores (b) was the sannidhata's work; spies (c) and the army (d) were separate charges, not the samaharta's.

Q2. Consider the following statements about Megasthenes' account of Pataliputra:
1. The city was run by six boards, each of five members.
2. One of the boards registered births and deaths.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

Show answer

Answer: C. Both 1 and 2

Answer (c). Megasthenes describes thirty city officers in six boards of five, and the third board registered births and deaths. Options (a) and (b) each drop a true statement, and (d) rejects both.

Q3. The Rummindei pillar inscription of Ashoka records that the village of Lumbini was

freed from bali and made to pay only one-eighth as bhaga
freed from all taxes for ever
made the capital of a new province
handed over to the Buddhist sangha as crown land

Show answer

Answer: A. freed from bali and made to pay only one-eighth as bhaga

Answer (a). Ashoka removed bali and reduced the bhaga to one-eighth. It was not freed from every tax (b), since a share was still paid; Lumbini was not a provincial capital (c); and the edict says nothing of giving it to the sangha (d).

Q4. Match the Mauryan provincial capitals with their regions:
A. Taxila 1. Kalinga
B. Ujjain 2. The northwest
C. Tosali 3. The south
D. Suvarnagiri 4. The west (Avanti)
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3
A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2

Show answer

Answer: A. A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3

Answer (a). Taxila was the northwestern capital, Ujjain the western, Tosali the capital in Kalinga and Suvarnagiri the southern. Option (b) puts Ujjain in Kalinga, (c) swaps Taxila and Ujjain, and (d) swaps Taxila and Suvarnagiri.

Q5. Consider the following statements:
1. Megasthenes divided Indian society into seven classes.
2. Megasthenes' seven classes correspond to the four varnas and their sub-groups.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

Show answer

Answer: A. 1 only

Answer (a). Statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 is wrong: the seven classes are occupational groups seen by a foreign observer, not the varna order. So (b) and (c) fail because they accept statement 2, and (d) rejects the true statement 1.

Q6. In the Arthashastra, kantakashodhana courts dealt mainly with

crimes and threats to public order
disputes over contracts, marriage and inheritance
disputes among Buddhist monks
appeals against the king's own orders

Show answer

Answer: A. crimes and threats to public order

Answer (a). Kantakashodhana, 'removing thorns', meant criminal justice. Contracts, marriage and inheritance (b) went to the dharmasthiya courts; monastic disputes (c) were the sangha's own concern, addressed by Ashoka's schism edicts, not by these courts; and no court is described as hearing appeals against the king (d).

Q7. Which of the following pairs of historians and their explanations of the Mauryan decline is/are correctly matched?
1. Haraprasad Shastri : Brahmanical reaction to Ashoka's policies
2. H. C. Raychaudhuri : Ashoka's pacifism weakened the army
3. Romila Thapar : an over-centralised government dependent on the king
Select the correct answer using the code given below:

1 and 2 only
2 and 3 only
1 and 3 only
1, 2 and 3

Show answer

Answer: D. 1, 2 and 3

Answer (d). All three pairs are correct. Each of (a), (b) and (c) leaves out one correctly matched pair.

Q8. Consider the following statements:
1. The State Emblem of India is adapted from the lion capital of Ashoka at Sarnath.
2. The words Satyameva Jayate below the emblem are taken from an Ashokan edict.
3. The wheel at the centre of the national flag has 24 spokes.
Which of the statements given above are correct?

1 and 2 only
1 and 3 only
2 and 3 only
1, 2 and 3

Show answer

Answer: B. 1 and 3 only

Answer (b). Statements 1 and 3 are correct. Statement 2 is wrong: Satyameva Jayate comes from the Mundaka Upanishad, not from an edict. So (a), (c) and (d), which all include statement 2, are wrong.

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Sources

Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (Ministry of Culture): material on Mauryan administration, economy, society and art — https://ccrtindia.gov.in
Archaeological Survey of India: site notes on the Ashokan edicts (Brahmagiri, Siddapur, Dhauli, Jaugada, Rummindei), the Nagarjuni hill caves and the Sarnath lion capital, and the texts in the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. I — https://asi.nic.in
State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005; Constituent Assembly Debates, 22 July 1947 (resolution on the National Flag) — https://www.indiacode.nic.in