The Mauryan Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical large power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary sources for the written records of the Mauryan times are partial records of the lost history of Megasthenes in Roman texts of several centuries later; and the Edicts of Ashoka. Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW).

Sources

Historical Image
A Pre-Mauryan to early-Mauryan terracotta statuette from Buxar, Bihar, ca. 4th century BCE (Bihar Museum, Arch. 6650).

The primary sources for the written records of the Mauryan times are partial records of the lost history of Megasthenes in Roman texts of several centuries later; and the Edicts of Ashoka, which were first read in the modern era by James Prinsep after he had deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts in 1838. The Arthashastra, a work first discovered in the early 20th century, and previously attributed to a Kautilya, who was mistakenly identified with Chanakya, is now thought to be composed by multiple authors in the first centuries of the common era, has lost its value as a source for Mauryan times, as it describes post-Mauryan customs.