Alexander the Great conquered parts of northwest India in the 4th century BCE. One of his key battles was against King Porus, who he defeated but allowed to remain ruler. Alexander's army later refused to march further into India. In the 3rd century BCE, Chandragupta Maurya defeated the Nanda Empire and established the Mauryan Dynasty. His advisor Chanakya helped him defeat the Seleucids and expand the empire. Chandragupta's son Bindusara further expanded the empire, and his son Ashoka eventually conquered most of South Asia. After a bloody battle, Ashoka embraced Buddhism and spread its teachings through edicts, stupas, and missionaries. He established a vast empire and

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=3vH_VszU1d8

5. • Alexander attacked North- western India and defeated a
number of republican states in 326 BCE.
• The most famous battle was with Porus. Porus was
defeated , but Alexander returned the kingdom to Porus.
• Later he wanted to advance to Magadha, but his army
refused to fight anymore as they were homesick and tired
of fighting.
• Before leaving, he appointed governors in India to look
after the conquered territories.
• On his way back, Alexander died of an illness at Babylon
in 323 BCE.

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IOhAd-atxI

7. • He was the founder of Mauryan Dynasty in India.
• He was an ambitious and intelligent person with exceptional military
abilities.
• In 321 BCE, he overthrew the Nandas and became the emperor of
Magadha.
• He was helped and guided by his advisor Chankya,(also known as
• Kautilya) who was a wise Brahman Scholar.
• After ascending the throne, Chandragupta turned his attention to
Punjab, western and North Western India.
• He defeated Seleucus Nicator, the Greek governor appointed by
alexander. Thus he feed north India from Greek control.
• Chandragupta conquered many territories in the South, stretching his
empire beyond Vindyas up to the Deccan.
• Towards the end of his life, Chandragupta became a Jain monk and gave
up the throne to his son Bindusara.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IOhAd-atxI

9.  He succeeded his father in 298
BCE.
 He extended his empire as far
as modern day Karnataka.
 he died in 273 BCE and was
succeeded by his son Ashoka.

10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-xJIZb08f0

11. • Popularly referred as Ashoka, the great.
Under his rule, the Mauryan Dynasty
reached the height of its glory.
• When Ashoka ascended the throne in 273
BCE, he concentrated on expanding his
kingdom.
• But, after the war of Kalinga, he gave up
war completely in favor of peace and non
violence.
• He was the first king in ancient India to
give up war and proclaim peace.

12. Now, lets read about his transformation- page 75
• The bloodshed in Kalinga deeply broke him, he gave up war
and became a Buddhist.

13. ASHOKA AND BUDDHISM
• Deeply influenced by principles of non violence,
compassion and peace.
• He never forced it on his subjects
• Respected all religions equally.
• Ashoka send his son Mahendra and daughter
Sanghamitra to Srilanka to spread the message
of Buddhism.
• He also sent number of learnt scholars to far-off
places to spread Buddhism.
• He built a number of stupas and viharas for
Buddhist monks.

14. Ashoka’s Dhamma was a code of conduct inspired by the teachings of the
Buddha. The main principles of Ashoka’s dhamma were as follows:
• People should be peaceful and tolerant and live in harmony.
• Everyone should follow ahimsa or non violence and non injury towards
all living things.
• People should love another and respect all religions.
• People should be truthful, kind and generous towards all.
• People should obey elders and elders should treat children with
understanding.
Ashoka strictly followed the principles of dhamma. As a part of
dhamma, he planted trees along the roads for shade, dug wells, built rest
houses and constructed hospitals for humans and animals. He appointed
special officers called Dhamma mahamatras to spread and enforce the
principles of Dhamma throughout his empire.

15. ASHOKAN EDICTS
• First Indian ruler who spoke to his people through edicts.
• Edicts are royal orders or proclamations.
• Ashoka’s edicts were inscribed on stone pillars, rock
boulders and caves.
• We get most of the information about Ashoka through his
edicts.
• In these edicts Ashoka is being referred to as Piyadasi
meaning “Blessed by the gods” and Ashoka refers to his
people as his children.
• The edicts contains orders and messages about Ashoka's
dhamma, his efforts to spread Buddhism and the welfare
measures he undertook for his people.

17. • It was based on the guidelines for a good government laid
down in Chanakya’s Arthashatra.
• The administration was centralized and the king has the
supreme power.
• A council of ministers called mantrin Parishad advised the king
on important issues.
• The government divided into different departments which
were looked after by officials appointed by the king .
• Officials such as mahamatras looked after the day to day
affairs of the government.
• The kingdom was divided into provinces which were under
the control of royal princes or kumaras.
• The provinces were divided into districts.
• Each district had many nagaras (towns) and gramas(villages).

19. • There were officials at every level of administration
who collected taxes, worked as judges and kept
records.
• The tax money was used for building and
maintaining roads, wells, rest houses, irrigation
projects and the army.
• There was an espionage system and the spies
informed the king about what was going on inside
and outside his kingdom.
• The Mauryans had a large, well equipped standing
army which included infantry, cavalry, elephants,
chariots and a navy.

21. It was the capital of Mauryan empire.
Large, impressive, magnificent walled city
with several gates and towers.
The king’s palace was made of stone while
the house of the people were made of
brick and wood.
The city administration was looked after
by a group of 30 officials divided into six
committees, each supervising a special
department.

23. Indian art and architecture reached a new height
under the Mauryas.
To spread the message of Buddhism, Ashoka built
many stupas, pillars and viharas.
The highly polished monolithic pillars containing
Ashokan edicts are still marveled by the modern
people.
The Ashokan pillar at Sarnath contains the lion capital
which consists of four lions seated back to back and
supporting the wheel of dharma known as the Ashoka
chakra.
An elephant , a horse, a bull and a lion are found on
the abacus of the capital.
The lion capital has been adopted as the national
emblem of India.
The Ashoka chakra is also found on the Indian flag.

25. • He constructed many stupas and
viharas.
• The most well known stupa is the
Sanchi Stupa at Sarnath. It contains
four gateways which are richly
carved. These carvings consists of
animal figures and tales from Jatakas.

26. • A Vihara is a Buddhist monastery for monks and nuns.
• The earliest were rock cut caves made during Mauryan
times.

28. Ashoka died in 232 BCE. After his death the Mauryan
empire gradually began to decline. The reasons for
decline of Mauryan Empire are-
1.His successors were weak and could not control a
large empire.
2.As communication to the far lying territories were
difficult, they were isolated. Gradually they broke
away from the kingdom.
3.Enough taxes could nit be collected to maintain a
proper army.
4.Attacks from the North – west weakened the empire.