The Mauryan Polity c4.1

c4.1

The accompanying pages are an amplification of five lectures delivered at the University in 1929-30. The main sources of information are the Kauṭalīya Arthaśāstra, the inscriptions of Aśoka and the fragments of Megasthenes. In the first chapter will be found a critical examination of their authenticity and their value as sources to the history of Mauryan India. I have come to the conclusion that the extant Arthaśāstra is the accredited work of the chancellor of Candragupta Maurya. The inscriptions of Aśoka follow, to a large extent, this all important treatise. Though the fragments of Megasthenes could not be credited with much trustworthiness, they are used as supplementing the primary sources.