The Mauryan Polity c6.s1.1

c6.s1.1

Elsewhere¹ has been shown how from early Vedic times the king of the ancient Hindu State was the mainspring of the polity, and this state of affairs continued to exist down to the period of the *Kauṭalīya Arthaśāstra*, if not, still later. Before we go to examine the position of the monarch in the polity of the Mauryas, and the nature and extent of authority exercised by him in this period, it will be well to survey briefly the events and circumstances, which in the epoch immediately preceding that of the Mauryas, had tended largely to contribute to the consolidation of regal power.