SANSKRIT IN THE MAURYA EMPIRE

 

In 326 B.C. India was faced with a crisis.  The imperial crown of Magadha and the neighbouring provinces was worn by a king who was “detested and held cheap” by his own people.  Signs of disaffection against foreign rule appeared in the Indian borderland as early as 326 B.C. when the Macedonian king was still in the Punjab.

Retribution came quickly and, if tradition is to be believed, it was a Taxilian Brahmana named Chanakya or Kautilya, who raised to power the great avenger to whose mighty arms “the earth, long harassed by outlanders, now turned for protection and refuge”.

The new Indian leader was a young man who bore the name of ChandraGupta.  The family to which this young leader belonged in named Mauraya.  According to one tradition the designation is derived from the word Mura, the mother of Grandmother of ChandraGupta, who was the wife of a Nanda king. On the other hand, the mediaeval epigraphs represent the Mauryas as Kshatriyas of the solar race.  Buddhist writers of an early date also knew them as members of Kshatriya, probably lying between Rummindei in the Napalese Tarao and Kasai in the Gorakhpur district, in the days of the Buddha.  The cognomen Vrishala applied to ChandraGupta in the Sanskrit play called MudraRakshasam .

The successor of ChandraGupta Maurya was his son BinduSara apparently called AmitraGhata, “Slayer of foes” who reigned from 300 B.C. to 273 B.C.  His reign was probably terminated in 273 B.C, Asoka the great, his successor solemnly enthroned at Pataliputra who was generally called as “Devanam priyaha”(Beloved of the Gods) and “Priyadarsanaha” (of amiable appearance).  He made an open confession of his faith in the Buddha, the Dharma (the Buddhist doctrine) and the Sangha (the Buddhist order of monks).

ArthaSastras attributed to Kautilya, the traditional minister of ChandraGupta was a treatise on polity and a detailed record of administration.  Three works, the Kautilya ArthaSastra, the KalpaSutra of BhadraBahu and the Buddhist Katha Vatthu are traditionally attributed to personages who are said to have flourished in the Maurya period.

The Grammarian knows the Pandu epic and refers to dramatic recitals and the performance of KamsaVadha (slaying of Kamsa by Krshna) and BaliBandha (binding of Bali by Vishnu in His Dwarf Incarnation.)  A main Sanskrit-grammar treatises called MahaBhashyam,  of Patanjali, SarvaVarman’s Katantram, Gunadya’s BruhatKatha, Hala’s GathaSaptaSati were  found compose in this Mauryan Era.  Some schoalrs believe that the astronomical work of Garga, the PaumaChariya of VimalaSuri, portions of the DivyaAvadhana, LalitaVistara and the SaddharmaPundarika are also to be assingned to this Mauryan Era.