Empire Builders of India

Empire Builders of India About a hundred years after Ajatashatru’s demise, the Nandas became the emperors of Magadha in BCE. The first Nanda ruler was Mahapadma. It is believed that he usurped the throne by murdering the last of the Shishunaga kings. Under the Nandas, the empire expanded considerably, and the wealth and power of the Nandas became widely known and feared. Mahapadma Nanda was succeeded by his eight sons, and they were together known as the navanandas or the nine A centralised state required a new administrative framework to govern an extensive territory, the creation of a bureaucracy, resources of money and men for managing the administration and the army. A system of revenue administration had to be developed to raise the funds needed for the state through taxation. Such a political formation led to the development of cities as administrative centres, distinct from villages and rural areas. A large standing army was required for expanding and retaining the empire. XI History - Lesson - - Emergence of State and Empire East and the West, it emerged as an important centre of learning and culture. Students came from far and wide to Taxila in search of knowledge. The city was brought to light by the excavation carried out in the 1940s by Sir John Marshall. Taxila is considered “one of the greatest intellectual achievements of any ancient civilization”. Panini seems to have compiled his well-known work, Ashtadhyayi , here. Impact of Persian Contact As the north-western part of India came under the control of the Persian Empire from about middle of the sixth century, the region became a centre of confluence of Persian and Indian culture. The Persian contact left its impact on art, architecture, economy and administration of ancient India. The cultural impact was felt most in the Gandhara region. The most significant impact was the development of the Kharosthi script, used in the north- western part of India. It was used by Ashoka in his inscriptions in the Gandhara region. The Kharosthi script was derived from Aramaic used widely in the Achaemenid Empire