Question

_______ was the capital of the Maurya Empire.
1. Magadh
2. Pataliputra
3. Nalanda
4. Takshshila

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 2 : Pataliputra

The correct answer is Pataliputra.

• Patliputra was the capital of the Mauryan Empire.
  • Age historical power in South Asia based in Magadha, founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE.
  •  The Maurya Empire was centralized by the conquest of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and its capital city was located at Pataliputra (modern Patna).
  • Outside this imperial center, the empire's geographical extent was dependent on the loyalty of military commanders who controlled the armed cities sprinkling it.
  • Pataliputra was the capital of the Mauryan empire.

• The last of the Nanda rulers, Dhana Nanda was highly unpopular due to his oppressive tax regime.
  • Also, post-Alexander’s invasion of North-Western India, that region faced a lot of unrest from foreign powers.
  • Some of these regions came under the rule of the Seleucid Dynasty, founded by Seleucus Nicator I.
    • He was one of the generals of Alexander the Great.
  • Chandragupta, with the help of an intelligent and politically astute Brahmin, Kautilya usurped the throne by defeating Dhana Nanda in 321 BC and establishing the Mauryan empire.
• The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron 
  • During Ashoka's rule (ca. 268–232 BCE) the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the Indian subcontinent excepting the deep south.
  • It declined for about 50 years after Ashoka's rule and dissolved in 185 BCE with the assassination of Brihadratha by Pushyamitra Shunga and the foundation of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha.