THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRESonly in the frontier provinces of the empire and not at its centre. Three were
found in the northwest (Shahbazgarhi, Mansehra and Kandahar), two in the
west (Girnar and Sopara), two in the south (Erragudi and Sannathi), two in
the east (Dhauli and Jaugada), and one at the border between the central
region and the northwestern province at Kalsi. It is also important to note
that ten small rock edicts form a cluster in the southern province and that a
good number of pillar inscriptions are concentrated in the central part of the
empire and in the upper Ganga-Yamuna Doab. Moreover, the region around
the provincial capital of Ujjain once must have formed another cluster,
although only fragments of a pillar at Sanchi with Ashoka’s famous ‘schism
edict’ and the newly discovered minor rock edict of Panguraria have
survived. This high incidence of inscriptions in certain main parts of the
empire and on the frontiers contrasts with the vast ‘empty’ space of the
interior of the subcontinent where no inscriptions have been found which
can be attributed to Ashoka.
Of course, it is not impossible that some may be still discovered but
after more than a century of intensive research in this field it seems highly
unlikely that the regional pattern mentioned above would have to be
completely revised. This means that large parts of present Maharashtra
and Andhra Pradesh as well as Kerala and Tamil Nadu were not actually
included in the Maurya empire.
South of the Vindhya mountains the Mauryas mainly controlled the
coastal areas and some of the interior near present Mysore which they
probably coveted because of the gold which was found there (Suvarnagiri
means ‘gold mountain’). For the empire it was essential to control the
major trade routes. Most important was certainly the northern route which
led from Pataliputra through the Gangetic plain and the Panjab to
Afghanistan. Another led from Pataliputra west via Kausambi and then
along the northern slope of the Vindhya mountains via Vidisha (Sanchi)
and Ujjain to the port of Bharukacha (Broach). There was a further route
from there along the west coast to the area of present Bombay where the
great rock edicts of Sopara were found. Southern parts could be reached
along the east coast or via a central route from Ujjain via Pratishthana
(Paithan near Aurangabad) to Suvarnagiri. The northern portion of this
route—at least up to Ujjain—had been known since the late Vedic period
as Dakshinapatha (southern route). Large areas of the interior were
inhabited by tribes which had not been defeated. The inscriptions explicitly
mention such undefeated (avijita) neighbours and forest tribes (atavi)
inside the empire, and one gets the impression that Ashoka regarded these
tribes as the most dangerous enemies of his empire.
This revision of the spatial extension of the Maurya empire nevertheless
does not detract from its ‘All-India’ dimensions and that it marked the
apex of the process of state formation which had started in the sixth
century BC. The hub of the empire remained the old region of the major