definitive aspect of the North Indian landscape, and the urban centers were
becoming increasingly autonomous city-states. Brahmans served as ministers
in the courts of “vaidika” kings. Among the results of this urban landscape
were the emphasizing of an ethic suitable for urban life and the patronage
of arts and literature. Not least important was the emergence of a new theism
complete with “high gods,” an elaborate mythology, and a ritual life focused
on the deity, often embodied iconographically in temples. Similarly,
Buddhism underwent change reflective of the era inasmuch as the Buddha
came to be regarded as a “cosmic king,” depicted anthropomorphically.
Buddhist art flourished in the form of stu ̄ pas(elaborate “memorials”). In
short, it was a period important for the development of both “vaidika” and
Buddhist life in a way that informed much of the rest of Indian history.
The context
The rise in the significance of the city was generally associated with the
rise of the Mauryan empire in the late fourth century BCE. The famed Greek
emperor Alexander the Great had come to the banks of the Indus in
326 BCEpreparing his troops for entry into Northwest India. Because of
Alexander’s death, the invasion never occurred; yet among those princes
preparing to battle Alexander was one Candragupta Maurya. Candragupta
before long had amassed the largest army on the subcontinent with
hundreds of elephants and tens of thousands of infantrymen. By either
conquering or making alliances with the princes of other city-states, he estab-
lished an empire that stretched across much of North India. Candragupta’s
grandson, As ́oka, enlarged the area of Mauryan hegemony, until after a
particularly brutal battle with the Kalin ̇ gas on the east coast he was moved
to convert to Buddhism, or, at least, to selectively appropriate the teachings
of his Buddhist mentors. Under As ́oka’s selective application of Buddhist
dhamma, the rudiments of a compassionate judicial system were imple-
mented, non-violence and vegetarianism were encouraged and various
religious sects were honored, though monasteries were patronized and
Buddhist principles favored. As ́oka came to be known by later Buddhist
kings as the model Buddhist king – he was both bodhisattvaandcakravartin
(literally, “turner of the wheel” – the Buddhist term for the emperor
who maintained stability in the state and presided over dhamma). As ́oka sent
emissaries into Persia, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. In fact, the emperor Tissa
in Sri Lanka was converted to Buddhism by a relative of As ́oka’s, and Sri
Lanka eventually became a center of Therava ̄da Buddhist culture.
With the decline of the Mauryas in 181 BCEthe sense of nationhood
dissipated and the subcontinent reverted to city-states and regional satrapies
52 The Urban Period