A Greek Visitor and a King's Handbook: Two Accounts of Maurya India
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A Greek Visitor and a King's Handbook: Two Accounts of Maurya India
Compare two sources that disagree, then test them against other evidence.
Background
Read the background. Then answer the questions.
From the Indus Cities to Pataliputra
1Ancient India's first cities, such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, grew in the Indus Valley between about 2600 and 1900 BCE. Their planned streets, covered drains and matching weights show careful organization. Their writing, however, still cannot be read, so no written account from the Indus cities tells us how they were governed.
2Many centuries later, about 321 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya founded an empire that came to rule most of northern India. Its capital was Pataliputra, on the Ganges River, near today's city of Patna. His grandson Ashoka, who ruled from about 268 to 232 BCE, had messages carved on rocks and pillars across the empire, mostly in a script called Brahmi.
3Indian scholars kept building on earlier learning. In 499 CE, during the Gupta Empire, the mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata, who worked near Pataliputra, finished a book that explained that Earth spins on its axis. It also gave a rule for circles: a circle 20,000 units across measures about 62,832 units around.
4For Chandragupta's time, historians lean on two very different written sources, shown below. Each has problems, so historians compare the two with each other and with other evidence.
1.
Use paragraph 3. Divide the distance around by the distance across.
By Aryabhata's rule, the distance around a circle is about times the distance across it.
Two accounts
Read each source note and account. Then answer the questions.
Source note for Account A: Megasthenes was a Greek ambassador sent by King Seleucus I to Chandragupta's court. He lived at Pataliputra around 300 BCE and wrote a book about India. The book is lost. We know parts of it only because later writers, such as Strabo (about 20 CE) and Arrian (about 130 CE), quoted or summarized it. In the Greek cities Megasthenes knew, many enslaved people were bought and sold in markets.
Account A (adapted from translations of Strabo and Arrian, summarizing Megasthenes)
Pataliputra stands where the Ganges meets another river. The city is about 9 miles long and almost 2 miles wide. It is surrounded by a wooden wall with openings for archers to shoot through, with 570 towers and 64 gates, and a deep ditch runs in front of it.
The city is run by six boards of officials, with five members on each. One board looks after visitors from foreign lands. Another keeps a record of births and deaths, so that taxes can be collected and the government knows how many people there are. Another collects a tax of one-tenth of the price of goods that are sold.
All Indians are free, and not one of them is a slave. They have no written laws. They do not even know how to write, and they settle everything from memory. Theft is very rare among them.
Source note for Account B: The Arthashastra is a handbook on how a king should rule. Tradition says it was written by Kautilya, also called Chanakya, Chandragupta's chief adviser. Many historians think it was added to and revised over the next few centuries, so not every rule in it may date from his time. It tells how things should be done, not what someone saw.
Account B (adapted from a translation of the Arthashastra)
The king shall appoint a governor of the city. Under him, record keepers shall write down how many people live in each house, what work they do, and what they earn and spend.
Royal orders shall be written down clearly, in well-chosen words and in good order. The writer of royal orders must know the customs of the land, write a good hand and read well.
Goods that merchants bring into the city to be sold shall be weighed at the city gate, and the toll collector shall take a share of their value as a tax. The share is different for different kinds of goods.
A person who sells a free child to become a dasa, a servant owned by a master, shall be fined. A dasa may keep money he earns, and he may buy his freedom by paying back the price for which he was bought.
More evidence • About 260–250 BCE: Ashoka's messages are carved in the Brahmi script on rocks and pillars across the empire. • Early 1900s: Under modern Patna, archaeologists dig up long lines of thick wooden posts from an ancient city wall. • Seals from the Indus cities carry a script that no one can read today.
2.
Based on the source notes, which statement is true of both accounts?
3.
Use the source note for Account A. Add the years before and after year 1.
Strabo wrote about years after Megasthenes lived at Pataliputra.
4.
Use only the two accounts. Is each statement found in both accounts, only in Account A, or only in Account B?
5.
On which two topics do the accounts most clearly disagree?
6.
Account A says Indians do not know how to write, yet it also says a board keeps a record of births and deaths. What does this suggest?
7.
Which item in the "More evidence" box best helps test Account A's claim that people in the Maurya Empire did not know how to write?
8.
Which evidence best corroborates Account A's description of the city wall?
9.
Use the source note for Account A and Account B. What best explains why Megasthenes may have written that no Indian was a slave?
Weigh the sources
Use the background, both accounts and the evidence box.
10.
The Arthashastra tells how things should be done. What is a limit of using it as evidence of daily life in Pataliputra?
11.
Claim: Account A is more useful than Account B for learning about Pataliputra in Chandragupta's time. Do you agree, disagree or partly agree? Use at least one detail from each account and one item from the "More evidence" box, and explain your reasoning.