The Maurya Dynasty is credited to have unified the major parts of India. The Mauryan Empire was geographically extensive and the most powerful political and military empire in ancient India. On the eve of the arrival of the Mauryas in the political scenario, the entire Northwestern India was under the control of the great Macedonian king Alexander and the rest of northern India was under the oppressive Nandas. Chandragupta, the founder king of the Mauryan Dynasty appeared on the political scenario in 325 BC, with the solemn aim to make an alliance with the Macedonian power in order to overthrow the Nandas from the northern part of India. Historians from the time immemorial have provided several interpretations regarding the alliance of Chandragupta Maurya with Alexander the Great. While some historians are of the opinion that since Chandragupta was rising from an obscurity he wanted to safeguard himself from the terrifying Greeks, while the other group of historians point out that Chandragupta had the noble desire to uproot the oppressive Nandas. Since Chandragupta at that time did not have enough mercenary to encounter the formidable Nandas, he sought help of the Greeks to overthrow the Nandas. However Chandragupta was successful in overthrowing the Nandas and the alien Greeks from the Indian soil. Chandragupta Maurya is the quintessence of the Mauryan kings, who materialised the very idea of political unification of India. The Mauryan Empire extended from Magadha to the Himalayan boundaries in the north and to Assam in the east. The areas of modern Pakistan and Afghanistan were included in the territory of the Mauryans. In the south, their territory extended up to Mysore.

Administrative systems during the Mauryas were extremely planned. The entire empire was divided into four provinces with the imperial capital at Pataliputra. From the Ashokan edicts it is known that the names of the four provincial capitals are Tosali (in the east), Ujjain in the west, Suvarnagiri (in the south) and Taxila (in the north). At the helm of the provincial administration was Kumara, the royal prince, who governed the province as the king`s representative. Kumara was assisted by the mahamatyas and a council of ministers. The organisational structure of the Mauryan Government was reflected in the imperial level with the Emperor and the Council of Ministers.

During the Mauryan period, ancient India had experienced flourishing trade and commerce with the countries of South Asia. Apart from trade and commerce, agricultural productivity also was accentuated. As is recorded from the historical accounts of the contemporary era, Mauryans were the benevolent kings and during their time farmers were freed of tax and crop collection burdens from regional kings. The fair system of taxation as advised by the principles of Arthashastra led the Mauryans to earn sheer respect from the subjects. Chandragupta Maurya established a single currency across India and eradicated the gangs of pedlars, regional private armies and the powerful chieftains who tried to impose their own supremacy in the small areas. Mauryans sponsored the internal trade in India, which expanded greatly due to political unity and internal peace. Under the indo-Greek political treaty, during Ashoka`s reign, international trade network attained a thriving prosperity.

However architectural heritage of the Mauryas were not significant enough and it did not attain prosperity to the extent trade and commerce had flourished. The architectural idiom of the Mauryas is the hypostyle kind of building, which has been excavated in the Kumrahar region of Patna. As the historians have opined, Mauryan architecture is the replica of the Persian Achaemenid architecture. Since Buddhism and Jainism flourished during the Mauryan period, the contemporary architecture had an aura of these religious sects. Apart from these most widespread example of the Mauryan architecture is the rock edicts of Ashoka, spread all over the country.

However the magnificence and prosperity, which the Mauryan Empire earned during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusara and Ashoka was destined to fade during the later Mauryas. After the death of Ashoka, an impenetrable obscurity covered the history of the Mauryan Empire. As the indigenous historical accounts suggest, the Mauryan kingdom was disintegrated after the death of Ashoka and the later Mauryas were not effective to integrate the whole empire. Perhaps this is the sole cause behind the downfall of the Empire. The successors of Ashoka were more concerned in preaching Buddhism and Jainism rather than in the successful maintenance of the Empire. Hence after Ashoka, Mauryan Dynasty lost its former glory but continued reigning for 50 years after Ashoka`s death. The last Maurya King Brahadratha was killed by the chief of the Shunga coup, Pushyamitra Shunga, who established the Shunga dynasty in 185 B.C.

The Mauryan dynasty achieved huge success and prosperity in the fields of trade and commerce, architecture and sculpture and literature under the reign of the Maurya lineage of Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusara and Ashoka, the great.