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KALINGA UNDER THE MAURYAS
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closing years of Chandragupta Maurya's reign. That would mean that Kalinga remained an independent country during the reign period of Chandragupta Maurya. But it appears strange as to how Chandragupta could leave an unconquered Kalinga, so near the borders of the home-province, before he launched his farthest adventures. The Machiavellian statesmanship, as applied by Chāņakya, to absorb the small and big republican as well as monarchical states in the Mauryan Empire, could not have possibly omitted the conquest of Kalinga. Rather the. Maurya statesmanship should have liked to conquer Kalinga at the first instance in order to acquire an easy and direct passage into the far off South. It appears more natural on the part of the Maurya Emperor to have crushed his near neighbours first and distant and far off rulers afterwards. It is, hence, very probable that if Chandragupta was the master of the South, he must have conquered the Kalinga country also. The statement of Pliny can also be interpreted in another way. Reference to the king of Kalinga and his army does not necessarily mean that he was an independent ruler. He might have also been acting only as a Viceroy in his territory under the suzerainty of Chandragupta Maurya. Chandragupta had also the example of Poras (Puru) and Ambhi being appointed governors (Satraps) of their respective territories under the suzerainty of Alexander. F. W. Thomas” remarks "the Indian conquerors do not, for most part, displace the rulers whom they subdue." Accordingly, we may assume that
1. Cf, for instance, Saurashtra, in the reign period of Chandragupta Maurya, was under a governor, Vaishya Pushyagupta, who might have been a local ruler (Junagarh Rock Inss of Rudradaran I of Saka year 72, Line 8). Mookerji (CGMT, p. 43) holds that it may still be a kingdom', Cf. also PHAT, pp. 288f, As in British India, an Imperial State till recently, accommodated its hereditary ruling princes figuring as feuda. torles acknowledging the paramount sovereignty of the King of England.
2. CHI, Ch. XVIII, p. 473.
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