The Home of the Mauryas

Summary

In this study the author re‑examines the vexed question of the original homeland of the Maurya dynasty, which produced great rulers such as Chandragupta Maurya and Aśoka. Traditional accounts in Buddhist and Jaina texts locate the Moriya (Maurya) tribe at Pipphalivana near the Himalayas, whereas some Puranic lists and later chroniclers associate them with eastern Uttar Pradesh or the Nepalese Tarai. The article surveys these textual references and evaluates the arguments of earlier scholars. It notes that the appellation ‘Maurya’ may have been derived from the clan totem of a peacock (mayūra), suggesting a tribal origin in forested regions. The author examines Greek sources, including Megasthenes and Pliny, which describe Pataliputra as the capital of Sandrakottus (Chandragupta), and proposes that the Mauryas may have been connected with the Nandas of Magadha. He argues that the dynasty’s rapid rise to power implies that they already possessed a strong territorial base, possibly located in the western part of the Indo‑Gangetic plain. Examining archaeological evidence such as punch‑marked coins and material culture, the article suggests that the Mauryas could have originated in the region of Kurukṣetra and the upper Yamuna, where the later Śiśunāga and Nanda dynasties had influence. The author also considers the possibility of connections with north‑western clans, citing similarities between Maurya administrative institutions and those of the Achaemenids. By analysing linguistic evidence, the article notes that early Prakrit inscriptions of Aśoka show affinities with dialects spoken in the eastern Ganges valley, which may indicate that the dynasty shifted eastward after consolidating power. The study thus emphasises that the ‘home’ of the Mauryas should not be seen as a fixed point but rather as a region within which the clan expanded before establishing their imperial capital at Pataliputra. The author concludes that current evidence favours a western or north‑western origin, possibly in the Punjab or Haryana area, from which the Mauryas migrated eastward. This conclusion challenges earlier assumptions that the dynasty was purely Magadhan and highlights the need for further archaeological exploration in the western Indo‑Gangetic regions.