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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Ashoka’s Dhamma was propagated not just for moral upliftment and social harmony but also for the extension of the state’s authority. Analyse the statement.

  • UPSC 2022
  • Mauryan Empire

Dhamma — the Prakrit rendering of Dharma — was Ashoka's distinctive answer to the problem of ruling a subcontinental empire whose peoples shared no common faith, language, or custom. Read only as an ethic of compassion born of the Kalinga War, it looks like personal renunciation; read alongside its propagation machinery — inscribed edicts, touring…

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What the full answer covers

  • The Moral and Social-Harmony Dimension
  • The Political Dimension: Dhamma as an Instrument of State
  • A Unifying Ideology for a Heterogeneous Empire
  • Administrative Reach and the Dhamma Mahamattas
  • Legitimization and Pacification
  • Extension Beyond the Formal Frontier
  • …and 1 more sections, with a conclusion

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