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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Determine the extent of the Mauryan empire.

  • UPSC 2005
  • Mauryan Empire

The Mauryan empire left behind no cartographic record of its own boundaries. What survives instead is a scatter of rock edicts, pillar edicts, and minor inscriptions, and it is their findspots, read region by region, that let the empire's extent be reconstructed.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • The Northwest: Afghanistan as the Outer Limit
  • The North: Gandhara to Garhwal
  • The West: Saurashtra under Direct Rule
  • The East: Kalinga After Conquest
  • The South: Reach Without the Far South

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