1920.] The Later Mauryas. : 311 
place about 206 B.C. and we have seen that the combined 
testimony of Kalhana and Polybius leaves no reom for doubt 
that the dissolution of the empire began long before the raid of 
the Hellenistic monarch. 
What then were the primary causes of the disintegration 
of the mighty empire? There are good grounds for believing 
that the government of the outlying provinces by the Impe- 
rial officials was oppressive. Already in the time of Bindusara 
ministerial oppression had goaded the people of Taxila to 
open rebellion. The Divyavadana says (p. 371) :— 
* atha rajfio Vindusarasya Takshasila nama nagaram virud- 
dham. Tatra rajna Vindusarenasoko visarjitak..yavat kumaras 
chaturangena balakdyena Takshasilam gatah, srutva Takshasila 
nivasinak paurah pratyudgamya cha kathayanti na vayam 
umarasya viruddhah napi rajio Vindusarasya api tu dushia- 
matya asmakam paribhavam kurvante. 
Now Taxila, a city of Bindusara’s, revolted. The king 
despatched Agoka there.... while the prince was nearing Taxila 
with the fourfold army, the resident pauras of Taxila, on hear- 
ing of it .... came out to meet him and said :—“ We are not 
opposed to the prince nor even to king Bindusara. But these. 
wicked ministers insult us.” ; 
The Divydvadana is no doubt a late work, but the reality 
of ministerial oppression to which it refers is affirme 
Asoka himself in the Kalinga Edicts. Addressing the high 
officers in charge of Tosalihe says: ‘‘ All men are my ¢ ildren 
TO 
Edict it appears that official maladministration was not con- 
significant that the provincials of the North-West—the very 
people who complained of the oppression of the Dushtamatyas 
as early as the reign of Bindusara were the first to break away 
from the Maurya empire. The Magadhan successors of Asoka 
