Book Review:] Majumdar, Susmita Basu. Mahasthan Record Revisited: Querying the Empire from a Regional Perspective (1st ed.). London–New York: Routledge–Taylor & Francis Group; Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2023. 111 pp., ill. (colour plates). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003405061 (ebk)

Abstract

The Mauryan Empire and its neighbouring countries still remain as a desideratum research topic because of the scarcity of authentic data. The only available sources are the edicts of King Ashoka the Great and a few other inscriptions. The paper offers a review of the recent monograph by Professor Susmita Basu Majumdar (Calcutta) on the Mahasthan inscription, which is believed to be a part of the Mauryan epigraphy. Content analysis of the Mahasthan record and comparative study of various Mauryan inscriptions and coins help to find shortcomings in Majumdar’s reconstructions. First, there is no reason to believe that the Mahasthan inscription does mention unhusked rice because the term [dhā]niyaṁ means ‘grain’ in general. Second, there is no reason to treat the Mahasthan record as an order issued by the imperial Magadha authorities and, moreover, as a kind of ‘Mauryan clay tablet’. The Mahasthan inscription mentions no Magadha authorities. One may even suggest that this record was issued by a separate polity which imitated both epigraphical documents and punch-marked coinage of the Mauryan Empire.