Pāṭaliputra, seat of the Maurya dynasty and capital of the first Indian empire, was identified with modern Patna, Bihar (India) in the second half of the 19th century. At the end of the 18th century, Sir William Jones, a British philologist, had identified Sandrokottos of the Classical sources with Candragupta Maurya (321-298 BCE), the founder of the dynasty, making the association of Palibothra - the Greek translation for Pāṭaliputra - with the Hellenistic world very clear. The following identification of Aśoka Maurya (272-231 BCE), the famous Buddhist king, with the ruler mentioned in the pillar and stone edicts (the earliest written documents of ancient India) created a lot of expectations from the site. The Mauryan age is considered a crucial phase in the history of India: the first pan-Indian empire was established; the first written documents were produced, marking the beginning of the historic period in the region; and, for the first and only time in Indian history, unorthodox sects, such as Buddhism and Jainism, prospered and became powerful and influential minorities.

Excavations at Pāṭaliputra started in the 1890s and went on, discontinuously, until the end of the 1950s. Long stretches of two different wooden structures (a defensive wall and what appears to be a waterway) were unearthed at several sites around Patna, particularly Bulandibagh, and remains of a stone pillared building were found at the site of Kumrahar, representing the only examples of Mauryan secular architecture recovered to date. Colonial investigations, rather than collect objective archaeological data, almost exclusively focused on confirming textual evidence for the city. Explorations and excavations concentrated on identifying the defensive wooden wall reported by Megasthenes (the Seleucid ambassador who resided at the court of Candragupta Maurya in the 4th century BCE) and, in particular, on the places and monuments described by Faxian and Xuanzang (the two Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who visited India in the 5th and 7th century CE, respectively). Reports were biased towards the description of what the authors believed were the monuments outlined in the texts, rather than on the actual archaeological evidence, thus neglecting other relevant information. The last large-scale excavations were conducted in the Post-Independence period and, although these benefited from the use of more modern techniques and approaches, they are now out-dated.

A number of significant Mauryan antiquities emerged along with the structures. The famous so-called “dancers” of Bulandibagh, for instance, are refined terracotta figurines with moulded faces, handmade bodies, and appliquéd clothes, headdresses and ornaments. They are dated as Mauryan mostly on stylistic considerations. Silver punch-marked coins – representing the earliest Indian coinage – were found at different sites around Patna. The punch-marked coins retrieved were rectangular kārshāpaṇas that were minted and circulated in the ancient Magadha region (where Pāṭaliputra was located) during the Mauryan period.

There are no comprehensive publications on the Mauryan finds of Pāṭaliputra, and no complete works on its archaeology. New large-scale excavations would prove very difficult to accomplish, mostly due to the location of Pātạliputra below congested Patna. What we know about the city is mostly based on not-so reliable literary sources, and on dated and/or often inaccurate and confused excavations reports. During my time at IIAS, I will compile a catalogue of the excavated Mauryan antiquities of Pāṭaliputra, analyze them within their archaeological context, and compare them with chronologically and culturally related assemblages. This study is a follow-up to my PhD research “Mauryan Pāṭaliputra: An Assessment of the Archaeological Evidence”, which focused on the emerged structural remains.