RAS question
Which of the following was NOT a cause of the decline of the Maurya Empire?
Correct answer: (A) Foreign invasion by the Hunas.
Foreign invasion by the Hunas was not a cause of the decline of the Maurya Empire because Huna pressure belongs to the Gupta period, centuries after the Mauryas had ended.
Explanation
The Maurya Empire declined after Ashoka, not because of Huna invasions. The Mauryan line ended around 185 BCE, when Brihadratha was killed by Pushyamitra Sunga, after a phase marked by weak successors, financial strain and over-centralised administration. The verified eGyanKosh Gupta unit places Huna pressure much later: Skandagupta faced Huna invasion on the north-western frontier, and by the end of the 5th century CE Toramana was able to establish authority in parts of western and central India. That makes the Huna option a chronological mismatch. It belongs to the problems of the Gupta age, not to the decline of the Mauryas.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Weak successors after Ashoka are part of the accepted Mauryan decline explanation, as the post-Ashoka rulers had short reigns and the empire weakened rapidly.
- (C) Financial stress from sustaining a large imperial bureaucracy fits the stated decline pattern, since the Mauryan state carried the cost of administering a vast, centralised empire.
- (D) Ashoka's post-Kalinga turn towards dhamma-vijaya belongs to Mauryan history, so it is a plausible decline-related distractor, unlike the Huna invasions which belong to the much later Gupta period.
Concept
This tests ancient Indian chronology and the causes of imperial decline. RAS repeats such questions because candidates often mix up Mauryan, Shunga and Gupta timelines when studying large north Indian empires.