Kalinga under the Mauryan

During the era of Chandragupta

Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...

 and Vindusara

Vindusara

Vindusara is a genus of moth in the family Geometridae.-References:*...

, Kalinga enjoyed its freedom as a separate and independent state, although it is not sure whether it was ruled by one king or as a group of kingdoms or any democratic form of government.

Ashoka

Ashoka

Ashok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...

 and Kalinga Ashok (son of Vindusara) wanted to annex Kalinga with Magadha

Magadha

Magadha formed one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas or kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganga; its first capital was Rajagriha then Pataliputra...

 for commercial reasons, although some folktales indicates that he invaded for personal reason, but primarily commercial reason is most prominent. Because Kalinga has many sea port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

s which Magadha lacks and Kalinga is between north and south part of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and main trade routes goes through it, Ashoka attacked Kalinga in 261 B.C. and an epic fight occurred between two armies near the river Daya

Daya

Daya or Compassion is a fundamental teaching of the Sikh religion and teachings can be found on DAYA. The other four qualities in the arsenal are: Truth , Contentment , Humility and Love...

. This site is now identified near Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar is the capital of the Indian state of Orissa, officially Odisha. The city has a long history of over 2000 years starting with Chedi dynasty who had Sisupalgarh near present-day Bhubaneswar as their capital...

, the capital city of Orissa

Orissa

Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

. In this battle the Kalinga army put up a brave fight with Magadha’s mighty army. Although Ashoka was winner at the end of the day, the bloodshed and human suffering changed his mind forever.

Kalinga after Kalinga war

Ashoka destroyed the old ruling structure of Kalinga and reorganized the territory.

Administration of Kalinga under Ashoka

After the war Kalinga become fifth province of Magadha empire. It seems Ashoka divided Kalinga into three sections having own headquarters.

1. Gangetic portion of Kalinga with the province of Prachi under his direct control.
2. Central Part of Kalinga empire( Macco Calingae) or Utkal, Odra(Western and central part of present Orissa) and Tosala region formed a new province with its headquarter located at Tosali near modern Dhauli.
3. Kalinga(Sothern part) formed another administrative unit with headquarter at Samapa near Jaugada

Rock edits of Ashok are found in this administrative capital. Administration of Kalinga is almost similar to other Province of Magadha except that more humanitarian value is added to the same.

Almost immediately after the death of Ashoka, Kalinga broke away from the Mauryan Empire and claimed independence. As Mauryan rule ended, with it Buddhism also ended in Kalinga and most people reverted back to the traditional practice of Jainism.