The Mauryan state, governed from the great city of Pataliputra, ran a centralised bureaucracy of provinces, districts and city superintendents, with Ashoka's rock and pillar edicts publicising royal policy across the subcontinent. Megasthenes describes a municipal board governing Pataliputra through committees for crafts, trade, taxation and the welfare of foreigners. Roads, rest-houses and a capital sustained by the Ganga underpinned imperial integration.
It established an early model of imperial urban administration and centrally directed public works in South Asia.
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