Why is the post Mauryan period regarded as the apogee of early historic urbanism?

 The period between 200 BC and 300 AD was one of urban prosperity all over the subcontinent.Indeed it can be said to represent the apogee of early historic urbanism. Cities that arose in the sixth century BC primarily in the Gangetic valley and the Malwa region now flourished. Moreover, new towns came into being and city life spread to new regions as well, such as Kashmir, Sindh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Orissa, Andhra, Karnataka and the deep south.

Cities in this period not only show extensive construction activity, complex burnt brick buildings, well laid out streets and drains, and fortification walls but the adoption of new techniques like the use of tiles in flooring and roofing. There is also abundant evidence from the urban centres of the presence of coinage, a range of sophisticated artifacts like fine pottery, beads and terracottas, and of a population that engaged in a variety of urban occupations.

A list of the thriving cities of this period includes Rajagriha, Pataliputra, Varanasi, Shravasti, Kaushambi, Mathura, Hastinapura, Ayodhya, Ujjayini, Pratishthana, and new towns like Sirkap, Sirsukh and Shaikhan (north-west), Hushkapura and Kanishkapura (Kashmir), Purushapura, Jaugada and Shishupalagarh (Orissa), Bairat and Nagari (Rajasthan), Kaundinyanagara and Bhogavardhana (Maharashtra), Nagarajunakonda and Amaravati (Andhra).

Why urbanism flourished in this period?

1. The expansion of agriculture

• texts like the Jatakas, Milindapanho and Manusmriti convey a picture of thriving cultivation on privately or individually owned plots of land in this period.
• In fact the earliest inscriptional evidence of royal land grants comes from the Satavahana kingdom (Maharashtra) from the first century BC and then again from the second century AD.
• Royal land grants carried certain privileges for the donee like exemption from tax (akaradayi) and freedom from entry of royal troops (apraveshya). 
• Land grants began to be endowed in perpetuity, known as the akshaya nivi land tenure, under the Kushanas.
• This meant that the right to enjoy the produce of the land passed from generation to generation of the donee.

2.Crafts production, money economy and trade.

• The post-Mauryan economic scene was the remarkable growth in crafts production. Both texts and donative inscriptions from stupa sites like Sanchi, Bharhut and Mathura indicate proliferation and a high degree of specialization of crafts-based occupations. The Mahavastu lists 36 kinds in Rajagriha alone and the Milindapanho enumerates as many as 75.
• craftspersons and traders were organized into guilds (shreni, nigama) and the post-Mauryan period saw a considerable increase in their number and the scale of their activities.The Jatakas refer to 18 guilds.

 3.money economy

• A large number and variety of coins were in circulation in this period. These included coins issued by royal dynasties, ganas (non-monarchical regimes), shrenis and city administrations. They were made of gold (dinara), silver (purana), copper (karshapana) (the Kushanas issued a large number of coppers), lead, potin, nickel, etc. The range of metallic denominations shows that transactions at different levels – high value to small scale – were now being carried out in cash.

4. trade:(What is the significance of the long distance trade between the Indian subcontinent and foreign lands that flourished in the post Mauryan period?)

• The post-Mauryan period saw trade activity, both internal and external, overland and maritime, acquire full-blown proportions. Literary sources mention various items involved in trade within the subcontinent – cotton textiles from the east, west and far south, steel weapons from the west, horses and camels from the north-west, elephants from the east and south, and so on. Cities were renowned for particular merchandise, like the silk, muslin and sandalwood of Varanasi, and cotton textiles of Kashi, Madurai and Kanchi.
• Goods traveled up and down long distances connecting market towns by an intricate web of land and riverine routes that crisscrossed the subcontinent. For instance, the Uttarapatha was the major transregional route of north India, joining Taxila in the north-west with Tamralipti on the east coast via Mathura, Vaishali, Shravasti and Pataliputra.
• The Dakshinapatha started from Pataliputra and went up to Pratishthana and from there to ports on the west coast. Another route ran from Mathura to Ujjayini and on to Mahishmati, on the one hand, and Bhrigukaccha and Sopara, on the other. Many routes then went further south.  
• The subcontinent's internal trade networks were integrally linked up with its transcontinental commercial interactions – with central and west Asia, south-east Asia, China and the Mediterranean

India's external trade consisted of two kinds: 

• Terminal trade and Transit trade. 
• Terminal trade was in merchandise manufactured in India and exported to other shores, or imported for sale in India's internal markets; either way, India was a terminus.
• Transit trade involved such commodities that originated in and were destined for other lands and only passed through the subcontinent; India functioned as an entrepot. 

 Trade Routes and major places:

• The chief stimulus for India's transit trade was the demand for Chinese silk in the western world. The famous overland Great Silk Route from China to the Mediterranean passed through the northern frontiers of the Kushana empire – Kashmir and north Afghanistan, touching the cities of Purushapura, Pushkalavati and Taxila. 
• Later, due to instability in the central Asian region, a part of this trade was diverted south further into India, and then from the Indian ports on the west coast, like Bhrigukaccha, Kalyana and Sopara, it traveled on to the Roman empire via the Persian Gulf. This maritime route was facilitated by the south-west monsoonal winds. (India also had independent trade with China, exporting pearls, glass and perfumes and importing silk.)

Imports and Exports:

• The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and Sangam texts tell us that there was brisk commerce between first century BC and second century AD in spices, muslin and pearls that the Romans imported from India. In return the Romans, described as yavanas, exported to India wine and certain kinds of jars known as amphorae and a ceramic type named Arretine ware.
•  it was Roman gold and silver that poured into the subcontinent as a result of the balance of trade being favourable to India. Pliny, the first century Roman historian, complains of the drain of gold to India.

sea voyages 

• . The Jatakas and the Milindapanho refer to traders undertaking difficult sea voyages to Suvarnadvipa (Malaysia and Indonesia) and Suvarnabhumi (Myanmar). 
• Archaeological discoveries in this region corroborate interaction. Imports from south-east Asia to India included gold, tin, spices like cinnamon and cloves, sandalwood and camphor. Exports from India were cotton textiles, sugar, valuable beads and pottery.

It is important and interesting to note that social and cultural exchange went hand in hand with India's commercial contacts with the world. As we have seen, the north-west of the subcontinent was a cultural crossroads that witnessed the commingling of Greek, Persian and Mongol populations and traditions with the Indian.