帝國的中心摩揭陀也是佛教的發源地，阿育王最初信奉婆羅門教，但後來信奉佛教；在羯陵伽戰爭之後，他放棄了擴張主義和侵略性，也摒棄《政事論》中強調的使用武力、密集監管、重稅、以及對反叛者的無情鎮壓。阿育王派遣兒子摩哂陀和女兒僧伽蜜多領導使團覲見斯里蘭卡國王天愛帝須（英语：Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura），國王被佛教理念所吸引，並將佛教定為國教。阿育王也向西亞、希臘和東南亞派遣了許多佛教使團，並建造修道院和學校，以及在整個帝國範圍內出版佛教文獻。據信他在印度建造了多達84000座佛塔，如桑吉寺和摩訶菩提寺，並增加了阿富汗和泰國的佛教普及度。阿育王召集印度和南亞佛教僧團在首都華氏城舉行第三次結集，期間進行了許多改革和擴展佛教宗教的工作，部分印度商人也接受了佛教，並在王朝內部發揮了重要作用[87]。
^Smith, vincent A. The Oxford History Of India Part. 1-3, Ed. 4th. Oxford University Press. 1981: 99. the only direct evidence throwing light ....is that of Jain tradition. ...it may be that he embraced Jainism towards the end of his reign. ...after much consideration I am inclined to accept the main facts as affirmed by tradition .... no alternative account exists.
^Dalrymple, William. Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2009-10-07. ISBN 978-1-4088-0341-7（英语）. It was here, in the third century BC, that the first Emperor of India, Chandragupta Maurya, embraced the Jain religion and died through a self-imposed fast to the death,......
^ 12.012.1
Dyson, Tim, A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day, Oxford University Press: 16–17, 2018, ISBN 978-0-19-882905-8 Quote: "Magadha power came to extend over the main cities and communication routes of the Ganges basin. Then, under Chandragupta Maurya (c.321–297 bce), and subsequently Ashoka his grandson, Pataliputra became the centre of the loose-knit Mauryan 'Empire' which during Ashoka's reign (c.268–232 bce) briefly had a presence throughout the main urban centres and arteries of the subcontinent, except for the extreme south."
^Seleucus I ceded the territories of Arachosia (modern Kandahar), Gedrosia (modern Balochistan), and Paropamisadae (or Gandhara). Aria (modern Herat) "has been wrongly included in the list of ceded satrapies by some scholars ... on the basis of wrong assessments of the passage of Strabo ... and a statement by Pliny" (Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee 1996, p. 594).
^John D Grainger 2014，第109頁: Seleucus "must ... have held Aria", and furthermore, his "son Antiochos was active there fifteen years later".
^
Dyson, Tim, A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day, Oxford University Press: 24, 2018, ISBN 978-0-19-882905-8 Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 BCE) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."
^"It is doubtful if, in its present shape, [the Arthashastra] is as old as the time of the first Maurya", as it probably contains layers of text ranging from Maurya times till as late as the 2nd century CE. Nonetheless, "though a comparatively late work, it may be used ... to confirm and supplement the information gleaned from earlier sources". (Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee 1996, pp. 246–247)
^Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, p.26-27 Mookerji, Radhakumud. Chandragupta Maurya and His Times. 1966 [2016-11-26]. ISBN 9788120804050. （原始内容存档于27 November 2016）.
^Arrian. Book 5. Anabasis. [2023-09-24]. （原始内容存档于2016-01-10）. Megasthenes lived with Sibyrtius, satrap of Arachosia, and often speaks of his visiting Sandracottus, the king of the Indians.
^"In the royal residences in India where the greatest of the kings of that country live, there are so many objects for admiration that neither Memnon's city of Susa with all its extravagance, nor the magnificence of Ectabana is to be compared with them. ... In the parks, tame peacocks and pheasants are kept." Aelian, Characteristics of animalsbook XIII, Chapter 18, also quoted in The Cambridge History of India, Volume 1, p411
^Romila Thapar (1961), Aśoka and the decline of the Mauryas, Volume 5, p.129, Oxford University Press. "The architectural closeness of certain buildings in Achaemenid Iran and Mauryan India have raised much comment. The royal palace at Pataliputra is the most striking example and has been compared with the palaces at Susa, Ecbatana, and Persepolis."
^"Three Greek ambassadors are known by name: Megasthenes, ambassador to Chandragupta; Deimachus, ambassador to Chandragupta's son Bindusara; and Dyonisius, whom Ptolemy Philadelphus sent to the court of Ashoka, Bindusara's son", McEvilley, p.367
^India, the Ancient Past, Burjor Avari, pp. 108–109
^Anukul Chandra Banerjee, Buddhism in comparative light, p. 24
^Beni Madhab Barua, Ishwar Nath Topa, Ashoka and his inscriptions, Volume 1, p. 171
^Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press), 46
^Dyson, Tim, A Population History of India: From the First Modern People to the Present Day, Oxford University Press: 24, 2018, ISBN 978-0-19-882905-8 Quote: "Yet Sumit Guha considers that 20 million is an upper limit. This is because the demographic growth experienced in core areas is likely to have been less than that experienced in areas that were more lightly settled in the early historic period. The position taken here is that the population in Mauryan times (320–220 bce) was between 15 and 30 million—although it may have been a little more, or it may have been a little less."
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) 開頭的梵文銘文在古文字學上的書寫風格上屬於稍晚的貴霜王朝，大約是公元2世紀[94]。
![孔雀王朝，舍利輸迦主政時期或更之後的年代，大約前207年-前194年[79]。](File:Mauryan_Empire._temp._Salisuka_or_later._Circa_207-194_BC.jpg)
![今日的柱冠[93]。](File:Sanchi_capital_right_side_view.jpg)
