The Maurya Empire

The History and Legacy of Ancient India's Greatest Empire

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Colin Fluxman

During the last centuries of the first millennium BCE, most of the Mediterranean basin and the Near East were either directly or indirectly under the influence of Hellenism. The Greeks spread their ideas to Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia and attempted to unify all of the peoples of those regions under one government. Although some of the Hellenistic kingdoms proved to be powerful in their own rights -- especially Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire, which encompassed all of Mesopotamia, most of the Levant, and much of Persia during its height -- no single kingdom ever proved to be dominant. The Hellenic kingdoms battled each other for supremacy and even attempted to claim new lands, especially to the east, past the Indus River in lands that the Greeks referred to generally as India. But as the Hellenistic Greeks turned their eyes to the riches of India, a dynasty came to power that put most of the Indian subcontinent under the rule of one king.

©2017 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors

Pretty good, but performance takes you out of it

What did you like best about The Maurya Empire? What did you like least?

Good summary of the Mauryan Empire.

But the performance is very monotonous. And he pretty much mispronounce almost every name, city and other nouns. Yes these are Indian names, still there is way to say them based on their spellings among western historians. This is neither.
In fact his pronunciation would make you think that the spellings are different. He seems to add extra alphabets in some and removing them in other names.
I think he was given zero guidance on pronunciation, or didn’t care.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I could not listen to it. A consistent incorrect diction was really bad.

How could the performance have been better?

Pronunciation guidance to the reader. Or get a different reader.

Do you think The Maurya Empire needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

This is an hour summary of a dynasty.
So no need of follow up.

A Compact Review of A Vast History

This is a jam packed narrative of information. I purchased the Kindle version of this in order to study terms and spellings and do parallel reading. The subject matter is very specific to this time in Indian history and may not be of interest to some readers.

Speaking for myself, I completely enjoyed the work and found it most illuminating. Thank You...