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MAURYA FRONTIER IN THE NORTH-WEST 307 opens a new era-an era of peace, of social progress, of religious propaganda and at the same time of political stagnation and, perhaps, of military inefficiency during which the martial spirit of imperial Magadha was dying out for want of exercise. The era of military conquest or Digvijayal was over, the era of spiritual conquest or Dhamma-vijaya was about to begin.
We should pause here to give an account of the extent of Asoka's dominions and the manner in which they were administered before the Emperor embarked on a new policy.
Asoka mentions Magadba, Pāțaliputra, Khalatikapavata (Barābar Hills ), Kosambi, Luṁmini-gāma, Kalinga (including Tosali, Samāpā and Khepimgalapavata or the Jaugarda Rock), Atavi (the forest tract of Mid-India perhaps identical with Alavi of the Buddhist texts), Suvarnagiri, Isila, Ujjayini and Takshasilā expressly as being among those places which were under his rule.
Beyond Takshasilā the empire stretched as far as the confines of the realm of “Amtiyako Yonarūjā," usually identified with Antiochos II Theos of Syria (261246 B. C.), and included the wide territory round Shāhbāzgarhi ? and Mānsahra 3 inhabited by the Yonas, Kambojas and the Gandhāras. The exact situation of this Yona territory has not yet been determined. The Mahāvainsa evidently refers to it and its chief city Alasanda which Cunningham and Geiger identify with the town of Alexandria ( Begram, west of Kāpiša )
1 Cf. sara-sake vijaye (Bühler, cited in Hultzsch's Inscriptions of Asoka, p. 25).
2 In the Peshawar District. 3 In the Hazāra District.
