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| | Encyclopedia: Middle kingdoms of India (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07) |
 | | By around 500 BC, most of northern India was inhabited and had been brought under cultivation, facilitating the increasing knowledge of the use of iron implements, including ox-drawn plows, and spurred by the growing population that provided voluntary and forced labor. |
 | | The capital was a city of magnificent palaces, temples, a university, a library, gardens, and parks, as reported by Megasthenes, the third-century BC Greek historian and ambassador to the Mauryan court. |
 | | Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, ruled from 269 to 232 BC and was one of India's most illustrious rulers. |
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