An ancient Indian state, c 321-185 BC, centered at Pataliputra (modern Patna) near the junction of the Son and Ganges rivers. After Alexander the Great's death in 323 BC, Candra Gupta (Chandragupta) founded the dynasty that encompassed most of the subcontinent except for the Tamil south. He drove the Greeks out of India and established the Mauryan empire as an efficient and highly organized autocracy with a standing army and civil service. The Buddhist Mauryan emperor Ashoka (reigned c. 265-238 BC, or c. 273-232 BC) is well-known, especially from the stone edicts that he had erected throughout his realm, which are among the oldest deciphered original texts of India. The dynasty subsequently declined and was deposed by Sunga in 187 BC.