The map shows an empire covering a very large part of the Indian subcontinent, including significant portions of North India, Afghanistan (Kabul), and extending into the Deccan plateau, with the extreme southern tip (parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala) shown as outside the empire's boundary. This vast territorial extent, excluding only the southernmost kingdoms, is characteristic of the Mauryan Empire under Ashoka. Ashoka's empire was the largest in ancient India and extended from the Himalayas in the north to approximately Mysore in the south (excluding the Tamil kingdoms) and from the Hindukush in the northwest to Bengal in the east.