Conversation so far:
what were the written epics of the mauryan and gupta period
There were two epics from the Mauryan and Gupta periods: the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
when was the maurya period
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power based in Magadha and founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated the Indian subcontinent between 322 and 185 BCE.

Question: how big was the empire
Self-contained rewrite: how big was the maurya empire