Surely the British arrived in India well after 0 AD. Not sure how an empire that disolved long before then would matter to what the British saw when they first reached India.

The Maurya Empire? Yeah right. You should thank the British for the Maurya empire. The so-called Maurya Empire was cooked up by a pseudo historian by the name of James Prinsep to instill a sense of one people for political purpose. The British at the time assumed the British empire in South Asia was forever and it was hard to rule a place when the people practically hate each other historically. This Maurya Empire thing is a way for the British to create some glue for their subjects. Called it a British duplicity if you will.