Emperor Of India Chandragupta Maurya 

Emperor Of India Chandragupta Maurya Biography Chandragupta Maurya was a notable Indian emperor who lived from 340 to 298 BC. He founded the Maurya Empire, one of the most influential and extensive in the history of ancient India. Chandragupta’s rise to power was guided by the advice of his mentor, Chanakya (Kautilya), a brilliant strategist and economist.

Under Chandragupta, the Mauryan Empire flourished, encompassing a significant portion of the Indian subcontinent. He is best known for his administrative reforms, including an efficient bureaucracy and an extensive spy network. Chandragupta’s successful military campaigns expanded his empire and established the Maurya dynasty as the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent.

His reign paved the way for his grandson, Ashoka the Great, who would further elevate the Mauryan Empire and promote Buddhism throughout the region. Chandragupta Maurya’s legacy endures as a pivotal figure in ancient Indian history, renowned for his strategic prowess and contributions to early Indian government and statecraft.

Emperor Of India, Chandragupta Maurya Biography

Historical figures	Chandragupta Maurya
Empire	Magadha Empire
Ruled for	24 years
Capital	Patliputra
Religion	Jainism
Predecessor	Dhana Nanda
Successor	Bindusara

Introduction Chandragupta Maurya

The establishment of the Mauryan Empire in B.C. 324 or 323 by Chandragupta Maurya was a unique event in history, especially considering the fact that it was founded shortly after Alexander’s victorious campaigns in north-west India during B.C. 327–325.

The Greek invader, after conquering northwestern India, established a formidable foreign rule in the country, and Alexander placed his newly conquered territories under satraps whom he appointed.

The northern and eastern parts of India, with the capital Pataliputra, were under the powerful and extremely wealthy but unpopular and oppressive rule of the Nandas. The last Nanda ruler was nicknamed Dhana Nanda because of the vast treasure he amassed through excessive taxation and extortion.

The Puranas refer to him as Mahapadma Nanda or Mahapadmapati, while Greek sources refer to him as Agrammes, which has been transcribed as Ugrasena Nanda by some modern historians. Buddhist sources and the Mudrarakshasa refer to a well-known story mentioning the last king Nanda insulting the Brahman Chanakya in his court, after which Chanakya vowed to take revenge on Nanda by destroying his entire family and offspring.

To achieve his goal, he raised and groomed Chandragupta to liberate north-west India from foreign Greek rule and overthrow the Nandas of Magadha. Chandragupta Maurya, having achieved the above objectives in or around 323 BC, moved to unify other parts of the country under his rule.

Early life of Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya’s early life and origins are shrouded in mystery. The Buddhist source, Mahavamsa, describes Chandragupta as a descendant of the Morija Kshatriya clan of Pipphalivana.

A Jain tradition given in Hemchandra’s Parisista Parvan tells of Chandragupta as the son of the daughter of “the chief of the peacock tamers.”

The Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta uses the terms Vrishala and Kulahina for Chandragupta. The term Kulahina probably means that Chandragupta was a mere upstart of an unknown family.

Most Buddhist sources associate Chandragupta with the Moriya clan and describe his humble early life.

According to these accounts, Chandragupta’s father was killed in a border battle, and he was brought up by his maternal uncle. Chanakya, finding the marks of royalty in the child Chandragupta, brought him from his foster father and educated him at Taxila, which was a great center of learning.

Chandragupta’s early life and education in Taxila are indirectly attested by a reference in Greek sources that he saw Alexander as a youth during his campaign in the Punjab. And these details of Chandragupta’s early life from Pali sources also confirm the truth of Justin’s statement that he was “born in humble life”.

Reign of Chandragupta Maurya

According to the chronology of the Mauryas given in the Puranas, Chandragupta ruled for 24 years, and his reign ended either B.C. 301-300 or 298–97.

Conquest of Chandragupta Maurya

• (i) The details of Chandragupta’s conquests are not available to us. It is not even known whether he first conquered Magadha from the Nandas or overthrew Greek rule from the northwest. However, from Jain and Greek sources, it appears that Chandragupta first liberated Punjab from the Greeks. Alexander’s sudden death in distant Babylon in 323 BC, followed by the turmoil in his empire, provided Chandragupta with an ideal opportunity to deal a fatal blow to Greek rule in India. The following statement of Justin confirms the above supposition: “India, after the death of Alexander, seemed to shake the yoke of slavery from her neck and execute her governors. Sandrocottus (Chandragupta) was the architect of this liberation.”
• (ii) After freeing the North-West and the Punjab from Greek rule, Chandragupta turned his attention to the conquest of Magadha by the Nandas. Unfortunately, not many details are available about this momentous event. The Jain work Parisista Parvan describes Chanakya inducing Chandragupta to enter into an alliance with the neighboring king Parvataka, and the allied armies laid siege to Pataliputra and forced Nandas to surrender. King Nanda was spared his life and was allowed to leave Pataliputra with his family and as much treasure as he could carry in a single chariot. The Sanskrit drama Mudrarak-shasa revolves around Chanakya’s “battle of intrigue” to conquer Magadha. The Buddhist work Milinda-panho, describing the story of the war between the rival forces of the Mauryas and the Nandas, mentions that the Nanda army was led by its general Bhaddasala. In view of these conflicting accounts, it is reasonable to believe that after the defeat of the Nandas, Chandragupta crowned himself as the ruler of Magadha. He further extended his empire with new conquests, of which only a glimpse is given in the following statement of Plutarch: “Not long after Androcottus, who had by then ascended the throne, presented Seleucus with 500 elephants, and conquered and subdued all of India with an army of 600,000.” The throne in this statement refers to the sovereignty of the Punjab and the Nanda dynasty that Chandragupta acquired through his conquests.

Chandragupta Maurya’s battle with Seleucus (304 BC)

The above statement further refers to the war between Chandragupta and Seleucus, one of Alexander’s generals, who secured the Babylonian throne after Alexander’s death. In about 304-5 BC, he planned to resume the Indian conquests of Alexander. He crossed the Indus on his way along the Kabul River.

However, the expedition proved unsuccessful, and it ended with the license being granted. Under the terms of the treaty, Seleukos ceded to Chandragupta the satrapies of Arachosia (Kandahar) and Paropanisad (Kabul), along with parts of Aria (Herat) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan).

Chandragupta, for his part, cemented this alliance by gifting Seleucus with 500 war elephants. There is a suggestion by Appian that there was a matrimonial alliance between the two kings so that Seleucus became either the father-in-law or the son-in-law of Chandragupta. Seleucus further confirmed this alliance by sending Megasthenes as ambassador to the Mauryan court.

Chandragupta Maurya’s conquest of western India

Other conquests of Chandragupta in western India are known to us from circumstantial evidence.

The Girnar Rock Inscription of Rudradaman I of about 150 AD mentions the construction of a dam or reservoir for irrigation by Pushyagupta, the provincial governor of (Rashtriya) Chandragupta, over the provinces of Anarta and Saurashtra (Gujarat).

Thus, this part of western India was included in the Mauryan Empire, though there is no further evidence to show how it was annexed.

The location of Ashoka‘s rock edict at Sopara (Surparaka texts of Pali) in the modern Thane district of Maharashtra indicates that Chandragupta further extended his conquest of western India beyond Saurashtra to the Konkan, where Sopara was located.

Chandragupta Maurya’s conquest of South India

Chandragupta’s conquest of South India is first proven by the finds of Asoka’s inscriptions in South India.

Secondly, Asoka, in his Rock Edicts II and XIII, mentions his borders or immediate neighboring states like Cholas, Pandyas, Satyaputras, and Keralaputas. Since Asoka did not make any other conquests except Kalinga, nor did his father Bindusara make any victories, the conquest of South India must have been done by Chandragupta.

This assumption is further supported by unanimous Jain traditions that Chandragupta abdicated the throne in his old age and went to Sravanbelgola in Kar-Nataka with his teacher, the Jain saint Bhadrabahu. He lived at Shravanabelagola, where some local inscriptions still preserve his memory. The hill where he lived is still known as Chandragiri.

Death of Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya died of starvation, according to Jain rules, in 298 BC at Shravanabelagola in Mysore.

Conclusion

Chandragupta ruled his vast empire from the famous metropolis of Pataliputra, known to Greek and Latin writers as Palibothra, Palibotra, and Palibothra.

The care of the metropolis was entrusted to a corporation of 30 members. Greek sources, Kautilya’s Arthasashtra, etc. give a detailed account of the administration of the Maurya empire under Chandragupta, which will be discussed a little later.

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