Chandragupta Maurya

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Chandragupta Maurya bigraphy, stories - Mauryan emperor

Chandragupta Maurya : biography

340 BC –

Chandragupta Maurya (340 BC – 298 BC) was the founder of the Mauryan Empire and the first emperor to unify India into one state. He ruled from 322 BC until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favour of his son Bindusara in 298 BC.William Smith (ed), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870,

Chandragupta Maurya is a pivotal figure in the history of India. Prior to his consolidation of power, most of South Asia was ruled by small states, while the Nanda Dynasty dominated the Gangetic Plains. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering and subjugating almost all of the Indian subcontinent by the end of his reign. His empire extended from Bengal and Assam in the east, to Afghanistan and Balochistan, eastern and south-east Iran in the west, to Kashmir in the north, and to the Deccan Plateau in the south. It was the largest empire yet seen in Indian history.

His mentor Chanakya knew of the threats that Alexander the Great’s army posed. So, he infiltrated Alexander’s army with Chandragupta himself being recruited as one of the soldiers. They spread word of the ferocious Indian armies, one of which Alexander had barely managed to defeat, creating the famous moment in history when Alexander’s army requested him to abandon his quest of India.

After unifying India, Chandragupta and his chief advisor Chanakya passed a series of major economic and political reforms. He established a strong central administration patterned after Chanakya’s text on politics, the Arthashastra (English: Economics and Political Science). Mauryan India was characterised by an efficient and highly organised bureaucratic structure with a large civil service. Due to its unified structure, the empire developed a strong economy, with internal and external trade thriving and agriculture flourishing. In both art and architecture, the Mauryan empire constituted a landmark. There was a growth in culture which derived its inspiration from the Achaemenids and the Hellenistic world. Chandragupta’s reign was a time of great social and religious reform in India. Buddhism and Jainism became increasingly prominent.

In foreign Greek and Latin accounts, Chandragupta is known as Sandrokottos and Androcottus. He became well known in the Hellenistic world for conquering Alexander the Great’s easternmost satrapies, and for defeating the most powerful of Alexander’s successors, Seleucus I Nicator, in battle. Chandragupta subsequently married Seleucus’s daughter to formalize an alliance and established a policy of friendship with the Hellenistic kingdoms, which stimulated India’s trade and contact with the western world. The Greek diplomat Megasthenes is an important source of Mauryan history.

Chandragupta was influenced to accept Jainism by the sage Bhadrabahu; he abdicated his throne to spend his last days at the Shravana Belgola, a famous religious site in southwest India, where he fasted to death. Along with his grandson, Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya is one of the most celebrated rulers in the history of India. He has played a crucial role in shaping the national identity of modern India, and has been lionised as a model ruler and as a national hero.

Successors

Chandragupta Maurya renounced his throne to his son, Bindusara, who became the new Mauryan Emperor. Bindusara’s son Ashoka the Great became one of the most influential kings in India’s history due to his important role in the history of Buddhism.

Early life

Very little is known about Chandragupta’s youth and ancestry. What is known is gathered from later classical Sanskrit literature, as well as classical Greek and Latin sources which refer to Chandragupta by the names "Sandracottos" or "Andracottus."Romila Thapar; Early India: From the Origins to Ad 1300. University of California Press. 2004. ISBN 978-0520242258. p. 177.

Plutarch reports that he met with Alexander the Great, probably around Takshasila in the northwest, and that he viewed the ruling Nanda Empire in a negative light: