Historical background with Janapadas in northern India. Beginning of Iron Age kingdoms in India—
Kuru,
Panchala,
Kosala,
Videha. Around 350 BCE Magadha, ruled by the
Nanda dynasty, emerged as the dominant power after a "process of internecine warfare" between the
janapadas.
Alexander the Great entered the Northwest Indian subcontinent in his
Indian campaign, which he aborted in 325 BCE due to a mutiny caused by the prospect of facing another large empire, presumably the
Nanda Empire, and before Chandragupta came into power. Alexander left India, and assigned the northwestern (Indus Valley) Indian subcontinent territories to Greek governors. He died in 323 BCE in Babylon, whereafter war broke out between his generals.
Early life Family background There is no historical information on Chandragupta's youth. One medieval commentator states Chandragupta to be the son of one of the Nanda's wives with the name Mura. Other narratives describe Mura as a concubine of the king. Another Sanskrit dramatic text
Mudrarakshasa uses the terms
Vrishala and
Kula-Hina (meaning - "not descending from a recognized clan or family") to describe Chandragupta. The word
Vrishala has two meanings: one is the
son of a shudra; the other means the
best of kings. A later commentator used the former interpretation to posit that Chandragupta had a Shudra background. However, historian
Radha Kumud Mukherjee opposed this theory, and stated that the word should be interpreted as "the best of kings". The same drama also refers to Chandragupta as someone of humble origin, like Justin. According to the 11th-century texts of the
Kashmiri Hindu tradition –
Kathasaritsagara and
Brihat-Katha-Manjari – the Nanda lineage was very short. Chandragupta was a son of Purva-Nanda, the older Nanda based in Ayodhya. The common theme in the Hindu sources is that Chandragupta came from a humble background and with Chanakya, he emerged as a dharmic king loved by his subjects.
Chanakya was
Chanakya, with whom he studied as a child and with whose counsel he built the Empire. This image is a 1915 attempt at depicting Chanakya. Legends about
Chanakya couple him to Chandragupta, acting as his mentor and spiritual teacher, complementing the image of a
chakravartin. According to the Digambara legend by Hemachandra, Chanakya was a Jain layperson and a Brahmin. When Chanakya was born, Jain monks prophesied that Chanakya will one day grow up to help make someone an emperor and will be the power behind the throne. Chanakya believed in the prophecy and fulfilled it by agreeing to help the daughter of a peacock-breeding community chief deliver a baby boy. In exchange, he asked the mother to give up the boy and let him adopt him at a later date. The Jain Brahmin then went about making money through magic, and returned later to claim young Chandragupta, whom he taught and trained. Together, they recruited soldiers and attacked the
Nanda Empire. Eventually, they won and proclaimed Patliputra as their capital. The Buddhist and Hindu legends present different versions of how Chandragupta met
Chanakya. Broadly, they mention young Chandragupta creating a mock game of a royal court that he and his shepherd friends played near
Vinjha forest. Chanakya saw him give orders to the others, bought him from the hunter, and adopted Chandragupta. Chanakya taught and admitted him in
Taxila to study the Vedas, military arts, law, and other shastras. According to the Buddhist legend, Chanakya was chosen as president of the
samgha which administered the
Danasala, a charity foundation, but was dismissed by Dhana Nanda due to his ugliness and manners. Chanaky cursed the king, fled Pataliputra, and then met Chandragupta.
Rise to power Unrest and warfare in the Punjab The Roman historian
Justin (2nd Century CE) states, in
Epit. 15.4.12-13, that after Alexander's death, Greek governors in India were assassinated, liberating the people of Greek rule. This revolt led by Chandragupta, who in turn established an oppressive regime himself "after taking the throne": Raychaudhuri states that, according to Justin
Epitome 15.4.18–19, Chandragupta organized an army. He notes that early translators interpreted Justin's original expression as "body of robbers", but states Raychaudhuri, the original expression used by Justin may mean mercenary soldier, hunter, or robber. Mookerji refers to McCrindle as stating that "robbers" refers to the people of the Punjab, "kingless people." Mookerju further quotes Rhys Davids, who states that "it was from the Punjab that Chandragupta recruited the nucleus of the force with which he besieged and conquered Dhana-Nanda." The nature of early relationship between these governors and Chandragupta is unknown. According to Habib & Jha, Justin mentions Chandragupta as a rival of the Alexander's successors in north-western India.
Alain Daniélou further explains: According to Mookerji, the Buddhist text
Mahavamsa Tika describes how Chandragupta and Chanakya raised an army by recruiting soldiers from many places after the former completed his education at Taxila, to resist the Greeks. Chanakya made Chandragupta the leader of the army. The Digambara Jain text
Parishishtaparvan states that this army was raised by Chanakya with coins he minted and an alliance formed with Parvataka. According to Nath Sen, Chandragupta recruited and annexed local
military republics such as the
Yaudheyas that had resisted Alexander's Empire. The chronology and dating of Chandragupta's activities in the Punjab is uncertain. This may be either before or after he took the Nanda-throne. The defeat of the Greeks is dated by Mookerji at 323 BCE; Jansari dates the arrival of Chandragupta in the Punjab at c. 317, in line with the chronology of Greek history.
Offense of the Nanda-king and flight According to
Justin, Chandragupta offended the Nanda king ("Nandrum" or "Nandrus") who ordered his execution. Mookerji quotes Justin as stating Justin narrates two miraculous incidents as omens and portents of Sandracottus (Chandragupta) fate. In the first incident, when Chandragupta was asleep after having escaped from Nandrum, a big lion came up to him, licked him, and then left. In the second incident, when Chandragupta was readying for war with Alexander's generals, a huge wild elephant approached him and offered itself to be his steed. The
Mudrarakshasa states that Chanakya felt insulted by the king, whereafter he swore to destroy the Nanda dynasty. The Jain version states that it was the Nanda king who was publicly insulted by Chanakya. In either case, Chanakya fled, found Chandragupta, and started a war against the Nanda king.
War against the Nandas and seizure of Pataliputra According to Mookerji,
after defeating the Greeks, the army of Chandragupta and Chanakya revolted against the unpopular Nandas and conquered the Nanda outer territories, and then advanced on Pataliputra, the capital city of the Nanda Empire, which according to Mookerji they conquered deploying
guerrilla warfare methods with the help of mercenaries from conquered areas. With the defeat of Dhana Nanda, Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire. The Buddhist
Mahavamsa Tika and Jain
Parishishtaparvan records Chandragupta's army unsuccessfully attacking the Nanda capital. Chandragupta and Chanakya then began a campaign at the frontier of the Nanda empire, gradually conquering various territories on their way to the Nanda capital. He then refined his strategy by establishing garrisons in the conquered territories, and finally besieged the Nanda capital Pataliputra. There
Dhana Nanda accepted defeat. In contrast to the easy victory in Buddhist sources, the Hindu and Jain texts state that the campaign was bitterly fought because the Nanda dynasty had a powerful and well-trained army. These legends state that the Nanda emperor was defeated, deposed and exiled by some accounts, while Buddhist accounts claim he was killed. Historically reliable details of Chandragupta's campaign into Pataliputra are unavailable and the legends written centuries later are inconsistent. While his victory, and ascension of the throne, is usually dated at c. 322–319 BCE, which would put his war in the Punjab after his ascension, an ascension "between c. 311–305 BCE" is also possible, placing his activity in the Punjab at c. 317 BCE. The conquest was fictionalised in
Mudrarakshasa, in which Chandragupta is said to have acquired
Punjab, and then allied with a local king named Parvatka under the Chanakya's advice, where-after they advanced on Pataliputra. In contrast to the easy victory of Buddhist sources, the Hindu and Jain texts state that the campaign was bitterly fought because the Nanda dynasty had a powerful and well-trained army.Greco-Roman writer
Plutarch stated, in his
Life of Alexander, that the Nanda king was so unpopular that had Alexander tried, he could have easily conquered India. Buddhist texts such as
Milindapanha claim Magadha was ruled by the Nanda dynasty, which, with Chanakya's counsel, Chandragupta conquered to restore
dhamma. Legends narrate that the Nanda emperor was defeated, but was allowed to leave Pataliputra alive with a
chariot full of items his family needed. The Jain sources attest that his daughter fell in
love at first sight with Chandragupta and married him.Though daughter is not named the source later name mother of Chandragupta's son as
Durdhara.
Dynastic marriage-alliance with Seleucus According to Appian,
Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander's Macedonian generals who in 312 BCE established the
Seleucid Empire with its capital at
Babylon, brought Persia and
Bactria under his own authority, putting his eastern front facing the empire of Chandragupta. Somewhere between 305 and 303 BCE Seleucus and Chandragupta confronted each other, Seleucus intending to retake the former satrapies each of the Indus. Yet, Seleucus Nicator and Chandragupta formed a dynastic marriage-alliance, Seleucus receiving five hundred elephants, and Chandragupta gaining control over the regions bordering at the east on the Indus.
Strabo, in his
Geographica, XV, 2.9 composed about 300 years after Chandragupta's death, describes a number of tribes living along the Indus, and then states that "The Indians occupy [in part] some of the countries situated along the Indus, which formerly belonged to the Persians." The exact extent of the acquired territories is unknown. A modest interpretation limits the extension to the western Indus Valley, including the coast of eastern
Gedrosia (
Balochistan) up to the Malan mountain raing (Hingol river), the Punjab, and the eastern part of
Paropamisadae (
Gandhara).
Arachosia (
Kandahar, present-day Afghanistan), is a possibility, while Aria (present-day Herat, Afghanistan) is also often mentioned, but rejected by contemporary scholarship. Tarn, writing in 1922, and Coningham and Young, have questioned the inclusion of eastern Afghanistan (Kabul-Kandahar), Coningham and Young noting that "a growing number of researchers would now agree that the Ashokan edicts may have represented 'an area of maximum contact rather than streamlined bureaucratic control'." Coningham & Young also question the extent of control over the lower Indus Valley, following Thapar, noting that this may have been an area of peripheral control.
Raymond Allchin also notes the absence of major cities in the lower Indus valley. The details of the engagement treaty are also not known. Since the extensive sources available on Seleucus never mention an Indian princess, it is thought that Chandragupta himself or his son Bindusara marrying a Seleucid princess, in accordance with contemporary Greek practices to form dynastic alliances. The Mahavamsa states that Chandragupta married a daughter of Seleucus not long after the latter's defeat. As well, an Indian
Puranic source, the
Pratisarga Parva of the
Bhavishya Purana, described the marriage of Chandragupta with a Greek ("
Yavana") princess, daughter of Seleucus. Chandragupta sent 500
war elephants to Seleucus, which played a key role in Seleucus' victory at the
Battle of Ipsus. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched
Megasthenes as an ambassador to Chandragupta's court, and later
Antiochos sent
Deimakos to his son Bindusara at the Maurya court at Patna.
Megasthenes served as a Greek ambassador in his court for four years.
Control of Gujarat In the south-west, Chandragupta's rule over present-day
Gujarat is attested to by Ashoka's inscription in
Junagadh. On the same rock, about 400 years later,
Rudradaman inscribed a longer text sometime about the mid second–century. Rudradaman's inscription states that the
Sudarshana lake in the area was commissioned during the rule of Chandragupta through his governor Vaishya Pushyagupta and conduits were added during Ashoka's rule through Tushaspha. The Mauryan control of the region is further corroborated by the inscription on the rock, which suggests that Chandragupta controlled the
Malwa region in Central India, located between Gujarat and Pataliputra.
Jain accounts of renunciation and retirement in Karnataka . Some consider it about the legend of his arrival with Bhadrabahu. at
Shravanabelagola According to Digambara Jain accounts Chandragupta abdicated at an early age and settled as a monk under
Bhadrabāhu in
Shravanabelagola, in present-day south Karnataka. According to these accounts, Bhadrabāhu forecast a 12-year famine because of all the killing and violence during the conquests by Chandragupta Maurya. He led a group of Jain monks to south India, where Chandragupta Maurya joined him as a monk after abdicating his empire to his son Bindusara. Together, states a Digambara legend, Chandragupta and Bhadrabahu moved to
Shravanabelagola, in present-day south Karnataka. Chandragupta lived as an ascetic at
Shravanabelagola for several years before fasting to death as per the practice of
sallekhana, according to the Digambara legend. In accordance with the Digambara tradition, the hill on which Chandragupta is stated to have performed asceticism is now known as
Chandragiri hill, and Digambaras believe that Chandragupta Maurya erected an ancient temple that now survives as the
Chandragupta basadi. The 12th-century Svetambara Jain legend by Hemachandra presents a different picture. The Hemachandra version includes stories about Jain monks who could become invisible to steal food from imperial storage and the Jain Brahmin Chanakya using violence and cunning tactics to expand Chandragupta's empire and increase imperial revenues. It states in verses 8.415 to 8.435, that for 15 years as emperor, Chandragupta was a follower of non-Jain "ascetics with the wrong view of religion" and "lusted for women". Chanakya, who was a Jain convert himself, persuaded Chandragupta to convert to Jainism by showing that Jain ascetics avoided women and focused on their religion. The legend mentions Chanakya aiding the premature birth of Bindusara, It states in verse 8.444 that "Chandragupta died in meditation (can possibly be
sallekhana.) and went to
heaven". According to Hemachandra's legend, Chanakya also performed
sallekhana.
Textual sources The Digambara Jain accounts are recorded in the
Brihakathā kośa (931 CE) of Harishena,
Bhadrabāhu charita (1450 CE) of Ratnanandi,
Munivaṃsa bhyudaya (1680 CE) and
Rajavali kathe, Regarding the inscriptions describing the relation of Bhadrabahu and Chandragupta Maurya,
Radha Kumud Mookerji writes,The oldest inscription of about 600 AD associated "the pair (
yugma), Bhadrabahu along with Chandragupta
Muni." Two inscriptions of about 900 AD on the
Kaveri near
Seringapatam describe the summit of a hill called
Chandragiri as marked by the footprints of Bhadrabahu and Chandragupta
munipati. A
Shravanabelagola inscription of 1129 mentions Bhadrabahu "
Shrutakevali", and Chandragupta who acquired such merit that he was worshipped by the forest deities. Another inscription of 1163 similarly couples and describes them. A third inscription of the year 1432 speaks of
Yatindra Bhadrabahu, and his disciple Chandragupta, the fame of whose penance spread into other words.Along with texts, several Digambara Jain inscriptions dating from the 7th–15th century refer to Bhadrabahu and a Prabhacandra. Later Digambara tradition identified the Prabhacandra as Chandragupta, and some modern era scholars have accepted this Digambara tradition while others have not, Several of the late Digambara inscriptions and texts in Karnataka state the journey started from Ujjain and not Patliputra (as stated in some Digambara texts).
Analysis of the Jain sources Hill, where Chandragupta (the unifier of India and founder of the
Maurya Dynasty) performed
Sallekhana According to
Jeffery D. Long, in one Digambara version it was Samprati Chandragupta who renounced, migrated and performed
sallekhana in Shravanabelagola. Long notes that scholars attribute the disintegration of the Maurya empire to the times and actions of Samprati Chandragupta, the grandson of Ashoka and great-great-grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, concluding that the two Chandraguptas have been confused to be the same in some Digambara legends. Scholar of Jain studies and Sanskrit
Paul Dundas says the Svetambara tradition of Jainism disputes the ancient Digambara legends. According to a fifth-century text of the Svetambara Jains, the Digambara sect of Jainism was founded 609 years after Mahavira's death, or in first-century CE. Digambaras wrote their own versions and legends after the fifth-century, with their first expanded Digambara version of sectarian split within Jainism appearing in the tenth-century. The Svetambaras texts describe Bhadrabahu was based near Nepalese foothills of the Himalayas in third-century BCE, who neither moved nor travelled with Chandragupta Maurya to the south; rather, he died near Patliputra, according to the Svetambara Jains. According to
V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar – an Indologist and historian, several of the Digambara legends mention Prabhacandra, who had been misidentified as Chandragupta Maurya particularly after the original publication on Shravanabelagola epigraphy by
B. Lewis Rice. The earliest and most important inscriptions mention Prabhacandra, which Rice presumed may have been the "clerical name assumed by Chadragupta Maurya" after he renounced and moved with Bhadrabahu from Patliputra. Dikshitar stated there is no evidence to support this and Prabhacandra was an important Jain monk scholar who migrated centuries after Chandragupta Maurya's death. According to historian
Sushma Jansari, "A closer look at the evidence for Chandragupta's conversion to Jainism and his and Bhadrabāhu's association with Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa reveals that it is both late and problematic. In addition, except for Jain sources, there is no evidence to support the view of Chandragupta's conversion and migration." Jansari concludes, "Overall, therefore, the evidence as it currently stands suggests that the story of Chandragupta's conversion to Jainism and abdication (if, indeed, he did abdicate), his migration southwards and his association (or otherwise) with Bhadrabāhu and the site of Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa developed after c.600 AD." Dikshitar has taken Rice's deduction of Chandragupta Maurya retiring and dying in Shravanabelagola as the working hypothesis, since no alternative historical information or evidence is available about Chandragupta's final years and death.
Assumed control of Southern India There is uncertainty about the other conquests that Chandragupta may have achieved, especially in the
Deccan region of southern India. At the time of his grandson Ashoka's ascension in c. 268 BCE, the empire extended up to present-day
Karnataka in the south, so the southern conquests may be attributed to either Chandragupta or his son Bindusara. According to Mookerji, Chandragupta expanded his empire into the south, referring to Plutarch, who stated that "Androcottus [...] with an army of six hundred thousand men overran and subdued all India." Mookerji notes that details are lacking, but argues that "there is reliable evidence for it in the inscriptions of Ashoka." Mookerji also refers to the Jain tradition that Chandragupta retired at
Sravana Belgola, Karnakata, and to references in Tamil records. According to Kulke and Rothermund, if the Jain tradition about Chandragupta ending his life as a renunciate in Karnakata is considered correct, it appears that Chandragupta initiated the southern conquest. Yet, the Digambara Jain accounts are problematic. His conversion and retirement at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa with Bhadrabāhu are only attested in Digambara Jain sources, which developed after 600 CE. They may actually refer to Samprati Chandragupta the great-great-grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, and are contradicted by Svetambaras Jain texts, who situate Bhadrabahunear the Nepalese foothills of the Himalayas in third-century BCE, neither moving nor travelling with Chandragupta Maurya to the south. The Digambara legends may also have misidentified Prabhacandra, an important Jain monk scholar who migrated centuries after Chandragupta Maurya's death, as Chandragupta Maurya. Two poetic anthologies from the Tamil
Sangam literature corpus –
Akananuru and
Purananuru – allude to the Nanda rule and Maurya empire. For example, poems 69, 281 and 375 mention the army and chariots of the Mauryas, while poems 251 and 265 may be alluding to the Nandas. However, the poems dated between first-century BCE to fifth-century CE do not mention Chandragupta Maurya by name, and some of them could be referring to a different Moriya dynasty in the
Deccan region in the fifth century CE. According to Upinder Singh, these poems may be mentioning Mokur and Koshar kingdoms of Vadugars (northerners) in Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh, with one interpretation being that the Maurya Empire had an alliance with these at some point of time. ==Empire==