Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya (ruled 322–298 BC), also known as Sandrokottos to the Greeks, was the founder of the first the Mauryan Empire..
The Mauryan empire, whose capital was Pataliputra (Modern day Patna)in East India, is acknowledged to be the greatest empire in ancient India, and lasted until 185 BC, fifty years after the death of Chandragupta's famous grandson, Emperor Ashoka.
Prior to Chandragupta's consolidation of power, small regional kingdoms dominated Northern and Eastern India.
Chandragupta is acknowledged as the greatest of ancient Indian rulers, and his kingdom, which spanned Saurashtra from East to the West, the Deccan plateau to the South and Afghanistan to the North, was the largest ancient Indian empire until that time.
Origin
Chandragupta's origin is shrouded in mystery. One view is that Chandragupota was the son of a Nanda prince and a dasi (Hindi:maid), Mura. Second view is that Chandragupta was raised by peacock tamers (Sanskrit: Mayur Posakh), which earned him Maurya epithet. This view suggests a low-caste, Shudra or degraded background of Chandragupta. Third view is that he belonged to Moriyas, a Kshatriya clan of little ancient republic of Pipphalivan which laid between Rummindei in the Nepalese Tarai and Kasia in the Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Tradition avers that this clan was reduced to great straights in fourth century BCE under Magadhan rule, and young Chandragupta grew up among the peacock-tamers. Buddhist text Mahavamsa calls Chandragupta a scion of the Khatttya (Kshatriya) clan styled Moriya (Maurya). Divyavadana calls Bindusara, son of Chandragupta, an annointed Kshatriya, and in the same work, king Ashoka, son of Bindusara, is also styled a Kshatriya. The Mahaparinnibhana Sutta of Buddhist canon also states the Moriyas (Mauryas) as belonging to the Kshatriya caste. These references conclusively prove at least Chandragupta's Kshatriya lineage if not his nativity. It is notable that all the above cited views connect Chandragupta with the Prachya division or eastern parts of India. There is, however, another schoool of scholars like B. M. Barua, Dr H. C. Seth, Dr Ratanjit Pal and others who, on the other hand, like to connect Chandragupa to north-western frontiers including Gandhara/Paropamisadae, if not exactly Taxila itself. These scholars also see a connection between "Chandragupta" and the strap Sisikotos (Diodotus of Erythrae) of the Classical writings, stating that the Sashi- part of Sashigupta (Sisikotos) also means Chandra or moon---hence asserting that Sashigupt (Sisicottos) and Chandragupt (Santracottos) are one and the same historical personage. This Sisicottos is stated to be native of the Paropamisadae (Kamboja) region. It is noteworthy that like Santracottos (Chandragupt), Sisicottos (Sashigupt) was also a refugee, who had first served with Bessus and then co-operated with Alexander throughout the Sogdian campaigns (Arr. iv, 30. 4). Such men had every reason to encourage the king to invade and he himself needed little encouragement. No wonder on reduction of Ashvakas of Massaga and the rock fort at Aornos, Sisicottos was made the ruler of this Kambojan territory.
Chanakya
It is generally held that Chanakya was native of Magadha and was employed in the court of Dhana Nanda, the last king of Magadha. However, another view is that Chanakya actually belonged to Gandhara but had settled at Magadha to rent his services to the court of Magadha rulers. It is stated that king Dhana Nanda, corrupted by power, had once insulted Chanakya and banished him from his court over an insignificant dispute. Thus insulted and disgraced, Chanakya took a silent vow to destroy Dhana Nanda at an appropriate time. On his way back to Taxila, Chanakya chance-met Chandragupta in whom he spotted great military and executive abilities and immediately got associated with him to fullfil his silent vow.
The seasoned and shrewd Chanakya helped Chandragupta raise a powerful army to liberate mother India from the clutches of crual and corrupt Nandhas of Magadha as well as from the foreign invaders like the Greeks. The Buddhist play Mudrarakshas of Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandragupta's alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka. This Himalayan alliance gave Chandragupta a composite and formidable army made up of the Yavanas, Kambojas, Shakas, Kiratas, Parasikas and Bahlikas (See: Mudrarakshas, II). With the help of these frontier warlike clans from the northwest whom Justin brands as "a band of robbers", Chandragupta managed to defeat, first the corrupt Nanda ruler of Magadha and later, upon Alexander's death, the Macedonian straps of Punjab and Afghanistan, thus laying the foundations of a Maurya Empire in northern India.
Expansion
When he took over Magadha, Chandragupta Maurya inherited a great army from his predecessor, which he continued to build upon until it reached a total of thirty thousand cavalry, nine thousand war elephants, and six hundred thousand infantry (Megasthenes' book on India Indica, quotes an army of 400,000 with 4000 elephants). With this force, he overran all of Northern India, establishing an empire from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. He then turned his attention to Northwestern India and the power vacuum left by the departure of Alexander. Starting with the lands east of the Indus River, he then moved south, taking over much of what is now Central India.
The year 305 BC saw Chandragupta back in the northwest, where Seleucus I Nicator, the Macedonian satrap of Babylonia, posed a new threat to the empire. Chandragupta defeated Alexander's General Seleucus Nicator and conquered all of Afghanistan south of the Hindu Kush), and was chasing him further west. This forced Seleucus to sign a peace treaty in 303 BC and offered his daughter in marriage to Emperor Chandragupta. Seleucus exchanged territory for five hundred of Chandragupta's war elephants. In this matrimonial alliance the enmity turned into friendship, and Seleucus' dispatch an ambassador, Megasthenes, to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra (Modern Patna in Bihar state). As a result of this treaty, Chandragupta's empire was recognized as a great power in the Hellenic world, and the kings of Egypt and Syria sent their own ambassadors to his court.
Jainism & death
Towards the end of his life, Chandragupta gave up his throne and became an ascetic under the Jain saint Bhadrabahu Swami, ending his days in self-starvation at Shravanabelagola, in present day Karnataka. A small temple marks the cave (called Bhadrabahu Cave) where he died [1].
Family
Chandragupta Maurya renounced his throne to his son, Bindusara, who became the new Mauryan Emperor.
Trivia
- In the 9th century AD, Sanskrit author Vishakhadatta penned a seven-act play on Chandragupta's life called, Mudra Rakshasa (Sanskrit: Signet Ring of the Rakshasa,the chief minister of the last Nanda king).
- In 2001, the Indian Postal Department issued a Rs. 4 stamp commemorating the rule of Chandragupta.
| Preceded by: Nanda dynasty |
Mauryan ruler (322–298 BC) |
Succeeded by: Bindusara |
Additional reading
- Nilakantha Shastri, K. A. The Age of Nandas and Mauryas, Banaras, 1952.
- Kosambi,D.D. An Introduction to the Study of Indian History, Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1985
- Bhargava, P.L. Chandragupta Maurya, New Delhi:D.K. Printworld, 160 pp., 2002.
- Habib, Irfan. and Jha, Vivekanand. Mauryan India: A People's History of India,New Delhi:Tulika Books, 2004; 189pp
- Vishakadatta, R.S. Pandit.Mudraraksasa (The Signet Ring of Rakshasa), New Delhi:Global Vision Publishing House, 2004, ISBN 8182200091, edited by Ramesh Chandra