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Chandragupta Maurya
was the founder of the Maurya Empire and
the first emperor to unify north and south
west of present-day India into one state. He ruled from 324 BCE until his
voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his son, Bindusara,
in 297 BCE.Chandragupta Maurya was a pivotal figure in the history of India.
Prior to his consolidation of power, most of the Indian
subcontinent was divided into mahajanapadas,
while the Nanda Empire dominated
the Indo-Gangetic
Plain. Chandragupta
succeeded in conquering and subjugating almost all of the Indian
subcontinent by the end of his reign, except Tamil Nadu (Chera, Early Cholas and Early Pandyan Kingdom) and modern-day
Odisha (Kalinga).
His empire extended from Bengal in
the east to Aria or
Herat in the west (now called Afghanistan and Balochistan), to the Himalayas and Kashmir in
the north, and to the Deccan Plateau in
the south. It was the largest empire yet seen in Indian
history.In 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. By 323 BC he freed the piece of territory
of India that was controlled by Seleuces, following Alexander's retreat. Chandragupta
subsequently married Seleucus' daughter to formalise an alliance and turning
Nicator into a satrap, 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,
who visited the Maurya capital Pataliputra,
is an important source of Maurya history.
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 "Sandrokottos" or
"Androcottus".
Many Indian literary traditions connect him with the Nanda Dynasty in
modern-day Bihar in
eastern India. More than half a millennium later, the Sanskrit drama Mudrarakshasa calls
him a "Nandanvaya", i.e. the descendant of Nanda.Chandragupta
was born into a family left destitute by the death of his father, chief of the
migrant Mauryas, in a border fray. Mudrarakshasa uses terms like kula-hina and Vrishala for
Chandragupta's lineage. According to Bharatendu Harishchandra's translation
of the play, his father was the Nanda king Mahananda and his mother was a
barber's wife named Mora, hence the surname Maurya. This reinforces Justin's
contention that Chandragupta had a humble origin.On
the other hand, the same play describes the Nandas as of Prathita-kula, i.e.
illustrious, lineage.
The Buddhist text, the Mahavamsa,
calls Chandragupta a member of a division of the (Kshatriya)
clan called the Moriya.. The Mahaparinibbana Sutta states that
the Moriyas (Mauryas) belonged to the Kshatriya community of Pippalivana i.e.
possibly Pipli on the outskirts of Kurukshetra.
These traditions indicate that Chandragupta came from a Kshatriya
lineage. The Mahavamshatika connects him with the Shakya clan
of the Buddha, a clan which also belongs to the race of Ādityas.
In
Buddhist tradition, Chandragupta Maurya was a member of the Kshatriyas and
that his son, Bindusara,
and grandson, the famous Buddhist Ashoka,
were of Kshatriya lineage,
perhaps of the Sakya line.
(The Sakya line
of Kshatriyas is considered to be the lineage of Gautama Buddha,
and Ashoka billed
himself as "Buddhi Sakya" in one of his inscriptions.) Puranas too
depict Chandragupta from a Kshatriya lineage. Jain text Parisishtaparvan talks
of Chandragupta's mother as a daughter of village chieftian who were rearers of
royal peacocks. Plutarch reports
that he met with Alexander the
Great in Punjab, and
that he viewed the ruling Nanda Empire in
a negative light: Androcottus, when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself,
and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly
missed making himself master of the country, since its king was hated and
despised on account of his baseness and low birth.
According to this text, the
encounter would have happened around 326 BCE suggesting a birth date for
Chandragupta around 340 BCE. Plutarch and other Greco-Roman
historians appreciated the gravity of Chandragupta Maurya's conquests. Justin describes
the humble origins of Chandragupta, and explains how he later led a popular
uprising against the Nanda king.
Chandragupta completed his education in Taxila university.
Foundation of the Maurya
Empire
Chandragupta
Maurya led a war of independence from Greek rule around 325 BC and achieved
victory around 323 BC. After that, he, along with Chanakya, gathered an
army from Punjab and started invading Magadha on the
frontiers.
Nanda army
 |
| The Nanda Empire at its greatest extent under Dhana Nanda circa 323 BCE |
According to
Plutarch,
at the time of the
Battle of the Hydaspes, the Nanda
Empire's army numbered 200,000
infantry,
80,000
cavalry,
8,000
chariots,
and 6,000
war elephants,
which discouraged Alexander's men and prevented their further progress into
India:As for the Macedonians, however, their struggle with
Porus blunted
their courage and stayed their further advance into India. For having had all
they could do to repulse an enemy who mustered only twenty thousand infantry
and two thousand horse, they violently opposed Alexander when he insisted on
crossing the river Ganges also, the width of which, as they learned, was
thirty-two furlongs, its depth a hundred fathoms, while its banks on the
further side were covered with multitudes of men-at‑arms and horsemen and
elephants. For they were told that the kings of the Ganderites and Praesii were
awaiting them with eighty thousand horsemen, two hundred thousand footmen,
eight thousand chariots, and six thousand fighting elephants. And there was no
boasting in these reports. For Androcottus, who reigned there not long
afterwards, made a present to Seleucus of five hundred elephants, and with an
army of six hundred thousand men overran and subdued all India.
 |
| Silver punch mark coin of the Maurya empire, with symbols of wheel and elephant (3rd century BCE) |
Conquest of Macedonian territories in India
After
Alexander's death in 323 BCE, Chandragupta turned his attention to Northwestern
South Asia (modern Pakistan), where he
defeated the satrapies (described as
"prefects" in classical Western sources) left in place by Alexander
(according to Justin), and may have assassinated two of his
governors, Nicanor and Philip. The
satrapies he fought may have included Eudemus, ruler in western Punjab
until his departure in 317 BCE; and Peithon,
ruler of the Greek colonies along the Indus River until his
departure for Babylon in 316
BCE. The Roman historian Justin described how Sandrocottus (the Greek version of
Chandragupta's name) conquered the northwest:
Some time after, as he was going to war with the generals
of Alexander, a wild elephant of great bulk presented itself before him of its
own accord, and, as if tamed down to gentleness, took him on its back, and
became his guide in the war, and conspicuous in fields of battle. Sandrocottus,
having thus acquired a throne, was in possession of India, when Seleucus was
laying the foundations of his future greatness; who, after making a league with
him, and settling his affairs in the east, proceeded to join in the war against
Antigonus. As soon as the forces, therefore, of all the confederates were
united, a battle was fought, in which Antigonus was slain, and his son
Demetrius put to flight.
Conquest of Seleucus' eastern territories
After Alexander's death in 323
BCE, Chandragupta turned his attention to Northwestern South Asia (modern Pakistan),
where he defeated the satrapies (described
as "prefects" in classical Western sources) left in place by
Alexander (according to Justin), and may have assassinated two
of his
governors,
Nicanor and
Philip.The
satrapies he fought may have included
Eudemus,
ruler in western Punjab until his departure in 317 BCE; and
Peithon, ruler of the Greek colonies
along the
Indus River until
his departure for
Babylon in
316 BCE. The Roman historian Justin described how Sandrocottus (the
Greek version
of Chandragupta's name) conquered the northwest:
Some time
after, as he was going to war with the generals of Alexander, a wild elephant
of great bulk presented itself before him of its own accord, and, as if tamed
down to gentleness, took him on its back, and became his guide in the war, and
conspicuous in fields of battle. Sandrocottus, having thus acquired a throne,
was in possession of India, when Seleucus was laying the foundations of his
future greatness; who, after making a league with him, and settling his affairs
in the east, proceeded to join in the war against Antigonus. As soon as the
forces, therefore, of all the confederates were united, a battle was fought, in
which Antigonus was slain, and his son Demetrius put to flight.
Conquest of Seleucus' eastern territories
Seleucus I
Nicator, a Macedonian general of Alexander, who after
Alexander's death, in 312 BCE, established the Seleucid Kingdom with capital
Babylon, reconquered most of Alexander's former empire in Asia and put under
his own authority the eastern territories as far as Bactria and
the Indus (Appian,
History of Rome, The Syrian Wars 55), and
in 305 BCE he entered into conflict with Chandragupta (in Greek Sandrocottus): Always
lying in wait for the neighboring nations, strong in arms and persuasive in
council, he acquired Mesopotamia, Armenia, 'Seleucid' Cappadocia, Persis,
Parthia, Bactria, Arabia, Tapouria, Sogdia, Arachosia, Hyrcania, and other
adjacent peoples that had been subdued by Alexander, as far as the river Indus,
so that the boundaries of his empire were the most extensive in Asia after that
of Alexander. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to
Seleucus. He crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king
of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an
understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. Some of
these exploits were performed before the death of Antigonus and some afterward.
The exact details of
engagement are not known. As noted by scholars such as R. C. Majumdar and
D. D. Kosambi, Seleucus appears to have fared poorly, having ceded large
territories west of the Indus to Chandragupta. Due to his defeat, Seleucus surrendered
Arachosia
(modern Kandahar),
Gedrosia
(modern Balochistan) , Paropamisadae (or Gandhara).
Mainstream scholarship asserts that Chandragupta received vast territory west
of the Indus, including the Hindu Kush,
modern day Afghanistan,
and the Balochistan province of Pakistan.[38][39] Archaeologically,
concrete indications of Maurya rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka,
are known as far as Kandhahar in
southern Afghanistan. After having made a peace treaty with him [Sandrakotos]
and put in order the Orient situation, Seleucos went to war against Antigonus.
Per Strabo, in
Geography, Chandragupta married Seleucus's daughter
to formalize the peace treaty. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war-elephants, a
military asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in
302 BCE. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes,
to Chandragupta, and later Antiochos sent Deimakos to
his son Bindusara,
at the Maurya court at Pataliputra (modern Patna in Bihar state). Later Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt and
contemporary of Ashoka the Great,
is also recorded by Pliny the Elder as
having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Maurya court.
Classical sources have also recorded that following their treaty,
Chandragupta and Seleucus exchanged presents, such as when Chandragupta sent
various aphrodisiacs to
Seleucus:
And Theophrastus says that
some contrivances are of wondrous efficacy in such matters [as to make people
more amorous]. And Phylarchus confirms him, by reference to some of the
presents which Sandrakottus, the king of the Indians, sent to Seleucus; which
were to act like charms in producing a wonderful degree of affection, while
some, on the contrary, were to banish love
 |
| Chandra Gupta Maurya entertains his bride from Babylon": a conjectural interpretation of the "marriage agreement" between the Seleucids and Chandragupta Maurya, related by Appian. |
