CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA

 B-13                                                     HISTORY

 CHANDRAGUPTA  MAURYA-THE PRIDE OF INDIA

In 324 BCE,Chandragupta Maurya, an ambitious adventurer (Sandrakottos, 324-300 BCE) founded the Maurya dynasty after overthrowing the reigning Nanda king Dhanananda .Prior to Chandragupta's consolidation of power, small regional kingdoms dominated the north western subcontinent, while the Nanda dynasty dominated the middle and lower basin of the Ganga. After Chandragupta's conquests, the Maurya Empire extended from Bengal and Assam in the east, to Afghanistan and Baluchistan in the west, to Kashmir and Nepal in the north, and to the Deccan Plateau in the south. It was for the first time that most of the subcontinent was united under a single command.  Capitalising on the destabilization of northern India by the Persian and Greek incursions, the Mauryan empire under Chandragupta would not only conquer most of the Indian subcontinent, but also push its boundaries to  far off Persia and Central Asia, conquering the Gandhara region.

His achievements, which ranged from conquering Alexander Macedonian’s satrapies in the northwest, and conquering the Nanda empire by the time he was only about 20 years old, to defeating Seleucus Nicator and establishing centralized rule throughout South Asia, remain some of the most celebrated in the history of India. Over two thousand years later, the accomplishments of Chandragupta and his successors, including Ashoka the Great, are subjects of great study in the annals of South Asian and world history.The empire had its capital city at Pataliputra (near modern Patna).

After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, Seleucus invaded India in 305 BCE, confronting Chandragupta Maurya near the river Indus.  It is said  that Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the  first  pan-Indian empire (324-187), defeated the remaining Macedonian satrapies in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent and Greek garrisons of Seleucus, founder of Seleucan Empire in Persia and Syria. Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Seleucus appears to have fared poorly, having ceded large territories west of the Indus including the Hindu Kush, modern day Afghanistan, and the Baluchistan province of present-day Pakistan. When Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE, his generals divided up his empire into satrapies so that each of them would have a territory to rule, but by about 316, Chandragupta Maurya was able to defeat and incorporate all of the satrapies in the mountains of Central Asia, extending his empire to the edge of what is now Iran, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

 Archaeologically, definite indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka, have been found as far as Kandhar in southern Afghanistan.

Classical sources  suggest that following their peace treaty,the Greek  general Seleucus Nicator, the successor of Alexander,  married  his  daughter  to Chandragupta to formalize  a strategic diplomatic alliance. 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 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus appointed an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta’s Court, and later Deimakos to his son Bindusara’s 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 Mauryan court.

In his Indica, Megasthenes (317-312 BCE ),  an envoy of King Seleucus in the court of Maurya king, reveals to Europe in colourful details the wonders of Mauryan India: an opulent society with abundant agriculture, engineered irrigation and  seven castes:  philosophers, farmers, soldiers, herdsmen, artisans, magistrates and councillors. The riches of India under the Magadha kings became a proverb throughout the world. He defined the extent of the then territory of India as under :

               India then being four-sided in plan, the side which looks to the Orient and that to the South, the Great Sea compasseth; that towards the Arctic is divided by the mountain chain of Hēmōdus from Scythia, inhabited by that tribe of Scythians who are called Sakai; and on the fourth side, turned towards the West, the Indus marks the boundary, the biggest or nearly so of all rivers after the Nile.

 Megasthenes was amazed  to find a civilization which he described to the incredulous Greeks- “still near their zenith”-as entirely equal to their own. He also testifies to the “high character and wisdom” of the councillors of the Maurya king and to their effective power”                    

          ( E.B. Havell,1915) and“that there was no slavery in India” (H. Kohn).

The government made no pretense to democracy and was probably the most efficient that India had ever had. Akbar,the greatest of the Moghuls, had nothing like it and it may be doubted if any of the ancient Greek cities were better organized  (V. A. Smith in the Oxford History…, 1923).

According to Col. James Tod,Chandragupta was a descendant of the Puru dynasty: Sandrocottus is mentioned by Arrian to be of this line ; and we can have no hesitation, therefore, in giving him a place in the dynasty of Puru, the second son of Yayati, whence the patronymic used by the race now extinct, as was Yadu, the elder brother of Puru. By the time his conquests were complete, Chandragupta succeeded in unifying most of Southern Asia. Megasthenes later recorded the size of Chandragupta's acquired army as 400,000 soldiers, according to Strabo (see  AAR).

His son, Bindusara,  became the new Mauryan emperor. Bindusara was succeeded  by his son Ashoka the Great ( 270-236 BCE ) who was one of the most powerful kings in history due to his important role in the history of Buddhism. He expanded the kingdom over most of  the present day India, barring the extreme south and east.At its height under Emperor Ashoka the Mauryan Empire included all India except the far South.

 Kautilya

Chandragupta's chief adviser or prime minister Chanakya, who is also known as Kautilya and wasthe author of the Arthashastra, is regarded as the architect of Chandragupta's early rise to power. Chandragupta Maurya, with the help of Chanakya, began laying the foundation of the Mauryan Empire. While in Magadha, Chanakya by chance met Chandragupta in whom he spotted great military and executive abilities. Chanakya was impressed by the prince's personality and intelligence. The shrewd Chanakya trained Chandragupta under his expert guidance and together they planned the conquest of the Nanda Empire. He wrote a compendium known as the Arthashastra, a manual of laws, administrative procedures and political advice for successfully running a kingdom.

Renunciation

Chandragupta renounced his throne towards the end of his  glorious innings and became an ascetic under the Jaina saint Bhadrabahu, migrating south with him and ending his days  in Shravanabelagola, in present day Karnataka.