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Chandragupta Maurya

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Chandragupta Maurya
A modern statue depicting Chandragupta Maurya, Laxminarayan Temple, Delhi
A modern statue depicting Chandragupta Maurya, Laxminarayan Temple, Delhi
1st Mauryan Emperor
Reignc. 322 – c. 297 BCE[1][2]
Coronationc. 322 BCE
PredecessorPosition established
SuccessorBindusara[3]
Bornpossibly c. 350–340 BCE
Pataliputra, Magadha, Nanda Empire
(near present-day Patna)
Diedafter c. 297 BCE
Kalbappu (Chandragiri)
(present-day Karnataka, India) (According to Jain tradition)
SpouseDurdhara
A Seleucid princess (name unknown)
IssueBindusara
DynastyMaurya
Maurya Empire
(322–180 BCE)
Ashoka pillar at Vaishali, Bihar Lomas Rishi, Barabar Caves
Chandragupta 322–297 BCE
Bindusara 297–273 BCE
Ashoka the Great 273/268–232 BCE
Dasharatha 232–224 BCE
Samprati 224–215 BCE
Shalishuka 215–202 BCE
Devavarman 202–195 BCE
Shatadhanvan 195–187 BCE
Brihadratha 187–180 BCE
Inscription
Mauryan Empire under Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya[a] (reigned c. 320 – c. 298 BCE)[4] was the founder of the Maurya dynasty, which ruled over a geographically-extensive empire based in Magadha (present-day Bihar).[5] The Magadha kingdom expanded to become an empire that reached its peak under the reign of his grandson, Ashoka the Great, from 268 BCE to 231 BCE.[6] The nature of the political formation that existed in Chandragupta's time is not certain.[7] The Mauryan empire was a loose-knit one with large autonomous regions within its limits.[8]

Historical facts about Chandragupta's origins and early life are obscure and shrouded in legends. Prior to his consolidation of power, Alexander the Great had invaded the Northwest Indian subcontinent before abandoning his campaign in 324 BCE due to a mutiny caused by the prospect of facing another large empire, presumably the Nanda Empire centered in Pataliputra, Magadha. Chandragupta defeated and conquered both the Nanda Empire and the Greek satraps that were appointed or formed from Alexander's Empire in South Asia. Afterwards, Chandragupta expanded and secured his western border, where he was confronted by Seleucus I Nicator in the Seleucid–Mauryan war. Chandragupta was considered to have gained the upper hand in the conflict and annexed satrapies up to the Hindu Kush. Instead of prolonging the war, both parties settled on a marriage treaty.

Chandragupta's suzerainty—extended through military conquests and diplomatic treaties—spanned further than any previous Indian ruler: across North India, from modern day Bengal in the east, to as far westward as Afghanistan below the Hindu Kush, as well as making inroads into Central India and as far south as the northern Deccan;[9] however, beyond the core Magadha area, the prevailing levels of technology and infrastructure limited how deeply his rule could penetrate society.[10][11] In contrast to the Jain legends which developed 900 years later,[12] contemporary Greek evidence states that Chandragupta did not give up performing the rites of sacrificing animals associated with Vedic Brahminism; he delighted in hunting and otherwise leading a life remote from the Jain practice of ahimsa or nonviolence towards living beings.[13][14] Chandragupta's reign, and the Maurya Empire, set an era of economic prosperity, reforms, infrastructure expansions, and tolerance. Many religions thrived within his realms and his descendants' empire. Buddhism, Jainism and Ājīvika gained prominence alongside Vedic and Brahmanistic traditions, and minority religions such as Zoroastrianism and the Greek pantheon were respected. A memorial for Chandragupta Maurya exists on the Chandragiri hill along with a seventh-century hagiographic inscription.

Historical sources

[edit]

Chandragupta's life and accomplishments are described in ancient and historical Greek, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts, but they significantly vary in detail.[15] His main biographical sources in chronological order are:[16]

The Greek and Roman texts do not mention Chandragupta directly, except for a second-century text written by the Roman historian Justin. They predominantly mention the last Nanda emperor, who usurped the throne of the king before him. Justin states that Chandragupta was of humble origin, and includes stories of miraculous legends associated with him, such as a wild elephant appearing and submitting itself to him as a ride to him before a battle. Justin's text notes that Chandragupta and Chanakya defeated and removed Nanda from his throne.[19] Megasthenes' account, as it has survived in Greek texts that quote him, states that Alexander the Great and Chandragupta met, which, if true, would mean his rule started before 321 BCE. He is described as a great king, but not as great in power and influence as Porus in northwestern India or Agrammes (Dhana Nanda) in eastern India. As Alexander did not cross the Beas river, Chandragupta's territory probably included the Punjab region.[20]

The pre-4th century Hindu Puranic texts mostly mirror the Greek sources. These texts do not discuss the details of Chandragupta's ancestry, but rather cover the ancestry of the last Nanda king. The Nanda king is described to be cruel, against dharma and shastras, and born out of an illicit relationship followed by a coup.[21] The Chanakya's Arthasastra refers to the Nanda rule as against the spiritual, cultural, and military interests of the country, a period where intrigue and vice multiplied.[21] Chanakya states that Chandragupta returned dharma, nurtured diversity of views, and ruled virtuously that kindled love among the subjects for his rule.[21]

Buddhist texts such as Mahavamsa describe Chandragupta to be of Kshatriya origin.[22] These sources, written about seven centuries after his dynasty ended, state that both Chandragupta and his grandson Ashoka – a patron of Buddhism – were Moriyas, a branch of Gautama Buddha's Shakya noble family.[23] These Buddhist sources attempt to link the dynasty of their patron Ashoka directly to the Buddha.[24] The sources claim that the family branched off to escape persecution from a King of Kosala and Chandragupta's ancestors moved into a secluded Himalayan kingdom known for its peacocks. The Buddhist sources explain the epithet maurya comes from these peacocks, or Mora in Pali (Sanskrit: Mayura).[23][1] The Buddhist texts are inconsistent; some offer other legends to explain his epithet. For example, they mention a city named "Moriya-nagara" where all buildings were made of bricks colored like the peacock's neck.[25] The Maha-bodhi-vasa states he hailed from Moriya-nagara, while the Digha-Nikaya states he came from the Maurya clan of Pipphalivana.[22] The Buddhist sources also mention that "Brahmin Chanakya" was his counselor and with whose support Chandragupta became the king at Patliputra.[25] He has also been variously identified with Shashigupta (which has same etymology as of Chandragupta) of Paropamisadae on the account of same life events.[26]

7th-century Bhadrabahu inscription at Shravanabelagola (Sanskrit, Purvahale Kannada script). This is the oldest inscription at the site, and it mentions Bhadrabahu and Prabhacandra. Lewis Rice and Digambara Jains interpret Prabhacandra to be Chandragupta Maurya, while others such as J F Fleet, V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, and Svetambara Jains state this interpretation is wrong.[27][17][18]

The 12th-century Digambara text Parishishtaparvan by Hemachandra is the main and earliest Jain source of the complete legend of Chandragupta. It was written nearly 1,400 years after Chandragupta's death. Canto 8, verses 170 to 469, describes the legend of Chandragupta and Chanakya's influence on him.[22][28] Other Digambara Jain sources state he moved to Karnataka after renouncing his kingdom and performed Sallekhana – the Jain religious ritual of peacefully welcoming death by fasting.[29][30] The earliest mention of Chandragupta's ritual death is found in Harisena's Brhatkathakosa, a Sanskrit text of stories about Digambara Jains. The Brhatkathakosa describes the legend of Bhadrabahu and mentions Chandragupta in its 131st story.[31] However, the story makes no mention of the Maurya empire, and mentions that his disciple Chandragupta lived in and migrated from Ujjain – a kingdom (northwest Madhya Pradesh) about a thousand kilometers west of the Magadha and Patliputra (central Bihar). This has led to the proposal that Harisena's Chandragupta may be a later era, different person.[31][27][32]

Date

[edit]

None of the ancient texts mention when Chandragupta was born. Plutarch claims that he was a young man when he met Alexander III during the latter's invasion of India (c. 326-325 BCE). Assuming the Plutarch account is true, Raychaudhuri proposed in 1923 that Chandragupta may have been born after 350 BCE.[33] According to other Greco-Roman texts, Chandragupta attacked the Greek-Indian governors after Alexander's death (c. 323 BCE) with Seleucus I Nicator entering into a treaty with Chandragupta years later.[34] Seleucus Nicator, under this treaty, gave up Arachosia (Kandahar), Gedrosia (Makran), and Paropamisadae (Kabul) to Chandragupta, in exchange for 500 war elephants.[20]

The texts do not include the start or end year of Chandragupta's reign.[35] According to some Hindu and Buddhist texts, Chandragupta ruled for 24 years.[36] The Buddhist sources state Chandragupta Maurya ruled 162 years after the death of the Buddha.[37] However, the Buddha's birth and death vary by source and all these lead to a chronology that is significantly different from the Greco-Roman records. Similarly, Jain sources composed give different gaps between Mahavira's death and his accession.[37] As with the Buddha's death, the date of Mahavira's death itself is also a matter of debate, and the inconsistencies and lack of unanimity among the Jain authors cast doubt on Jain sources. This Digambara Jain chronology, also, is not reconcilable with the chronology implied in other Indian and non-Indian sources.[37]

Historians such as Irfan Habib and Vivekanand Jha assign Chandragupta's reign to c. 322-298 BCE.[38] Upinder Singh dates his rule from 324 or 321 BCE to 297 BCE.[3] Kristi Wiley states he reigned between 320 and 293 BCE.[17]

Early life

[edit]

One medieval commentator states Chandragupta to be the son of one of the Nanda's wives with the name Mura.[21] Other sources describe Mura as a concubine of the king.[39] Another Sanskrit dramatic text Mudrarakshasa uses the terms Vrishala and Kula-Hina (meaning - "not descending from a recognized clan or family") to describe Chandragupta.[40] 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".[40] The same drama also refers to Chandragupta as someone of humble origin, like Justin.[40] 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.[41][42][44] 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.[45]

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.[46][28] 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.[22][28] The Jain Brahmin then went about making money through magic, and returned later to claim young Chandragupta,[28] whom he taught and trained. Together, they recruited soldiers and attacked the Nanda Empire. Eventually, they won and proclaimed Patliputra as their capital.[28]

Military career and conquests

[edit]

Influence of Chanakya

[edit]
Chanakya
Chandragupta's guru 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.

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.[47] Chanakya taught and admitted him in Taxila to study the Vedas, military arts, law, and other shastras.[47][48]

After Taxila, Chandragupta and Chanakya moved to Pataliputra, the capital and a historic learning center in the eastern Magadha Kingdom of India. They met Nanda there according to Hindu sources, and Dhana Nanda according to Pali-language Buddhist sources.[49] Chandragupta became a commander of the Nanda Army, but according to Justin, Chandragupta offended the Nanda king ("Nandrum" or "Nandrus") who ordered his execution.[46] An alternative version states that it was the Nanda king who was publicly insulted by Chanakya.[50] Chandragupta and Chanakya escaped and became rebels who planned to remove the Nanda king from power.[51][note 1] The Mudrarakshasa also states that Chanakya swore to destroy the Nanda dynasty after he felt insulted by the king.[53][50]

The Roman text by Justin mentions a couple of miraculous incidents that involved Sandracottus (Chandragupta) and presents these legends as omens and portents of his 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.[54]

Building an army

[edit]

According to the Buddhist text Mahavamsa Tika, Chandragupta and Chanakya raised an army by recruiting soldiers from many places after the former completed his education at Taxila. Chanakya made Chandragupta the leader of the army.[55] The Digambara Jain text Parishishtaparvan states that this army was raised by Chanakya with coins he minted and an alliance formed with Parvataka.[56][57] According to Justin, Chandragupta organized an army. 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.[58]

Overthrow of the Nanda dynasty

[edit]
Main article: Nanda-Mauryan War

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.[51][59] After Alexander ended his campaign and left, Chandragupta's army conquered the Nanda capital Pataliputra around 322 BCE with Chanakya's counsel.[46]

Historically reliable details of Chandragupta's campaign into Pataliputra are unavailable and the legends written centuries later are inconsistent. Buddhist texts such as Milindapanha claim Magadha was ruled by the Nanda dynasty, which, with Chanakya's counsel, Chandragupta conquered to restore dhamma.[60][61] The army of Chandragupta and Chanakya first conquered the Nanda outer territories before invading 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.[62][61]

The conquest was fictionalised in Mudrarakshasa, in which Chandragupta is said to have first acquired Punjab and allied with a local king named Parvatka under the Chanakya's advice before advancing on the Nanda Empire.[63]

Chandragupta laid siege to Patliputra (now Patna), the capital of Magadha around 322 B.C, by deploying guerrilla warfare methods with the help of mercenaries from conquered areas.[43][64] Historian P. K. Bhattacharyya states that the empire was built by a gradual conquest of provinces after the initial consolidation of Magadha.[65]

According to the Digambara Jain version by Hemachandra, the success of Chandragupta and his strategist Chanakya was stopped by a Nanda town that refused to surrender.[66] Chanakya disguised himself as a mendicant and found seven mother goddesses (saptamatrikas) inside. He concluded these goddesses were protecting the town people.[66] The townspeople sought the disguised mendicant's advice on how to end the blockade of the army surrounding their town. Hemacandra wrote Chanakya swindled them into removing the mother goddesses. The townspeople removed the protective goddesses and an easy victory over the town followed. Thereafter, the alliance of Chandragupta and Parvataka overran the Nanda empire and attacked Pataliputra with an "immeasurable army".[66] With a depleted treasury, exhausted merit, and insufficient intelligence, the Nanda emperor lost.[66]

These legends state that the Nanda emperor was defeated, but allowed to leave Pataliputra alive with a chariot full of items his family needed.[67] 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.[66][22] With the defeat of Nanda, Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire in ancient India.[1][68]

Conquest of north-west regions

[edit]
Main article: Mauryan conquest of Greek satrapies
Eastern Satraps
Chandragupta had defeated the remaining Macedonian satrapies in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent by 317 BCE.

The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great ended before Chandragupta came into power. Alexander had left India in 325 BCE and assigned the northwestern Indian subcontinent territories to Greek governors.[69][70] The nature of early relationship between these governors and Chandragupta is unknown. Justin mentions Chandragupta as a rival of the Alexander's successors in north-western India.[38] He states that after Alexander's death, Chandragupta freed Indian territories from the Greeks and executed some of the governors.[71] According to Boesche, this war with the northwestern territories was in part fought by mercenaries hired by Chandragupta and Chanakya, and these wars may have been the cause of the demise of two of Alexander's governors, Nicanor and Philip.[72] Megasthenes served as a Greek ambassador in his court for four years.[68]

War and marriage alliance with Seleucus

[edit]
Main article: Seleucid-Mauryan war

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.[73][74] Seleucus and Chandragupta waged war until they came to an understanding with each other. Seleucus married off his daughter, Berenice, to Chandragupta to forge an alliance.[74]

R. C. Majumdar and D. D. Kosambi note that Seleucus appeared to have fared poorly after ceding large territories west of the Indus to Chandragupta. The Maurya Empire added Arachosia (Kandahar), Gedrosia (Balochistan), and Paropamisadae (Gandhara).[75][76][b] According to Strabo, Seleucus Nicator gave these regions to Chandragupta along with a marriage treaty, and in return received five hundred elephants.[77] The details of the engagement treaty are not known.[78] However, since the extensive sources available on Seleucus never mention an Indian princess, it is thought that the marital alliance went the other way, with Chandragupta himself or his son Bindusara marrying a Seleucid princess, in accordance with contemporary Greek practices to form dynastic alliances. An Indian Puranic source, the Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purana, described the marriage of Chandragupta with a Greek ("Yavana") princess, daughter of Seleucus.[79]

Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants to Seleucus, which played a key role in Seleucus' victory at the Battle of Ipsus.[80][81][82] 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.[83]

Conquests in Southern India

[edit]

After annexing Seleucus' provinces west of the Indus river, Chandragupta had a vast empire extending across the northern Indian sub-continent from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. Chandragupta began expanding his empire southwards beyond the Vindhya Range and into the Deccan Plateau.[46] By the time his conquests were complete, Chandragupta's empire extended over most of the subcontinent.[84]

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.[85] 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.[86] 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.[87]

Names and titles

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Greek writer Phylarchus (c. third century BCE), who is quoted by Athenaeus, calls Chandragupta "Sandrokoptos". The later Greco-Roman writers Strabo, Arrian, and Justin (c. second century) call him "Sandrocottus".[88] In Greek and Latin accounts, Chandragupta is known as Sandrakottos (Greek: Σανδράκοττος) and Androcottus (Greek: Ανδροκόττος).[89][90]

The king's epithets mentioned in the Sanskrit play Mudrarakshasa include "Chanda-siri" (Chandra-shri), "Piadamsana" (Priya-darshana), and Vrishala.[88] Piadamsana is similar to Priyadasi, an epithet of his grandson Ashoka.[91] The word "Vrishala" is used in Indian epics and law books to refer to non-orthodox people. According to one theory, it may be derived from the Greek royal title Basileus, but there is no concrete evidence of this: the Indian sources apply it to several non-royals, especially wandering teachers and ascetics.[92]

Empire

[edit]

There are no records of Chandragupta's military conquests and the reach of his empire. It is based on inferences from Greek and Roman historians and the religious Indian texts written centuries after his death. Based on these, the North-West reach of his empire included parts of present-day Afghanistan that Seleucus I Nicator ceded to him including Gedrosia, Aria, Paropamisadae, Arachosia and Gandhara.[75][93] These are the areas where his grandson Ashoka left the major Kandahar rock edict and other edicts in the Greek and Aramaic languages.[94][95]

Chandragupta Maurya Empire c.290 BCE

In the 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.[96] 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.[97]

There is uncertainty about the other conquests that Chandragupta may have achieved, especially in the Deccan region of southern India.[97] 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. 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.[98]

Maurya with his counsellor Chanakya together built one of the largest empires ever on the Indian subcontinent.[1][30][99] Chandragupta's empire extended from Bengal to central Afghanistan encompassing most of the Indian subcontinent except for Kalinga and Tamilakam, parts that are now Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.[100][30]

Reign

[edit]
Chandragupta Maurya period Karshapana coin, circa 315-310 B.C.[101]

After unifying much of India, Chandragupta and Chanakya passed a series of major economic and political reforms. Chandragupta established a strong central administration from Pataliputra (now Patna).[102] Chandragupta applied the statecraft and economic policies described in Chanakya's text Arthashastra.[103][104][105] There are varying accounts in the historic, legendary, and hagiographic literature of various Indian religions about Chandragupta's rule, but Allchin and Erdosy' are suspect; they state, "one cannot but be struck by the many close correspondences between the (Hindu) Arthashastra and the two other major sources the (Buddhist) Asokan inscriptions and (Greek) Megasthenes text".[106]

The Maurya rule was a structured administration; Chandragupta had a council of ministers (amatya), with Chanakya was his chief minister.[107][108] The empire was organised into territories (janapada), centres of regional power were protected with forts (durga), and state operations were funded with treasury (kosa).[109] Strabo, in his Geographica composed about 300 years after Chandragupta's death, describes aspects of his rule in his chapter XV.46–69. He had councillors for matters of justice and assessors to collect taxes on commercial activity and trade goods. He routinely performed Vedic sacrifices,[110] Brahmanical rituals,[111] and hosted major festivals marked by procession of elephants and horses. His officers inspected situations requiring law and order in the cities; the crime rate was low.[112]

According to Megasthenes, Chandragupta's rule was marked by three parallel administrative structures. One managed the affairs of villages, ensuring irrigation, recording land ownership, monitoring tools supply, enforcing hunting, wood products and forest-related laws, and settling disputes.[113] Another administrative structure managed city affairs, including all matters related to trade, merchant activity, visit of foreigners, harbors, roads, temples, markets, and industries. They also collected taxes and ensured standardized weights and measures.[113] The third administrative body overlooked the military, its training, its weapons supply, and the needs of the soldiers.[113]

Chanakya was concerned about Chandragupta's safety and developed elaborate techniques to prevent assassination attempts. Various sources report Chandragupta frequently changed bedrooms to confuse conspirators. He left his palace only for certain tasks: to go on military expeditions, to visit his court for dispensing justice, to offer sacrifices, for celebrations, and for hunting. During celebrations, he was well-guarded, and on hunts, he was surrounded by female guards who were presumed to be less likely to participate in a coup conspiracy. These strategies may have resulted from the historical context of the Nanda emperor who had come to power by assassinating the previous emperor.[114]

During Chandragupta's reign and that of his dynasty, many religions thrived in India, with Buddhism, Jainism and Ajivika gaining prominence along with other folk traditions.[115][116]

Infrastructure projects

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Coins
Silver punch mark coin (Karshapana) of the Maurya Empire, with symbols of wheel and elephant (3rd century BCE)

The empire built a strong economy from a solid infrastructure such as irrigation, temples, mines, and roads.[117][118] Ancient epigraphical evidence suggests Chandragupta, under counsel from Chanakya, started and completed many irrigation reservoirs and networks across the Indian subcontinent to ensure food supplies for the civilian population and the army, a practice continued by his dynastic successors.[106] Regional prosperity in agriculture was one of the required duties of his state officials.[119]

The strongest evidence of infrastructure development is found in the Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman in Gujarat, dated to about 150 CE. It states, among other things, that Rudradaman repaired and enlarged the reservoir and irrigation conduit infrastructure built by Chandragupta and enhanced by Asoka.[120] Chandragupta's empire also built mines, manufacturing centres, and networks for trading goods. His rule developed land routes to transport goods across the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta expanded "roads suitable for carts" as he preferred those over narrow tracks suitable for only pack animals.[121]

According to Kaushik Roy, the Maurya dynasty rulers were "great road builders".[118] The Greek ambassador Megasthenes credited this tradition to Chandragupta after the completion of a thousand-mile-long highway connecting Chandragupta's capital Pataliputra in Bihar to Taxila in the north-west where he studied. The other major strategic road infrastructure credited to this tradition spread from Pataliputra in various directions, connecting it with Nepal, Kapilavastu, Dehradun, Mirzapur, Odisha, Andhra, and Karnataka.[118] Roy stated this network boosted trade and commerce, and helped move armies rapidly and efficiently.[118]

Chandragupta and Chanakya seeded weapon manufacturing centres, and kept them as a state monopoly of the state. The state, however, encouraged competing private parties to operate mines and supply these centres.[122] They considered economic prosperity essential to the pursuit of dharma (virtuous life) and adopted a policy of avoiding war with diplomacy yet continuously preparing the army for war to defend its interests and other ideas in the Arthashastra.[123][124]

Arts and architecture

[edit]

The evidence of arts and architecture during Chandragupta's time is mostly limited to texts such as those by Megasthenese and Kautilya. The edict inscriptions and carvings on monumental pillars are attributed to his grandson Ashoka. The texts imply the existence of cities, public works, and prosperous architecture but the historicity of these is in question.[125]

Archeological discoveries in the modern age, such as those Didarganj Yakshi discovered in 1917 buried beneath the banks of the Ganges suggest exceptional artisanal accomplishment.[126][127] The site was dated to third century BCE by many scholars[126][127] but later dates such as the Kushan era (1st-4th century CE) have also been proposed. The competing theories state that the art linked to Chandragupta Maurya's dynasty was learnt from the Greeks and West Asia in the years Alexander the Great waged war; or that these artifacts belong to an older indigenous Indian tradition.[128] Frederick Asher of the University of Minnesota says "we cannot pretend to have definitive answers; and perhaps, as with most art, we must recognize that there is no single answer or explanation".[129]

Succession, renunciation, and death (Sallekhana)

[edit]
Inscription
1,300 years Old Shravanabelagola relief shows death of Chandragupta after taking the vow of Sallekhana. Some consider it about the legend of his arrival with Bhadrabahu.[27][17][18]
A statue depicting Chandragupta Maurya (right) with his spiritual mentor Acharya Bhadrabahu at Shravanabelagola.
Chandragupta Maurya having 16 auspicious dreams in Jainism

The circumstances and year of Chandragupta's death are unclear and disputed.[27][17][18] According to Digambara Jain accounts, Bhadrabahu 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.[130] These Jain accounts appeared in texts such as Brihakathā kośa (931 CE) of Harishena, Bhadrabāhu charita (1450 CE) of Ratnanandi, Munivaṃsa bhyudaya (1680 CE) and Rajavali kathe.[131][132][133] 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.[134][29][135]

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.[136] According to Roy, Chandragupta's abdication of throne may be dated to c. 298 BCE, and his death between 297 BCE and 293 BCE.[43] His grandson was Emperor Ashoka who is famed for his historic pillars and his role in helping spread Buddhism outside of ancient India.[137][135]

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.[138]

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,[27][17][18] 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).[17][18]

Jeffery D. Long – a scholar of Jain and Hindu studies – says in one Digambara version, it was Samprati Chandragupta who renounced, migrated and performed sallekhana in Shravanabelagola. Long states 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. The two Chandraguptas have been confused to be the same in some Digambara legends.[139]

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.[140] 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.[140] 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.[17][141][142]

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.[28] 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.[28] The legend mentions Chanakya aiding the premature birth of Bindusara,[28] It states in verse 8.444 that "Chandragupta died in meditation (can possibly be sallekhana.) and went to heaven".[143] According to Hemachandra's legend, Chanakya also performed sallekhana.[143]

The Footprints of Chandragupta Maurya on Chandragiri Hill, where Chandragupta (the unifier of India and founder of the Maurya Dynasty) performed Sallekhana.

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.[27] Other scholars have 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.[27]

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."[144] 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."[145]

Legacy

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British orientialist and philologist Sir William Jones (1746–1794) was the first to propose, in 1793, that Chandragupta Maurya known from the Sanskrit literature must be equivalent to the Indian king known as "Sandracottus" in Graeco-Roman historical sources. Jones' discovery "was of vital importance," states historian Sushma Jansari, because "it mean, for the first time, that Indian and Graeco-Roman history could be synchronised and dates assigned to this period of ancient Indian history." Consequently, Chandragupta's reign has been referred to as "the sheet anchor of Indian chronology."[146]

A memorial to Chandragupta Maurya exists on Chandragiri hill in Shravanabelagola, Karnataka.[147] The Indian Postal Service issued a commemorative postage stamp honouring Chandragupta Maurya in 2001.[148] Many Indian nationalists regard Chandragupta Maurya as first Emperor of United India and first king with a vision of uniting India.[149]

The stamp issued by Indian Postal Service commemorating Chandragupta Maurya in 2001
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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Sanskrit: चन्द्रगुप्त मौर्य IAST: Candragupta Maurya) (Pali: चन्दगुत्त मोरीय, Chandagutta Moriya) (Ancient Greek: Σανδράκοπτος, Sandrákoptos Σανδράκοττος, Sandrákottos Ανδροκόττος, Androkóttos
  2. ^ According to Grainger, Seleucus "must ... have held Aria" (Herat), and furthermore, his "son Antiochos was active there fifteen years later". (Grainger, John D. 1990, 2014. Seleukos Nikator: Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom. Routledge. p. 109).
  1. ^ Some early printed editions of Justin's work wrongly mentioned "Alexandrum" instead of "Nandrum"; this error was corrected in philologist J. W. McCrindle's 1893 translation. In the 20th century, historians Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri and R. C. Majumdar believed "Alexandrum" to be correct reading, and theorized that Justin refers to a meeting between Chandragupta and Alexander the Great ("Alexandrum"). However, this is incorrect: research by historian Alfred von Gutschmid in the preceding century had clearly established that "Nandrum" is the correct reading supported by multiple manuscripts: only a single defective manuscript mentions "Alexandrum" in the margin.[52]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Chandragupta Maurya, Emperor of India Archived 10 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopædia Britannica
  2. ^ Upinder Singh 2016, p. 330.
  3. ^ a b Upinder Singh 2016, p. 331.
  4. ^ Fisher, Michael (2018), An Environmental History of India, From the Earliest Times to the Twenty-First-Century, New Approaches in Asian History Series, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 71, ISBN 9781107111622, Chandragupta (r. 320 – c. 298 BCE) led a rebellion that seized power in Magadha and founded the Maurya Dynasty. He located his capital Pataliputra (today's Patna) at an especially strategic trading and defensive location, on the south bank of the Ganges where the Son River joined it. The actual origins of the Maurya family remain uncertain, but consensus holds that Chandragupta was low-born. One popular account asserts he was the previous king's son by a low-ranked queen or concubine and overthrew his royal half-brothers. Maurya means "peacock," and some Jain texts identify his family as low peacock herders, ranked by Brahmans as Shudra at best.
  5. ^ Chakrabarty, Dilip K. (2010), The Geopolitical Orbits of Ancient India: The Geographical Frames of the Ancient Indian Dynasties, New Delhi, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 29, ISBN 978-0-19-908832-4, We are assuming that the basic historical-geographical configuration of the Magadhan power was achieved before the beginning of the Maurya dynasty, whose founder Chandragupta Maurya simply added to it the stretch from the Indus valley to the southern foot of the Hindukush, giving the Mauryan India a strong foothold in the Oxus to the Indus interaction zone of Indian history. The evidence is in some cases, as in the cases of Gujarat, Bengal, and Assam, shadowy, but if Chandragupta had undertaken expeditions in these directions, there would have been echoes of these expeditions in the literary traditions.
  6. ^ Bose, Sugata; Jalal, Ayesha, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, London and New York: Routledge, p. 39, The political history of the centuries following the rise of Buddhism and Jainism saw the emergence and consolidation of powerful regional states in northern India. Among the strongest of these was the kingdom of Magadha, with its capital at Pataliputra (near the modern city of Patna). The Magadhan kingdom expanded under the Maurya dynasty in the fourth and fifth centuries BCE to become an empire embracing almost the whole of the subcontinent. Chandragupta Maurya founded the dynasty in 322 BCE, just a few years after Alexander the Great's brief foray into northwestern India. The Maurya empire reached its apogee under the reign of Ashoka (268–231 BCE)
  7. ^ Stein, Burton; Arnold, David (2010), A History of India (2 ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, p. 16, ISBN 978-1-4051-9509-6, Around 270 bce, the first Indian documentary records, issued by the Buddhist king Ashoka, were added to the Greek source. Though Ashoka's inscriptions were deciphered in the nineteenth century, we still cannot be sure about the political formation that existed under this Mauryan king, much less under the kingdom's founder, Ashoka's grandfather Chandragupta, who was possibly a contemporary of Alexander. Evidence in the form of a Sanskrit treatise called the Arthashastra – depicting a centralized, tyrannical, spy-ridden and compul sively controlling regime – probably does not pertain to Mauryan times. If its political world was not pure theory, it could only have been achieved within a small city-state, not a realm as vast as that defined by the distribution of Ashoka's inscriptions, over some 1500 miles from Afghanistan to southern India.
  8. ^ Ludden, David (2013), India and South Asia: A Short History, Oneworld Publications, pp. 29–30, ISBN 978-1-78074-108-6 Quote: "The geography of the Mauryan Empire resembled a spider with a small dense body and long spindly legs. The highest echelons of imperial society lived in the inner circle composed of the ruler, his immediate family, other relatives, and close allies, who formed a dynastic core. Outside the core, empire travelled stringy routes dotted with armed cities. Outside the palace, in the capital cities, the highest ranks in the imperial elite were held by military commanders whose active loyalty and success in war determined imperial fortunes. Wherever these men failed or rebelled, dynastic power crumbled. ... Imperial society flourished where elites mingled; they were its backbone, its strength was theirs. Kautilya’s Arthasastra indicates that imperial power was concentrated in its original heartland, in old Magadha, where key institutions seem to have survived for about seven hundred years, down to the age of the Guptas. Here, Mauryan officials ruled local society, but not elsewhere. In provincial towns and cities, officials formed a top layer of royalty; under them, old conquered royal families were not removed, but rather subordinated. In most janapadas, the Mauryan Empire consisted of strategic urban sites connected loosely to vast hinterlands through lineages and local elites who were there when the Mauryas arrived and were still in control when they left."
  9. ^ Ludden (2013, p. 47): "IMPERIAL BHARAT The Mauryas defined an ancient territory called Bharat. Marching along old trade routes, the empire acquired the geometrical shape of a tall triangle with a broad base, with its apex in Magadha. One long northern leg ran west up the Ganga, across Punjab, into the Hindu Kush; and one long leg ran south-west from Pataliputra, up the Son river valley, down the Narmada River into Berar, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. The broad base spanned Punjab, the Indus, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and western Maharashtra. The northwestern frontier revolved around Gandhara and Kashmir; the south-western frontier around Nasika, now Nasik, in Maharashtra. North of Kashmir and west of the Khyber Pass, Greek dynasties held sway. South of Nasika, the Mauryan presence consisted primarily of diplomatic missions."
  10. ^ Fisher (2018, p. 72): "Chandragupta’s many military and diplomatic conquests extended his overlordship further than any previous Indian ruler: from Afghanistan to Bengal and from the Himalayas down into the northern Deccan. But his administration lacked the technology and infrastructure to penetrate very deeply into society outside of Magadha."
  11. ^ Stein & Arnold (2010, p. 73): "In 305 BCE one of his successors attempted a reinvasion but was so fiercely resisted that he was forced to conclude a treaty with Chandragupta that accepted the latter’s sovereignty south of the Hindu Kush range."
  12. ^ Jansari 2023, pp. 20–22.
  13. ^ Majumdar, Raychauduhuri & Datta 1960.
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Sources

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Further reading

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Library resources about
Chandragupta Maurya
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Chandragupta Maurya
Maurya dynasty
Preceded by
Dhana Nanda
(as king of the Magadha Empire)
 Emperor of the Maurya Empire
322–297 BCE 		Succeeded by
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