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Chandragupta Maurya (322 – 298 BC)

Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the Mauryan Empire. He, at the young age of 25, captured Pataliputra from the last ruler of the Nanda dynasty, Dhanananda. In this task he was assisted by Kautilya, who was also known as Chanakya or Vishnugupta. After firmly establishing his power in the Gangetic valley, he marched to the northwest and subdued the territories up to the Indus. Then he moved to central India and occupied the region north of Narmada river.

The exact course of the events which led to the overthrow of the Nandas and the establishment of the Mauryas in their royal seat is not fully ascertained. Many alleged incidents of the revolution in Magadha are depicted vividly in the ancient political, drama entitled the ‘Signet of Rakshasa ’ (Mudrd-Rdkshasa), written, perhaps, in the fifth century after Christ. But it would be obviously unsafe to rely for a matter-of-fact historical narrative on a Work of imagination composed some seven centuries after the events dramatized. The information gleaned from other authorities is scanty, and in some respects discrepant. It appears, however, to be certain that Chandra or Chandragupta, who when quite young had met Alexander in 326 or 325 BC, was a scion of the Nandastock. According to some accounts he was a son of the last Nanda king by a low-born woman.

Acting under the guidance of his astute Brahman preceptor, Vishnugupta, better known by his patronymic Chanakya, or his surname Kautilya or Kautalya, Chandragupta, who had been exiled from Magadha, attacked the Macedonian ofiicers in command of the garrisons in the Indus basin after Alexander’s death, and destroyed them, with the aid of the northern nations. About the same time the youthful adventurer and his wily counsellor effected a revolution at Pataliputra (Patna), the capital of the Magadhan monarchy, and exterminated the Nanda family. It is not clear whether the Magadhan revolution preceded or followed the attack on the Macedonian garrisons. However that may have been, Chandragupta undoubtedly succeeded to the throne of Pataliputra, secured his position against all enemies, and established a gigantic empire.

Chandragupta Maurya is the first strictly historical person who can be roperly described as emperor of India. Alexander having died at Babylon in June, 323 BC, the news of his passing must have reached the Panjab a month or two later. It may be assumed with safety that the campaign against the foreign garrisons began in the following cold season of 323 to 322, and it cannot be far wrong to date Chandragupta’s accession in 322 BC. The Magadhan revolution seems to have occupied at least a year from beginning to end. If it had been completed before Alexander’s death, which is possible, the change of dynasty might be antedated to 325 BC. The true date certainly lies between 325 and 320 inclusive, which is sufficiently precise for most purposes.

Alexander not having left an heir capable of wielding his sceptre, his dominions were divided among his generals. The supreme power in Asia was disputed by Antigonos and Seleukos. After a long struggle the latter recovered Babylon in 312, and assumed the style of king six years later. He is known in history as Seleukos Nikator, the Conqueror, and is called King of Syria, but would be more accurately described as the King of Western Asia.

In 305 BC, Chandragupta Maurya marched against Selukas Niketar, who was Alexander’s General controlling the northwestern India. Chandragupta Maurya defeated him and a treaty was signed. By this treaty, Selukas Niketar ceded the trans-Indus territories – namely Aria, Arakosia and Gedrosia – to the Mauryan Empire. He also gave his daughter in marriage to the Mauryan prince. Chandragupta made a gift of 500 elephants to Selukas. Megasthenes was sent to the Mauryan court as Greek ambassador.

Chandragupta Maurya embraced Jainism towards the end of his life and stepped down from the throne in favour of his son Bindusara. Then he went to Sravana Belgola, near Mysore along with Jain monks led by Bhadrabhagu and starved himself to death.

The happy identification of Chandragupta Maurya with the Sandrocottos, or Sandrokuptos of the Greeks was first made by Sir William Jones, and its accuracy was since generally admitted: for the identification depends fully as much upon the similarity of their personal histories as upon the positive identity of their names. Sanskrit names translated into Greek baffled all conjecture, until about the year AD 1780, when it happily occurred to Sir William Jones that the Sandracottus of the Greeks might be the Chandragupta of the Hindus; and then it was observed that the Greeks often wrote the name Xandra Coptus, and that the Hindus in a similar manner wrote Chandra Gupta, — Chandra being the moon, and Gupta, protected by the family-name of several dynasties which flourished at various eras.

BC 325 was the date of Chandra Gupta's accession; thus making him a contemporary of Alexander the Great and Seleukos Nikator; a fact which has long since been proved by several passages from the Greek historians. It was a happy day for Indian history when this discovery was made, for one date being fixed there was hope of adjusting the rest; but very much had to be done, for Sanskrit literature had opened upon scholars as a sea without landmarks. The'Gods and the Kings floated free upon the waters, unfixed by dates. But now the drifting history began to find safe anchorage, and gradually Indra and Agni, Brahme and Brahma were ranged in chronological order; whilst Vishnu and Siva were forced to give up their claims to remote antiquity. The Greek invasion and the reign of Chandragupta were as strongholds, either before or after which all names and facts were to take their places; and it was on coins, and in inscriptions, or columns, rocks, temples, and statues, that names and facts were to be sought for. In 1787 Sir William Jones founded the Asiatic Society, in Calcutta.

It is impossible to reproduce in a reasonable space nearly all the information on record concerning the institutions of Chandragupta Maurya. and his immediate predecessors. Many probably will be surprised to learn of the existence at such an early date of a government so thoroughly organized, which anticipated in many respects the institutions of modern times. The dark spots on the picture are the appalling wickedness of the statecraft taught in the Arihasdsira and the hateful espionage which tainted the whole administration and was inspired by the wicked statecraft of the books. The policy inculcated by Kautilya or Chanakya was not the invention of an unscrupulous minister. The book attributed to him on substantial grounds is avowedly founded upon many earlier treatises no longer extant, all of which seem to have advocated the same principles. The author of the Arthasdstra, while frequently disagreeing with his predecessors concerning details, clearly was in general agreement with them concerning the policy to be pursued.