Chandragupta's origins are uncertain: some sources say he was of humble birth, others that he belonged to the Moriya clan of Kshatriyas. All agree that as a young man he met Chanakya, the brahmin scholar of Takshashila who had been insulted at the court of the Nanda king and had sworn to overthrow him.
प्रजासुखे सुखं राज्ञः प्रजानां च हिते हितम्“In the happiness of his subjects lies the king's happiness; in their welfare, his welfare.”Arthashastra 1.19.34, by his minister Chanakya
Trained by Chanakya, Chandragupta raised an army and, around 321 BCE, captured Pataliputra and ended the Nanda dynasty. Greek writers knew him as Sandrokottos.
Building an empire
After Alexander's death his generals still held the northwest. Chandragupta drove out the Greek garrisons and, around 305 BCE, fought Seleucus Nicator, Alexander's successor in the east. The war ended in a treaty: Seleucus gave up Arachosia, Gedrosia and parts of present-day Afghanistan in exchange for 500 war elephants, and there was a marriage alliance. Chandragupta's empire stretched from Afghanistan to Bengal and south into the Deccan.
Pataliputra
Seleucus sent an ambassador, Megasthenes, whose book Indica survives in fragments. He describes the great wooden-walled city of Pataliputra, a well-organised administration, a large standing army, and a people he found honest and law-abiding. Chanakya's Arthashastra sets out the statecraft of the age.
Renunciation
Jain tradition says that in his last years Chandragupta gave up the throne to his son Bindusara, became a disciple of the Jain teacher Bhadrabahu, and went south with him during a famine. There, on Chandragiri hill at Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, he fasted unto death in the Jain rite of sallekhana. A cave and temple on the hill bear his name.
How they are remembered
His grandson Ashoka carried the Mauryan empire to its height. Vishakhadatta's Sanskrit play Mudrarakshasa and countless later stories and serials retell how Chandragupta and Chanakya won an empire.
Ekatmata Stotra · Stanza 22
Named in Stanza 22 of the Ekatmata Stotra — the architects of empire — Chanakya to Bappa Rawal.
चाणक्यश्च चन्द्रगुप्तो विक्रमादित्यशालिवाहनौ।
समुद्रगुप्तो हर्षः शैलेन्द्रो बप्पारावलः॥
Sources: Wikipedia: Chandragupta Maurya · Wikipedia: Maurya Empire. Written afresh for The Hindu Book; corrections welcome at [email protected].
