Chandragupta Maurya

Indian emperor (r. c. 321-301 b.c.e.)

• Born: c. 346 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Magadha (now in India)
• Died: 298 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Mysore (now Karnataka, India)

Chandragupta Maurya established the Mauryan Dynasty and empire in India. He and his successors were the first to establish near unity in the subcontinent.

Early Life

In the fourth century b.c.e., the Indian subcontinent was divided into more than a dozen kingdoms stretching east to west, from the Ganges to the Indus. The most powerful of these kingdoms was Magadha, based on its capital Pataliputra (the modern Patna) on the Ganges River. Chandragupta Maurya (CHUHN-druh-GEWP-tuh MAW-oor-yuh) was born here around 346 b.c.e. Despite his importance, very little information has survived concerning the early life of Chandragupta. His social status is often disputed, but it is possible he was related to the ruling Nanda Dynasty (c. 420-321 b.c.e.).

Life’s Work

Around 327 b.c.e., Chandragupta apparently rose up in rebellion against the Magadha raja (king) Dhanananda (also known as Chandramas Nanda, and Agrammes or Xandramas to the Greeks; d. c. 321 b.c.e.). The rebellion failed and Chandragupta fled west. He found refuge with the raja Porus (d. c. 318 b.c.e.). Further information comes not from Indian but from Greek sources. During this same period, great events had been happening in the west, beyond the Hindu Kush Mountains. For more than two centuries, the greatest empire on earth had been that of Persia, stretching all the way from Egypt and the borders of Greece in the west, into India itself. At this time, reports arrived in India bringing the news that a great king from Yavanna (Greece) had conquered the Persians. This king was the Macedonian Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 b.c.e.). However, Alexander was not content with the conquest of Persia, but in fact intended to conquer the entire world. (The Greeks’ geographical knowledge was faulty; they believed the world ended somewhere in India.)

In 330 b.c.e., Alexander set out for the east. After difficult fighting, he entered India in 327. Porus was the first Indian raja to challenge Alexander, and a great battle was fought at the Hydaspes River in 326. After a difficult struggle, Alexander was victorious. However, following the battle his men refused to go any farther. They had marched for eight years and an estimated 17,000 miles (27,000 kilometers). Now they wanted to return home to enjoy their newfound wealth. They had also heard rumors that India was far larger than previously believed.

They were told that there were hundreds of thousands of infantrymen, thousands of cavalrymen, and worst of all, thousands of war elephants waiting for them farther down the road. These numbers were actually fairly accurate for the unified India that would arise a short time later during Chandragupta’s rule. Despite their victory at the Hydaspes, the Macedonian soldiers did not want to face elephants in battle again. They forced Alexander to turn back. This did not mean Alexander intended to give up the territories he conquered in India. Before leaving, Alexander made arrangements for Macedonian rule in the subcontinent. Porus was allowed to keep his kingdom, though he would now be subordinate to Alexander. The other regions Alexander had conquered would be run by Macedonian governors, backed by Macedonian garrisons. Alexander left India never to return. By 323 he was dead. Immediately, there was a struggle for power among Alexander’s generals. His governors in India returned to the west to participate in a struggle that would drag on for decades.

It was in this unsettled situation that Chandragupta, whom the Greeks called Sandrocottus, began his spectacular rise to power. Apparently, he was with Porus during the struggle with Alexander. Legends even suggest that Alexander and Chandragupta met at this time. Supposedly, Alexander was dismissive of the youth. Nevertheless, Chandragupta may have been inspired by Alexander’s successes and his attempt to unify the world. At the very least, he took advantage of the unsettled conditions created by Alexander’s campaigns in western India. Though the exact circumstances are unknown, Chandragupta raised an army, possibly with the help of Porus. The army consisted of infantry soldiers, war elephants, and archers with 5-foot (1.5-meter) bows and 9-foot (2.7-meter) arrows. Beginning in 324 b.c.e., Chandragupta conquered substantial territory in western India, driving out the remaining Macedonians in the process. By 321, he felt strong enough to attack his homeland of Magadha. He captured the capital of Pataliputra and Dhanananda was killed, bringing the Nanda Dynasty to an end. Chandragupta established the Mauryan Dynasty and empire, which stretched in a crescent along India’s two great rivers, the Ganges and the Indus, from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. This was the first time in history such a large part of the subcontinent and such a large percentage of its people had been under one government.

Unfortunately, Indian sources again fail; there is no information concerning Chandragupta’s activities during the next sixteen years. It is presumed that he spent this time wisely consolidating his power. Chandragupta again appears in 305 b.c.e., and once again the information derives from Greek sources. In the west, after almost twenty years of fighting, a number of Alexander’s generals had established themselves in positions of power throughout Alexander’s old empire. The most powerful of Alexander’s epigoni (“successors” in Greek) was Seleucus I Nicator (c. 358/354-281 b.c.e.). His kingdom stretched across the Middle East to the Hindu Kush Mountains. Since he had inherited Alexander’s power in these regions, he also claimed hegemony over Alexander’s provinces in India, which had since been lost. In 305, Seleucus felt secure enough in the west to attempt to regain the lost territories in India. Seleucus then moved into the Punjab with an army. However, unlike Alexander, Seleucus did not find a divided subcontinent. Instead, much of India was now unified under Mauryan rule. Seleucus found himself confronted by an Indian army, which included 500,000 infantry, 50,000 cavalry, and 9,000 war elephants. Unfortunately, even the Greek sources are sketchy. It is unclear whether a battle was actually fought; all that is known is that a peace treaty was signed that was highly favorable to Chandragupta. Seleucus renounced all claims to Alexander’s Indian provinces (in fact, the Greeks would never return to India). Seleucus gave up all the passes through the Hindu Kush as well as the satrapies (provinces) Gedrosia and Arachosia (now in southern Afghanistan and Pakistan) on the western side of the mountains that had long been part of the old Persian Empire. Mauryan power now stretched beyond the subcontinent. Last but not least, Seleucus gave his daughter in marriage to Chandragupta.

Seleucus did, however, receive two important things in return. First, there was lasting peace between the Seleucid and Mauryan Empires. This allowed Seleucus to concentrate on what were, for him, more important matters in the west. Second, Chandragupta gave Seleucus five hundred war elephants. A short time later, Seleucus fought one of the major battles of his career, the Battle of Ipsus in 301 b.c.e. At this battle, Chandragupta’s elephants proved decisive. The victory doubled the size of Seleucus’s empire and led to the death of Antigonus I Monophthalmos (382-301 b.c.e.), the last man actively attempting to reunify all of Alexander’s former empire. Though Seleucus was now the most powerful ruler in the western world, it is important to remember he had been humbled by the might of Chandragupta.

Seleucus’s relations with Chandragupta provide another valuable glimpse into the India of the time. Sometime around 300 b.c.e., Seleucus sent an ambassador named Megasthenes (c. 350-c. 290 b.c.e.) to the court of Chandragupta at Pataliputra. Megasthenes composed a number of reports on India. Unfortunately the originals have been lost, but some information survived in later authors. Megasthenes provided details about the capital. He reported that, among other interesting facts, the city walls of Pataliputra were about 21 miles (34 kilometers) in length. Megasthenes also described in detail Indian society, noting, among other things, the seven ranks into which that society was divided.

Another, possibly contemporary native source also provides information on Chandragupta’s India. The Arthaśāstra (c. fourth century b.c.e.-c. third century c.e.; Treatise on the Good, 1961) was supposedly, at least in part, written by Chandragupta’s chief adviser Kauṭilya. This work is a manual designed to teach rulers how to increase their own power at the expense of their enemies. It also describes in some detail the political, military, and economic situation in India. Unfortunately, much of it may have been composed after Chandragupta’s reign and therefore does not shed much light on Chandragupta himself or on his specific contribution to Indian politics.

The lack of information that has plagued the study of Chandragupta follows him into old age. One tradition states that Chandragupta was a Jain. This Indian religion taught, among other things, that self-torture and starvation were the best ways to attain peace in the afterlife, a peace similar to nirvana. According to this legend, Chandragupta voluntarily abdicated the throne in 301, allowing his son Bindusāra (r. c. 298-273 b.c.e.) to become the next emperor. Chandragupta then retired to a Jain monastery in Karnataka in southern India. There, in 298 b.c.e., he starved himself to death in accordance with Jain tradition.

Significance

Chandragupta Maurya established the first great Indian state. Though little information has survived, his son Bindusāra continued the expansion of the empire, apparently conquering the Deccan Plateau. The zenith of the empire was reached during the reign of Chandragupta’s grandson Aśoka (c. 302-c. 238 b.c.e.; r. c. 273/265-238 b.c.e.). He gained the throne only after winning a civil war and eliminating his numerous brothers. In 261, he completed the expansion of the empire by adding Kalinga along India’s eastern coast. This resulted in 100,000 deaths and 150,000 refugees. He was so horrified by his own acts that he converted to Buddhism. He spent the rest of his reign attempting to live up to the Buddha’s teachings.

After Aśoka’s reign, the empire began to falter. Indian sources do not even agree on the identities of later Mauryan emperors. The Mauryan Dynasty came to an end in 184 b.c.e. The last emperor, Bṛhadratha, was assassinated by one of his own generals. Altogether, the Mauryan Dynasty lasted almost 140 years and provided India with unity and peace for the first time. The Mauryan Dynasty would be a model and inspiration for all the dynasties that followed, from the Guptas to the Mughals and beyond. This was the achievement of Chandragupta.

The Kings of the Mauryan Dynasty

c. 321-301

• Chandragupta Maurya

298-273

• Bindusāra

273/265-238

• Aśoka

232-225

• Kunala

232-225

• Daśaratha

225-215

• Samprati

215-202

• Salisuka

202-195

• Devavarman

195-187

• Satadhanvan

187-185

• Bṛhadratha

Bibliography

Bongard-Levin, G. Mauryan India. New Delhi: Stosius, 1985. Provides a comprehensive look at the entire Mauryan Dynasty, from its rise under Chandragupta to its zenith under Aśoka to its eventual demise.

Kulke, Hermann, and Dietmar Rothermund. History of India. New York: Routledge, 1998. Provides an overview of Indian history, allowing the reader a look at the centuries preceding Chandragupta’s rise to power and the development of India socially, religiously, and economically.

Mookerji, R. K. Chandragupta Maurya and His Times. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1960. The best and most detailed biography of Chandragupta in English.

Sastri, K. A. The Age of the Nandas and Mauryas. Benares: Motilal Banarsidass, 1952. This book not only focuses on the Mauryans but also provides one of the few detailed looks at the Nanda Dynasty, which created a powerful state along the Ganges in eastern India and to some extent helped set the stage for Chandragupta’s unification.

Thapar, R. The Mauryas Revisited. Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi, 1987. Provides a detailed survey of the Mauryans.

Wolpert, Stanley. A New History of India. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Another fine introduction to Indian history with an eye to the later impact of the country’s first imperial ruler.