Chandragupta Maurya (reigned c. 320 BCE – c. 298 BCE) was the founder and the first emperor of the Maurya Empire, based in Magadha (present-day Bihar) in the Indian subcontinent.
His rise to power began in the period of unrest and local warfare that arose after Alexander the Great's Indian campaign and early death in 323 BCE, although the exact chronology and sequence of events remains subject to debate among historians. He started a war against the unpopular Nanda dynasty in Magadha on the Ganges Valley, defeated them and established his own dynasty. In addition, he raised an army to resist the Greeks, defeated them, and took control of the eastern Indus Valley. His conquest of Magadha is generally dated to c. 322–319 BCE, and his expansion to Punjab subsequently at c. 317–312 BCE, but some scholars have speculated that he might have initially consolidated his power base in Punjab, before conquering Magadha; an alternative chronology places these events all in the period c. 311–305 BCE. According to the play Mudrarakshasa, Chandragupta was assisted by his mentor Chanakya, who later became his minister. He expanded his reach subsequently into parts of the western Indus Valley and possibly eastern Afghanistan through a dynastic marriage alliance with Seleucus I Nicator c. 305–303 BCE. His empire also included Gujarat and a geographically extensive network of cities and trade-routes.
There are no historical facts about Chandragupta's origins and early life, only legends, while the narrative of his reign is mainly deduced from a few fragments in Greek and Roman sources, and a few Indian religious texts, all written centuries after his death. The prevailing levels of technology and infrastructure limited the extent of Chandragupta's rule, and the administration was decentralised, with provinces and local governments, and large autonomous regions within its limits. Chandragupta's reign, and the Maurya Empire, which reached its peak under his grandson Ashoka the Great, began an era of economic prosperity, reforms, infrastructure expansions. Buddhism, Jainism and Ājīvika prevailed over the non-Maghadian Vedic and Brahmanistic traditions, initiating, under Ashoka, the expansion of Buddhism, and the synthesis of Brahmanic and non-Brahmanic religious traditions which converged in Hinduism. His legend still inspires visions of an undivided Indian nation.
Historical sources
Chandragupta's confrontations with the Greeks and the Nanda king are shortly referred to in a few passages in Greek-Roman sources from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE. Impressions of India at that time are given by a number of other Greek sources. He is further mentioned in Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jain religious texts and legends, which give impressions of his later reception; they significantly vary in detail. According to Mookerji, the main sources on Chandragupta and his time, in chronological order are:
- Greek sources by three companions of Alexander, namely Nearchus, Onesicritus, and Aristobulus of Cassandreia, who write about Alexander and do not mention Chandragupta;
- The Greek ambassador Megasthanes, a contemporary of Chandragupta, whose works are lost, but fragments are preserved in the works of other authors, namely Greco-Roman authors Strabo (64 BCE–19 CE), Diodorus (died c. 36 BCE, wrote about India), Arrian (c. 130–172 CE, wrote about India), Pliny the Elder (1st cent. CE, wrote about India), Plutarch (c. 45–125 CE), and Justin (2nd cent. CE). According to Mookerji, without these sources this period would be "a most obscure chapter of Indian history."
- The Brahmanical Puranas (Gupta-times), religious texts which viewed the Nandas and Mauryas as illegitimate rulers, because of their shudra background;
- Later Brahmanical narratives include legends in Vishakhadatta's Mudrarakshasa (4th–8th century), Somadeva's Kathasaritsagara (11th century) and Kshemendra's Brihatkathamanjari (11th century). Mookerji includes the Arthasastra as a source, a text now dated to the 1st–3rd century CE, and attributed to Chanakya during Gupta-times.
- The earliest Buddhist sources are dated to the fourth-century CE or after, including the Sri Lankan Pali texts Dipavamsa (Rajavamsa section), Mahavamsa, Mahavamsa tika and Mahabodhivamsa.
- 7th to 10th century Jain inscriptions at Shravanabelgola; these are disputed by scholars as well as the Svetambara Jain tradition. The second Digambara text interpreted to be mentioning the Maurya emperor is dated to about the 10th-century such as in the Brhatkathakosa of Harisena (Jain monk), while the complete Jain legend about Chandragupta is found in the 12th-century Parisishtaparvan by Hemachandra.
The Greek and Roman texts do not mention Chandragupta directly, except for a second-century text written by the Roman historian Justin. They predominantly describe India, or mention the last Nanda emperor, who usurped the throne of the king before him (Curtis, Diodorus, Plutarch). 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 states that Chandragupta "achieved [India's] freedom", and "aspired to royalty by all men," as he offended Nanda and was ordered to death, but saved himself "by a speedy flight."
Plutarch states that Chandragupta, as a young man, saw Alexander the Great. 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.
The Brahmanical Puranic texts do not discuss the details of Chandragupta's ancestry, but rather cover the ancestry of the last Nanda king, and the restoration of just rule by Kautilya (Chanakya; the identification with Kautilya, the author of the Arthashastra, dates from a later period). The Nanda king is described to be cruel, against dharma and shastras, and born out of an illicit relationship followed by a coup. According to Mookerji, the Arthasastra refers to the Nanda rule as against the spiritual, cultural, and military interests of the country, a period where intrigue and vice multiplied. In a later addition, the Arthasastra states that the text was written by him who returned dharma, nurtured diversity of views, and ruled virtuously that kindled love among the subjects for his rule, an insertion linking the Guptas to the Mauryans.
Buddhist texts such as Mahavamsa describe Chandragupta to be of Kshatriya origin. 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. These Buddhist sources attempt to link the dynasty of their patron Ashoka directly to the Buddha. 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). 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. The Maha-bodhi-vasa states he hailed from Moriya-nagara, while the Digha-Nikaya states he came from the Maurya clan of Pipphalivana. The Buddhist sources also mention that "Brahmin Chanakya" was his counselor and with whose support Chandragupta became the king at Patliputra. He has also been controversially linked with Sisikottus (or Śaśigupta, which has same etymology as of Chandragupta), an Indian dynast appointed by Alexander in Paropamisadae, on the account of similar names.
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. 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. 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. 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.
Date
None of the ancient texts mention when Chandragupta was born. Plutarch claims that Chandragupta in his youth saw Alexander the Great during the latter's invasion of India (c. 326–325 BCE):
Androcottus [Chandragupta], when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself, and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly missed making himself master of the country, since its king was hated and despised on account of his baseness and low birth.
Assuming the Plutarch account is true, Raychaudhuri proposed in 1923 that Chandragupta may have been born after 350 BCE. There is also a passage of Justin's history which had been read as referring to a meeting between Chandragupta and Alexander. However, according to Thomas Trautmann, this was a due to mistranslation in early printed book, and the correct reading was Nandrum (Nanada king), rather than Alexandrum.
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.
According to other Greco-Roman texts, Chandragupta attacked the Greek-Indian governors during a period of unrest and local warfare after Alexander's death (died c. 323 BCE), acquiring control of the eastern Indus Valley. The chronology and dating of Chandragupta's activities in the Punjab is uncertain, either before or after he took the Nanda-throne. The defeat of the Greeks is dated by Mookerji at 323; Jansari dates the arrival of Chandragupta in the Punjab at c. 317, in line with the chronology of Greek history.
The texts do not include the start or end year of Chandragupta's reign. According to some Hindu and Buddhist texts, Chandragupta ruled for 24 years. The Buddhist sources state Chandragupta Maurya ruled 162 years after the death of the Buddha. 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. 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.
Historians such as Irfan Habib and Vivekanand Jha assign Chandragupta's reign to c. 322–298 BCE. Upinder Singh dates his rule from 324 or 321 BCE to 297 BCE. Kristi Wiley states he reigned between 320 and 293 BCE. Jansari, admitting that c.320/319 is the date conventionally accepted by most scholars, follows Cribb in re-assessing Justin (XV section 4.12-22), who states that Chandragupta's became "'ruler of India' when Seleucus was 'laying the foundations' of his own empire." According to Jansari, "this reference appears to refer to the period c.311– c.308," implying that "Chandragupta gained power, and was possibly already the first Mauryan king, between c.311 and c.305 BCE."
Chandragupta and Seleucus Nicator entered into a dynastic marriage-alliance at c. 305–303 BCE.
The circumstances and year of Chandragupta's death are also unclear and disputed. According to Roy, Chandragupta's abdication of throne may be dated to c. 298 BCE, and his death between 297 and 293 BCE.
Name
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". In Greek and Latin accounts, Chandragupta is known as Sandrakottos (Greek: Σανδράκοττος) and Androcottus (Greek: Ανδροκόττος).
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 meant, 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."
Titles
The king's epithets mentioned in the Sanskrit play Mudrarakshasa include "Chanda-siri" (Chandra-shri), "Piadamsana" (Priya-darshana), and Vrishala. Piadamsana is similar to Priyadasi, an epithet of his grandson Ashoka. 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. Chandragupta also received the epithet "Sandrokottos the Great" (Σανδροκόττος ο Μέγας) after decisively defeating the Seleucid Empire.