Chandragupta Maurya
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Chandragupta Maurya
Mauryan Emperor
Indian postage stamp depicting Chandragupta Maurya
Reign
322 BC-298 BC
Born
340 BC
Died
298 BC
Successor
Bindusara
Royal House
Mauryan dynasty
Mother
Mura
Chandragupta Maurya (Sanskrit: चन्द्रगुप्त मौर्य), sometimes known simply as Chandragupta (born c. 340 BC, ruled c. 320[1] – 298 BC[2]), was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in bringing together most of the Indian subcontinent. As a result, Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and the first genuine emperor of India.[3] In foreign Greek and Latin accounts, Chandragupta is known as Sandrokuptos (Σανδρόκυπτος), Sandrokottos (Σανδρόκοττος) or Androcottus.[4]
Prior to Chandragupta's consolidation of power, small regional kingdoms dominated the northwestern sub-continent, while the Nanda Empire dominated the Gangetic plain.[5] After Chandragupta's conquests, the Maurya Empire extended from Bengal and Assam[6] in the East, to Afghanistan and Balochistan in the West, to Kashmir(North-West) and Nepal(North-East) [7] in the North, and to the Deccan Plateau in the South.[8]
His achievements, which ranged from defeating Alexander's Macedonian satrapies and conquering the Nanda Empire by the time he was only about 20 years old, to defeating Seleucus Nicator and establishing centralized rule throughout Southern Asia, remain some of the most celebrated in Indian history. Over two thousand years later, the accomplishments of Chandragupta and his successors, including Asoka the Great, are objects of great study in the annals of South Asian and world history.
While many Indian historians hold the view that Chandragupta was an illegitimate child of the Nanda Dynasty of Magadha in eastern India, born to a Nanda prince and a maid named "Mura",[9] other later literary traditions imply that Chandragupta may have been raised by peacock-tamers (Sanskrit: Mayura-Poshaka), which earned him the Maurya epithet. Both the Buddhist as well as Jaina traditions testify to the supposed connection between the Moriya (Maurya) and Mora or Mayura (Peacock).[10] Yet there are other literary traditions according to which Chandragupta belonged to Moriyas, a Kshatriya (warrior) clan of a little ancient republic of Pippalivana located between Rummindei in the Nepali Terai and Kasia in the Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
There are differing theories regarding Chandragupta Maurya’s origins. Some regard Chandragupta to have originated from Magadha, possibly as the son of a Nanda prince and a maid named "Mura".[9][11] A kshatriya people known as the "Mauryas" who had received the relics of the Buddha are also mentioned in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Digha Nikaya. Then the Moriyas of Pipphalivana came to know that at Kusinara the Blessed One had passed away. And they sent a message to the Mallas of Kusinara, saying: "The Blessed One was of the warrior caste, and we are too. We are worthy to receive a portion of the relics of the Blessed One. We will erect a stupa over the relics of the Blessed One and hold a festival in their honor."
Others claim that the Mauryas were the Muras or rather Mors, and another view of a Jat origin of Indo-Scythian lineage has been proposed.[12][13][14] Another school of thought, including scholars such as B. M. Barua,[15] Dr J. W. McCrindle, Dr D. B. Spooner [16], Dr H. C. Seth [17], Dr Hari Ram Gupta [18], Dr Ranajit Pal[19] and Kirpal Singh have connected Chandragupta to Gandhara (or Kamboja) in modern day Pakistan. Based on interpretations of Plutarch and Appian's writings, these scholars assert that Chandragupta Maurya may have belonged to the north-west frontier region, possibly to the Assakenoi or Ashvaka (q.v.) Kshatriya clan of Swat/Kunar valley ( modern Koh-I-Mor or Mer-coh — the Meros of the classical writings; probably Meru of Sanskrit texts and Mor and Mer in Prakritic) [20] [21] [22]. As Chandragupta belonged to this region (called Mor), the dynasty founded by him was called Moriya or Maurya [23] [24].
Although no archaeological relics of Chandragupta Maurya are known from Patna or anywhere else, Dr. Ranajit Pal maintains[1] that the two Laghman Aramaic inscriptions belong to Chandragupta Maurya, not Ashoka. Accoding to him Orontobates who fought against Alexander the Great was Chandragupta. In many manuscripts of the Sanskrit drama Mudrarakshasa, Rantivarma takes the place of Chandragupta which shows that this was another name of Chandragupta like Sashigupta. Rantivarma is the same as Orontobates. Dr. Pal also suggests that Andragoras whose coins depict the famous Sun's quadriga was Androcottos or Chandragupta. From Diodorus' report it can be seen that Tiridates who handed over the fabulous treasury of Persepolis to Alexander, was in fact Chandragupta[2]. Dr. Pal also holds that Mithridates–II who, according to Diodorus, rose to the throne of Pontus in 337 B.C. (Diod. xvi. 90.) was Chandragupta. The Ashvakas were a section of the Kambojas, who were exclusively engaged in horse-culture and were noted for providing mercenary cavalry. [25] [26].
Dr. Ranajit Pal makes the dramatic suggestion [3] that Alexander the Great knew Orontobates intimately as there was a princess between the two. In his youth Alexander wanted to marry Ada II, the daughter of Pixodarus but this was negated by his father. Incidentally Orontobates married a daughter of Pixodarus, who was probably the same as Ada II. This makes it very likely that the relation between the two was far more complex than what Justin or even Plutarch knew.
Prof. Robin Lane Fox has written that Sisines the Persian who is said to have met Alexander in Cilicia was in fact an ally of the latter. Dr. Ranajit Pal suggests that Sisines was the same as Sisicottus or Sashigupta. He also makes the startling suggestion that Diodotus of Erythrae was the same as Chandragupta who had joined hands with the Generals to poison Alexander[4].