Chandragupta Maurya

Topic: The Mauryan Empire · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"; Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"

Meaning

Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya Empire in c. 321 BCE. He took over the Nanda kingdom of Magadha, defeated the Greek governors in the north-west, and was the first ruler to bring most of India under one administration [2].

He matters because his empire is called the first pan-Indian empire. For the first time, one throne ruled from the north-west down to the Deccan [4].

Explanation

Background: why Magadha, and why then

• Alexander of Macedon left India around 325 BCE and died in 323 BCE.
• His empire broke up among his generals.

• This left Greek satraps (governors Alexander had left behind) in the north-west, with weak control there.

• Magadha was already a strong state under the Nandas.

• It had a rich treasury, a large army and a capital at Pāṭaliputra (today's Patna, Bihar).

• Chandragupta did not build from nothing. He took over a ready-made state and then expanded it.

• Dates differ a little between sources:

• NCERT puts the founding at c. 321 BCE.
• Britannica dates his takeover of the Magadha throne to c. 325 BCE and his winning of the Punjab to c. 322 BCE. It starts the dynasty the year after [2].
• These are two readings of the same few years, not two different events [2].

Kautilya: the mentor behind the throne

• Kauṭilya = Chāṇakya = Viṣhṇugupta. These are three names for one man, Chandragupta's teacher and guide.
• Buddhist texts say he taught at Takṣhaśhila (Taxila), a famous centre of learning in the north-west.
• The legend of the insult (from later texts):
• Kautilya advised the last Nanda king, Dhana Nanda, to change his ways.
• The king insulted him and threw him out of court.

• Kautilya vowed to end Nanda rule and found a young Chandragupta to do it.

• Britannica calls Kautilya a Brahman statesman and philosopher and Chandragupta's chief minister [2][3].

• The Arthaśhāstra ("science of wealth" or "science of statecraft") is credited to him. It is a manual on politics and government in 15 sections (books) [3].
• It tells how a state should be run. It is not a history of Chandragupta's reign.

Building the empire: sequence of events

• c. 321 BCE: he takes Magadha from the Nandas and keeps Pāṭaliputra as his capital.
• North-west: he defeats the Greek satraps and takes their land.
• 305 BCE: war with Seleucus I Nicator. Seleucus was one of Alexander's generals and ruled the Seleucid kingdom in Iran [4].
• The war ended in a treaty.
• Seleucus gave up the lands west of the Indus (the trans-Indus provinces) to the Mauryas [4].

• Chandragupta gave Seleucus 500 elephants [4].

• Final extent:

• NCERT: as far north-west as Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and from the northern plains down to the Deccan plateau.
• Britannica: from the Himalayas and the Kābul river valley in the north and west to the Vindhya range in the south [2].

Results: diplomacy with the Greeks

• After the war, he kept friendly relations with the Greeks, and the two sides exchanged envoys (ambassadors) [4].
• Megasthenes, a Greek historian and diplomat sent by Seleucus, came to his court around 302 BCE [4][5].
• Megasthenes wrote Indika, the first written foreign account of India. It was a four-book work [5].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: late 4th century BCE. The Maurya Empire was founded c. 321 BCE, the treaty with Seleucus came in 305 BCE, and Megasthenes arrived c. 302 BCE.
• Dynasty: the Mauryas, who replaced the Nandas of Magadha.
• Places: Pāṭaliputra (Patna, Bihar) was the capital. Takṣhaśhila (Taxila) was where Kautilya taught. The north-west frontier reached Afghanistan and Baluchistan.
• Key people: Chandragupta Maurya, Kautilya (Chāṇakya), Dhana Nanda, Seleucus I Nicator and Megasthenes.
• How we know: written sources
• The Arthaśhāstra is credited to Kautilya. It is a guide to statecraft, not a record of events [3].
• Megasthenes' Indika is lost. It survives only as quotations in later Greek writers such as Strabo and Arrian [4][6].
• Later Buddhist and Jain texts carry the legends about Kautilya and the Nandas.

• A 19th-century English translation of the surviving fragments was collected by Dr Schwanbeck and printed with Arrian's Indika. It is held by the Library of Congress [6].

• Megasthenes on Pāṭaliputra (the Greeks called it Palibothra), as quoted by Strabo and Arrian and repeated by the ASI [4]:

• it lay where the Ganga met the Erannaboas river;
• it was about 14.5 km long and 2.4 km wide and shaped like a parallelogram (a long, slanted rectangle);
• it had a wooden wall with 570 towers, 64 gates and loop-holes (narrow slits for shooting arrows);
• it was guarded by a ditch about 182 m wide and 14 m deep.

Don't confuse with

• Chandragupta I (Gupta dynasty): he was a Gupta ruler of the 4th century CE, more than 600 years later. Chandragupta Maurya founded the Maurya dynasty in c. 321 BCE.
• Ashoka: he was Chandragupta's grandson, a later Mauryan king known for dhamma and his inscriptions. The founding, the Nanda takeover and the Seleucus treaty belong to Chandragupta.
• Kautilya's Arthaśhāstra vs Megasthenes' Indika: the Arthaśhāstra is an Indian manual of statecraft in 15 books [3]. The Indika is a Greek traveller's account in four books, now lost [5].
• Seleucus I Nicator vs Alexander: Alexander left India c. 325 BCE and never fought Chandragupta. Seleucus, his general, fought and made the treaty in 305 BCE [4].

Prelims Hooks

• c. 321 BCE: Chandragupta Maurya founds the Maurya Empire after taking Nanda territory. His capital was Pāṭaliputra (Patna).
• Kauṭilya = Chāṇakya = Viṣhṇugupta. He taught at Takṣhaśhila, and the Nanda king of the legend is Dhana Nanda. The Arthaśhāstra has 15 books [3].
• 305 BCE treaty with Seleucus I Nicator: the trans-Indus provinces went to Chandragupta and 500 elephants went to Seleucus [4].
• Megasthenes was Seleucus's envoy at Chandragupta's court (c. 302 BCE). He wrote the Indika in four books. It is lost and known only through Strabo and Arrian [4][5][6].
• Palibothra = Pāṭaliputra. Megasthenes described it as 14.5 km × 2.4 km, with a wooden wall, 570 towers and 64 gates [4].
• Chronology trap: Alexander leaves India (c. 325 BCE) → Alexander dies (323 BCE) → Maurya Empire founded (c. 321 BCE) → Seleucus treaty (305 BCE) → Megasthenes arrives (c. 302 BCE).

Mains Points

• Conquest and diplomacy worked together.
• Chandragupta used force to take Magadha and the north-west.
• The 305 BCE treaty then gave him a fixed north-west border, an elephant deal and an exchange of envoys with a Hellenistic kingdom [4].

• This is a useful example of early Indian foreign policy: power rested on arms and on settled agreements.

• The problem of sources.

• The Arthaśhāstra shows an ideal state, not what actually happened.
• The Indika survives only in second-hand Greek quotations [4][6].
• The Kautilya legends come from later Buddhist and Jain texts.

• So historians must check each source carefully before treating it as fact.

• Legend versus history. The story of Kautilya and Dhana Nanda gives a neat reason for the Nandas' fall. It shows how Indian tradition remembered the founding, even though the details cannot be proved. A good answer separates the founder-legend from the events we can confirm: the c. 321 BCE founding, the Seleucus treaty and Megasthenes' embassy.

Related concepts

• Mauryan empire
• Kautilya
• Seleucus-Chandragupta treaty
• Megasthenes
• Indika
• Deimachus
• Dionysius

Read more

• Chandragupta Maurya and Kautilya: founding the empire (c. 321 BCE)