Chandragupt Mourya King of Maurya Empire

 kings of India: Ancient Indian history: Chandragupta Maurya

 Chandragupta Maurya: Founder of Maurya Empire

Chandragupta Maurya (340B.C-297B.C) is a first king who unites the all the kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent in his empire the Maurya empire stretched from Bengal and Assam in the east to the Deccan plateau in the south in west border crosses presently Pakistan and in north stretch Kashmir to Nepal.

The early life of Chandragupta Maurya (340B.C-297B.C):

         Chandragupta Maurya birth origin proof not available in history but there are many theories that state the origin and birth of Chandragupta some of the theories are given below

1         1. According to an ancient drama, MUDRARAKSHAS  referred to Chandragupta as “NANDANWAY” which means the descendants (son) of Dhananand which was the last king of Nand empire.

2      2.  According to a literature  BharatenduHarishchandra , Chandragupta was the son of Dhananand and MORA that’s why he is starting to call as MAURYA.

3.     3.  In Buddhist tradition Chandragupta belonged to Maurya Kshatriya community, It may be possible that the line of Kshatriya is considered to be a descendant of Gautama Buddha and Samrat Ashoka Maurya had described himself as Buddhist, and they are related to Suryavanshiya dynasty of Kshatriya.

CHANDRAGUPTA  MAURYA

Chandragupta Maurya  and Chanakya relation :

     Chandragupta’s history without Arya Chanakya looks like milk without water, Arya Chanakya is the person who made Chandragupta the Samrat of India .

     One story was very popular in India that Chandragupta introduced game named as Rajkillam, in that game he used to be king and made his friends as his ministers , he also organizes Rajya Sabha which he acts as to give justice to the people , Arya Chanakya had seen Chandragupta Maurya in similar Rajya Sabha of the children and gets impressed by Chandragupta and choose him as disciple.

ARYA CHANKYA

Establishment of MAURYA EMPIRE

    In 324 B.C Alexander decided to return to Greece but he left his legacy of Greek rulers who now rules over the part of ancient India, Chandragupta with collaboration with Chankya   forms an alliance with local rulers and started a front against the Greek rulers and got succeed resulting in expansion of  their territory until establishment of Maurya empire.

End of The Nand empire

    Arya Chanakya has an opportunity to take revenge of Dhananand a king of Nand empire who insulted him so intelligent Chanakya had not lost this opportunity and initiate a front against NAND empire with the help of Chandragupta and  Himalaya region king PARVARTKA  and got huge success which results in a fall of NAND empire.

MAURYA EMPIRE

Achievements of CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA :

     After defeating the Nand empire Chandragupta open a war against Macedonian satrapies in the northwest region of the Indian subcontinent and after defeating him he then turn towards the Greek ruler Seleucus  who was ruling vast area of India captured by Alexander , But the Seleucus  offered Chandragupta his daughters hand for marriage and form an alliance with Chandragupta Maurya.

    With the help of Seleucus Chandragupta started conquering many regions and expanded his empire to South Asia with the massive expansion Maurya empire becomes the second biggest empire followed by Alexander's in the Asia region.

    After acquiring large area in the northern India Chandragupta began to capture area in south India beyond the Vindhya range to the southern part of India except parts of Tamilnadu and Kerala and he became the king of the whole India.

Alexander the great

    

Administration of Chandragupta Maurya :

      Arya Chankya has a big role in the administration of Maurya empire,  with the advice of Chankya Chandragupt Maurya divided his kingdom into four provinces, he founds a central administration in capital city Pataliputra.

      The administration organized in the manner of the province for those one representative of the king has to manage their respective province. this sophisticated arrangement of administration operate efficiently and has described in ARTHSHASTRA  a text by Arya Chankya for managing the administration.

     The Maurya empire was known for its temples, reservoirs for a supply of water, roads, and mines  Chandragupta built roads stretched across thousand miles connecting big cities like  Patliputra to Takshashila, these infrastructure increase the wealth and form a strong empire.

The currency of Maurya empire

Army power of Chandragupta Maurya :

        For the huge empire it is necessary to have a huge army for its protection and for that Chandragupta Maurya has a massive army containing more than 5,00,000 foot soldier 30,000 Cavalry and the main weapon of that time i.e 9000 elephants, the entire army was well trained and well paid and has special status in the society as written in the Chanakya’s text Arthashastra.

       They also manufacture weapons for their army which make them more powerful than any kingdoms but as per the advice of Chankya, most of the disputes are solved with the help of diplomacy rather than war. And they believed that’s the right way according to Hindu Dharma which was highlighted in Arthashastra.

Death of CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA  :

     Around 297 B.C Chandragupta decided to give up his mortal body through Sallekhana, and started fasting and takes his last breath in the cave at Shravanabelagola and ends his self-starvation.

Death place of king Chandragupta Maurya

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