Chandragupta Maurya Biography and History

Early Life of Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya was born in Patna in 340 BCE. He was an Indian emperor to establish the Maurya Empire. Both the parents of Chandragupta were of the Kshatriya (warrior or prince) caste. His father was Prince Sarvarthasiddhi of the Nanda Kingdom. He was a humble person. He was a valorous and hypnotic born leader. He reigned from 321 BCE to 297 BCE. He was the first emperor who united the predominant part of India under one empire itself. He was born in a family which got impecunious after the death of his father. His maternal uncles left him with a cowherd and later sold him to a hunter.

Once he met a Brahmin scholar “Chanakya”, also known as “Kautilya”. He took Chandragupta to Taxila. Kautilyahauled rancour at odds with the Nanda. So he began to mentor Chandragupta Maurya to level, annihilate and sway over the Nanda Empire. He taught Chandragupta Mauryadifferent types of tactics from Hindu sutras and helped him to elevate his own army by aesthetic arts.

Mauryan Empire and the conflicts

After receiving an education in the military, he fetched mercenary soldiers with Kautiliya’s advice. He also pitched public support. Ultimately he ended the autocracy of the Nanda dynasty in a battle against their armed forces governed by their commander in chief, Bhaddasala. After looming the throne of Magadha kingdom in 325 BCE, he knocked down the Nanda power in the long series of battles at Patliputraby abolishing the rivals through well-planned executive schemes.

When he was 20 years old and also an emperor of Magadha and ruler of Punjab, he started the Mauryan dynasty. He amplified his empire to the frontiers of Persia in 305, defeating a Greek invasion. The Mauryan Empire was topographically very vast. It extended right from the Himalayas to the Vindhya Range. He averted the Macedonian king from conquering the Ganges and defeated Alexander’s successors as well as united almost the whole of India.

He comfortably ruled over his kingdom of the north as well as west. And now he started heeding to the south. Chandragupta conquered all the Indian Subcontinent except Kalinga. In this way, he almost unified all of the Indian Subcontinent.

Read about Greatest Kings and Warriors of India

Family of Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta married Seleucus’s daughter in exchange of 500 elephants as a part of the peace treaty to end the war. His wife’s name was “Durdhara”. And the name of their first child was “Bindusara”. Bindusara’s son was Ashoka the Great, whom we all know as one of the greatest monarchs of India.

When he was of about 50 years, he started taking an interest in Jainism. His guru was a Jain saint named Bhadrabahu. In 298 BCE, he finally abandoned his kingdom and advanced to a cave in Shravanabelogola where he meditated without food or water for five weeks. While rehearsingSanthara, he died out of starvation in 297 BCE.