Talk:Chandragupta Maurya (ruled from 322–298 BCE) & Guru Cāṇakya
By Vishal Agarwal
In the year 327 BCE, Alexander the Great invaded northwestern parts of India after defeating the Persian Empire. One of the first Indian kings he encountered was King Āmbhi of Taxila (located in present-day Pakistan), who accepted defeat without fighting the invader.
Taxila had a great university at that time, and one of the professors who taught there was Chāṇakya. Alexander easily marched through Taxila until he faced the army of the next Indian king named Paurava, who ruled the region of West Punjab in present-day Pakistan. Although Alexander’s army was four times larger than that of Paurava, he could win the battle against the Indian king only with great difficulty.
Alexander then decided to invade northern India, most of which was ruled by the powerful emperor of the Nanda dynasty. But the Greek soldiers, who had fought battles for Alexander for many years, refused to march further. They had heard that the Nanda Emperor was very powerful. Moreover, the soldiers in Alexander’s army were homesick, since it had been several years since they had left Greece.
Finally, Alexander bowed to the wishes of his soldiers and decided to leave India. He entrusted his entire territory that he had conquered in India—territory that today forms Pakistan and Afghanistan to his generals and started his journey back to Greece.
Meanwhile, Chāṇakya was very angry with his king Āmbhi for having surrendered to a foreign invader. He wanted the Indian kings to create a unified army so that no foreigner could again invade India. He even went to the Nanda Emperor, who ruled from the city of Pāṭaliputra, but was disappointed.
But luckily, he came across a young teenager named Chandragupta Maurya.
The subjects of the Nanda Emperor hated their king for his cruelty and because the first king of the dynasty had become their ruler by trickery. It is said that the first Nanda king was the barber to the earlier king of Pāṭaliputra. He fell in love with the Queen, and together, the two killed the earlier king, and Nanda became the new ruler instead. But the people of the kingdom never forgave Nanda or his successors for this act.
Chandragupta, with the guidance of Chāṇakya, collected a large army of the youth of Magadha, which was the name of the kingdom ruled by the Nanda Emperor. He was successful in defeating and killing the hated Nanda King and became the first emperor of the Mauryan dynasty. He was only 20 years old at that time! Slowly, he conquered one Indian kingdom after another and established one of the largest empires in Indian history.
Seleucus Nikator, the Greek general left behind by Alexander in the region of northwest India, thought of invading Magadha so that India could be added to the Greek Empire. However, the army of Chandragupta Maurya defeated him. As a result, Seleucus Nikator married his daughter to Chandragupta Maurya and also gave the entire territory of what is today Pakistan and Afghanistan to become a part of the Magadhan Empire.
Chāṇakya wrote a book named Arthaśāstra, which is today the oldest surviving book in the world that deals with subjects like politics, administration, exploiting natural resources, and finance. In this book, Chāṇakya quotes many other older books from India on these topics. Isn’t it amazing how advanced Indians were in the art of administration even in ancient times?
He also wrote several verses on wisdom, which are known as Chanakya Neeti. The pictures in this section give two of these verses.
Several hundred years later, a poet named Vishākhadatta wrote a play named Mudrārākṣasa, which described how the shrewd and clever Chāṇakya helped Chandragupta Maurya create and defend his vast empire.
For example, Chandragupta Maurya was waiting to enter the old palace of the Nanda Emperor and occupy it when Chāṇakya decided to inspect it. Nothing seemed suspicious till Chāṇakya saw a row of ants carrying grain. He immediately ordered the palace to be burned down.
Chandragupta Maurya was furious over this destruction of his new palace, till Chāṇakya took him to the basement of the burned-down palace. There, they saw the charred bodies of hundreds of enemy soldiers who were still loyal to the Nanda Emperor and were waiting for Chandragupta to enter the palace so that they could kill him!
In many other cases, Chāṇakya used poison to kill Chandragupta’s enemies and even forged letters to create enmity between kings who were plotting to unite and fight against Chandragupta.
Thanks to the efforts of Chandragupta Maurya and Chāṇakya, the Greek invaders were expelled from India and once more, Indians of all faiths could live in freedom.
When Chandragupta Maurya became older, he became a follower of the Jaina Dharma and moved to southern India for the rest of his life, after making his son Bindusāra the next emperor of India.