Mauryan Empire
When Alexander the Great and his army reached the river beas north-western region of then India, his soldiers defied him by not following his order to cross the river. He tried to counsel them that the Nand kingdom was so unpopular that it would not be so hard to conquer it. But his soldiers were tired and afraid to face that grand kingdom so Alexander the Great had to abandon his campaign to conquer the world and returned by assigning these territories under his leadership to his governors. He died while returning in Babylonia and his empire could not last long after his death and divided into smaller kingdoms.
On the eastern side, the Nanda empire could not last long and fell to a new ruler who founded the Mauryan Empire, Chandragupta Maurya.
- Chandragupta Maurya with the council of Chanakya besieged the capital Pataliputra of the Nanda Empire and overthrew the Magadh King Dhanananda around 322 BC.
But before it, Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya raised an army and conquered the Indo-Greek kingdoms which Alexander had left after the abandonment of his military campaign. Chandragupta initially attacked the Capital Pataliputra but was failed to conquer it. Then he began to conquer Nanda empire’s frontiers. Eventually, he succeeded in conquering the capital and dethroned the King Dhanananda.
When Chandragupta was expanding his empire to north-western India, Seleucus I and he entered in a marriage alliance in which Seleucus gave him Arachosia (Kandhar) Gedrosia (now Balochistan, Pakistan), paropamisadae (Kabul, Afghanistan ) regions and married his daughter to Chandragupta Maurya.
There are many tales surrounding Chandragupta’s life, one of such was that Chanakya saw him playing a game of royal court in which he was ordering other kids like a king. Chanakya bought him and taught him at Taxila University.
Historian Justin mentions that Chandragupta offended King Dhanananda who ordered his and Chanakya’s execution. They became rebel after that. In Mudraraksha it is said that Chanakya swore to destroy King Dhanananda after he felt insulted by him.
Of Chandragupta’s death, Jain literature 1200 years later mentions that he abdicated his throne around 297 BC and died of sanlekhana practice which Jain monk follow for their death which means fast till death. Chandragupta declared Bindusar as his successor.
Bindusar: He got a prospering kingdom to rule and much of the information about him comes from Jain and Buddhist literature which are regarding Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka and that to after many centuries. A 12th century Jain literature described Durdhara as Bindusar’s mother. Ashokavardhan, another text, named Sushima, Ashoka, Vigatashoka his sons. He died around 273 BC and made Sushima his successor. According to Mahavansha, Bindusar had 101 sons and Ashoka killed 99 of them in the power struggle and became king after 4 four years of this struggle in around 268.
Ashoka: He ruled from 268–232 BC and waged a war against Kalinga around 260 BC, now Odisha India to conquer it. His inscription described that event that the war had killed over 100,000 people and injured many others. When Ashoka realized the level of destruction done by it, he converted to Buddhism and renounced his will to expand his kingdom. He sent Buddhist monks to Central Asia and Srilanka to spread Buddhism and build many Buddhist monuments. At its peak, this empire acquired all of India except north-east states and Kerala and Tamil Nadu, all of Pakistan, south-eastern Afghanistan and was 55 lakh square kilometres in extent.
Ashoka’s grandson Dashratha was his successor but Mauryan empire started breaking apart soon after Ashoka’s death and Brihdratha who ruled around 187–185 BC was the last king of this empire. He was killed by his general Pushyamitra Shunga in 185 BC, who founded the Shunga Empire in that region.
