Chandragupta Maurya built an empire yet left almost no trace of himself
Chandragupta Maurya founded the first great empire of the Indian subcontinent around 320 BCE, yet nothing reliable survives about his birth, family or youth. Historians piece his reign together from scraps of lost Greek writings and religious legends composed centuries later, and those sources rarely agree on anything, even his origins.
His rise came amid the turmoil after Alexander the Great's invasion and death in 323 BCE. He overthrew the unpopular Nanda dynasty ruling Magadha, in modern Bihar, and drove out Greek-backed governors from the eastern Indus Valley. Scholars disagree on the order: many date the conquest of Magadha to about 322 to 319 BCE and the Punjab campaigns afterward, while others squeeze everything into 311 to 305 BCE. Around 305 to 303 BCE a marriage alliance with Seleucus I Nicator extended his reach westward.
Plutarch claims that as a youth Chandragupta actually saw Alexander, and later remarked that the conqueror nearly took India because its king was despised. A supposed meeting described by the Roman historian Justin turned out to be a printing error, with Alexandrum mistakenly substituted for Nandrum, the Nanda king. Justin also calls him humble-born and tells of a wild elephant kneeling to carry him into battle. Most Greek knowledge came from Megasthenes, an ambassador at his court whose account survives only in quotations by later writers.
Indian traditions spin rival stories. Brahmanical Puranas treat the Nandas and Mauryas as illegitimate because of low caste. Buddhist chronicles, written roughly seven centuries after the dynasty ended, link his family to the Buddha's own clan and derive the name Maurya from mora, the Pali word for peacock, after a Himalayan homeland famous for the birds. Jain sources say he renounced his throne, moved to Karnataka and ended his life by ritual fasting, though one early account may describe a different Chandragupta.
Hindu and Buddhist texts give him a reign of 24 years, commonly placed ending around 298 BCE. His administration was decentralised, with large autonomous regions, and the empire he founded reached its height under his grandson Ashoka.
Source: Chandragupta Maurya
