Chandragupta Maurya Biography

Chandragupta Maurya, who founded the Maurya Empire, was one of the most important rulers in the history of India. He is credited with unifying small independent states to form a large single kingdom for the first time under one administration, excluding Kalinga and the Tamil regions of Chera, Chola, and Pandya. He successfully overthrew the Nanda dynasty, which ruled most of northern India, at the young age of around 20. Along with his chief advisor and Brahmin scholar Chanakya, he gained control of the Macedonian territories and negotiated a treaty with Alexander’s general Seleucus I Nicator to add them to his empire. His empire stretched across Kashmir in the north to the Deccan Plateau in the south and from Afghanistan and Balochistan in the west to Bengal and Assam in the east. Nevertheless, he voluntarily left his throne and accepted Jainism, moving southwards to Karnataka. His grandson, Ashoka, followed his footsteps in completing the pending conquest of Kalinga in 261 BCE. While Ashoka was initially highly cruel and fierce, Chandragupta, on the other hand, was far less bloodthirsty.