Sunday 22 May 2016

Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya

Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya




The Maurya Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, with help from Chanakya, a Brahmin teacher at Takshashila. According to several legends, Chanakya traveled to Magadha, a kingdom that was large and militarily powerful and feared by its neighbors, but was affronted by its king Dhana Nanda, of the Nanda Dynasty. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire.  Meanwhile, the conquering armies of Alexander the nice refused to cross the Beas watercourse and advance any eastward, deterred by the prospect of battling Magadha. Alexander returned to Babylon and re-deployed most of his troops west of the Indus watercourse. Soon when Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BCE, his empire fragmented, and local kings declared their independence, leaving many smaller split satraps. The Greek generals Eudemus, and Peithon, ruled till around 317 BCE, when Chandragupta Maurya (with the facilitate of Chanakya, who was currently his advisor) completely defeated the Macedonians and consolidated the region underneath the management of his new seat of power in Magadha.

Chandragupta Maurya's rise to power is shrouded in mystery and controversy. On one hand, a number of ancient Indian accounts, such as the drama Mudrarakshasa (Poem of Rakshasa – Rakshasa was the prime minister of Magadha) by Visakhadatta, describe his royal ancestry and even link him with the Nanda family. A kshatriya social group renowned as the Maurya's square measure remarked within the earliest Buddhist texts, Mahaparinibbana Sutta. However, any conclusions are laborious to build while not any historical proof. Chandragupta first emerges in Greek accounts as "Sandrokottos". As a young man he is said to possess met Alexander.  He is also aforementioned to possess met the Nanda king, angered him, and made a slim escape. Chanakya's original intentions were to train a guerilla army under Chandragupta's command. The Mudrarakshasa of Visakhadutta as well because the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan verbalise Chandragupta's alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, sometimes known with Porus

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Chanakya encouraged Chandragupta Maurya and his army to take over the throne of Magadha. Using his intelligence network, Chandragupta gathered many young men from across Magadha and alternative provinces, men upset over the corrupt and oppressive rule of king Dhana, plus the resources necessary for his army to fight a long series of battles. These men included the former general of Taxila, accomplished students of Chanakya, the representative of King Porus of Kakayee, his son Malayketu, and the rulers of small states.

Preparing to invade Pataliputra, Maurya came up with a strategy. A battle was announced and the Magadhan army was drawn from the town to a remote parcel to interact with Maurya's forces. Maurya's general and spies meanwhile bribed the corrupt general of Nanda. He also managed to produce an environment of warfare within the kingdom, which culminated in the death of the heir to the throne. Chanakya managed to win over popular sentiment. Ultimately Nanda resigned, handing power to Chandragupta, and went into exile and was never detected of once more. Chanakya contacted the prime minister, Rakshasas, and made him perceive that his loyalty was to Magadha, not to the Nanda dynasty, insisting that he continue in workplace. Chanakya also reiterated that selecting to resist would begin a war that would severely have an effect on Magadha and destroy the town. Rakshasa accepted Chanakya's reasoning, and Chandragupta Maurya was legitimately put in as the new King of Magadha. Rakshasa became Chandragupta's chief advisor, and Chanakya assumed the position of an elder pol.


Chandragupta campaigned against the Macedonians when general I Nicator, in the process of making the Seleucid Empire out of the japanese conquests of Alexander the good, tried to reconquer the northwestern components of Republic of India in 305 BCE. Seleucus unsuccessful (Seleucid–Mauryan war), the two rulers finally terminated a peace pact: a matrimonial treaty (Epigamia) was terminated, in which the Greeks offered their aristocrat for alliance and facilitate from him. Chandragupta snatched the satrapies of Paropamisade (Kamboja and Gandhara), Arachosia (Kandhahar) and Gedrosia (Balochistan), and Seleucus I received five hundred war elephants that were to own a decisive role in his ending against western principle kings at the Battle of pitched battle in 301 BCE. Diplomatic relations were established and several Greeks, such as the historian Megasthenes, Deimakos and Dionysius resided at the Mauryan court.

Chandragupta established a strong centralized state with associate administration at Pataliputra, which, according to Megasthenes, was "surrounded by a wooden wall perforated by sixty four gates and 570 towers— (and) rivaled the splendors of contemporaneous Persian sites such as Sousse and Ecbatana." Chandragupta's son Bindusara extended the rule of the Mauryan empire towards southern India. The famous Tamil author Mamulanar of the Sangam literature delineated  however the Deccan highland was invaded by the Maurya army. He also had a Greek ambassador at his court, named Deimachus Strabo.

Megasthenes describes a disciplined multitude under Chandragupta, who live merely, honestly, and do not know writing:

    "The Indians all live frugally, especially once in camp. They dislike a great undisciplined multitude, and consequently they observe good order. Theft is of terribly rare prevalence. Megasthenes says that those who were within the camp of Sandrakottos, wherein lay four hundred,000 men, found that the thefts reported on any one day didn't exceed the worth of 2 hundred drachmae, and this among a people United Nations agency don't have any written laws, but square measure ignorant of writing, and must so in all the business of life trust to memory. They live, nevertheless, happily enough, being simple in their manners and thrifty. They never drink wine except at sacrifices. Their beverage is a liquor composed from rice rather than barley, and their food is principally a rice-pottage."




 



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