Wht History Says abt ChandraGuptaMaurya & Chanakya

Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya
Mauryan Emperor
Reign	320'298 BCE
Born	340 BCE
Birthplace	Magadha, Bihar
Died	298 BCE (aged 42)
Place of death	Shravanabelagola, Karnataka
Predecessor	Dhana
Successor	Bindusara
Consort	Durdhara
Royal House	Mauryan dynasty
Religious beliefs

Chandragupta Maurya (), (born c. 340 BCE, ruled c. 320 BCE,[1] ' 298 BCE[2]) was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. According to some ancient Buddhist texts he claims descent from the Shakya rulers of solar race. Buddhist texts describes about his lineage with the "Moriya" clan of Shakya rulers hence he was the scion of the solar race of Kshatriya's. Having defeated the Greek satrap in the Khyber mountains around 303 BCE, Chandragupta was crowned King at Taxila. As a result, Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor.[3] In foreign Greek and Latin accounts, Chandragupta is known as Sandrokyptos

Prior to Chandragupta's consolidation of power, small regional kingdoms dominated the northwestern subcontinent, while the Nanda Dynasty dominated the middle and lower basin of the Ganges.[5] After Chandragupta's conquests, the Maurya Empire extended from Bengal and Assam[6] in the east, to Afghanistan and Balochistan in the west, to Kashmir and Nepal[7] in the north, and to the Deccan Plateau in the south.[8]

His achievements, which ranged from conquering Macedonian satrapies in the northwest and conquering the Nanda Empire by the time he was only about 20 years old, to achieving an alliance with Seleucus I Nicator and establishing centralized rule throughout South Asia, remain some of the most celebrated in the history of India. Over two thousand years later, the accomplishments of Chandragupta and his successors, including Ashoka the Great, are objects of great study in the annals of South Asian and world history.

source : wikipedia

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Chandragupta Maurya was the founder of the Maurya Empire in India. He is credited with bringing together the small fragmented kingdoms of the country and combining them into a single large empire. As per the Greek and Latin accounts, King Chandragupta Maurya is known as Sandracottos or Andracottus. During his region, the Maurya Empire stretched from Bengal and Assam in the East, to Afghanistan and Balochistan in the West, to Kashmir and Nepal in the North and to the Deccan Plateau in the South. Read on this biography cum life history of Chandragupta Maurya to know more about the great king:

Conflicting Views about His Lineage

Chandra Gupta Maurya was born in 340 BC. However, there is not much information about his ancestry. Some of the historians believe that he was an illegitimate child of a Nanda prince and his maid, Mura. Others believe that Chandragupta belonged to Moriyas, a Kshatriya (warrior) clan of a little ancient republic of Pippalivana, situated between Rummindei (Nepali Tarai) and Kasia (Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh). Two other views are that he belonged either to the Muras (or Mors) or to the Kshatriyas of the Indo-Scythian lineage. Last but not the least, it is also claimed that Chandragupta Maurya belonged to the Assakenoi or Ashvaka Kshatriya clan of Swat/Kunar valley.

Early Life

There is not much information about the childhood days of King Chandragupta Maurya. As per the traditional records, Chanakya, a teacher at Takshila University, found him in the Magadha kingdom. Thereafter, Chanakya brought Chandragupta to Takshila, where he took him under his guidance. Further reports state that Chandragupta once met Alexander the Great and told him on his face that the ruling of the Nanda Empire was faulty.

Foundation of the Maurya Empire

A major part of the credit for the building of the Maurya Empire goes to Chanakya. He was a teacher at the Takshila University when Alexander started invading India. Since the King of Takshila and Gandhara had surrendered to Alexander, Chanakya sought help from other kings to unite and fight against him. Porus (Parvateshwar), a king of Punjab, challenged Alexander at the Battle of the Hydaspes River. However, he got defeated in the battle. Chanakya also sought help from Dhana Nanda, the ruler of Nanda Empire, but was refused. After this incident, he started instilling the idea of building an empire that could fight against foreign invasion into his disciple, Chandragupta. Chanakya became his chief adviser or prime minister.

Conquests

Chandragupta Maurya defeated the Macedonian satrapies in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent in 317 BC. Thereafter, he turned his attention towards Northwestern India. Chandragupta allied with the Himalayan king Parvatka and launched an attack against Dhana Nanda of the Nanda Empire. The battle ended around 321 BC, with the siege of the capital city of Kusumapura and the conquest of the Nanda Empire. Thus was born the powerful  Maurya Empire in Northern India.

Conquest of Seleucus Eastern Territories

After the conflict with Seleucus in 305 BC, Emperor Chandragupta Maurya extended his empire towards Seleucid Persia. Through a treaty sealed in 305 BC, Seleucus gave up the country around the Indus River to Chandragupta, including the Hindu Kush, present day Afghanistan and the Balochistan province of Persia. In return, he received five hundred war elephants, increasing his military strength.

Southern Conquests

After annexing the eastern Persian provinces Seleucus, Chandragupta's empire stretched across the northern parts of Southern Asia, from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. Thereafter, began his conquests in south, beyond the Vindhya Range and into the Deccan Plateau. Most of the Southern Asia got united under the rule of Chandragupta Maurya.

Death

It is believed that in the last days of his life, King Chandragupta Maurya gave up his throne and adopted asceticism under the Jain saint, Bhadrabahu Swami. He breathed his last in 298 BC at Shravanabelagola (in present day Karnataka), ending his days of self-starvation. A small temple marks the cave (called Bhadrabahu Cave) where he died.

source : http://indiatourdirect.com/?p=199

Chanakya

Chanakya (Sanskrit: ?????? Ca?akya (c. 350–283 BCE) was an adviser to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340–293 BCE), and was the chief architect of his rise to power. Kautilya and Vishnugupta, the names by which the ancient South Asian political treatise called the Arthasastra identifies its author, are traditionally identified with Chanakya.[1] It is important to identify Chanakya as South Asian and not just Indian because his cultural significance has reached far and wide, and his words are just as internalised in other parts of South Asia as in India. Chanakya has been considered as the pioneer of the field of economics and political science.[2][3][4][5] In the Western world, he has been referred to as The Indian Machiavelli, although Chanakya's works predate Machiavelli's by about 1,800 years.[6] Chanakya was a teacher in Tak?asila, an ancient centre of learning, and was responsible for the creation of Mauryan empire, the first of its kind on the Indian subcontinent. His works were lost near the end of the Gupta dynasty and not rediscovered until 1915.[3]

Identity

He is generally called Chanakya (derived from his father's name "Chanak")[7] but, in his capacity as author of the Arthashastra, is generally referred to as Kautilya derived from his gotra's name "Kotil" (Kautilya means "of Kotil"). He was a master of the shrewd act of diplomacy. He believed in four ways—Sama, Daana, Danda, Bheda (treating with Equality, Enticement, Punishment or War and Sowing Dissension.)[8] The Arthashastra identifies its author by the name Kautilya,[1] except for one verse which refers to him by the name Vishnugupta.[9] One of the earliest Sanskrit literatures to explicitly identify Chanakya with Vishnugupta was Vishnu Sharma's Panchatantra in the 3rd century BC.[10]

K.C. Ojha puts forward the view that the traditional identification of Vishnugupta with Kautilya was caused by a confusion of editor and originator and suggests that Vishnugupta was a redactor of the original work of Kautilya.[1] Thomas Burrow goes even further and suggests that Chanakya and Kautilya may have been two different people.[11]

Kautilya's role in the formation of the Mauryan Empire is the essence of a historical/spiritual novel The Courtesan and the Sadhu by Dr. Mysore N. Prakash.[12]

Two books are attributed to Chanakya: Arthashastra and Neetishastra which is also known as Chanakya Niti. The Arthashastra discusses monetary and fiscal policies, welfare, international relations, and war strategies in detail. Neetishastra is a treatise on the ideal way of life, and shows Chanakya's in-depth study of the Indian way of life. Chanakya also developed Neeti-Sutras (aphorisms - pithy sentences) that tell people how they should behave. Of these well-known 455 sutras, about 216 refer to raaja-neeti (the do's and don'ts of running a kingdom). Apparently, Chanakya used these sutras to groom Chandragupt and other selected disciples in the art of ruling a kingdom.

source - wikipedia

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Chandragupta Maurya's conquests




just a piece of information:-

Approximate Dates of Mauryan Dynasty
Emperor	Reign start	Reign end
Chandragupta Maurya	322 BCE	298 BCE
Bindusara	297 BCE	272 BCE
Asoka The Great	273 BCE	232 BCE
Dasaratha	232 BCE	224 BCE
Samprati	224 BCE	215 BCE
Salisuka	215 BCE	202 BCE
Devavarman	202 BCE	195 BCE
Satadhanvan	195 BCE	187 BCE
Brihadratha	187 BCE	185 BCE

• Dhanananda

The youngest of the nine Nandas, sons of Kalasoka. He was killed by Canakka, who raised Candagutta to the throne . He incurred Canakka's wrath by insulting him in the alms-hall. Canakka stole his son Pabbata, put him to death, adopted Candagutta as his protg, and stole Dhanananda's treasures which he had discovered. With the money thus obtained he raised an army for Candagutta and defeated Dhanananda.