Mauryan Dynasty

¤ Mauryan Dynasty

The dynasty that Chandragupta and Chanakya established in Magadha together, the Mauryan dynasty, was the first real dynasty of Indian history. The first among the Mauryas, however, is quite a mystery figure in history and not much is known about him. Descriptions of his good looks have led some to conclude that he had Greek blood in him. and since he was supposed to have come from the North, certainly he was of the hills. Much hair splitting has happened over him, his credentials to the throne, his family, even his name; with one of the theories claiming that he was actually the son of Dhanananda mistress called Mura, and hence the name Maurya

. However, all this is up there in the realm of conjecture, since we are never likely to know the truth about Chandragupta Maurya's background. His mentor himself doesn't throw any light on his origins; indeed, if he was in fact low born, Chanakya's attempts would have been more in the direction of hushing them up. He was on the look out for a shrewd, intelligent young man who had a certain genius for battle as also ruling, suffice is that he got him.

Together they both made a formidable team and stayed together till the end of Chandragupta's reign, when Chanakya lived to see the early half of his successor Bindusara's (298-273BC) reign too. There's sufficient evidence to prove that elaborate planning and much intrigue went to shake the Nandas out of the Magadha throne.
A few early attempts, in fact, failed. There's a story about how Chandragupta finally got the idea that managed to defeat the Nanda might. Apparently he was walking round Taxila when he saw a woman feeding her son a dish of rice and lentils. As the son started to go straight for the middle of the dish, his mother reprimanded him and told him to start eating from the sides, for the centre was bound to be hotter.
This gave Chandragupta the idea to abandon trying to directly take on the Magadhan armies, and consolidate his position around it first and choke the Nandas so to speak.

After Magadha was taken, Chanakya and Chandragupta had most of their allies summarily disposed off and integrated their kingdoms into one strong Mauryan empire. His successor Bindusara although known as Amitraghat (slayer of foes) was neither a conqueror nor a military man.
But he was a dynamic and brilliant diplomat. He started sending and receiving missions to Egypt, Greece, Persia, Mesopotamia and various other countries. Trade increased, the economy prospered and there was general prosperity in the kingdom. There were several rebellions in the border regions in this period (regular features through out Indian history), for which he sent out his son Ashoka Maurya, who was very successful in dealing with them.