Chandragupta Maurya

“ The structures thus solemnly dedicated were well designed to serve their double purpose, and constituted a dignified and worthy monument of the piety and labours of the world's greatest general. Their significance was fully appreciated by the Indian powers which had been compelled to bend before the Macedonian storm. We are told that Chandragupta Maurya, the first Emperor of India who succeeded to the lordship of Alexander's conquests, and his successors for centuries afterward, continued to venerate the altars, and were in the habit of crossing the river to offer sacrifice upon them. ”

“ Asoka was the grandson of Chandragupta, the founder of the Maurya (Peacock) dynasty, who had wrested the Indian provinces of Alexander the Great from the hands of Seleucus, and he was the son of Bindusāra, who succeeded his father Chandragupta, by a lady from Champā. ”

“ The words: "The Moryas will possess the earth, for Kautilya will place Chandragupta on the throne," have in our occult philosophy a dual meaning. In one sense they relate to the days of early Buddhism, when a Chandragupta (Morya) was the king "of all the earth," i.e., of Brahmans, who believed themselves the highest and only representatives of humanity for whom earth was evolved. The second meaning is purely esoteric. Every adept or genuine Mahatma is said to "possess the earth," by the power of his occult knowledge. ”

“ It would seem that the whole of Northern India was now included in the powerful and extensive empire of Chandragupta, for the Jumna, flowing through Mathura and Caresbora, was said to run through the kingdom of Pataliputra. The nation surpassed in power and glory every other people in India, and their king Chandragupta had a standing army of 600,000 foot soldiers, 30,000 cavalry, and 9,000 elephants. ”

“ Girnár as Pushyagupta is simply called a Vaiśya and a brother-in-law of king Chandragupta and has no royal attribute, particulars which tend to show that he was a local governor subordinate to king Chandragupta. ”

“ The people themselves, if we may believe Megasthenes, were a model people well worthy of a model government, though if he does not exaggerate, one is driven to wonder at the necessity for such fearful penalties as were inflicted for the most trivial breaches of the law. But behind Chandragupta the power of the Brahman was still clearly entrenched, for his chief minister was a Brahman, Chanakya, who had followed his fortunes from their first adventurous beginnings. ”

“ Chanakya, whose ability and diplomatic skill are of a high order, lays out various plottings and machinations to make Chandragupta the paramount sovereign [Pg 95] in India, by winning over the noble Rakshasa to his master's cause. He tries successfully to effect a reconciliation between his protegé, and Rakshasa. With this view Rakshasa is rendered by the contrivances of Chanakya an object of suspicion to the prince Malyaketu with whom he has taken refuge and is consequently dismissed by him. ”

“ Then the supposed Nanda,12 full of grief, said in secret to Vyáḍi,—“Though a Bráhman by birth I have become a Śúdra, what is the use of my royal fortune to me though it be firmly established?” When he heard that, Vyáḍi comforted him,13 and gave him seasonable advice, “You have been discovered by Śakatála, so you must henceforth be on your guard against him, for he is a great minister, and in a short time he will, when it suits his purpose, destroy you, and will make Chandragupta, the son of the previous Nanda, king. ”

“ Just before the time of the Buddha—about the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.—a fierce contest for the mastery of northern India was waged between the kingdoms of Magadha and Kosala. This contest, as Dr Rhys Davids points out, "was decided in the time of the Buddha's boyhood by the final victory of Magadha."331 About 320 B.C. the Mauryan dynasty under Chandragupta (Sandrakottos) overthrew that of Dhana Nanda and seated itself on the throne of Magadha, which, under a strong ruler, became more powerful than ever. ”

“ They are extremely filthy in person and habits. They very rarely bathe, or wash their bodies, and a cloth, purchased at harvest time, is worn till it falls to pieces. They will eat the flesh of cattle, and are on this account despised even by the Pulayas. They are their own barbers and washermen.
A legend runs to the effect that Vararuchi, the famous astrologer, and son of a Brāhman named Chandragupta and his Brāhman wife, became the King of Avanthi, and ruled till Vikramāditya, the son of Chandragupta by his Kshatriya wife, came of age, when he abdicated in his favour. ”

“ On active service the army is said to have mustered the huge total of 600,000 men of all arms, a number not incredible in the light of our knowledge of the unwieldy size of the hosts employed by Indian princes in later ages. With this overwhelming and well-equipped force Chandragupta, as Plutarch tells us, 'overran and subdued the whole of India,' that is to say, at least all the country to the north of the Narbadâ. His empire, therefore, extended from that river to the Himalaya and Hindû Kush [5] . ”

“ Engagement in war was restricted to the KSHATRIYAS or warrior caste. "Nor would an enemy coming upon a husbandman at his work on his land, do him any harm, for men of this class being regarded as public benefactors, are protected from all injury. The land thus remaining unravaged and producing heavy crops, supplies the inhabitants with the requisites to make life enjoyable." {FN41-7}
The Emperor Chandragupta who in 305 B.C. had defeated Alexander's general, Seleucus, decided seven years later to hand over the reins of India's government to his son. ”

“ Further, the use of the name Vikramáditya and of the honorific Śrí is in striking agreement with Beruni’s statement (Sachau, II. 6) that the conqueror of the Śakas was named Vikramáditya and that to the conqueror’s name was added the title Śrí. Mr. Fleet (Corp. Ins. Ind. III. 37 note 2) holds it not improbable that either Chandragupta I. or II. defeated the Indo-Skythians. ”

“ There was Kalasoka, called by some Chandramasa and by others Chandragupta, whose son Nanda was succeeded by his cousin the Chandragupta of Seleucus, and under whom the Council of Vaisali took place "supported by King Nanda" as correctly stated by Taranatha. (None of them were Sudras, and this is a pure invention of the Brahmans.) Then there was the last of the Chandraguptas who assumed the name of Vikrama; he commenced the new era called the Vikramaditya or Samvat and began the new dynasty at Pataliputra, 318 (B.C.) —according to some European "authorities;" ”

“ And behind all these stood Chandragupta himself, the superman, ruthless and terrifically efficient; and Chanakya, his Macchiavellian minister: a combination to hurry the world into greatness. And so indeed they did.
Under Asoka, Chandragupta's grandson, the age culminated. H. P. Blavatsky says positively that he was born into Buddhism; this is not the general view; but one finds nothing in his edicts, really, to contradict it. His father Bindusara, of whom we know nothing, may have been a Buddhist. ”

“ This memorable treaty extended Chandragupta's frontier to the Hindû Kush mountains, and brought under his sway nearly the whole of the present Kingdom of Afghanistan, besides Balûchistan and Makrân [4] .
A German writer has evolved from his inner consciousness a theory that Chandragupta recognized the suzerainty of Seleukos, but the plain facts are that the Syrian monarch failed and was obliged to surrender four valuable provinces for very inadequate consideration. Five hundred elephants at a high valuation would not be worth more than about two millions of rupees, say £200,000 sterling. ”

“ The remainder of Chandra-gûpta's career, however, was anything but bloodless. It was scarcely possible that it should be so, considering that he began life as a nobody and ended it as undisputed Emperor of India from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. A man of iron nerve, born to conquer, born to rule, he went on his way undeviatingly, holding his own despite the constant threats of his enemies, despite the danger of constant plots; a danger which made perpetual precaution necessary. He never occupied the same bedroom two nights in succession ”

“ If he did not see these monuments he must have seen others like them, and at all events saw carvings executed in the same style, and wooden chaityas and temples similar to those depicted in these sculptures. But one of the curious points they bring out is, that the religious observances he witnessed at the courts of the Brahmanical king, Chandragupta, are not those he would have witnessed had he been deputed to his Buddhist grandson the great Asoka. There, as everywhere else at this age, everything is Buddhist, but it is Buddhism without Buddha. ”

“ The chief of Mehr traditions describes the fights of their founder Makaradhvaja with one Mayúradhvaja. This tradition seems to embody the memory of an historical struggle. The makara or fish is the tribal badge of the Mehrs and is marked on a Morbí copperplate dated a.d. 904 (G. 585) and on the forged Dhíníki grant of the Mehr king Jáíkádeva. On the other hand Mayúradhvaja or peacock-bannered would be the name of the Guptas beginning with Chandragupta who ruled in Gujarát (a.d. 396–416) and whose coins have a peacock on the reverse. ”

“ In this period may probably also be included Viśākhadatta’s interesting drama of political intrigue, Mudrā-Rakshasa (The Signet of the Minister) , in which Chandragupta (Sandracottus) appears as the founder of a dynasty. In subject, therefore, this production, which is one of the few known Indian historical dramas, goes back to the period following on the invasion of India by Alexander the Great; but the date of composition is probably at least as late as a.d. 1000. The plot of the play turns on the gaining-over of the prime minister of the ancien régime. ”

“ After the assassination of Nanda, Servarthasiddhi is placed on the throne by Rakshasa but he retires to a life of devotion. Saileswara or Parvataka or Parvateswara, the king of the Mountains, at first the ally of Chandragupta, afterwards befriended his opponents and is therefore slain privily by Chanakya. Vairodhaka, the brother of Parvataka, is killed by Rakshasa's emissaries by mistake for Chandragupta. ”

“ The conception of an Indian Empire, extending from sea to sea, and embracing almost the whole of India and Afghanistan, was formed and carried into effect by Chandragupta and his minister in the brief space of twenty-four years. History can show few greater political achievements. Not only was the empire formed, but it was so thoroughly organized that the sovereign's commands emanating from Pâtaliputra were obeyed without demur on the banks of the Indus and the shores of the Arabian sea. ”

“ Megasthenes, from personal experience, was able to testify that the sternness of the government kept crime in check, and that in Chandragupta's capital, with a population of 400,000, the total of the thefts reported in any one day did not exceed two hundred drachmai, or about eight pounds sterling.
The two Kalinga Edicts deserve special study as authoritative statements of Asoka's personal ideal of good government, a benevolent paternal despotism. He instructs his offieers that they must induce the wilder tribes 'to trust me and grasp the truth that—"the King is to us even as a father ”

“ The Kumrâhâr palace apparently was that of Asoka's grandfather. Chandragupta's abode, although probably constructed mostly of timber like the palaces of the modern kings of Burma, is described as excelling in magnificence the royal pleasaunces of Susa and Ekbatana. The pillars, we are told, were clasped all round with vines embossed in gold, and adorned with silver figures of the most attractive birds. The gardens were replete with the choicest plants and furnished with artificial ponds of great beauty. ”

“ From the Vulture's Peak Gautama wandered to neighbouring places—to Ambalathika, to Nalanda, and to Pataligrama, the site of the future capital of Magadha, Pataliputra. At the time of Gautama it was an insignificant village, but Sunidha and Vassakara, the chief ministers of Ajatasatru, were building a fortress there to repel the Vrijjians. Such, according to some accounts, was the origin of the town which became the capital of Chandragupta and Asoka, and was the metropolis of India for nearly a thousand years, and which, under the name of Patna, is still one of the largest cities in India. ”

“ Indeed, we have already stated repeatedly that various sects of ascetics lived in India at the time when Gautama Buddha lived and taught and led his sect of ascetics. It is difficult to believe, however, that the Jain religion, as we have it now, was professed by the Nirgranthas of the sixth century b. c. The story that the canon was settled by a council in Magadha at the tune of Chandragupta is probably a myth ”

“ The empire won by Chandragupta had passed intact to his son Bindusâra, and when, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, the sceptre was again transmitted from the hands of Bindusâra to those of his son Asoka, it seems unlikely that a prolonged struggle was needed to ensure the succession to a throne so well established and a dominion so firmly consolidated. ”

“ The army, comprising, according to established rule, the four arms of infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots, was not a militia, but a permanent force, maintained at the royal cost, liberally paid, and equipped from the Government arsenals. The edicts, as might be expected, throw no light upon its organization in the reign of Asoka, and the information on record chiefly derived from Megasthenes, refers to the time of Chandragupta. ”