Tell about Chandragupta Maurya ?

Chanakya believed that this would be the right way of doing things according to dharma, something which he has highlighted in the Arthashastra.

Under Chandragupta Maurya’s rule, the whole of India and a large part of South Asia was united. Different religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Brahmanism (ancient Hinduism) and Ajivika thrived under his rule.

the entire empire had uniformity in its administration, economy and infrastructure, the subjects enjoyed their privileges and hailed Chandragupta Maurya as the greatest emperor. This worked in the favor of his administration which subsequently led to a flourished empire.

A Greek text describes Chandragupta Maurya as a mystic who could control the behavior of aggressive wild animals like lions and elephants.

One such account states that when Chandragupta Maurya was resting after a battle with his Greek opponents, a huge lion appeared before him.

When the Greek soldiers thought that the lion would attack and probably kill the great Indian emperor, the unimaginable happened.

It is said that the wild animal licked Chandragupta Maurya’s sweat, so as to clean his face from sweat and walked away in the opposite direction.

Another such reference claims that a wild elephant which was destroying anything and everything on its way was controlled by Chandragupta Maurya.

When it comes to Chanakya, there are no shortages of mystical legends. It is said that Chanakya was an alchemist and that he could turn a single piece of gold coin into eight different pieces of gold coins. In fact,

it is claimed that Chanakya used alchemy to turn a small wealth of his into a treasure, which would later be used to buy a large army.

This very army was the platform on which the Maurya Empire was built. It is also said that Chanakya was born with a complete set of teeth, which had the fortune tellers predicting that he would become a great king.

Chanakya’s father though, didn’t want his son to become a king and so broke one of his teeth.

This act of his got the fortune tellers predicting again and this time around they told his father that he would become the reason behind an establishment of an empire.

Chandragupta Maurya married Durdhara and was leading a happy married life. Parallelly, Chanakya was adding small dosages of poison in the food consumed by Chandragupta Maurya so that his emperor wouldn’t be affected by any attempts of his enemies who might try to kill him by poisoning his food.

The idea was to train Chandragupta Maurya’s body to get used to poison. Unfortunately, during the last stage of her pregnancy, queen Durdhara consumed some of the food which was meant to be served to Chandragupta Maurya. Chanakya,

who entered the palace at that time, realized that Durdhara would no longer live and hence decided to save the unborn child. So,

he took a sword and cut open Durdhara’s womb to save the child, who was later named as Bindusara. Later, Chandragupta Maurya married Seleucus’ daughter Helena as part of his diplomacy and entered into an alliance with Seleucus.

When Bindusara became an adult, Chandragupta Maurya decided to pass on the baton to his only son Bindusara.

After making him the new emperor, he requested Chanakya to continue his services as the chief advisor of the Maurya dynasty and left Patliputra.

He renounced all worldly pleasures and became a monk as per the tradition of Jainism.

He traveled far into the south of India before settling down in Shravanabelagola (present day Karnataka).

Around 297 BC, under the guidance of his spiritual guru Saint Bhadrabahu, Chandragupta Maurya decided to give up his mortal body through Sallekhana.

Hence he started fasting and on one fine day inside a cave at Shravanabelagola, he breathed his last, ending his days of self-starvation.

Today, a small temple sits on the place where once the cave, inside which he passed away, is believed to have been located.

Chandragupta Maurya's son Bindusara succeeded him to the throne. Bindusara fathered a son, Ashoka, who went on to become one of the most powerful kings of the Indian subcontinent. In fact,