Chandragupta Maurya

Indians were taught about the Mughal Empire.

Beyond that, nobody talks about Chandragupt or nobody talks about even beyond Chandragupt.

Nobody talks about that.

Has anybody ever talked about Vedic culture? No, they don't talk about all that.

This marked the end of Alexander's eastward campaign.

The Nanda Empire, which lasted around 30 years, was overthrown just after the end of this campaign by Chandragupta Maurya, a Nanda military commander who went on to found the Mauryan Empire.

Like the Nanda Empire, this Mauryan state was based in Magadha, which remained the center of Aryan culture and politics, but it was the first state to include almost all of the Indian subcontinent.

Let's move forward and learn about this empire next.

Hopefully the rest of the gang will be able to share the empire evenly between them.

Knock knock, it's Chandragupta.

He says get the hell out of here.

Will you get the hell out of here if I give you 500 elephants? Okay, thanks, bye.

And then there's the rise of the Maurya Empire.

And the Marya empires particularly should be interesting to international relations scholars because its founder, Chandragupta Marya, had a really, really impactful advisor named Kutilya.

Sometimes I think it's Chanakya.

Sometimes people say that.

The way distant mountains blur gently at the edges when seen through morning mist.

Ancient sources differ on his exact origins, some suggesting he came from a humble background, perhaps connected to a clan that tended peacocks, which may explain the name Maurya itself.

What the stories agree upon, however, is that young Chandragupta possessed an unusual presence even in his youth, a kind of quiet confidence that drew attention and that his path crossed with that of a brilliant and strategic thinker named Chanakya, also known by the name Kautilya.

Chanakya was a scholar from the city of Taxila, a renowned center of learning in the Northwest, where students traveled from great distances to study subjects ranging from medicine to military strategy to the governance of kingdoms.

The details of their military engagement remain somewhat unclear in the historical record, but what we do know with greater confidence is how their conflict ultimately resolved.

Around 303 BCE, Seleucus and Chandragupta reached an agreement.

Seleucus ceded substantial territories in what is now Afghanistan and parts of the northwest to the growing Maurya Empire.

And in exchange, Chandragupta reportedly provided Seleucus with a significant number of war elephants.

So supposedly there's this, um, epic that's being, a historical epic that's being shot.

It's called Chandragupta Maurya.

Okay.

And she's supposed to be considered to be playing the queen or the wife of Chandragupta Maurya.

Oh, man.

So he's the, um, founder of the Mauryan Empire.