The Rise of the Maur an Empire
The History Behind the Game — Chandragupta
by Stephen R. Welch
This article provides you with the history
behind our latest Great Battles of History series
game, Chandragupta (Vol XIII ), including the
battles recreated in the game's scenarios — RBM
In the spring of 327 BC, after
consolidating his hold on Persia's eastern
satrapies, Alexander of Macedon sent word to
the tribal chieftains in Gandhara, the ancient
western Indian province bordering Bactria,
demanding that they submit
to his authority. The Macedonian army
then crossed into the Indus Valley, where
they were set upon by several hill clans who
refused to capitulate to the invasion. Alexander responded by promptly assaulting their
strongholds, slaughtering those who surrendered, and reducing their settlements to
rubble. Closely watching these events, Ambhi
(called "Omphos" by Greek chroniclers), the
king of the provincial city-state of Takshashila
that lay directly in the path of the approaching
juggernaut, deemed that cooperation would
be a more prudent posture than defiance;
he elected to cooperate with Alexander, and
invited the Macedonians into the city. While
his soldiers rested, Alexander plotted his next
march eastward.
While in Takshashila Alexander gave
audience to numerous Gandharan notables,
accepting their tribute and blandishments,
but one visit particularly was anything but
flattering. A young Indian prince of the tribe
Moriya approached the conqueror and boldly
informed him that he had failed in making
himself master of the country, since its rulers
in the East — the Nandas — were still in power.
The insolence was breathtaking. To punish
such impudence, Alexander ordered the boy
to be killed.
The lad, whose name Justin records as
"Sandracottos," escaped. But for his youthful
brashness in the face of the greatest general in
the world, Sandracottus of Moriya, known in
his own tongue as Chandragupta Maurya, had
become captured, albeit briefly, in the full view
of Western history.
dragupta's father was killed and his family
expelled from their ancestral home. While
pregnant, Chandragupta's mother fled to her
father's relatives in the Magadhan capital,
Pataliputra, where they lived under the guise
of peacock-tamers, or mayura-poshaka ... an
ironic disguise, as the royal symbol of the
peacock was the only remaining vestige of the
family's former status.
Chandragupta's uncommon intelligence in
his boyhood is related in several legends, but it
is clear that at some point in his early life his
path crossed that of the Brahmin Chanakya,
who saw great promise in the lad. The older
man, a Vedic scholar from Takshashila, was
shrewd, politically astute, and nursed an
abiding hatred of the Nandas. Combined
with his noble Kshatriya extraction, the boy's
precocity presented to the shrewd Brahmin's
mind an opportunity around which to rally
a Kshatriya-based rebellion.
The Nandas
The eastern kingdom of Magadha had been
ruled for some 140 years by the Haryankas,
a dynasty that came to an abrupt end after
the ascension, by dint of popular revolt, of a
court official by the name of Shishunaga. He
was succeeded peacefully by his son, called
Kakavarna, in 383 BC, but his dynasty would
prove short-lived. A powerful offucial within
Kakavarna's court, a man who bore the name
Nanda, insinuated himself into the confidence
of the monarch. Unknown to Kakavarna,
Nanda was the son of a Sudra (laborer caste)
woman and Mahanandin — the last king of
the Haryanka dynasty who had been deposed
by Kakavarna's father. Thus, when the right
opportunity came, Nanda thrust a dagger into
Kakavarna's throat and reclaimed the usurped
The Clan of the Peacock-Tamers
While Chandragupta's origins are obscure,
most traditions attest that he was of royal
extraction, placing him with the ruling family
of the republican city-state of Pipphalivana.
During a purge of the powerful Kshatriya
(warrior-caste) clans by the Nandas, Chan
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2009
Magadhan throne. It was 357 BC.
In short order Nanda moved to exterminate all of the aristocratic Kshatriya clans that
had retained independence within the Magadhan sphere, incorporating their territories under his rule. Gone was the loose assemblage
of feudal baronies under Kshatriya bloodlines.
For the first time in Indian history, there
was now an empire stretching beyond the
Gangetic basin, from the Himalayas to the
Godavari River, under the absolute rule of a
single man.
Known by the popular epithets Mahapadma ("lord of immense wealth"), Nanda was
clearly a powerful king, inheriting a rigorous
and effucient ministerial apparatus and continuing a program of imperialism and political
consolidation first inaugurated by Shishunaga.
Nanda also maintained a powerful fighting
machine. Curtius counts the Magadhan army
as consisting of 20,000 cavalry and 200,000
infantry, besides some 3,000 elephants and
4,000 war chariots. Surviving Buddhist texts
name the formidable general of the Nandan
army as Bhadrasala.
Enter Chanakya
The elder Nanda died — by natural causes
as far as we can tell — in roughly 329 BC, and
was survived by his eight sons who would
share sovereign power in ruling Magadha for
the next twelve years. The eldest was named
Sahalya, but would be referred to by the
Greeks as "Agrammes," a corrupted form of
Augrasainya, i.e. "lord of a formidable army."
The Nanda brothers were not only powerful
but exceedingly rich, and their inability to rule
over the vast dominions they had inherited,
as well as a reputedly irreligious disposition,
quickly made them unpopular. The youngest of the sons, Dhana, was supposedly so
addicted to hoarding treasure that he had the
banks of the Ganges excavated for the express
purpose of burying the Nandas' cache of gold
and silver. The Magadhan state, meanwhile,
levied crushing tax levies on almost every
commodity imaginable.
But the greatest cause of public hostility
was evidence that Magadha's proud empire
was beginning to disintegrate under the sons'
reign. The kingdom of Kalinga, Magadha's
traditional rival, had been partially conquered
during Mahapadma's rule, but shortly after
his death the Kalingans successfully threw off
Magadha's yoke and regained their indepen-
Chandragupta The Rise of the Mauryan Empire
—
dence. This erosion of Magadha's prestige and
power was squarely blamed upon the Nanda
brothers' profligacy and low birth.
The Nanda's waging of war against the
Kshatariyas had not only gained them
powerful enemies among that caste, but also
garnered the relentless hostility of politically
astute Brahmins. One such was a native
of Pataliputra by the name of Vishnugupta
Chanakya. An intelligent man with apparently formidable political instincts — he would
later become the author of the seminal treatise
on Mauryan statecraft, the Arthashastra —
Chanakya was not motivated purely for the
salvation of Magadha's honor. After having
been publicly insulted by Sahalya during a
state ceremony, Chanakya had openly vowed
to kill Nanda in revenge and was then forced
to flee Pataliputra to escape arrest. Chanakya
defected to his old home, Takshashila. Then
the Yavana ("Ionians") invaded, throwing the
country's future into turmoil. During the occupation Chanakya's path merged with that of
the young man whose destiny would change
the Brahmin's fate, and India's. He took the
Mauryan prince under his wing, and in a
relationship that would later be compared
to that of Alexander and Aristotle, began
mentoring the young man in the arts of
statecraft and warfare.
Decimation of the Tribal Kingdoms
Every step of his way through India Alexander had been confronted with determined
resistance. His victory against Puru ("Porus")
had been nearly a draw, and in his assaults
on the strongholds of the other tribes he had
been nearly wounded to death. Though the
independent tribal kingdoms and pettystates of India's western provinces had fought
bravely, their mutual jealousies had ultimately
prevented any organized effort against his
aggression. Had they done so, Alexander's
career would likely have ended long before the
Hydaspes River.
Ironically, the decimation of the tribal
kingdoms would create the very conditions
that would make a pan-Indian empire, united
under centralized rule, possible. When the
wars of succession began after Alexander's
death, the tide of Greek power quickly
receded from the shores of the Indian frontier,
leaving the tenuous foreign garrisons propped
up by a handful of corrupt Indian kings. In
this vacuum discontent began to simmer in
Gandhara. To remove the vestiges of foreign
rule under which Gandharans still chafed,
military power would have to be brought to
bear that could sweep away the garrisons,
force the native client kingdoms to submit
to Indian rule, and unite the tribes under an
imperial hegemon. This eventuality would
require a seismic shift in political power,
requiring in turn a figure of leadership around
which such power could coalesce — and such
was Chanakya's plan.
was born, and the young emperor then turned
his attention westward, towards the weakened
kingdoms he had left behind under the yoke
of foreign occupation.
Forging the Mauryan Dynasty
Chandragupta Scenarios: The initial battle
between Chandragupta and Bhadrasala is recreated in the introductory scenario, "Pataliputra";
the final contest with the Nandans is played in
the set-piece battle, "Magadha." In "Malayaketu"
a surprise night assault is simulated on the unique
terrain features of an Indian military camp.
In 319 BC, a coalition of armed malcontents, mostly tribals, guild militia and some
mercenaries, lined up in battle array outside
the walls of Pataliputra. The Nanda's able
general Bhadrasala, who enjoyed some respect
as a Mahasenapati even among his adversaries,
mustered the Magadhan army to put down
the insurgents. By all accounts Chanakya
and Chandragupta were soundly defeated,
having recklessly attacked the capital without
first consolidating their power base among
the Kshatriyas. The insurgency was forced to
regroup in the countryside and to build up
sufficient military strength and political
support before confronting the Nandas
a second time.
Among the freedom-loving clans of Punjab and Sindh, most of whom had given stout
resistance to the foreign invader, they would
find the support they had been seeking, and
again the banner of revolt was raised, this time
with the help of the Himalayan tribal chieftain Parvataka and his brother Vairodhaka.
The Mauryan troops were now augmented by
professional "hereditary" maula troops, and
this time in the countryside of Magadha the
armies faced each other in near parity, with
the young Chandragupta commanding the
Mauryans himself. The Nandan imperial
army was this time under command of prince
Sahalya. When the fighting was over, Sahalya
lay dead on the battlefield and his brothers,
captured, were put to the sword. It was a total
Mauryan victory.
The Mauryan's tribal ally Parvataka had
fought valiantly but succumbed to his wounds.
His death would lead to alienation of the
tribal allies. Having won power and ascended
the throne of Magadha with their help, Chandragupta — probably under the advisement
of Chanakya — promptly evaded a number of
the pre-war promises he had made them, and,
betrayed, the tribal chieftains rose in rebellion
against him. The revolt was led by the son of
Parvataka, a tribal prince named Malayaketu.
Employing "other political means" against
him, Chanakya had several of Malayaketu's
allies poisoned and invoked a campaign of
disinformation to sow dissension among
them. Then, commanding the mighty military
apparatus appropriated from the Nandas,
Chanakya crushed the rebellion in an assault
upon the rebel's encampment.
At last, Chandragupta Maurya
possessed unchallenged the throne of the
Magadhan Empire. The Mauryan dynasty
Ejecting the Yavana
Takshashila was still under the joint rule
of Ambhi and the Thracian general Eudamus.
Though Alexander had defeated Puru at the
battle of Hydaspes, he had left Puru's kingship
of Paurava intact; some time after Alexander's
death, though, Eudamus had treacherously
put Puru to death and seized his territories,
sparking a native revolt. Chandragupta deftly
transformed this revolt into a pretext for military action; not only was the city garrisoned by
the hated Yavana but it was strategically important as a trade-route crossroads, connecting
the Mauryan home kingdom of Magadha
with Bactria. The seizure of Takshashila
would extend the young Mauryan Empire out
to India's western frontier.
Eudamus was not committed to this battle
— his joint rule with Ambhi had been meant
to be temporary, but because of Alexander's
untimely death his permanent appointment as
satrap was never made. Confronted with the
Mauryan army massed across the Tamra Nala
river, Eudamus broke off and quit the battlefield, leaving Ambhi abandoned and greatly
outnumbered. Chandragupta captured the
city, put the remaining Greek garrison to the
sword, and then promptly assigned Chanakya
— born in Takshashila — as its viceroy.
Gandhara was not yet out of reach of the
Greek invaders, however. After his stalemate
with Antigonus in 308, Seleucus conquered
Bactria and then proceeded to march to the
Indus River. On the eastern bank of the
Indus he was confronted by Chandragupta.
Squeezed close to the sands and mud of the
Indus, Seleucus had little room to maneuver,
and fought the Mauryan army to a tactical
draw. Politically it was a strategic loss, for
having gambled so far from home and failing to achieve a victory, Seleucus was forced
to settle for a consolation "gift" of 500 war
elephants from the Mauryan emperor, and in
exchange surrendered all of his eastern possessions, from the Indus to the Hindu Kush.
For Chandragupta's part, this would be was
his last major military engagement. He inclined towards Jainism in later life, abdicating
the throne to his son Bindusara. Chandra-
The History Behind the Game — Chandragupta
gupta Maurya, the precocious young man who
had insulted Alexander the Great to his face,
freed his country from foreign occupation and
in doing so founded India's greatest empire,
left the court of Magadha to become an
ascetic. Having served his purpose on Earth,
in 293 BCE he chose to purge his old karmas,
and through the Jain ritual of santhara, died
through voluntary fasting. He was in his
early fifties.
Chandragupta Scenarios: "Takshashila"
is fought on a mapsheet including thefull city
and its surrounds, with rules for street fighting,
artillery, and the use of elephants to break down
the city's gates; another set-piece battle along
the banks of the Indus brings to life the contest
between the Seleucus and Chandragupta in
'Gandhara."
Consolidation of an Empire
Though he was hailed as "Slayer of
Enemies," little is known about Bindusara's
conquests. Buddhist chronicles report that
Bindusara "destroyed kings and nobles of
about sixteen cities" in the rebellious Khasha
rajya, or realm of the Khashas. The Khashas,
whose settlements in the former kingdom of
Punt extended from Jhelum to the west of
Kashmir, were likely independent principalities, united by clan or tribal connections, who
had chafed at Mauryan imperial power. In
full Mauryan tradition, Bindusara attacked
the Khashas' mountain strongholds and
defeated them.
Bindusara did much to curb the rebellious
clans in the outlying provinces and maintain
the empire inherited from his father, and even
extended its boundaries. During his reign,
however, the volatile western provincial capital
Takshashila was the scene of at least two
rebellions. The first uprising was against the
maladministration of unnamed "heavy-handed
officials" (possibly his eldest son, Sumana, or
even Chanakya himself). The cause of the
second insurrection is not recorded, but in
either case, it was his younger son Ashoka
whom Bindusara commissioned with the task
of restoring order. The "offucial" Mauryan
version of events takes great pains to reassure
that people were not opposed to the "Kumara
[prince] or even king Bindusara," but whatever
the reality, it was the victor who wrote the history: Ashoka crushed the rebellion ruthlessly.
Chanakya was certainly an old man by this
time, but probably still active, as Bindusara
had retained him as Prime Minister from his
father's court. Sometime after the last Takshashila rebellion was put down, Chanakya's
name fades from the record. Legend tells
that during a farewell ceremony for the aged
Chanakya, a rival Brahmin named Subandhu,
out of jealousy, treacherously hid a smoldering charcoal in a heap of dung used as fuel for
the ceremonial fire. Kindled by the wind, the
dung heap caught fire, and the author of the
Arthashastra — and in many ways the Mauryan
Empire itself — was burned to death.
Sunset of the Mauryan Dynasty
Ashoka was rumored to have been the
son of Bindusara and the Greek princess
Helen, daughter of Seleucus. This grandson
of Chandragupta seized the Mauryan throne
as outcome of a fratricidal struggle with his
step-brothers, and ascended the throne in
Pataliputra in 273 BC.
The Mauryans had always been hostile to
non-monarchial states, and by the time of
Ashoka's ascension only a handful of kingdoms remained outside the sphere of Mauryan
domination. Two were the friendly kingdoms
on the distant southern tip of the Deccan
peninsula; the other was its traditional rival,
the powerful — and unrepentantly independent — republic of Kalinga, which neighbored
Magadha on its southern border.
In 261 BC, eight years after his anointment, Ashoka marched on Kalinga. On
a battlefield near the village of Dhauli the
Kalingan army was defeated; records affirm
that 100 thousand were slain, 150 thousand
were deported (enslaved), and many times that
number died thereafter. It was said that the
nearby river Daya had run red with the blood
of the slain.
After the battle Ashoka ascended a hillock
to survey the field he had won; in the light of
the dying day he saw heaps of bodies of soldiers and animals, heard the cries of wounded,
and witnessed the anguish of women searching the dead for their husbands and sons. The
slaughter filled him with such anguish that
he changed his epithet from Chandashoka
("Ashoka the Terrible") to Dharmashoka
("Ashoka the Pious"). He became a Buddhist.
There seem to have been no more Mauryan
wars after Kalinga. Ashoka codified a civil
law for the empire, and expanded its borders
— largely through diplomacy, it appears, and
through Buddhist missions — practically over
the whole if India.
Within fifty years after his death the
Mauryan Empire collapsed. A succession of
weaker kings followed Ashoka, and the borders of the empire eroded dramatically. Then,
during a military parade in 185 BC, the last
Mauryan king was assassinated in a coup by
the commander of his honor guard.
Chanakya, the architect of the Mauryan
Empire, had adopted as his motto, "A debt
should be paid off till the last penny; an enemy should be destroyed without a trace." The
accounts of history would prove him correct:
Chanakya would become known to posterity
as a precursor of the West's Machiavelli, while
the legacy of the Mauryan Empire would remain an ideal never to be again fully achieved
by an Indian monarch. Meanwhile, the names
of the Mauryan's enemies — the Kalingan king
defeated by Ashoka, the chieftains of the hapless Khashans — would be obliterated by time,
lost to history forever.
Chandragupta Scenarios: Mountainous
terrain, with a daytime assault and a night-time
ambush, are featured in the two "Suppression
of the Khashas" scenarios. In "Revolt in the
Provinces," players are given unique "sudden
death" victory conditions involving the rescue of
Chanakya from Takshashila. Lastly, the historic
battle of "Kalinga" is recreated in a huge, twomap set-piece battle.
Variants on History: New Speculative
Battle Scenarios and Rout Point Track
for Chandragupta in this issue
C3i Magazine readers are treated to two
new Chandragupta scenarios in this issue,
both positing alternative "what-if" versions
of historical events. Both use counters and
maps from Chandragupta; for the Ganges
River scenario, players will need counters from
Great Battles of Alexander (Deluxe), and
for the Magnesia scenario players will need
counters from SPQR. See the Chandragupta
GBoH/Simple GBoH scenario set-up Insert
Folio and Rout Point Track in this issue.
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2009