Why Did Chandragupta Give It All Away? | Chandragupta Maurya & Chanakya | The Vedic Vault

Why did India's first great emperor give it all away? Trained by Chanakya, Chandragupta Maurya toppled the Nanda Empire, drove out Alexander's governors, faced down Seleucus and ruled from the Indus to the Ganges. Then, Jain tradition says, he left his throne, followed the monk Bhadrabahu south, and fasted to death on a granite hill in Karnataka. We follow the oldest sources (Greek, Buddhist and Jain), show you where they disagree, and let you decide: enlightenment, or escape? Chapters 0:00 The emperor on the hill 1:23 The Vow 3:33 The Conquest 5:39 The Cage 8:23 The Famine 9:44 The Walk South 11:42 The Last Conquest 13:07 Chandragiri today Sources Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus 15.4 Megasthenes, via Arrian, Indica 10, and Strabo, Geography 15.1 Kautilya, Arthashastra 1.17 and 1.19 Buddhist Mahavamsa commentary Hemachandra, Parishishtaparvan (Jain, 12th century) Later Digambara texts: Bhadrabahucharita (c. 1450), Rajavalikathe (19th century) Shravanabelagola inscriptions, from c. 600 CE Uttaradhyayana Sutra 9.34 Sushma Jansari, Chandragupta Maurya: The Creation of a National Hero in India (UCL Press, 2023) Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons): Mauryan timber palisade, Bulandi Bagh, Patna: Archaeological Survey of India, 1912-13. Public domain. Sohgaura copper plate: Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1894). Public domain. Chandragiri hill, Shravanabelagola: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped. Bhadrabahu cave, Chandragiri: Rohit Sharma, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped. Footprints in Bhadrabahu cave: Ilya Mauter, CC BY-SA 2.5. Cropped. Pilgrims on the Chandragiri steps: Vinayaraj, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped. Carved footprints on Chandragiri summit: romana klee (Flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped. Licences: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 | /by-sa/2.5 | /by-sa/2.0 Music: Epidemic Sound. Illustrations and maps: The Vedic Vault. Watch next: Karna, the full story. #chandragupta #mauryaempire #indianhistory #chanakya #mauryandynasty #history #jain #jainhistory