Chandragupta Maurya founds the Maurya Empire
- Date
- c. 321 BCE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Northern India (Magadha, Pataliputra)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
Around 321 BCE Chandragupta Maurya, advised by the strategist Chanakya (Kautilya), overthrew the Nanda dynasty of Magadha and installed himself as king at Pataliputra, founding the Maurya Empire.
Exploiting the political vacuum left in the northwest by Alexander the Great's withdrawal and death (323 BCE), Chandragupta rapidly expanded his power, later defeating Seleucus I Nicator (c. 305–303 BCE) and gaining vast territories in modern Afghanistan and Baluchistan in exchange for war elephants. His empire became the first to unify most of the Indian subcontinent under a single centralised administration, supported by the bureaucratic and economic apparatus described in the Arthashastra tradition. The Mauryan state established the institutional template for imperial governance in South Asia and created the political framework within which his grandson Ashoka would later propagate Buddhism. The dynasty also opened sustained diplomatic and commercial contact between India and the Hellenistic world, attested by the Greek ambassador Megasthenes at the Mauryan court.
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Empires active in c. 321 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Maurya Empire322 BCE – 185 BCE
- Kingdom of Kush1070 BCE – 350 CE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE – 146 BCE
- Odrysian Kingdom480 BCE – 46 CE
- Scythians800 BCE – 300 BCE
Related politics & governance events
- Death of Alexander and the Partition of Babylon323 BCE
- Qin unification of China and the First Emperor221 BCE
- Seleucid–Mauryan treaty links the Greek and Indian worldsc. 305–303 BCE
- Royal Cemetery Shifts to Meroe, Launching the Meroitic Period of Kushc. 300 BCE
- Cleisthenes' reforms establish Athenian democracy508/507 BCE
- Foundation of the Roman Republicc. 509 BCE (traditional)
Further reading
The wider story
Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor
Popular history of Maurya's greatest ruler and his rediscovery.
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