Chandragupta Maurya forged a powerful empire in the land of India around 320 BC which is when he appears on the Biblical Timeline with World history. Historians believed that he was a part of the Nanda Dynasty which ruled the middle and lower basin regions near the Ganges River in India. Chandragupta was born around 340 B.C. and no one is sure about the early years of his life because there was little-recorded evidence about his youth. One historical source claims that Chandragupta saw Alexander the Great around 326 B.C. when he was preparing to take India for his empire. By the time, he became an adult he apparently had acquired training in and political and military power since he was able to command an army and rule an empire.
When Chandragupta forged the Maurya Empire he was a young man in his early 20s. He had a mentor named Chanakya who aided the young king as he began to build up the Maurya Empire. India consisted of various different kingdoms that were spread out all across the land. Once again the Nanda Dynasty ruled the middle and lower half of India and the northern and eastern half consisted of various clans who held their own territories. Chandragupta began to attack these independent clans and brought them under his control. Even though Chandragupta was supposed to have come from Nanda he conquered the territory and it became known as the Maurya Empire.
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Alexander the Great and his forces made their way into India around 326 B.C. and though Alexander never successfully conquered India he managed to take control of some of the territories that he encountered along the way. The Greeks had control of Northwest India during that time period. The area the Greeks ruled was situated in the same region as modern day Afghanistan. Between 317 B.C. and 315 B.C. Chandragupta fought to remove the Greeks from this territory. The Greeks set up colonies in western Indus and held the Indian territory of Punjab. Chandragupta knew that the Greeks would be a threat to his power and wanted to remove them from his land. Seleucus I Nicator was trying to retake the lands that were captured by Alexander the Great and this Greek ruler tried to take India but lost to Chandragupta. Once he defeated the Greeks under Seleucus I Nicator he had all of India under his control. The Greeks never really tried to retake this territory after Seleucus I Soter lost the war with Chandragupta.
Around 315 B.C. Chandragupta had made the Maurya Empire one of the biggest and most powerful in the world and it almost rivaled that of Alexander the Great. The difference between Alexander’s empire and Chandragupta is that Alexander’s consisted of various different and distinct lands where Chandragupta’s primarily held territories and people that were pretty much the same. Another difference between Chandragupta and Alexander is that Chandragupta didn’t have a desire to conquer any territory outside of India. This mighty Indian general didn’t want to take over the world he only wanted to bring the land of India under his control and rid it of foreign rulers. Chandragupta gave up his empire to his son Bindusara in 298 B.C. and died while living a life an ascetic life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandragupta_Maurya
http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/india/Chandragupta.html
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/india/p/Biography-of-Chandragupta-Maurya.htm
http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/spring98/Ashoka.htm