Chandragupta Maurya (died c. 297 BC)

Ruler of northern India and first Indian emperor c. 325-296 BC, founder of the Mauryan dynasty. He overthrew the Nanda dynasty of Magadha in 325 BC and then conquered the Punjab in 322 BC after the death of Alexander (III) the Great, expanding his empire west to Iran. He is credited with having united most of India.

As army commander under Danananda, the last king of the Nanda dynasty of Magadha, he made an unsuccessful attempt on the throne and fled with his wily Brahman adviser Kautilya to join the invading army of Alexander, where he was recorded as ‘Sandracottos’. Having urged Alexander to press on against Danananda without success, he gathered his own army against the king and eventually became king in his place. With Kautilya's aid he established a centralized empire on the model of the Achaemenids of Iran, and defeated Seleucus (I) Nicator, who had attempted to restore Macedonian rule in the east in 305 BC. Seleucus ceded India (present-day Pakistan and part of the Punjab) and eastern Afghanistan in exchange for 500 war elephants for use in his western campaigns.

At the end of his reign, Chandragupta Maurya abdicated and became a Jain ascetic, starving himself to death in the manner of Jain saints.