Bindasura : The Second Ruler of the Mauryan Empire

He was the son of Chandragupta, the family dynasty founder, as well as the father of Ashoka, his dynasty’s most renowned emperor. Bindusara’s life was not as thoroughly recorded as that of the lives among these two emperors, and most of what we know about him derives from legends written hundreds of years and remains.

Bindusara built on his father’s power by consolidating it. Taranatha, a 16th-century Tibetan Buddhist book, credited his government with large territorial victories in southern India, although historians are sceptical of this assertion.

Bindusara’s life was not well chronicled in ancient and medieval sources. A lot of what we know about him derives from Jain tales about Chandragupta and Buddhist traditions about Ashoka. Hemachandra’s Parishishta-Parvan, for example, was composed over 1000 years later.   The majority of Buddhist stories regarding Ashoka’s formative years seem to have been written by Buddhist writers that lived hundreds of years following Ashoka’s funeral and are thus of little historical importance.   While these stories may be utilized to draw numerous conclusions about Bindusara’s rule, they aren’t fully trustworthy because of Ashoka’s strong affiliation with Buddhists.

BINDUSARA 

Chandragupta, the Mauryan Empire’s founder, had a son named Bindusara. Several texts, such as the Puranas and the Mahavamsa, attest to this.   Bindusara, but on the other hand, is named as the son of Emperor Shushunaga in the Dipavamsa.   Bindusara was indeed the child of Nanda as well as a 10th-generation descendent of Bimbisara, according to the literary form of Ashokavadana. It, too, omits Chandragupta’s name entirely, as does Dipavamsa. A similar genealogy may be found in the metrical form of Ashokavadana, with minor differences. 

Because Chandragupta had such a matrimonial relationship with both the Seleucids, it’s possible that Bindusara’s mother was Greek or Macedonian. There is, however, no proof of this.   Bindusara’s mother’s name is Durdhara, as per Hemachandra’s Parishishta-Parvan from the twelfth century.

Mythology regarding Bindusara’s name appears including both Buddhist & Jain writings. According to both stories, Chandragupta’s minister Chanakya sometimes used to add small quantities of poison into the emperor’s diet to strengthen his resistance against poison operations. Chandragupta exchanged his meal with her pregnant wife one day, unaware of the danger. The princess was 7 days away from giving birth, according to Buddhist tales (Mahavamsa & Mahavamsa Tikka). The queen did eat the poisonous piece just as Chanakya arrived. He chose to save another unborn child after realizing she was going to be dead. To remove the fetus, he hacked off of the queen’s crown and sliced it into her stomach with a sword.

Sushima, Ashoka, and Vigatashoka are the three children of Bindusara mentioned in the prose form of Ashokavadana. Subhadrangi, the daughter of a Brahman from Champa city, was the mother of Ashoka & Vigatashoka. An astrologer foretold that another one of mother sons is a king and another a holy man when she was born. Her dad took daughter to Bindusara’s kingdom in Pataliputra while she was older. The royal barber was taught by Bindusara’s women, who were envious of her beauty. She once stated her wish to become a queen after the emperor complimented her hairdo talents. Bindusara was originally concerned about her low social status, but after learning of her Brahmin ancestry, he elevated her to the position of chief queen.

CONCLUSION

The Maurya Empire had been a South Asian Iron Age historical empire centred in Magadha, created under Chandragupta Maurya around 322 BCE and lasting until 185 BCE in a loose-knit way. The conquering of the India strategic Plain centred the Maurya Empire, and Pataliputra served as its capital city (modern Patna). Outside of this imperial core, the empire’s geographical reach was limited by the devotion of top generals who ruled the armed cities that dot the landscape. Except for the far south, the empire temporarily dominated the major urban centers or arteries of something like the Indian subcontinent under Ashoka’s reign (ca. 268–232 BCE).