The Mauryan Polity c7.s1.t3.1

c7.s1.t3.1

There was also the practice of relinquishing the throne and the numerous honours pertaining to it by the sitting king in favour of his son and the Yuvarāja. Such abdication was voluntary, dictated by honest and well-meaning motives. It has been a tradition, both Vedic and epic, that in ancient India when the king attained a certain age fit for the third āśrama, the vānaprastha, he abdicated his throne in favour of his son and retired to the forest to lead a godly life of penance and prayer. If we are to believe the Jaina tradition, Candragupta must have felt that his son had come of sufficient age to take up the responsibilities of ruling the empire, and that it was high time he retired from the din and bustle of political administration to one of peaceful meditation. Whether he was attracted by the Jaina doctrines on the eve of his life and whether he stuck to them, it is not possible to show in any conclusive manner from the materials available. V. A. Smith did not attach any value to this tradition in his first edition of the Early History of India. In subsequent editions, however, he has changed his opinion and thinks that it may be possible that Candragupta died as a Jaina.¹ Whatever be the truth underlying this tradition the fact remains that Candragupta after a reign of 24 years abdicated in favour of his son Bindusāra who ruled the empire equally well for 25 years according to the Purāṇas and 28 years according to the Ceylon chronicles.²