Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c4.53

c4.53

**Jain Tradition.** Jain tradition also relates that Chandragupta was born of a daughter of the chief of a village community who were known as 'rearers of royal peacocks' (*mayūra-poshaka-grāme*) [Hemachandra's *Pariśishtaparvan*, VIII, 230], while it describes Nanda as the son of a barber by a courtesan (whom the Greeks specify to be the queen of the last king) [*Ib.* VI. 232]. This imputes to him a double infamy due to both parents being tainted. The *Āvaśyaka Sūtra* (p. 693) which also knows of nine Nandas (*navame Nande*), describes the first Nanda as begotten of a barber (*nāpitadāsa…rāja jātaḥ*).