Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c4.59

c4.59

According to these traditions, Chandragupta came of the Kshatriya clan of the Moriyas, kinsmen of the Śākyas. The chief of the migrant Moriyas was his father who was unfortunately killed in a border-fray, leaving his family destitute. His helpless widow escorted by her brothers escaped to the city called Pushpapura (=Kusumapura=Pāṭaliputra) where she gave birth to the child Chandragupta. For his safety, the orphan was deposited by his maternal uncles at a cow-pen where he was brought up as his own son by the cowherd who later sold him as a grown-up to a hunter by whom he was employed to tend cattle. The story goes that at the village common, the boy, Chandragupta, showed himself to be a born leader by inventing the game of playing the king (*Rājakīḷaṁ*) with his companions as his subordinates and even getting up a mock court at which he was practising administration of justice. It was at one of these rural royal games that Chandragupta was first seen by Chāṇakya. Chāṇakya, with his prophetic vision, at once discovered in that rustic foundling the promise and signs of royalty and straightway bought him of his foster-father by paying down 1000 *kārshāpaṇas* on the spot. Chandragupta must have been then a boy of only eight or nine years. Chāṇakya, who is described as a resident of the city of Taxila (*Takkasilā-nagara-vāsī*), returned to his native city with the boy and had him educated for a period of 7 or 8 years at that famous seat of learning where all the ‘sciences and arts’ of the times were taught, as we know from the *Jātakas*. He gave him an all-round education both in the humanities, and also in the practical or technical arts (*bāhusachchabhāvañcha*; *uggahitasippakañcha*).