Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c5.76

c5.76

**Casualties.** The details of the actual battle between Chandragupta and Nanda are not known. The Jain work *Pariśishṭaparvan* [VIII. 253-54] contains a verse stating that 'Chāṇakya recruited for Chandragupta an army by means of wealth hidden underground for the purpose of uprooting Nanda.' "It has been conjectured that he employed Greek mercenaries in his struggle with Nanda" [*Cambridge History*, I. p. 435]. That it was a bloody battle between the two is indicated in exaggerated terms in a passage in the *Milindapañho*, [*SBE*, XXVI. p. 147] stating that "100 koṭis of soldiers, 10,000 elephants, 1 lac of horses and 5,000 charioteers" were killed in action and that Bhaddaśāla was the commander of Nanda's army. We have already seen the version of the event given in the *Mudrārākshasa* which begins with Chāṇakya's statement that he has already killed all the Nine Nandas and will not spare the surviving representative of the Nanda family, the old man, Sarvārthasiddhi, who, unable to stand the siege of his city Kusumapura, betook himself to the forest. Though living there as a hermit, he was done to death under orders of Chāṇakya who was out to uproot the last offshoot of the Nanda family.