His rise to power began in the period of unrest and local warfare that arose after Alexander the Great's Indian campaign and early death in 323 BCE, although the exact chronology and sequence of events remains subject to debate among historians.

317-312 BCE,[h] but some scholars have speculated that he might have initially consolidated his power base in Punjab, before conquering Magadha;[h] an alternative chronology places these events all in the period ca.

He expanded his reach subsequently into parts of the western Indus Valley[i] and possibly[14] eastern Afghanistan[b] through a dynastic marriage alliance with Seleucus I Nicator ca.

[a][b] There are no historical facts about Chandragupta's origins and early life, only legends, while the narrative of his reign is mainly deduced from a few fragments in Greek and Roman sources, and a few Indian religious texts, all written centuries after his death.

[m] Chandragupta's reign, and the Maurya Empire, which reached its peak under his grandson Ashoka the Great,[n] began an era of economic prosperity, reforms, infrastructure expansions.

[23] Justin states that Chandragupta was of humble origin, and includes stories of miraculous legends associated with him, such as a wild elephant appearing and submitting itself to him as a ride to him before a battle.

Justin's text states that Chandragupta "achieved [India's] freedom, and "aspired to royalty by all men," as he offended Nanda and was ordered to death, but saved himself "by a speedy flight.

[28] These sources, written about seven centuries after his dynasty ended, state that both Chandragupta and his grandson Ashoka – a patron of Buddhism – were Moriyas, a branch of Gautama Buddha's Shakya noble family.

[40]According to other Greco-Roman texts, Chandragupta attacked the Greek-Indian governors during a period of unrest and local warfare after Alexander's death (died c. 323 BCE), acquiring control of the eastern Indus Valley.

[21] Jansari, admitting that c.320/319 is the date conventionally accepted by most scholars,[h] follows Cribb in re-assessing Justin (XV section 4.12-22), who states that Chandragupta's became "‘ruler of India’ when Seleucus was ‘laying the foundations’ of his own empire."

[52][53] British orientialist and philologist Sir William Jones (1746–1794) was the first to propose, in 1793, that Chandragupta Maurya known from the Sanskrit literature must be equivalent to the Indian king known as "Sandracottus" in Graeco-Roman historical sources.

According to one theory, it may be derived from the Greek royal title Basileus, but there is no concrete evidence of this: the Indian sources apply it to several non-royals, especially wandering teachers and ascetics.

[67][68] According to the Buddhist legend, Chanakya was chosen as president of the samgha which administered the Danasala, a charity foundation, but was dismissed by Dhana Nanda due to his ugliness and manners.

This revolt led by Chandragupta, who in turn established an oppressive regime himself "after taking the throne":[70][g] India, after the death of Alexander, had assassinated his prefects, as if shaking the burden of servitude.

[10]According to Mookerji, the Buddhist text Mahavamsa Tika describes how Chandragupta and Chanakya raised an army by recruiting soldiers from many places after the former completed his education at Taxila, to resist the Greeks.

[83][84] In contrast to the easy victory in Buddhist sources, the Hindu and Jain texts state that the campaign was bitterly fought because the Nanda dynasty had a powerful and well-trained army.

[88][e] The conquest was fictionalised in Mudrarakshasa, in which Chandragupta is said to have acquired Punjab, and then allied with a local king named Parvatka under the Chanakya's advice, where-after they advanced on Pataliputra.

[11][s][t] In contrast to the easy victory of Buddhist sources, the Hindu and Jain texts state that the campaign was bitterly fought because the Nanda dynasty had a powerful and well-trained army.

Alexander [III 'the Great' of Macedon] took these away from the Arians and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus [Chandragupta], upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange five hundred elephants.

[116] According to Digambara Jain accounts Chandragupta abdicated at an early age and settled as a monk under Bhadrabāhu in Shravanabelagola, in present-day south Karnataka.

[21][128][129] According to V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar – an Indologist and historian, several of the Digambara legends mention Prabhacandra, who had been misidentified as Chandragupta Maurya particularly after the original publication on Shravanabelagola epigraphy by B. Lewis Rice.

The earliest and most important inscriptions mention Prabhacandra, which Rice presumed may have been the "clerical name assumed by Chadragupta Maurya" after he renounced and moved with Bhadrabahu from Patliputra.

[33] According to historian Sushma Jansari, "A closer look at the evidence for Chandragupta's conversion to Jainism and his and Bhadrabāhu's association with Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa reveals that it is both late and problematic.

[116] At the time of his grandson Ashoka's ascension in c. 268 BCE, the empire extended up to present-day Karnataka in the south, so the southern conquests may be attributed to either Chandragupta or his son Bindusara.

According to Mookerji, Chandragupta expanded his empire into the south,[132] referring to Plutarch, who stated that "Androcottus [...] with an army of six hundred thousand men overran and subdued all India.

One managed the affairs of villages, ensuring irrigation, recording land ownership, monitoring tools supply, enforcing hunting, wood products and forest-related laws, and settling disputes.

[149] Another administrative structure managed city affairs, including all matters related to trade, merchant activity, visit of foreigners, harbors, roads, temples, markets, and industries.

[153][154] Ancient epigraphical evidence suggests Chandragupta, under counsel from Chanakya, started and completed many irrigation reservoirs and networks across the Indian subcontinent to ensure food supplies for the civilian population and the army, a practice continued by his dynastic successors.

The other major strategic road infrastructure credited to this tradition spread from Pataliputra in various directions, connecting it with Nepal, Kapilavastu, Dehradun, Mirzapur, Odisha, Andhra, and Karnataka.

The competing theories state that the art linked to Chandragupta Maurya's dynasty was learnt from the Greeks and West Asia in the years Alexander the Great waged war; or that these artifacts belong to an older indigenous Indian tradition.