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Durdhara

Durdhara was the empress of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the 4th-century BCE Maurya Empire of ancient India, according to the 12th century CE Jain text Parishishtaparvan by Hemachandra.[1] She is stated by this text to be the mother of the second Mauryan emperor, Bindusara also known as Amitraghāta.[2]

According to the Jain tradition, after Chandragupta defeated the Nanda emperor, the Nanda princess fell in love with Chandragupta and married him.[3] The legend does not name this princess, but later names Durdhara as the mother of Chandragupta's son Bindusara.[2] Nothing is mentioned or known about Durdhara outside of this legend written 1,600 years after Chandragupta's era. Other sources, such as the Burmese Buddhist records do not corroborate the Jain legend.[1] Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador in the final years of Chandragupta's court, does not mention Durdhara nor use the name Bindusara, but refers to Chandragupta's successor as Amitrochates, while the Hindu scholar Patanjali calls him Amitraghata (meaning "vanquisher of foes").[4][5] Scholars consider the Bindusara of Jain texts to be the same as Amitraghata.[5]

In popular culture

References

  1. ^ a b KAN Sastri (1988). Age of the Nandas and Mauryas. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 159, 165. ISBN 978-81-208-0466-1.
  2. ^ a b Mookerji 1988, p. 234.
  3. ^ Trautmann 1971, p. 23.
  4. ^ Etienne Lamotte (1988). History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era. Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste. p. 222. ISBN 978-90-6831-100-6.
  5. ^ a b Kosmin, Paul J. (2014). The Land of the Elephant Kings. Harvard University Press. pp. 34–35, 267. ISBN 978-0-674-72882-0.

Bibliography