The first historical and vast Mauryan empire in India was founded in $321\ BC$ by a powerful young man named Chandragupta Maurya.
According to the Mahavamsa and Divya Avadan, Chandragupta was born in $345\ BC$ to a Kshatriya king of the Moriya clan of Piplivan in the foothills of Nepal.
Jain texts indicate that he was the son of Mura, the concubine of Dhanananda, the last king of the Nanda dynasty of Magadha.
The Mauryan dynasty seems to have derived its name from the Mauryan caste or Chandragupta's mother Mura.
Before the establishment of the Mauryan dynasty, Vishnugupta alias Chanakya, a learned and talented Brahmin of Takshashila, came to the court of Dhanananda, the king of the Nand dynasty, in Pataliputra, the capital of Magadha.
According to literary references, King Dhanananda insulted Chanakya for some reason and vowed to destroy the Nand dynasty. Chanakya was looking for a talented young man to fulfill his vow and he was introduced to Chandragupta.
Childhood in Chandragupta Thij had leadership qualities.
Recognizing these qualities, Chanakya trained him in weapons and scriptures.
Victory and the attainment of power: There was strong opposition in different sections of the people to expel the foreign Greeks from India.
Under these circumstances, under the guidance of Chanakya, Chandragupta invaded the weak Greek kingdoms and defeated Seleucus Niketar, conquering its four territories $(1)$ Kabul $(2)$ Kandahar $(3)$ Herat and $(4)$ Balochistan.
At the end of the conflict, attracted by Chandragupta's solar and military strength, Seleucus married his daughter Helen to Chandragupta.
Chandragupta gifted $500$ elephants to Seleucus in memory of this marriage.
Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus, stayed in Pataliputra for some time. He recorded everything he saw and experienced during his stay in a book called Indica.
With the guidance of Acharya Chanakya and with the help of Raja Parvatak of Punjab, Chandragupta deployed a large army and marched towards Magadha.
Chandragupta, meanwhile, conquered the smaller kingdoms that came his way, invading the vast army of King Dhanananda of Magadha in $321\ BC.$
In $321\ BC,$ Chandragupta was crowned at the age of $30$ in Pataliputra, the capital of Magadha.
After gaining power, he conquered almost the whole of India. His vast empire included the regions of Maharashtra, Konkan and Karnataka on the west and east borders of North India.
Chandragupta also established his dominance over Gujarat and Saurashtra.
As mentioned in the inscription of Girnar, Suba Pushyagupta of Chandragupta built Sudarshan Lake near Junagadh.
This fact proves that Gujarat and Saurashtra are a part of the Mauryan Empire.
The inscriptions found from Mysore, the references to Tamil literature and the inscriptions of Ashoka prove that Chandragupta conquered as far as Mysore.
Chandragupta's state of Assam stretched from the Hindu Kush Mountains in the north and the border of northwestern Iran to Mysore in the south and from Saurashtra in the west to Bengal in the east.
Death: Chandragupta Maurya ruled a vast empire for $24$ years of his reign and died in $297\ BC.$
According to Jain Shruti, he converted to Jainism in the last years of his life and went to Shravan Belgoda near
Mysore in the south with Jain sage Bhadrabahu.
Here he fasted according to Jainism and left the body.
Even today, Chandragiri hill near Mysore immortalizes his memory.
Evaluation: Chandragupta Maurya was a skilled general and a great conqueror.
Although initially lacking troops and equipment, he conquered by his own strength and established the first empire in the history of ancient India.
Chandragupta was a powerful emperor who liberated a small region of India from foreign rule and extended his kingdom to the far south.
It united the small scattered states of India and established the ideal of political unity for future rulers.
By establishing an efficient administration in his vast empire, he paid close attention to the happiness, peace and security of the people.