Changes

Although Chandragupta is well-known as the founder of the Mauryan Dynasty and the promoter of many of its successful policies, there is a dearth of primary source material about the ruler. Later Buddhist sources state that he was from the <i>kshatriya</i> or warrior caste, while Brahman sources depict him as being from the lowly <i>shudra</i> caste. <ref> Thapar, Romila. <i>Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300.</i> (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), pgs. 175-6</ref>  The seeming contradictions in the sources may be related to religious considerations more than anything. Chandragupta became a pious Jain late in his life and his grandson, Ashoka converted to and promoted Buddhism. The general confusion surrounding the lack of coherency and chronology of texts relating to Chandragupta’s lives was alleviated to some degree when British scholar William Jones definitively connected the Indian king to the mysterious “Sandrocuttus” mentioned by classical historians. <ref> Avari, p. 106</ref> Once historians knew that Chandragupta was Sandrocottus, combined with advances in archaeology and Sanskrit philology, modern scholars could better reconstruct his early life and the formation of the Mauryan Dynasty.