So just out of curiosity I jumped straight to the annexations of forts and as I was reading, I felt that chanakya was not just smart, he was also ruthless. And truly ruthless. In that book there were several situations mentioned, where king is the most vulnerable to kill, and how to kill him, and you can say yourself he isn't a kind of person who would miss a chance. He did fake about gods appearing, just to gain confidence of people.
And all this was just after reading a few pages and which made me think, why would a guy this ruthless and smart, would let someone else rule? Why would chanakya just go through all this pain for someone else to rule? Some folktales say it was because the nanda king insulted him, but I don't personally feel someone as smart as him would be too moved by their words, let alone think of making someone else a ruler instead of him.
I also had this one extra question, what is the chance that the history of Mauryan empire as we know today, is completely different than what actually happened? For example, the story of Chanakya says that he was born with a tooth, which is an indication that he would become a king, and so he got his tooth removed, which means he would be a king maker. What is the chance that this story was completely made up,story made by chanakya himself, just to gain the confidence of his empire??
Looking mainly for works such as a biography of Chandragupta Maurya as well as an in depth analysis of Mauryan history, culture, religion, language, etc.
Any other works and media about or concerning any part of Indian history (such as the Seleucid Empire) are welcomed as well
Unfortunately I can only read English sources
Iβm slowly building myself a decent collection of history books and reading them in chronological order. Iβve been shopping on places like Amazon for Classical Indian history books but all they have are cheap >100 page summaries. Are there some good reads I can find?
What if Maurya empire never existed?India would be much different now for sure.
What to you think?
Have a good day!
Boka_BB
https://github.com/ShadowDuke/OW_Maurya_Empire
https://oldworld.mod.io/maurya-empire1
Maurya
- Leader: Ashoka [HERO] (wife; Kaurvaki, 2 sons; Tivara & Kunala, 1 dauther; Charumati, Half-Brother; Susima, Father; Bindusara)
- Nation: Multiple Workers can build Improvements, -15% Cost for Elephant Units, -15% Train Time for Settlers , +1 Culture per Unit killed & +1 Growth per City per Year - [All Cities] +2 Training/Year & +15% Growth
- Starting Techs: Ironworking, Divination, Adminstration & Sovereignty
- Starting Laws: Primogeniture & Colonization
- Families: Assakas (Clerics), Shakyas (Champions), Ikshvakus (Patrons) & Vivasvanas (Sages)
- Unique Units: Rajha Gaja (turret elephant) & Ksatriya Arya Rathas (chariot archer)
- Unique Shrines: Shrine of Lakshmi (+2 Civics, +3 Money, +1 Growth & +2 Orders), Shrine of Rama (+5 Training), Shrine of Krishna (+2 Culture & +4 Food) & Shrine of Saraswati (+4 Science)
Content
- 10 new indian male/female portraits (5 each)
- Until more indian portraits are added, 14 new vanilla persian male and female portraits are added to the pool
- Real City names, historical indian male and female names & a lot mapElementNames have been added
https://preview.redd.it/ifs2l4h0a1l51.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e367b8e77b6b17eb0ded63ffde676219a2f9587a
https://preview.redd.it/6fgqyekdyok51.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83dac79f314ff1d51b361a193d56d2a482b2bf8e
Was there something about the Dravidian South that made it difficult to hold, uninteresting to conquerors, or both?
