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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|King of Magadha from 329 to 321 BCE}}<br />
{{redirect|Xandrames|the genus of moths|Xandrames (moth)}}<br />
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}<br />
{{use Indian English|date=December 2015}}<br />
{{Infobox royalty<br />
| image = Nanda Empire, c.325 BCE.png<br />
| alt = Possible extent of Dhana Nanda's empire<br />
| caption = Dhana Nanda's empire<br />
| succession = [[List of monarchs of Magadha#House of Nanda|King of Magadha]]<br />
| birth_date = <!--Birthdate must be attributed to a reliable published source with an established reputation for fact-checking. No blogs. No IMDb. No public records. See WP:BLPPRIVACY--><br />
| death_date = {{circa|321 BCE}}<br />
| reign = c. 329–321 BCE<br />
| predecessor = Kaivarta<br />
| successor = [[Chandragupta Maurya]] (as [[List of Mauryan emperors|Emperor of Magadha]])<br />
| dynasty = [[Nanda Empire|Nanda]]<br />
| father = [[Mahapadma Nanda]]<br />
| issue = [[Durdhara]] <br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Dhana Nanda''' (died {{circa| 321 BCE}}), according to the Buddhist text ''[[Bodhi Vamsa|Mahabodhivamsa]]'', was the last [[Nanda Empire|Nanda]] king of [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]].<br />
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[[Chandragupta Maurya]] raised an army that eventually conquered the Nanda capital [[Pataliputra]] and defeated him. This defeat marked the fall of the Nanda Empire and the birth of the [[Maurya Empire]].<br />
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The [[Jain]] tradition presents a similar legend about the last Nanda emperor, although it simply calls the emperor "Nanda", and states that the emperor was allowed to leave his capital alive after being defeated. The [[Puranas]] give a different account, describing the last Nanda emperor as one of eight sons of the dynasty's founder, whom they call [[Mahapadma Nanda|Mahapadma]]. The Greco-Roman accounts name [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]'s contemporary ruler in India as Agrammes or Xandrames, whom modern historians identify as the last Nanda emperor. According to these accounts, Alexander's soldiers mutinied when faced with the prospect of a war with this emperor's powerful army.<br />
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== Buddhist tradition ==<br />
The Buddhist text ''[[Mahāvaṃsa]]'' names 9 Nanda kings, who were all brothers, and ruled in succession for a total of 22 years. The first of these kings was Ugrasena, and the last was Dhana Nanda:{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=273}}{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=13}}<br />
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{{columns-list|colwidth=20em|<br />
# Ugrasena (Uggasena in Pali)<br />
# Panduka<br />
# Pandugati<br />
# Bhuta-pala<br />
# Rashtra-pala<br />
# Govishanaka<br />
# Dasha-siddhaka<br />
# Kaivarta<br />
# Dhana Nanda<br />
}}<br />
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The Buddhist tradition states that Dhana Nanda insulted the [[Chanakya]] for his ugly appearance during an alms-giving ceremony at Pupphapura ([[Pushpapura]]), ordering him to be thrown out of the assembly. Chanakya then cursed the king, who ordered his arrest. Chanakya escaped and befriended the king's son Pabbata, instigating the prince to seize the throne. With help of a [[signet ring]] given by the prince, Chanakya fled the Nanda palace. Determined to overthrow Dhana Nanda, he acquired wealth to raise an army by using a secret technique that allowed him to turn 1 coin into 8 coins.{{sfn|Thomas Trautmann|1971|p=13}}<br />
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Chanakya narrowed down two candidates to replace Dhana Nanda: Pabbata, and [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]], who belonged to a former royal family. To test them, he gave each of them an amulet to be worn around the neck with a woolen thread. One day, while Chandragupta was asleep, he asked Pabbata to remove Chandragupta's woolen thread without breaking it and without waking up Chandragupta. Pabbata failed to accomplish this task. Some time later, when Pabbata was sleeping, Chanakya challenged Chandragupta to complete the same task. Chandragupta retrieved the woolen thread by cutting off Pabbata's head. Over next seven years, Chanakya trained and mentored Chandragupta. When Chandragupta became an adult, Chanakya assembled an army using his wealth.{{sfn|Thomas Trautmann|1971|p=14}}<br />
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The army invaded Dhana Nanda's capital, but was decisively defeated and disbanded. Subsequently, Chandragupta and Chanakya raised a new army, and started capturing the border villages. Gradually, they advanced to the Nanda capital Pataliputta ([[Pataliputra]]), and killed Dhana Nanda. Chanakya found the treasure of Dhana Nanda through a fisherman, and appointed Chandragupta as the new king.{{sfn|Thomas Trautmann|1971|p=15}}<br />
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== Other descriptions of the last Nanda king ==<br />
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=== Jain tradition ===<br />
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The Jain tradition contains a legend that has several similarities with the Buddhist legend, but does not mention the name "Dhana Nanda": the Jain texts simply call Chanakya's rival king "Nanda". According to the Jain tradition, Chanakya visited the Nanda capital [[Pataliputra]] to seek donations from the king, but felt insulted by a servant of the king. He then vowed to overthrow the Nanda dynasty.{{sfn|Thomas Trautmann|1971|p=22}} He discovered and mentored Chandragupta, and raised an army that defeated the Nanda forces after an initial debacle. However, unlike the Buddhist tradition, the Jain tradition states that the Nanda king was allowed to leave his capital alive after being defeated. The king's daughter fell in love with Chandragupta and married him.{{sfn|Thomas Trautmann|1971|p=23}} This legend does not name this daughter, although later, it names [[Durdhara]] as the mother of Chandragupta's son [[Bindusara]].{{sfn|Mookerji|1966|p=234}}<br />
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Nanda's chief minister was Sakadala who had two sons, [[Sthulabhadra]] (297–198 BCE) and Srikaya.{{sfn|Natubhai Shah|2004|p=42}} Srikaya became the king's personal bodyguard.{{sfn|Natubhai Shah|2004|p=42}} Sthulabhadra loved the royal dancer Rupakosa and lived for 12 years with her.{{sfn|Natubhai Shah|2004|p=42}} Sakadala was killed in a plot of his political opponent Varichi, after which, his son Srikaya was made the chief minister.{{sfn|Natubhai Shah|2004|pp=42-43}}<br />
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=== Puranas ===<br />
Like the Buddhist tradition, the [[Puranas]] also state that there were 9 Nanda kings.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=272}} However, they name the first of these kings as [[Mahapadma Nanda|Mahapadma]], and state that the next 8 kings were his sons. The Puranas name only one of these sons: Sukalpa.{{sfn|Dilip Kumar Ganguly|1984|p=20}} [[Dhundhiraja of Svamimalai|Dhundhi-raja]], an 18th-century [[Puranas|Puranic]] commentator, claims that Chandragupta Maurya was the grandson of a Nanda king called Sarvatha-siddhi,{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2008|p=273}} although this claim does not occur in the Puranas themselves.{{sfn|H. C. Raychaudhuri|1988|p=140}}<br />
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=== Greco-Roman accounts ===<br />
The Greek accounts name [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]'s contemporary ruler in India as Agrammes or Xandrames, whom modern historians identify as the last Nanda king. "Agrammes" may be a Greek transcription of the Sanskrit word "Augrasainya" (literally "son or descendant of Ugrasena", Ugrasena being the name of the dynasty's founder according to the Buddhist tradition).{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=13}}{{sfn|H. C. Raychaudhuri|1988|p=14}} The Greco-Roman tradition suggests that this dynasty had only two kings: according to Curtius, the dynasty's founder was a barber-turned-king; his son was overthrown by [[Chandragupta Maurya]].{{sfn|Mookerji|1966|p=5}}<br />
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Indian kings [[Porus the Elder|Porus]] and Phegeles (Bhagala) are said to have informed Alexander of the unpopularity of Agrammes among his subjects.{{sfn|Mookerji|1966|p=35}} According to the Roman historian [[Quintus Curtius Rufus]], his army had as 200,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, 2,000 four-horsed [[Ratha|chariots]] and 3,000 [[War elephant|elephants]].{{sfn|Mookerji|1966|p=34}} The Greek accounts describe Agrammes as the ruler of the [[Gangaridai]] (the [[Ganges valley]]) and the Prasii (probably a transcription of the Sanskrit word ''prachya''s, literally "easterners").{{sfn|Irfan Habib|Vivekanand Jha|2004|p=13}} When faced with the prospect of facing the powerful army of Nanda, Alexander's soldiers mutinied, forcing him to retreat from India.{{sfn|Ian Worthington|2014|pp=251-253}}<br />
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All historical accounts agree that the last Nanda king was unpopular among his subjects. According to Diodorus, [[Porus the Elder|Porus]] told Alexander that the contemporary Nanda king was a man of "worthless character", and was not respected by his subjects as he was thought to be of low origin. Curtius also states that according to Porus, the Nanda king was despised by his subjects. According to [[Plutarch]], who claims that Androkottos (identified as Chandragupta) met Alexander, Androkottos later declared that Alexander could have easily conquered the Nanda territory (Gangaridai and Prasii) because the Nanda king was hated and despised by his subjects, as he was wicked and of low origin. The Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition blames the Nandas for being greedy and for imposing oppressive taxation. The Puranas of India label the Nandas as ''adharmika'', indicating that they did not follow the norms of ''[[dharma]]'' or righteous conduct.{{cn|date=November 2022}}<br />
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== Popular culture ==<br />
Dhana Nanda appears as the primary antagonist in almost every series on Indian television portraying the life of Chanakya or Chandragupta Maurya.<br />
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*In the epic historical drama [[Chanakya (TV series)]], Suraj Chaddha portrayed the role of Dhana Nanda.<br />
* In [[Chandragupta Maurya (2011 TV series)]], [[Sooraj Thapar]] portrayed Dhana Nanda.<br />
* In [[Chandra Nandini]] TV Serial, Lokesh Batta portrayed the role of Dhana Nanda.<br />
* In [[Porus (TV series)|Porus]] and [[Chandragupta Maurya (2018 TV Series)|Chandragupta Maurya]], [[Saurabh Raj Jain]] essayed the role of Dhana Nanda.<br />
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== References ==<br />
===Citations===<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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=== Sources ===<br />
* {{cite book |author=Dilip Kumar Ganguly |title=History and Historians in Ancient India |url=https://archive.org/details/historyhistorian00gang |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyhistorian00gang/page/23 23] |year=1984 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-0-391-03250-7 }}<br />
* {{cite book |author=H. C. Raychaudhuri |author-link=Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri |chapter=India in the Age of the Nandas |editor=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |editor-link=K. A. Nilakanta Sastri |title=Age of the Nandas and Mauryas |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoAwor58utYC&pg=PA11 |year=1988 |orig-year=1967 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=Delhi |isbn=978-81-208-0466-1 }}<br />
* {{cite book |author=Ian Worthington |title=By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vnGVAwAAQBAJ |year=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-992986-3 }}<br />
* {{cite book |author1=Irfan Habib |author2=Vivekanand Jha |title=Mauryan India |series=A People's History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUvGQgAACAAJ |year=2004 |publisher=Aligarh Historians Society / [[Tulika Books]] |isbn=978-81-85229-92-8 }}<br />
* {{citation |last=Mookerji |first=Radha Kumud |author-link=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and his times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C |edition=4th |year=1966 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=81-208-0433-3 }}<br />
* {{citation |last=Shah |first=Natubhai |title=Jainism: The World of Conquerors |url={{Google books|qLNQKGcDIhsC|plainurl=yes}} |volume=I |date=2004 |orig-year=First published in 1998 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-81-208-1938-2 |ref={{sfnref|Natubhai Shah|2004}} }}<br />
* {{cite book |author=Upinder Singh |author-link=Upinder Singh |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA272 |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-81-317-1677-9 }}<br />
* {{cite book |author=Thomas Trautmann |author-link=Thomas Trautmann |title=Kauṭilya and the Arthaśāstra: a statistical investigation of the authorship and evolution of the text |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v3iDAAAAMAAJ |year=1971 |publisher=Brill }}<br />
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[[Category:4th-century BC Indian monarchs]]<br />
[[Category:Kings of Magadha]]<br />
[[Category:Nanda dynasty]]</div>Ahmedabadwebdesigning