The name Maurya probably a sanskrit word Mayura.  The Jain tradition describes Chandragupta Maurya as a grandson of the chief of a village of Peacock tamers.  The Mauryas emblem Mayura seen in their coinage and monuments provides further evidence to it.  With the discovery of the book on Kautilya's Arthashasthra by Shamasastri in 1909, the Maurya chronology became very definite though the dates are still controversial. Another source of information for the Mauryan period is the Mudrarakshas.  This gives us the clear details of the revolution by which Chandragupta Maurya overthrew  the Nandas.  Chandragupta and Kautilya (his minister) joined together with the Pauravas against Nandas. The enemies of Chandragupta Maurya were thus disposed one by one by Kautilya, and soon Paurava prince got killed too.
 

Chandragupta Maurya

The Buddhist tradition tells us the death of Chandragupta's father left his mother destitute and she took shelter in Pataliputra.  The baby was deposited for safety with a cowherd, but the latter sold the child to a hunter who employed him to tend cattle. The boy was always fond of playing the king's role with his companions.    It is stated that during this time Chanakya was the elected president of the Dhanasala, a charity school run by the Dhana Nanda.  The manners and features of Chanakya made Dhana Nanda to dismiss Chanakya and the latter took vow to ruin the Nandas.  Chanakya encountered this ambitious kingly character in a boy and used him to take revenge on Dhana Nanda.

After the death of Alexander in Babylon (323 BC), the India could not be held together.  It is the same time, Chandragupta Maurya collected recruits from different places and organized them into a powerful army with which he played an important part in the liberation of India from the Greek rule.  Soon he overthrew the Nandas and captured the capital city Pataliputra.  On the other hand, the ambitious Selucus had crossed Indus with the ambition to recover the lost conquests of Alexander.  His expedition was mutilated by Chandragupta Maurya and Selucus entered a treaty with Chandragupta Maurya.  Kabul, Kandahar and part of Herat and Beluchistan were absorbed into the Mauryan territory through the treaty.  Chandragupta Maurya eventually pushed his conquests to as far as Saurashtra in the west and Deccan in the south.

He adopted Jainism, renounced the worldly affairs, became deciple of Jain Muni Bhadrabahu Swami and followed him to South India (Karnataka). He spent his last days, (298 B.C.) in the hill of south India which is called after him as CHANDRAGIRI, where the tallest statue of Gomateshwara was carved by the Gangas later during their rule.
 

Bindusara

Bindusara (299 - 274 BC) succeeded Chandragupta Maurya .  It is stated that Chanakya survived his master and continued to work as Bindusara's minister.  Though there is no evidence of the conquests which Bindusara achieved, it is well known that the people of Taxila revolted twice. The first revolt was due to bad administration of Susima the eldest son.  Though the cause for the second revolution is not known, it could not be suppressed by Bindusara due to his untimely death.
 

Ashoka

Ashoka was the second son of Bindusara and was the viceroy of Ujjain during Bindusara's reign.  Due to untimely death of his father, he had to suppers the rebellion of Taxila, and by doing so, he ascended the throne taking his ministers into confidence.  The fact that his formal coronation was delayed for some years until 269 BC may be due to the bloody dispute between his other brothers (100) for the power, but there is no evidence of such a struggle.  In the 13th year of his reign, he conquered Kalinga.  It is said that during the war of Kalinga 1,00,000 persons were slain, 1,50,000 held captive and many times that number died in the battle field.  The Kalinga war opened a new epoch in the history of Magadha as well as India.  Ashoka could not see the sufferings of the people who survived in the war, and turned Buddhist.  Lord Siva seems to have been his favourite deity till then.  He propagated his new religion by engraving his Dhamma, Law of Piety through the rock edicts throughout his empire which spread till Deccan in the south.

The mighty empire of the Mauryas soon began to decline after the death of Ashoka and disappeared from the scene by 187 BC when the last ruler Brihadratha was killed by his commander-in chief.  The successors of Ashoka were not able to rule such a huge empire, and several disintegrating forces seems to have been active after the death of Ashoka.  Various parts of the empire became independent and soon the Mauryan empire gave birth to more smaller segments.