After Chandragupta Maurya’s death, Bindusara ascended the throne of the Mauryan Empire in 297 BC. His fancy name made way to a lot of legends. A popular one is as follows:
His mother was poisoned before he was born, so the unborn child was placed in the womb of a goat. When he was born, his body was covered with spots and hence the name Bindusara, the spotted one. Among the Greeks, Bindusara was known as Amitrochates. This Greek-sounding name came from the Sanskrit ‘Amitra-ghata’ which meant the slayer of foes’.
Unlike his father Chandragupta or son Ashoka, Bindusara’s life has not been well documented, and most of what we know about him comes from legends. He is said to have conquered parts of south India. The works of early Tamil poets tell us about Mauryan chariots with white flags racing across their land.
He preferred the Ajivika philosophy over Jainism; the Ajivikas were considered atheists then.
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