Indian greatest scientist Satyendra Nath Bose

Satyendra Nath Bose was born on 1^st January 1894 in Calcutta (now Kolkata).

He was an Indian physicist specializing in mathematical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. The class of particles known as bosons was named after him by Paul Dirac. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1954 by the Government of India.

A self-taught scholar and a polyglot, he had a wide range of interests in varied fields including physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, arts, literature and music. He served on many research and development committees in independent India.

He was the eldest of seven children and only son, with six sisters after him. His father, Surendranath Bose, worked in the Engineering Department of the East Indian Railway Company. He married Ushabati at the age of 20. They had nine children. Two of them died in their early childhood. When he died in 1974, he left behind his wife, two sons, and five daughters.

His ancestral home was in village Bara Jagulia, in the District of Nadia, about 48 kilometers from Calcutta. His schooling began at the age of five. His first school was near his home. Later, when his family moved to Goabagan, he was admitted to the New Indian School. In the final year of school, he was admitted to the Hindu School. He passed his entrance examination/ matriculation in 1909 and stood fifth in the order of merit. He next joined the intermediate science course at the Presidency College, Calcutta, where he was taught by illustrious teachers as Jagadis Chandra Bose and Prafulla Chandra Ray. Meghnad Saha came from Dacca/Dhaka and joined the same college two years later. P C Mahalanobis and Sisir Kumar Mitra were a few years senior to them. Satyendra Nath Bose chose mixed (applied) mathematics for his B.Sc. and passed the examinations standing first in 1913 and again stood first in the M.Sc. mixed mathematics exam in 1915. It is said that his marks in the M.Sc. examination created a new record in the annals of the University of Calcutta,--which is yet to be surpassed.

After completing his M.Sc., Bose joined the University of Calcutta as a research scholar in 1916 and started his studies in the theory of relativity. It was an exciting era in the history of scientific progress. The quantum theory had just appeared on the horizon and important results had started pouring in.

Bose attended Hindu School in Calcutta, and later attended Presidency College, also in Calcutta, earning the highest marks at each institution while fellow student Meghnad Saha came second.[6] He came in contact with teachers such as Jagadish Chandra Bose and Prafulla Chandra Roy who provided inspiration to aim high in life. From 1916 to 1921 he was a lecturer in the physics department of the University of Calcutta. Along with Saha, Bose prepared the first book in English based on German & French translations of original papers on Einstein's special and general relativity in 1919. In 1921, he joined as Reader the department of Physics of the then recently founded University of Dhaka (now in Bangladesh) by the then Vice Chancellor of University of Calcutta Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, himself a distinguished mathematician, a high court judge & with strong interest in physics. Bose set up whole new departments, including laboratories, to teach advanced courses for M.Sc. & B.Sc. honors and taught Thermodynamics as well as Maxwell's Theory of Electromagnetism.

Satyendra Nath Bose, along with Saha, presented several papers in theoretical physics and pure mathematics 1918 onwards. In 1924, while working as a Reader at the Physics Department of the University of Dhaka, Bose wrote a paper deriving Planck's quantum radiation law without any reference to classical physics and using a novel way of counting states with identical particles. This paper was seminal in creating the very important field of quantum statistics. Though not accepted at once for publication, he sent the article directly to Albert Einstein in Germany. Einstein, recognizing the importance of the paper, translated it into German himself and submitted it on Bose's behalf to the prestigious Zeitschrift fur Physik. As a result of this recognition, Bose was able to work for two years in European X-ray and crystallography laboratories, during which he worked with Louis de Broglie, Marie Curie, and Einstein.

After his stay in Europe, Bose returned to Dhaka in 1926. He was made Head of the Department of Physics. He continued teaching at Dhaka University and guiding. Bose designed equipments himself for a X-ray crystallography laboratory. He set up laboratories and libraries to make the department a center of research in X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, magnetic properties of matter, optical spectroscopy, wireless, and unified field theories. He also published an equation of state for real gases with Meghnad Saha. He was also the Dean of the Faculty of Science at Dhaka University until 1945. When the partition of India became imminent, he returned to Calcutta to take up the prestigious Khaira chair and taught at Calcutta University until 1956. He insisted every student to design his own equipment using local materials and local technicians. He was made professor emeritus on his retirement. He then became Vice Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University in Shanti Niketan. He returned to the Calcutta university to continue research in nuclear physics and complete earlier works in organic chemistry. In subsequent years, he worked in applied research such as extraction of helium in hot springs of Bakreswar.

A Polyglot, he was well versed in several languages such as Bengali, English, French, German and Sanskrit as well as poetry of Lord Tennyson, Rabindranath Tagore and Kalidasa. He could also play the esraj, a musical instrument similar to a violin. He was actively involved in running night schools that came to be known as the Working Men's Institute.

In 1937, Rabindranath Tagore dedicated his only book on science, Visva-Parichay, to Satyendra Nath Bose. He was honored with title Padma Vibhushan by the Indian Government in 1954. In 1959, he was appointed as the National Professor, the highest honor in the country for a scholar, which he held for 15 years. In 1986 S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences was established by an act of Parliament, Government of India, in Salt Lake, Calcutta in honour of this world renowned Indian scientist.

Bose became an adviser to then newly formed Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He was the President of Indian Physical Society and the National Institute of Science. He was elected General President of the Indian Science Congress. He was the Vice President and then President of Indian Statistical Institute. In 1958 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was nominated as member of Rajya Sabha. Apart from physics he did some research in Biotechnology and literature (Bengali, English). He made deep studies in chemistry, geology, zoology, anthropology, engineering and other sciences. Being a Bengali, he devoted a lot of time to promoting Bengali as a teaching language, translating scientific papers into it, and promoting the development of the region.

Source: Wikipedia

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Satyendra Nath Bose towers over Higgs in world of physics

Indian scientist after whom the God particle is named remains in virtual oblivion.

The 'boson' in the Higgs boson particle, whose search and ultimate detection was one of the longest and most expensive in the history of science, owes its name to Bose. In 1924, the Kolkata-based physicist had sent a paper to Albert Einstein, describing a statistical model that led to the discovery of the Bose-Einstein condensate phenomenon. The paper laid the basis for describing the two classes of subatomic particles - bosons, named after Bose, and fermions, after Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.

Though Nobel Prize in Physics awards have been awarded in connection with research in this domain, many find it strange that Satyendra Nath Bose himself was not awarded one. But having an elementary particle named after oneself is an honour that far outstrips any award. A Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded every year. But nomenclature of an elementary particle lasts till the end of time.

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Acharya Chanakya (Kautilya)

Chanakya was the first political thinker, this world have seen. His written books are still took as reference on various political situations.

 

Chanakya, also known as Kautilya or Vishnugupta, was a professor (acharya) of political science at the Takshasila University and the Prime Minister of Chandragupta Maurya. He live in between 350BC - 275 BC. He is regarded as one of the earliest known political thinkers, economists and king-makers. In Jawaharlal Nehru's Discovery of India, Chanakya has been called the Indian Machiavelli.

 

Chanakya is perhaps lesser known in world history compared to later political philosophers like Sun-Tzu and Machiavelli, but is definitely considered as the first genuine political theorist in Indian history. It is said that his foresight and wide knowledge coupled with politics of expediency helped found the mighty Mauryan Empire in India.

 

 

Chanakya was born in Magadha (ruled by the Nandas) as the son of acharya Chanak. At an early age, he began study of the Vedas, then considered the toughest scriptures to study and memorise. He was a dilligent student and loved to study political science especially the role of king and the ways of effective administration. After his father was accused as a traitor and killed in prison, Chanakya left Magadha vowing never to come back. He later came back to ask Nandas for help against the Greek invasion but was humiliated and sent back. He then vowed to cause the downfall of Magadha empire. He was responsible not only for helping Chandragupta Maurya usurp the throne , but also for uniting the Indian states for fighting against the attack by Alexander the Great around 327 BC.

 

Chanakya enjoyed the best education at the time, in 'Takshasila' (also known in its corrupted form as Taxila).Takshasila had established itself as a place of learning and it was there that Panini had written the Sanskrit Grammar. The new states in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh by uttarapatha along the base of the Himalayas maintained contact with Takshasila and at the eastern end of the uttarapatha was the kingdom of Magadha with its capital city, Pataliputra. Chanakya's life was connected to these two cities, Pataliputra and Takshasila.

 

The University taught subjects using the best of practical knowledge acquired by the teachers. The age of entering the University was sixteen. The branches of studies most sought after in around India ranged from law, medicine, warfare and other indigenous forms of learning. Chanakya eventually became a professor of political science at the University. Two of his more famous students were Bhadrabhatt and Purushdutt.

 

Political turmoil in Western India at that time caused by greek invasion forced Chanakya to leave the University environment for the city of 'Patliputra' (presently known as Patna, in the state of Bihar, India), which was ruled by the Nanda king Dhanananda. Although Chanakya initially prospered in his relations with the ruler, being a blunt person he was soon disliked by the Dhanananda. This ended with Chanakya being removed from an official position he enjoyed.

 

Folklore has it that on his way out of the city after his removal, Chanakya was hurt by a thorny bush. He then bought a pot of milk and poured on the bush so that ants could come and destroy the bush. It is said that at this moment he was observed by a young Chandragupta Maurya, the future Emperor and creator of the Mauryan empire. Chanakya took a promising young boy often from the streets and brought him up to become one of the greatest emperors of India.

Chanakya was the kingmaker who actually planned the unification of India for the first time under Chandragupta. Chanakya is also supposed to have induced Amatya Rakshasa from the enemy camp to serve as Chandragupta's Prime minister.

 

The folklore in India differs in some aspects from the established mainstream history. He is often referred as the most crooked of diplomats (Kautilya in Sanskrit means "one who is very cunning"). It is said that Chanakya made Chandragupta join Alexander and become one of his Lieutenants. This trust was fostered by various means, including murders and misinformation. Soon he engineered a propaganda war in Alexander's secondary army made up of mostly paid mercenaries that had come under Chandragupta's command or influence. The propaganda was designed to break the main army's strength by creating confusion. It is said that Alexander was well prepared for a war but could not instill confidence in his army. At the most opportune moment Chankaya made Chandragupta revolt. Chandragupta snapped logistics and communication links that were exposed systematically throughout to bribes and promises to ambitious warlords. Ensuing confusions were engineered by misinformation. Alexander was thus forced to try to retreat. However, he was advised to retreat by an unfamiliar and dangerous route. Confused and shaken, for some reason Alexander followed the suggestion and ventured through arid desert-like terrain, where most of his army reeled under heat, thirst, hunger, and disease. The returning army, already weakened by the climate, was attacked and brutally plundered.

 

With Alexander out, the images of Chandragupta and Chanakya were those of superheroes and helped make small kings submit easily. With each victory, their power increased, and soon the supposedly impossible was accomplished.

 

 

According to a legend, while Chanakya served as the Prime Minister of Chandragupta Maurya, he started adding small amounts of poison in Chandragupta's food so that he would get used to it. The aim of this was to prevent the Emperor from being poisoned by enemies. One day the queen, Durdha, shared the food with the Emperor while she was pregnant. Since she was not used to eating poisoned food, she died. Chanakya decided that the baby should not die; hence he cut open the belly of the queen and took out the baby. A drop (bindu) of poison had passed to the baby's head, and hence Chanakya named him Bindusara.

 

When Bindusara became a youth, Chandragupta gave up the throne and followed the Jain saint Bhadrabahu to Karnataka and settled in a place known as Sravana Belagola. He lived as an ascetic for some years and died of starvation according to Jain tradition.

 

Chanakya meanwhile stayed as the Prime Minister of Bindusara. Bindusara also had a minister named Subandhu who did not like Chanakya. One day he told Bindusara that Chanakya was responsible for the murder of his mother. Bindusara asked the nurses who confirmed this story and he became very angry with Chanakya.

 

It is said that Chanakya, on hearing that the Emperor was angry with him, thought that anyway he was at the end of his life. He donated all his wealth to the poor, widows and orphans and sat on a dung heap, prepared to die by total abstinence from food and drink. Bindusara meanwhile heard the full story of his birth from the nurses and rushed to beg forgiveness of Chanakya. But Chanakya would not relent. Bindusara went back and vent his fury on Subandhu, who asked for time to beg for forgiveness from Chanakya.

 

Subandhu, who still hated Chanakya, wanted to make sure that Chanakya did not return to the city. So he arranged for a ceremony of respect, but unnoticed by anyone, slipped a smoldering charcoal ember inside the dung heap. Aided by the wind, the dung heap was on fire and the man behind the Mauryan Empire and the author of Arthashastra was burned to death.

 

 

Three books are attributed to Chanakya:

• Arthashastra,
• Nitishastra and
• Chanakya Niti.

 

Arthashastra (literally 'the Science of Material Gain' in Sanskrit) is a classic of statecraft. Many of his nitis or policies have been compiled under the book Chanakya Niti.

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Sridharacharya

Quadratic equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century.

Sridharacharya is referred ot by Bhaskara II as a distinguished mathematician and is quoted by the latter in a number of places. He work under the title Patiganita and the other a smaller tract called Trisatika, both of which have been edited, and of which a number of manuscripts also exist. His algebra is no longer extant, but is known from Bhaskara's references. The same arithmetical topics as are discussed by Brahmagupta, Mahavira and Bhaskara II are treated in the Trisatika. For multiplication, he uses a new term Pratyutpanna (re-produced) and discusses the kapata-sandhi (door-junction, Gelosia) method which became very popular among later Hindu writers and was transmitted to the West through Arab works.

We know from Bhaskara that Sridharacharya was the discoverer of a method of solving quadratic equations in which the two sides require to be multiplied by four times the cofficient of x**2. An application of this method is also preserved in his arithmetic. Sridhara's contemporary Sripati is well known for his arithmetic Ganita-tilaka commented upon by Simhatilaka Suri in the thirteenth Century.

The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 where as Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 10**12(10 to the power of12).

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Parameswaracharya

Parameswaracharya discovered Lhuiler’s formula about 400 years before Lhuiler.

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Nilakanta

Nilakanta discovered Newton’s Infinite Geometric Progression convergent series.

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Mahavira (mathematician)

Writing in the 9th century (flourished c. 850), Jain mathematician Mahavira stated rules for operations with zero, although he thought that division by zero left a number unchanged.

He was born Gulbarga, Karnataka in 9th-century. He was patronised by the great Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha. He asserted that the square root of a negative number did not exist. He gave the sum of a series whose terms are squares of an arithmetical progression and empirical rules for area and perimeter of an ellipse.

Mahavira was the author of Ganit Saar Sangraha. He separated Astrology from Mathematics. He expounded on the same subjects on which Aryabhata and Brahmagupta contended, but he expressed them more clearly. He is highly respected among Indian Mathematicians, because of his establishment of terminology for concepts such as equilateral, and isosceles triangle; rhombus; circle and semicircle. Mahavira's eminence spread in all South India and his books proved inspirational to other Mathematicians in Southern India.

The only known book by Mahavira is Ganita Sara Samgraha, dated 850 AD, which was designed as an updating of Brahmagupta's book. and was translated into Telugu language by Pavuluri Mallana as Saar Sangraha Ganitam.

This book consisted of nine chapters and included all mathematical knowledge of mid-ninth century India. It provides us with the bulk of knowledge which we have of Jaina mathematics and it can be seen as in some sense providing an account of the work of those who developed this mathematics. There were many Indian mathematicians before the time of Mahavira but, perhaps surprisingly, their work on mathematics is always contained in texts which discuss other topics such as astronomy. The Ganita Sara Samgraha by Mahavira is the earliest Indian text which we possess which is devoted entirely to mathematics.

In the introduction to the work Mahavira paid tribute to the mathematicians whose work formed the basis of his book. These mathematicians included Aryabhata I, Bhaskara I, and Brahmagupta.

Mahavira writes in the book:-

"With the help of the accomplished holy sages, who are worthy to be worshipped by the lords of the world ... I glean from the great ocean of the knowledge of numbers a little of its essence, in the manner in which gems are picked from the sea, gold from the stony rock and the pearl from the oyster shell; and I give out according to the power of my intelligence, the Sara Samgraha, a small work on arithmetic, which is however not small in importance. "

The nine chapters of the Ganita Sara Samgraha are:

1.  Terminology
2. Arithmetical operations
3. Operations involving fractions
4. Miscellaneous operations
5. Operations involving the rule of three
6. Mixed operations
7. Operations relating to the calculations of areas
8. Operations relating to excavations
9. Operations relating to shadows

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Vateswaracharya

Vateswaracharya discovered Newton Gauss Backward Interpolation formula about 1000 years before Newton.

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Madhavacharya

• Madhavacharya discovered Taylor series of Sine and Cosine function about 250 years before Taylor.
• Madhavacharya discovered Newton Power series.
• Madhavacharya discovered Gregory Leibnitz series for the Inverse Tangent about 280 years before Gregory.
• Madhavacharya discovered Leibnitz power series for pi about 300 years before Leibnitz.

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Govindaswamin

Govindaswamin discovered Newton Gauss Interpolation formula about 1800 years before Newton.

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Yoga found by Patanjali

Around 150 BC the Indian scholar Patanjali elaborates on the practice and philosophy of Yoga in the Yoga Sutra. A form of meditation, Yoga becomes an influential aspect of Hinduism. The ultimate goal of Yoga is the release of the soul in union with the divine.

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Brahmagupta, 630 A.D

Positive and Negative numbers and their calculations were explained first by Brahmagupta in his book Brahmasputa Siddhanta.

He presented rules for them in terms of fortunes (positive numbers) and debts (negative numbers).

Brahmagupta’s understanding of numbers exceeded that of other mathematicians of the time, and he made full use of the place system in his method of multiplication.

Brahmagupta headed the leading astronomical observatory in India and wrote two works on mathematics and astronomy. The works dealt with topics such as eclipses, risings and settings, and conjunctions of the planets with each other and with fixed stars.

Brahmagupta, 630 A.D., said, the following about Gravity, “Bodies fall towards the earth as it is in the nature of the earth to attract bodies, just as it is in the nature of water to flow".

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Bhaskaracharya II

• Infinity was well known for ancient Indians. Bhaskaracharya II in Beejaganitha(stanza-20) has given clear explanation with examples for infinity.
• Theory of Continued Fraction was discovered by Bhaskaracharya II.
• In Siddhanta Siromani (Bhuvanakosam 6) Bhaskaracharya II described about gravity of earth about 400 years before Sir Isaac Newton.
• He also had some clear notions on differential calculus, and the Theory of Continued Fraction.

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Bhaskaracharya

• Bhaskaracharya, lived in the 12th century.
• Bhaskaracharya supplied the correct answer for division by zero as well as rules for operating with irrational numbers.
• Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: 365.258756484 days.
• Bhaskaracharya wrote six books on mathematics, including Lilavati, which summarized mathematical knowledge in India up to his time, and Karanakutuhala, translated as “Calculation of Astronomical Wonders.”
• Bhaskara-I, ISRO's second satellite is an experimental satellite for earth observations, launched on June 7, 1979.

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Aryabhatta

• Aryabhatta (476-550?), born in Pataliputra (modern Patna, India).
• In mathematics he solved the quadratic equation and discovered, or perhaps rediscovered, the formula for the area of an isosceles triangle.
• His Aryabhatiya, a series of astronomical and mathematical rules and propositions, written in Sanskrit verse.
• India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.
• Aryabhata also figured the value of PI accurately to eight places, thus coming closer to its value than any other mathematician of ancient times.
• Aryabhatta also propounded the Heliocentric theory of gravitation, thus predating Copernicus by almost one thousand years.
• Aryabhatta was the first to explain spherical shape, size ,diameter, rotation and correct speed of Earth in 499 AD.
• Aryabhata held that the earth rotates on its axis, and he gave the correct explanation of eclipses of the sun and the moon.
• He was known to the Arabs as Arjehir, and his writings had considerable influence on Arabic science.
• In astronomy, he proposed that Earth orbited the sun and correctly explained eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
• ISRO First Indian Satellite, Aryabhata, launched on April 19, 1975.

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The Great Ashoka

Ashoka or Asoka, third king of the Maurya dynasty, who ruled almost the whole of the Indian subcontinent from about 269 to 232 bc. Ashoka stands unique among emperors in world history: After successfully concluding a major military campaign, he was so disturbed by the suffering that it had caused that he forsook war and thereafter endorsed nonviolence and peaceful persuasion in consolidating his vast empire.

The major source of documentation for Ashoka’s reign is the succession of edicts that he issued to his subjects in every part of his empire. These edicts were inscribed on rock surfaces and on specially polished columns with handsomely sculpted capitals. They were written in Prakrit languages (a group of ancient Indian dialects) for the Indian population, and in Greek and Aramaic for the Hellenistic Greeks and Iranians in the northwestern part of the empire. Historians have established the extent of Ashoka’s empire through the location of these edicts, as well as by archaeological excavations of artifacts, monuments, and urban sites associated with the Mauryas. In one of his edicts, Ashoka named as his contemporaries five Hellenistic kings, some of whom he had diplomatic contacts with, and this has provided a chronological cross-reference for his reign.

His son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta converted the people of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and other missionaries were sent to Southeast Asia and probably into Central Asia as well. He also sent cultural missions to the west, including Syria, Egypt, and Greece. Ashoka built shrines and monasteries and had rocks and beautifully carved pillars inscribed with Buddhist teachings. Buddhist texts composed by monks in Sri Lanka and northwestern India color the narrative of Ashoka’s life and depict him as concerned closely with the spread of Buddhism, which was then a relatively new religion. One of these narratives associates him with astutely handling a rebellion against oppression by local officers in the city of Takshasila, in Gandhara, an ancient region in northwestern India. Ashoka’s administrative experience may have begun with the control of Gandhara. Another source describes him in a similar capacity in central India, governing from the city of Ujjain.

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Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya (?-286 bc), first king (321?-298? bc) of the Maurya dynasty of the ancient kingdom of Magadha (now Bihār State), India. He expanded the territory of his kingdom and then, according to tradition, abdicated to become a monk.

As a young stripling, whom the Greeks called Sandrocottus, he is said to have met Alexander the Great in Punjab in 326 bc. Shortly afterward, Chandragupta raised an army and conquered Magadha, defeating the Nandas. He then took advantage of Alexander's death and wrested the Punjab region from the Macedonian forces. By further conquest he extended Magadha until it comprised all northern India between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Chandragupta's power was challenged by King Seleucus I of Syria, Alexander's successor, who invaded the northern subcontinent in 305 bc, but suffered a crushing defeat. Chandragupta there upon added to his lands all the territory north to the Hindu Kush, including Baluchistan and Afghanistan. According to traditional accounts, Chandragupta abdicated, became a monk, and, while in voluntary exile in the south of India, committed suicide by fasting to death about 286 bc. The Maurya Empire was further extended by his grandson, Ashoka.

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