Durdhara

{{Short description|Mauryan Empress (322-320 BCE)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}

{{Use Indian English|date=December 2015}}

{{Infobox royalty

| title =

| succession = Empress Consort of Mauryan Empire

| reign = {{circa|322 BCE}} - {{circa|320 BCE}}

| predecessor = Position established

| successor = Mother of Ashoka

| name = Durdhara

| spouse = Chandragupta Maurya

| issue = Bindusara

| religion =

}}

Durdhara was the empress of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the 4th-century BCE Maurya Empire of ancient India, according to the 12th century CE Jain text Parishishtaparvan by Hemachandra. She is stated by this text to be the mother of the second Mauryan emperor, Bindusara also known as Amitraghāta.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=234}}

According to the Jain tradition, after Chandragupta defeated the Nanda emperor, the Nanda princess fell in love with Chandragupta and married him.{{sfn|Trautmann|1971|p=23}} The legend does not name this princess, but later names Durdhara as the mother of Chandragupta's son Bindusara.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=234}} Nothing is mentioned or known about Durdhara outside of this legend written 1,600 years after Chandragupta's era. Other sources, such as the Burmese Buddhist records do not corroborate the Jain legend.{{cite book|author=KAN Sastri|title=Age of the Nandas and Mauryas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoAwor58utYC |year=1988|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-0466-1|pages=159, 165}} Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador in the final years of Chandragupta's court, does not mention Durdhara nor use the name Bindusara, but refers to Chandragupta's successor as Amitrochates, while the Hindu scholar Patanjali calls him Amitraghata (meaning "vanquisher of foes").{{cite book|author=Etienne Lamotte|title=History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJwEAAAAYAAJ|year=1988|publisher=Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste|isbn=978-90-6831-100-6|page=222}} Scholars consider the Bindusara of Jain texts to be the same as Amitraghata.{{cite book |last=Kosmin |first=Paul J. |author-link=Paul J. Kosmin |title=The Land of the Elephant Kings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UWdAwAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-72882-0|pages=34–35, 267}}