Introduction

1. Mahapadma Nanda (450–362 BCE) was the first king of the Nanda dynasty.

2. He was the son of Mahanandin, a Yadav king of the Shishunaga dynasty.

3. Sons of Mahanandin from his other wives opposed the rise of Mahapadma Nanda, on which he eliminated all of them to claim the throne.

4. The Nandas, under Mahapadma Nanda, established the first great North Indian empire with its political centre in Magadha, which would in the following years lead to the largest empire in ancient India, to be built by the Mauryas.

5. Mahapadma Nanda vanquished the old dynasties of North, not as was customary, to extract tribute from them and to be recognized as the most powerful, the samrat or the chakravartin, but rather in order to dethrone them and declare himself as an "ekachhatra", the only emperor in the entire land.

6. The collapse of the old Kshatriya dynasties under the rigorous power politics of Mahapadma Nanda made him to be called as "The Destroyer of Kshatriyas".

7. He died at 88 years old.

8. His kingdom annexed parts of Kalinga, central India, Anga, and the upper Ganges Valley.

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