Dhana Nanda

                 Dhana Nanda was one of the nine sons of Mahapadma Nanda. He was the last ruler of Nanda dynasty. His father Mahapadma Nanda was the founder of the Nanda dynasty. He was called Dhana Nanda for his love of wealth and gold. He had four ministers - Bandu, Subandu, Kubera, and Sakatala.

                 After the death of Mahapadma Nanda, he became king of Magadha empire and the 2nd and last ruler in Nanda dynasty. It was said that Dhana Nanda was the younger son of Mahapadma Nanda. As we all know that Mahapadma Nanda was a Shudra i.e. lower caste, Dhana Nanda also had been a king who was hated by upper castes in his kingdom.

                  He is known for establishing a huge army consisting of 200,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, 2000 war chariots, and 3000 war elephants. He used most of his wealth to maintain this huge army structure. Not only Dhana Nanda, the entire Nanda dynasty was well known for their Army strength and enormous wealth. He has huge mass of gold reserves. He built his treasure house by creating a deep excavation in a rock in the river bed of Ganges. Dhana Nanda's empire was very unpopular among the people and neighboring states because of their financial extortion.

                  His love of accumulating money by squeezing people made him very much hateful to them.The Anti-Kshatriya policy made orthodox brahmins and kshatriyas against him. He was known for his cruel and painful punishments. In order to collect taxes from the people he adopted very cruel techniques. People in his kingdom suffered a lot during his rule. Once Mleccha invaders tried to attack Magadha empire. Sakatala, one of the four ministers of Dhana Nanda, emptied Dhana Nanda's treasury in return to peace with them without king's permission. Dhana Nanda then punished for that act by sending him to a subterranean prison cell along with his family, with handful of grains and a little water. The food and water being sufficient for only one person, all died except Satakala. Such was the cruelness of Dhana Nanda. Later when other foreign invaders invaded again then he came to know the value of Satakala, and asked for his help but he denied.

                  Once, a brahmin was badly insulted by Dhana Nanda in front of all the courtiers. That brahmin vowed to destroy Dhana Nanda and his kingdom. That person was none other than CHANAKYA. Later Chanakya found a boy named Chandragupta and he was impressed by his character decided to make him the king by dethroning Dhana Nanda. He personally trained the boy and when the time came, he attacked Dhana Nanda but failed. Later with a change in plan they attacked again, this time they defeated Dhana Nanda.

                  Dhana Nanda was sent into exile along with his two wives and was never heard of again. Some accounts suggest that Dhana Nanda was killed by Chanakya. Some other accounts suggest that he had taken to Buddhism before exile by renouncing life completely. There was no clear evidence of what was the exact end of Dhana Nanda. If any reader know the truth they can post their view in the comment section below.