Dhana Nanda

Dhana Nanda
Samrat
Dhana Nanda's empire
Last Nanda Emperor
Reign	c. 329 BC – c. 321 BC
Predecessor	Mahapadma Nanda
Successor	Chandragupta Maurya (the founder of Maurya Empire)
Issue	Durdhara
Dynasty	Nanda
Father	Mahapadma Nanda

According to Mahabodhivamsa, Dhana Nanda (Sanskrit: धनानन्द) was the last ruler of the Nanda dynasty. He was one of nine sons of Mahapadma Nanda. Plutarch tells that Androkottos or Chandragupta Maurya had stated that Nanda was hated and despised by his subjects on account of the wickedness of his disposition and meanness of his origin.

Dhana Nanda is referred to as Agrammes or Xandrames by Diodorus (Greek historian). The name Agrammes is possibly a distorted form of the Sanskrit Augrasainya (son or descendent of Ugrasena).

Information about Dhana Nanda is available from Greek works of Curtius, Diodorus and Plutarch and Justin.

Dhana Nanda inherited throne from his father Mahapadma Nanda. Although it could be said that the Dhana Nanda dynasty was very unpopular among the people and the neighboring states, possible explanations of the unpopularity could be their financial extortion.

Dhana Nanda is described as a powerful king who ruled over the Parsii (Prachya, i.e. the eastern people) and the Gangaridai (the people of the lower Ganga valley). During his reign, the Nanda Empire extended from Bihar and Bengal in the east to Punjab and Sindh in the west. He had four ministers - Bandu, Subandu, Kubera and Sakatala. Sakatala emptied Dhana Nanda's treasury for purchasing peace from Mleccha invaders. He was then punished by the King for the act by casting into a subterranean dungeon along with his family with handful of grains and little water. The food and water being sufficient for only one human, all died but Sakatala himself. The foreign kings invaded again and Nanda requested of Sakatala's assistance which he denied. Sakatala found Chanakya to take his revenge from Dhana Nanda by ending his rule.

Although the relations of Kalinga kingdom and Nanda Dynasty weren't very companionable, there had been a brief period in the past where the relations were affable, when Prince Shauryananda wed Damyanti of Kalinga. However, the relations were short lived as the marriage itself. The people of Kalinga despised the Magadha rulers, the Nanda dynasty, for belonging to Shudra varna and categorized them as barbaric. Dhana Nanda possessed similar aversion for Kalinga and its crown prince Kharasala.