After the establishment of the Maurya Empire

Chanakya continued to serve as an advisor to Chandragupta after the establishment of the

Maurya Empire. According to a popular legend mentioned in the Jain texts, Chanakya used to
add small doses of poison to the food eaten by Emperor Chandragupta Maurya (mithridatism) in
order to make him immune to the poisoning attempts by the enemies.[28][29] Unaware,
Chandragupta once fed some of his food to his queen, Durdhara, who was seven days away from
delivery. The queen, not immune to the poison, collapsed and died within a few minutes. In order
to save the heir to the throne, Chanakya cut the queen's belly open and extracted the foetus just
as she died. The baby was named Bindusara, because he was touched by a drop (bindu) of blood
having poison.[30][31]
When Bindusara was in his youth, Chandragupta gave up the throne and followed the Jain saint
Bhadrabahu to present day Karnataka and settled in the place of Shravana Belagola. He lived as
an ascetic for some years and died of voluntary starvation according to Jain tradition. Chanakya
meanwhile stayed in the court as an advisor to Bindusara.