He was the son of Mahanandin, a Kshatriya king of the Shishunaga dynasty and a Shudra mother. The Puranas describe Mahapadma as a son of the last king of the preceding line by a Shudra woman. Jain works represent him as the son of a courtezan by a barber.
The first Nanda bore the name of Mahapadma or Mahapadmapati (sovereign of an infinite host or of immense wealth) according to the Puranas, and Ugrasena according to the Mahabodhivamsa. Curtius, a Roman historian, informs us that
his father was in fact a barber, scarcely staving off hunger by his daily earnings, but who, from his being not uncomely in person, had gained the affections of the queen, and was by her influence advanced to too near a place in the confidence of reigning monarch. Afterwards, however, he treacherously murdered his sovereign, and then, under the pretence of acting as guardian to the royal children, usurped the supreme authority, and having put the young princes to death begot the present king.
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 Indian Subcontinent built by the Mauryas.
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, but rather in order to dethrone them and declare himself as an "ekachhatra", the only emperor in the entire land. He died at 88 years old.
After his few generations, his descendant Dhana Nanda who was a very powerful, cruel and greedy emperor and was also hated by his own people was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya with the help of local kings, people and shrewd intelligence of Chanakya. The Indologist F. East. Pargiter dated Nanda"s coronation to 382 Bachelor of Civil Engineering, and R. K. Mookerji dated it to 364 Bachelor of Civil Engineering. However, H. C. Raychaudhuri places the event c.
345 Bachelor of Civil Engineering. His kingdom annexed parts of Kalinga, central India, Anga, and the upper Ganges Valley.
He was the first Shudra king of Magadha.
