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Chandragupta Maurya's Greek satrapies campaigns were a series of military campaigns by led by Chandragupta Maurya who conquered the satrapies from the Greeks of Macedonia in the Indus Valley and Northwest-India.[1][2]
| Chandragupta Maurya's Macedonian campaigns | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Chandragupta Maurya had defeated the remaining Macedonian satrapies in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent by 317 BCE.[3] | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Mauryan Empire | Macedonian Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Chandragupta Maurya Hired mercenaries |
Nicanor Philip | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| unknown | Remaining Greek governors executed | ||||||||
Background
The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great ended before Chandragupta Maurya came into power. Alexander had left India in 325 BCE and assigned the northwestern Indian subcontinent territories to Greek governors.[8][9]
The campaigns
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya led a series of campaigns in 305 BCE to take satrapies in the Indus Valley and northwest India.[1]
The nature of early relationship between these governors and Chandragupta Maurya is unknown. Justin mentions Chandragupta as a rival of the Alexander's successors in north-western India.[10] He states that after Alexander's death, Chandragupta Maurya freed Indian territories from the Greeks and executed some of the governors.[11] According to Boesche, this war with the northwestern territories was in part fought by mercenaries hired by Chandragupta and Chanakya, and these wars may have been the cause of the demise of two of Alexander's governors, Nicanor and Philip.[12]
The Roman historian Justin (2nd Century CE) states, in Epit. 15.4.12-13, that after Alexander's death, Greek governors in India were assassinated, liberating the people of Greek rule. This revolt led by Chandragupta, who in turn established an oppressive regime himself "after taking the throne":[11]
India, after the death of Alexander, had assassinated his prefects, as if shaking the burden of servitude. The author of this liberation was Sandracottos [Chandragupta], but he had transformed liberation in servitude after victory, since, after taking the throne, he himself oppressed the very people he has liberated from foreign domination."
— Junianus Justinus, Histoires Philippiques Liber, XV.4.12-13 [13]
Raychaudhuri states that, according to Justin Epitome 15.4.18–19, Chandragupta organized an army. He notes that early translators interpreted Justin's original expression as "body of robbers", but states Raychaudhuri, the original expression used by Justin may mean mercenary soldier, hunter, or robber.[14] Mookerji refers to McCrindle as stating that "robbers" refers to the people of the Punjab, "kingless people." Mookerju further quotes Rhys Davids, who states that "it was from the Punjab that Chandragupta recruited the nucleus of the force with which he besieged and conquered Dhana-Nanda."[15]
The nature of early relationship between these governors and Chandragupta is unknown. According to Habib & Jha, Justin mentions Chandragupta as a rival of the Alexander's successors in north-western India.[10] Alain Daniélou further explains:
In the Swat, Nicanor was killed. Philip, who was guarding Taxila with Ambhi, replaced Nicanor as satrap of Gandhara, but was himself assassinated in 325 B.C.E.[...] Chandragupta began attacking the Greek principalities. The Brahmans fomented revolts against the unclean foreigners. Peithon withdrew to Arachosia (Kandahar) in 316. After treacherously killing an Indian prince probably Ambhi. Eudemus left India with one hundred and twenty elephants to join Eumenes army. He was beaten and put to death with Eumenes by Antigonus, king of Babylon. It took no great effort for Chandragupta to annex the Greek kingdoms, which had prepared the terrain for him.[16]
According to Mookerji, the Buddhist text Mahavamsa Tika describes how Chandragupta and Chanakya raised an army by recruiting soldiers from many places after the former completed his education at Taxila, to resist the Greeks. Chanakya made Chandragupta the leader of the army.[15] The Digambara Jain text Parishishtaparvan states that this army was raised by Chanakya with coins he minted and an alliance formed with Parvataka.[17][18] According to Nath Sen, Chandragupta recruited and annexed local military republics such as the Yaudheyas that had resisted Alexander's Empire.[19]
The chronology and dating of Chandragupta's activitities in the Punjab is uncertain.[20] This may be either before or after he took the Nanda-throne.[21] The defeat of the Greeks is dated by Mookerji at 323 BCE; Jansari dates the arrival of Chandragupta in the Punjab at c. 317, in line with the chronology of Greek history.[22]
Refrence
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 From Polis to Empire, the Ancient World, C. 800 B.C.-A.D. 500. Greenwood Publishing. 2002. ISBN 0313309426. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- ↑ K.M. Munishi, Pg 15-16 : Chandragupta drove out the Greeks from the Punjab in a brilliant war of liberation. The successful war against the Greeks awoke Chandragupta (c.324-300 B.C.) to a consciousness of his strength. ... Consolidating his position in the Punjab, and inspired by his teacher Chanakya, Chandragupta marched on Pataliputra; killed Dhana Nanda, assumed the sovereignty of Magadha; vanquished Seleucus, the Greek, who was moving towards India to recapture Alexander’s lost possessions; and started on a career of becoming the architect of an all-India empire.[1]
- ↑ World History, Volume I. The Pennsylvania State University. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-495-56902-2. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
The founder of the new state, who took the royal title Chandragupta Maurya (324-301 В.С.Е.), drove out the Greek administrators whom Alexander had left behind and solidified his control over the northern Indian plain.
- ↑ Alain Daniélou (2003). A brief history of India. Internet Archive. Inner Traditions. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0-89281-923-2.
In the Swat, Nicanor was killed. Philip, who was guarding Taxila with Ambhi, replaced Nicanor as satrap of Gandhara, but was himself assassinated in 325 B.C.E. ....... Chandragupta began attacking the Greek principalities. The Brahmans fomented revolts against the unclean foreigners. Peithon withdrew to Arachosia (Kandahar) in 316. After treacherously killing an Indian prince probably Ambhi. Eudemus left India with one hundred and twenty elephants to join Eumenes army. He was beaten and put to death with Eumenes by Antigonus, king of Babylon. It took no great effort for Chandragupta to annex the Greek kingdoms, which had prepared the terrain for him. Due to their "barbarian" customs and impiety, the Greeks had aroused profound hostility among the Indian masses and the priests. Only the Greek kingdoms beyond the Khyber Pass survived.
- ↑ ALEXANDER THE GREAT THE RISE OF MACEDONIA 359-323 BC. 2003. p. 105.
The local Macedonian governors, Nicanor and Philippos, were assassinated. An obscure rebel named Chandragupta Maurya (Sandrocottus according to Greek historians), rose to power.
- ↑ Roger Boesche (2003). The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra. Internet Archive. Lexington Books. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7391-0607-5.
By about 321 B.C.E., Chandragupta had taken the Punjab and Sindh from the Greeks, and by about 305 B.C.E., he had forced Alexander's successor in that area, Seleucus, into a humiliating treaty in which Seleucus married his daughter to Chandragupta.
- ↑ History of India from the Earliest Times upto 300 C.E. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. 2019. p. 320. ISBN 978-93-89499-83-4.
Chandragupta was quick to realize the importance of erecting a huge empire. He went about to unite the whole of Punjab and, later, the northern India after overthrowing the Nandas. He not only added the southern states but also integrated the four satrapies of Aria, Arachosia, Gedrosia and Paropamisadae which were ceded by Seleucus to Chandragupta after the demise of Alexander.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ↑ Mookerji 1988, pp. 2, 25-29.
- ↑ Sastri 1988, p. 26.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Habib & Jha 2004, p. 15.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Mookerji 1988, pp. 6-8, 31-33.
- ↑ Boesche 2003, pp. 9–37.
- ↑ Justin XV.4.12-13[usurped]
- ↑ Raychaudhuri 1967, p. 144.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Mookerji 1988, p. 22.
- ↑ Danielou 2003, p. 85-86.
- ↑ Hemacandra 1998, pp. 175–188.
- ↑ Raychaudhuri 1967, pp. 144-145.
- ↑ Nath sen, Sailendra (1999). Ancient Indian History and Civilization. Routledge. p. 162. ISBN 9788122411980.
- ↑ Jansari 2023, p. 36, note 15; p.38, note 67.
- ↑ Jansari 2023, p. 36, note 15.
- ↑ Jansari 2023, p. 17.
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Further reading
| Library resources about Chandragupta Maurya's Macedonian campaigns |
- Bongard-Levin, Grigory Maksimovich (1985). Mauryan India. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. OCLC 14395730.
- Brown, Rebecca M.; Hutton, Deborah S. (2015-06-22), A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 9781119019534
- Kosmin, Paul J. (2014), The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-72882-0
- Mandal, Dhaneshwar (2003), Ayodhya, Archaeology After Demolition: A Critique of the "new" and "fresh" Discoveries, Orient Blackswan, ISBN 9788125023449
- Mani, Braj Ranjan (2005), Debrahmanising history: dominance and resistance in Indian society, Manohar, ISBN 978-81-7304-640-7
- Roy, Kaushik (2015), Warfare in Pre-British India–1500BCE to 1740CE, Routledge
- Sagar, Krishna Chandra (1992), Foreign Influence on Ancient India, Northern Book Centre, ISBN 9788172110284
External links
- Maurya and Sunga Art, N R Ray