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→Empire: Some Greek Texts related to "Conquest of north-west regions" section wrongly written in "Conquest of Saurashtra " section. I moved and arranged properly according to topic.
(→Empire: Arranging sections in proper sequence... Still some effort needed to arrange lines according to topics.) Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
(→Empire: Some Greek Texts related to "Conquest of north-west regions" section wrongly written in "Conquest of Saurashtra " section. I moved and arranged properly according to topic.) Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
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Greco-Roman writer [[Plutarch]] stated, in his ''Life of Alexander'', that the Nanda king was so unpopular that had Alexander tried, he could have easily conquered India.{{sfn|Habib|Jha|2004|p=14}}{{sfn|Stoneman|2019|p=155}} After Alexander ended his campaign and left, Chandragupta's army conquered the Nanda capital Pataliputra around 322 BCE with Chanakya's counsel.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=6}} | Greco-Roman writer [[Plutarch]] stated, in his ''Life of Alexander'', that the Nanda king was so unpopular that had Alexander tried, he could have easily conquered India.{{sfn|Habib|Jha|2004|p=14}}{{sfn|Stoneman|2019|p=155}} After Alexander ended his campaign and left, Chandragupta's army conquered the Nanda capital Pataliputra around 322 BCE with Chanakya's counsel.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=6}} | ||
Buddhist texts such as ''[[Milindapanha]]'' claim Magadha was ruled by the Nanda dynasty, which, with Chanakya's counsel, Chandragupta conquered to restore ''[[dhamma]]''.{{sfn|Thapar|2013|pp=362–364}}{{sfn|Sen|1895|pp=26–32}} The army of Chandragupta and Chanakya first conquered the Nanda outer territories before invading Pataliputra. In contrast to the easy victory of Buddhist sources, the Hindu and Jain texts state that the campaign was bitterly fought because the Nanda dynasty had a powerful and well-trained army.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=28–33}}{{sfn|Sen|1895|pp=26–32}} | |||
The conquest was fictionalised in ''Mudrarakshasa'', in which Chandragupta is said to have first acquired [[Punjab]] and allied with a local king named Parvatka under the Chanakya's advice before advancing on the [[Nanda Empire]].{{sfn|Roy|2012|pp=27, 61-62}} Chandragupta laid siege to [[Kusumapura]] (now [[Patna]]), the capital of [[Magadha]], by deploying [[guerrilla warfare]] methods with the help of mercenaries from conquered areas.{{sfn|Roy|2012|pp=61–62}}{{sfn|Grant|2010|p=49}} Historian P. K. Bhattacharyya states that the empire was built by a gradual conquest of provinces after the initial consolidation of Magadha.{{sfn|Bhattacharyya|1977|p=8}} | The conquest was fictionalised in ''Mudrarakshasa'', in which Chandragupta is said to have first acquired [[Punjab]] and allied with a local king named Parvatka under the Chanakya's advice before advancing on the [[Nanda Empire]].{{sfn|Roy|2012|pp=27, 61-62}} Chandragupta laid siege to [[Kusumapura]] (now [[Patna]]), the capital of [[Magadha]], by deploying [[guerrilla warfare]] methods with the help of mercenaries from conquered areas.{{sfn|Roy|2012|pp=61–62}}{{sfn|Grant|2010|p=49}} Historian P. K. Bhattacharyya states that the empire was built by a gradual conquest of provinces after the initial consolidation of Magadha.{{sfn|Bhattacharyya|1977|p=8}} | ||
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The [[Indian campaign of Alexander the Great]] ended before Chandragupta came into power. Alexander had left India in 325 BCE and assigned the northwestern Indian subcontinent territories to Greek governors.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=2, 25-29}}{{sfn|Sastri|1988|p=26}} The nature of early relationship between these governors and Chandragupta is unknown. Justin mentions Chandragupta as a rival of the Alexander's successors in north-western India.{{sfn|Habib|Jha|2004|p=15}} He states that after Alexander's death, Chandragupta freed Indian territories from the Greeks and executed some of the governors.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=6-8, 31-33}} 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 (satrap)|Nicanor]] and [[Philip (son of Machatas)|Philip]].{{sfn|Boesche|2003|pp=9–37}} [[Megasthenes]] served as a Greek ambassador in his court for four years.{{sfn|Roy|2012|p=62}} | The [[Indian campaign of Alexander the Great]] ended before Chandragupta came into power. Alexander had left India in 325 BCE and assigned the northwestern Indian subcontinent territories to Greek governors.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=2, 25-29}}{{sfn|Sastri|1988|p=26}} The nature of early relationship between these governors and Chandragupta is unknown. Justin mentions Chandragupta as a rival of the Alexander's successors in north-western India.{{sfn|Habib|Jha|2004|p=15}} He states that after Alexander's death, Chandragupta freed Indian territories from the Greeks and executed some of the governors.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=6-8, 31-33}} 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 (satrap)|Nicanor]] and [[Philip (son of Machatas)|Philip]].{{sfn|Boesche|2003|pp=9–37}} [[Megasthenes]] served as a Greek ambassador in his court for four years.{{sfn|Roy|2012|p=62}} | ||
Ancient Greek historian Justin reported that the prefects of Greek territories were assassinated in the Indian uprisings led by Chandragupta Maurya : | |||
<blockquote> | |||
:"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 Maurya), 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" | |||
-Justin XV.4.12-13 <ref>"(Transitum deinde in Indiam fecit), quae post mortem Alexandri, ueluti ceruicibus iugo seruitutis excusso, praefectos eius occiderat. Auctor libertatis Sandrocottus fuerat, sed titulum libertatis post uictoriam in seruitutem uerterat ; 14 siquidem occupato regno populum quem ab externa dominatione uindicauerat ipse seruitio premebat." [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html Justin XV.4.12-13]</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Megasthenes defined the region that Chandragupta won from Seleucus as likely western side Gedrosia which shares boundaries with the Euphrates River, and eastern side Arachosia shares boundaries with the Indus. The northern frontier boundary formed by Hindukush mountain range: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
India, which is in shape quadrilateral, has its eastern as well as its 'western side bounded by the great sea, but on the northern side it is divided by Mount Hemôdos from that part of Skythia which is inhabited by those Skythians who are called the Sakai, while the fourth or western side is bounded by the river called the Indus. | |||
- Book I Fragment I , Indica, Megasthanes [https://archive.org/details/AncientIndiaAsDescribedByMegasthenesAndArrianByMccrindleJ.W/page/n39/mode/1up] | |||
</blockquote> | |||
[[File:SakastanMap.jpg|thumb|Satrapian provinces in northwestern India which ceaded to Chandragupta due to [[Treaty of Indus]]]] | |||
<blockquote> | |||
Sandrokottos the king of the Indians, India forms the largest of the four parts into which Southorn Asia is divided, while the smallest part is that region which is included between the Euphrates and our own sea. The two remaining parts, which are separated from the others by the Euphrates and the Indus, and lie between these rivers... | |||
India is bounded on its eastern side, right onwards to the south, by the great ocean; that its northern frontier is formed by the Kaukasos range(Hindukush Range) as far as the junction of that range with Tauros; and that the boundary. | |||
- Book I Fragment II , Indica, Megasthanes [https://archive.org/details/AncientIndiaAsDescribedByMegasthenesAndArrianByMccrindleJ.W/page/n54/mode/1up] | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Maurya with his counsellor [[Chanakya]] together built one of the largest empires ever on the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref name="britchandrag">[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chandragupta Chandragupta Maurya, Emperor of India] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310115220/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chandragupta |date=10 March 2018 }}, Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=59-65}}{{sfn|Boesche|2003|p=7-18}} Chandragupta's empire extended from [[Bengal]] to central [[Afghanistan]] encompassing most of the Indian subcontinent except for parts that are now [[Tamil Nadu]], [[Kerala]] and [[Odisha]](Kalinga).{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=1-4}}{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=59-65}} | |||
Territories which are even now outside the Government of India were parts of the Indian empire under Chandragupta. They were the four satrapies of Aria, Arochosia, Gedrosia, and the Paropanisadai, which Chandragupta wrested in about 304 B.C from the Empire of Selucus as the penalty for his ill-advised aggression and war against him in Treaty Of Indus.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=uXyftdtE1ygC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Radhakumud+Mookerji%22&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=cottus&f=false|title=Asoka|last=Mookerji|first=Radhakumud|date=1962|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishe|isbn=978-81-208-0582-8|language=en}}</ref> | |||
The conquest of the south by Chandragupta Maurya may also perhaps be inferred from the following statement of Plutarch. "The throne" in the context is the Magadhan throne, the occupation of which by Chandragupta is thus followed by two other events, viz., the defeat of Selucus, and the conquest of the remaining part of India not included in the Magadhan empire of the Nandas: | |||
<blockquote>"Not long afterwards Androkottos, who had by that time mounted the throne, presented Selukos with 500 elephants, and overran and subdued the whole of India with an army of 600,000." | |||
-Chapter LXII ,Life of Alexander, Plutarch [https://books.google.co.in/books?id=TXtEAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false] | |||
</blockquote> | |||
The Mudra-Rakshasa play mentions the prince of Kashmir among the subordinate allies of Malayaketu, who subsequently became a vassal of Chandragupta.The empire extended upto the borders of Persia in the north-west as gathered from the terms of the treaty with Suleukus Nikator. It included the whole of the Indo-Gangetic valley extending, in the west upto Kathiawar as is evident from the inscription of Rudradaman, and in the east, upto Bengal which must have passed to Chandragupta from Nanda, who ruled over Gangaradai (Ganges delta) as well as Prassiai (Prachi). | |||
Chandragupta probably exercised some control in the Deccan also, as appears from certain Mysore inscriptions as well as other evidences.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/chandraguptamaur035072mbp|title=Chandragupta Maurya|last=Purushottam Lal Bhargava|publisher=The Upper India Publishing House Ltd Lucknow|others=BRAOU, Digital Library Of India}}</ref> | |||
Greek historians mentioned the result of [[Seleucid–Mauryan war]] where Seleucid Empire's eastern satrapies( [[Gedrosia]],[[Arachosia]], [[Aria]], and [[Paropamisadae]]) ceded to Mauryan Empire : | Greek historians mentioned the result of [[Seleucid–Mauryan war]] where Seleucid Empire's eastern satrapies( [[Gedrosia]],[[Arachosia]], [[Aria]], and [[Paropamisadae]]) ceded to Mauryan Empire : | ||
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There is uncertainty about the other conquests that Chandragupta may have achieved, especially in the [[Deccan]] region of southern India.{{sfn|Habib|Jha|2004|p=19}} At the time of his grandson Ashoka's ascension in c. 268 BCE, the empire extended up to present-day [[Karnataka]] in the south, so the southern conquests may be attributed to either Chandragupta or his son Bindusara. If the Jain tradition about Chandragupta ending his life as a renunciate in Karnakata is considered correct, it appears that Chandragupta initiated the southern conquest.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=64}} | There is uncertainty about the other conquests that Chandragupta may have achieved, especially in the [[Deccan]] region of southern India.{{sfn|Habib|Jha|2004|p=19}} At the time of his grandson Ashoka's ascension in c. 268 BCE, the empire extended up to present-day [[Karnataka]] in the south, so the southern conquests may be attributed to either Chandragupta or his son Bindusara. If the Jain tradition about Chandragupta ending his life as a renunciate in Karnakata is considered correct, it appears that Chandragupta initiated the southern conquest.{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=64}} | ||
==Rule == | ==Rule == | ||