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| According to the Digambara legend by Hemachandra, [[Chanakya]] was a Jain layperson and a Brahmin. When Chanakya was born, Jain monks prophesied that Chanakya will one day grow up to help make someone an emperor and will be the power behind the throne.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=6}}{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=155–157, 168–188}} Chanakya believed in the prophecy and fulfilled it by agreeing to help the daughter of a peacock-breeding community chief deliver a baby boy. In exchange, he asked the mother to give up the boy and let him adopt him at a later date.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=14}}{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=155–157, 168–188}} The Jain Brahmin then went about making money through magic, and returned later to claim young Chandragupta,{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=155–157, 168–188}} whom he taught and trained. Together, they recruited soldiers and attacked the [[Nanda Empire|Nanda kingdom]]. Eventually, they won and proclaimed Patliputra as their capital.{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=155–157, 168–188}} | | According to the Digambara legend by Hemachandra, [[Chanakya]] was a Jain layperson and a Brahmin. When Chanakya was born, Jain monks prophesied that Chanakya will one day grow up to help make someone an emperor and will be the power behind the throne.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=6}}{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=155–157, 168–188}} Chanakya believed in the prophecy and fulfilled it by agreeing to help the daughter of a peacock-breeding community chief deliver a baby boy. In exchange, he asked the mother to give up the boy and let him adopt him at a later date.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=14}}{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=155–157, 168–188}} The Jain Brahmin then went about making money through magic, and returned later to claim young Chandragupta,{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=155–157, 168–188}} whom he taught and trained. Together, they recruited soldiers and attacked the [[Nanda Empire|Nanda kingdom]]. Eventually, they won and proclaimed Patliputra as their capital.{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=155–157, 168–188}} |
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| ==Career==
| | == Influence of Chanakya (Kautilya or Vishnugupta) == |
| === Influence of Chanakya (Kautilya or Vishnugupta) ===
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| [[File:Chanakya artistic depiction.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|alt=Chanakya|Chandragupta's [[guru]] was [[Chanakya]], with whom he studied as a child and with whose counsel he built the Empire. This image is a 1915 attempt at depicting Chanakya.]] | | [[File:Chanakya artistic depiction.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|alt=Chanakya|Chandragupta's [[guru]] was [[Chanakya]], with whom he studied as a child and with whose counsel he built the Empire. This image is a 1915 attempt at depicting Chanakya.]] |
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| The Roman text by [[Justin (historian)|Justin]] mentions a couple of miraculous incidents that involved Sandracottus (Chandragupta) and presents these legends as omens and portents of his fate. In the first incident, when Chandragupta was asleep after having escaped from Nandrum, a big lion came up to him, licked him, and then left. In the second incident, when Chandragupta was readying for war with Alexander's generals, a huge wild elephant approached him and offered itself to be his steed.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=32}} | | The Roman text by [[Justin (historian)|Justin]] mentions a couple of miraculous incidents that involved Sandracottus (Chandragupta) and presents these legends as omens and portents of his fate. In the first incident, when Chandragupta was asleep after having escaped from Nandrum, a big lion came up to him, licked him, and then left. In the second incident, when Chandragupta was readying for war with Alexander's generals, a huge wild elephant approached him and offered itself to be his steed.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=32}} |
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| ===Building the empire===
| | == Names and titles == |
| {{Main|Conquest of the Nanda Empire|Maurya Empire}}
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| According to the Buddhist text ''Mahavamsa Tika'', Chandragupta and Chanakya raised an army by recruiting soldiers from many places after the former completed his education at Taxila. Chanakya made Chandragupta the leader of the army.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=22}} The Digambara Jain text ''Parishishtaparvan'' states that this army was raised by Chanakya with coins he minted and an alliance formed with Parvataka.{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=175–188}}{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1967|pp=144-145}} According to Justin, Chandragupta organized an army. 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.{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1967|p=144}}
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| The Buddhist ''Mahavamsa Tika'' and Jain ''Parishishtaparvan'' records Chandragupta's army unsuccessfully attacking the Nanda capital. {{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=175–188}} Chandragupta and Chanakya then began a campaign at the frontier of the Nanda empire, gradually conquering various territories on their way to the Nanda capital.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=33}} He then refined his strategy by establishing garrisons in the conquered territories, and finally besieged the Nanda capital Pataliputra. There [[Dhana Nanda]] accepted defeat, and was killed by Buddhist accounts,{{sfn|Malalasekera|2002|p=383}} or deposed and exiled by Hindu accounts.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=33-34}}
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| ===Conquest of the Nanda empire===
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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}}
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| Historically reliable details of Chandragupta's campaign into Pataliputra are unavailable and the legends written centuries later are inconsistent. 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}}
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| 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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| According to the Digambara Jain version by Hemachandra, the success of Chandragupta and his strategist Chanakya was stopped by a Nanda town that refused to surrender.{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=176–177}} Chanakya disguised himself as a [[mendicant]] and found seven mother goddesses (''saptamatrika'') inside. He concluded these goddesses were protecting the town people.{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=176–177}} The townspeople sought the disguised mendicant's advice on how to end the blockade of the army surrounding their town. Hemacandra wrote Chanakya swindled them into removing the mother goddesses. The townspeople removed the protective goddesses and an easy victory over the town followed. Thereafter, the alliance of Chandragupta and Parvataka overran the Nanda kingdom and attacked Patliputra with an "immeasurable army".{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=176–177}} With a depleted treasury, exhausted merit, and insufficient intelligence, the Nanda king lost.{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=176–177}}
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| These legends state that the Nanda king was defeated, but allowed to leave Pataliputra alive with a chariot full of items his family needed.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=34}} The Jain sources attest that his daughter fell in [[love at first sight]] with Chandragupta and married him.{{sfn|Hemacandra|1998|pp=176–177}}{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=14}} With the defeat of Nanda, Chandragupta Maurya founded the [[Maurya Empire]] in ancient India.<ref name=britchandrag/>{{sfn|Roy|2012|p=62}}
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| ===Conquest of north-west regions===
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| [[File:EasternSatrapsAfterAlexander.jpg|thumb|alt=Eastern Satraps|Chandragupta had defeated the remaining [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonian]] [[satrap]]ies in the northwest of the [[Indian subcontinent]] by 317 BCE.]]
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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}}
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| 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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| {{quote|text= " Seleucus crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of he Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. Some of these exploits were performed before the death of Antigonus and some afterward." |sign=<small>[[Appian]]</small>|source=''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-the-syrian-wars/appian-the-syrian-wars-11/ 55]}}<blockquote>" The geographical position of the tribes is as follows: along the Indus are the Paropamisadae, above whom lies the Paropamisus mountain: then, towards the south, the Arachoti: then next, towards the south, the Gedroseni, with the other tribes that occupy the seaboard; and the Indus lies, latitudinally, alongside all these places; and of these places, in part, some that lie along the Indus are held by Indians, although they formerly belonged to the Persians. Alexander [III 'the Great' of Macedon] took these away from the Arians and established settlements of his own, but [[Seleucus Nicator]] gave them to [[Sandrocottus]] [Chandragupta], upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange five hundred elephants. "
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| — Strabo 15.2.9 [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15B*.html#2.9]</blockquote>
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| Greecian historian Pliny also quoted a passage from Megasthanes work about Chandragupta Empire boundaries:
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| <blockquote>
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| Most geographers, in fact, do not look upon India as bounded by the river Indus, but add to it the four satrapies of the [[Gedrosia|Gedrose]], the [[Arachosia|Arachotë]], the [[Herat|Aria]], and the [[Paropamisadë]], the [[Kabul River|River Cophes]] thus forming the extreme boundary of India. According to other writers, however, all these territories, are reckoned as belonging to the country of the Aria.
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| — Pliny, Natural History VI, 23 [https://archive.today/20121210070738/http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+6.23][https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof21855plin/page/50/mode/1up]
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| </blockquote>
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| ====Treaty of the Indus====
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| The ancient historians Justin, Appian, and Strabo preserve the three main terms of the Treaty of the Indus:<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=9UWdAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire|last=Kosmin|first=Paul J.|date=2014-06-23|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-72882-0|language=en}}</ref>
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| (i) Seleucus transferred to Chandragupta's kingdom the easternmost satrapies of his empire, certainly Gandhara, Parapamisadae, and the eastern parts of Gedrosia, Arachosia and Aria as far as Herat.
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| (ii) Chandragupta gave Seleucus 500 Indian war elephants.
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| (iii) The two kings were joined by some kind of marriage alliance (ἐπιγαμία οι κῆδος); most likely Chandragupta wed a female relative of Seleucus.
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| ===War and marriage alliance with Seleucus===
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| According to Appian, [[Seleucus I Nicator]], one of Alexander's Macedonian generals who in 312 BCE established the [[Seleucid Kingdom]] with its capital at Babylon, brought Persia and [[Bactria]] under his own authority, putting his eastern front facing the empire of Chandragupta.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=2-3, 35-38}}{{sfn|Appian|p=55}} Seleucus and Chandragupta waged war until they came to an understanding with each other. Seleucus married off his daughter, Berenice, to Chandragupta to forge an alliance.{{sfn|Appian|p=55}}
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| R. C. Majumdar and D. D. Kosambi note that Seleucus appeared to have fared poorly after ceding large territories west of the Indus to Chandragupta. The Maurya Empire added [[Arachosia]] ([[Kandahar]]), [[Gedrosia]] ([[Balochistan (Pakistan)|Balochistan]]), and [[Paropamisadae]] ([[Gandhara]]).{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=36–37, 105}}<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Walter Eugene | first1 = Clark | year = 1919 | title = The Importance of Hellenism from the Point of View of Indic-Philology | journal = Classical Philology | volume = 14 | issue = 4| pages = 297–313 | doi = 10.1086/360246 | s2cid = 161613588 }}</ref>{{efn|According to Grainger, Seleucus "must ... have held Aria" (Herat), and furthermore, his "son [[Antiochus I Soter|Antiochos]] was active there fifteen years later". (Grainger, John D. 1990, 2014. ''Seleukos Nikator: Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom''. Routledge. p. 109).}} According to Strabo, [[Seleucus Nicator]] gave these regions to Chandragupta along with a marriage treaty, and in return received five hundred elephants.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239&query=head%3D%23120|title=Strabo 15.2.1(9)|access-date=14 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203225004/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239&query=head%3D%23120|archive-date=3 February 2009|url-status=live}}</ref> The details of the engagement treaty are not known.{{sfn|Barua|2005|pp=13-15}} However, since the extensive sources available on Seleucus never mention an Indian princess, it is thought that the marital alliance went the other way, with Chandragupta himself or his son Bindusara marrying a Seleucid princess, in accordance with contemporary Greek practices to form dynastic alliances. An Indian [[Puranic]] source, the [[Pratisargaparvan|Pratisarga Parva]] of the [[Bhavishya Purana]], described the marriage of Chandragupta with a Greek ("[[Yavana]]") princess, daughter of Seleucus.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sagar |first=Chandra |title=Foreign Influence on Ancient India |publisher=Northern Book Centre |year=1992 |page=83}}</ref> [[Mahavamsa|The Mahavamsa]] also states that, seven months after the war ended, Seleucus gave one of his daughters, Berenice (known in Pali as ''Suvarnnaksi'') in marriage to Chandragupta.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paranavithana |first=Senarat |title=The Greeks and the Mauryans |publisher=Lake House Investments |date=January 1971 |isbn=9780842607933 |language=English}}</ref>
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| Chandragupta sent 500 [[war elephant]]s to Seleucus, which played a key role in Seleucus' victory at the [[Battle of Ipsus]].<ref>''India, the Ancient Past'', Burjor Avari, p. 106-107</ref>{{sfn|Majumdar|2003|p=105}}<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Tarn | first1 = W. W. | year = 1940 | title = Two Notes on Seleucid History: 1. Seleucus' 500 Elephants, 2. Tarmita | journal = The Journal of Hellenic Studies | volume = 60 | pages = 84–94 | doi = 10.2307/626263 | jstor = 626263 | s2cid = 163980490 }}</ref> In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched [[Megasthenes]] as an ambassador to Chandragupta's court, and later [[Antiochus I Soter|Antiochos]] sent [[Deimakos]] to his son Bindusara at the Maurya court at Patna.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=38}}
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| ===Southern conquest===
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| After annexing Seleucus' provinces west of the Indus river, Chandragupta had a vast empire extending across the northern Indian sub-continent from the [[Bay of Bengal]] to the [[Arabian Sea]]. Chandragupta began expanding his empire southwards beyond the [[Vindhya Range]] and into the [[Deccan Plateau]].{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|p=6}} By the time his conquests were complete, Chandragupta's empire extended over most of the subcontinent.{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1967|p=18}}
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| Two poetic anthologies from the Tamil [[Sangam literature]] corpus – ''[[Akananuru]]'' and ''[[Purananuru]]'' – allude to the Nanda rule and Maurya empire. For example, poems 69, 281 and 375 mention the army and chariots of the Mauryas, while poems 251 and 265 may be alluding to the Nandas.{{sfn|Zvelebil|1973|pp=53-54}} However, the poems dated between first-century BCE to fifth-century CE do not mention Chandragupta Maurya by name, and some of them could be referring to a different Moriya dynasty in the Deccan region in the fifth century CE.{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=41–42}} According to Upinder Singh, these poems may be mentioning Mokur and Koshar kingdoms of Vadugars (northerners) in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, with one interpretation being that the Maurya empire had an alliance with these at some point of time.{{sfn|Upinder Singh|2016|pp=330–331}}
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| ===Conquest of the Saurashtra===
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| Chandragupta conquered Southern-Western part of India. Especially his conquest over Saurashtra and Sudarshana lake construction is preseved in later Satrapian king Rudradaman inscription:
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| <blockquote>(L.8)
for the sake of
/ ordered to be made by the Vaishya Pushyagupta, the provincial governor of the Maurya king Chandragupta; adorned with conduits for [[Ashoka]] the Maurya by the [[Yavana]] king [[Tushaspha]] while governing; and by the conduit ordered to be made by him, constructed in a manner worthy of a king (and) seen in that breach.
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| —Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman<ref name="WB">[http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/Docs/HISTORY/PRIMARYDOCS/EPIGRAPHY/JunagadhRockInscription.htm "Junagadh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman", ''Project South Asia''.]{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223182107/http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/Docs/HISTORY/PRIMARYDOCS/EPIGRAPHY/JunagadhRockInscription.htm |date=23 February 2009 }}</ref> </blockquote>
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| === Names and titles ===
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| [[File:Chandragupt maurya Birla mandir 6 dec 2009 (31) (cropped).JPG|thumb|A modern statue depicting Chandragupta Maurya, [[Laxminarayan Temple]], Delhi]] | | [[File:Chandragupt maurya Birla mandir 6 dec 2009 (31) (cropped).JPG|thumb|A modern statue depicting Chandragupta Maurya, [[Laxminarayan Temple]], Delhi]] |
| Greek writer [[Phylarchus]] (c. third century BCE), who is quoted by [[Athenaeus]], calls Chandragupta "Sandrokoptos". The later Greco-Roman writers [[Strabo]], [[Arrian]], and [[Justin (historian)|Justin]] (c. second century) call him "Sandrocottus".{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1967|p=139}} In [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] accounts, Chandragupta is known as '''Sandrakottos''' ({{lang-el|Σανδράκοττος}}) and '''Androcottus''' ({{lang-el|Ανδροκόττος}}).{{sfn|Thapar|2004|p=177}}<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 41694901|title = The Indika of Megasthenes — an Appraisal|journal = Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute|volume = 72/73|issue = 1/4|pages = 307–329|last1 = Arora|first1 = U. P.|year = 1991}}</ref> | | Greek writer [[Phylarchus]] (c. third century BCE), who is quoted by [[Athenaeus]], calls Chandragupta "Sandrokoptos". The later Greco-Roman writers [[Strabo]], [[Arrian]], and [[Justin (historian)|Justin]] (c. second century) call him "Sandrocottus".{{sfn|Raychaudhuri|1967|p=139}} In [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] accounts, Chandragupta is known as '''Sandrakottos''' ({{lang-el|Σανδράκοττος}}) and '''Androcottus''' ({{lang-el|Ανδροκόττος}}).{{sfn|Thapar|2004|p=177}}<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 41694901|title = The Indika of Megasthenes — an Appraisal|journal = Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute|volume = 72/73|issue = 1/4|pages = 307–329|last1 = Arora|first1 = U. P.|year = 1991}}</ref> |