Chandragupta Maurya: Difference between revisions

{{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. "  

Greecian historian Pliny also quoted a passage from Megasthanes work about Chandragupta Empire boundaries:

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====Treaty of the Indus====

(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.  

Chandragupta conquered Southern-Western part of India. Especially his conquest over Saurashtra and Sudarshana lake construction is preseved in later Satrapian king Rudradaman inscription:

<blockquote>The largest and richest City, Palibotra (Patliputra), from whence some have named this Nation, yea, and all the Country generally beyond Ganges, Palibotros (Patliputra's). Their King (Chandragupta Maurya) keepeth continually in pay 6,00,000 Footmen, 30,000 Horsemen, and 9,000 Elephants, every Day.  

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<blockquote>"Not long afterwards Androkottos (Chandragupta_Maurya), 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 6,00,000."  

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During the 3rd century BCE, Pataliputra was one of the world's largest cities, with a population of about 150,000–400,000.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Rise of Man in the Gardens of Sumeria: A Biography of L.A. Waddell |first=Christine |last=Preston |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |year=2009 |page=49 |isbn=9781845193157 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ujn2fPCwaUAC&pg=PA49 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

==Empire ==

Empire expansion is based on inferences from Greek and Roman historians and the religious Indian texts written centuries after his death. Based on these, the North-West reach of his empire included parts of present-day [[Afghanistan]] that [[Seleucus I Nicator]] ceded to him including [[Kabul]], [[Kandahar]], [[Taxila]] and [[Gandhara]].{{sfn|Mookerji|1988|pp=36–37, 105}}{{sfn|Kulke|Rothermund|2004|p=61}} These are the areas where his grandson Ashoka left the [[Kandahar Greek Edicts of Ashoka|major Kandahar rock edict]] and other edicts in the Greek and Aramaic languages.{{sfn|Dupree|2014|pp=285–289}}<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dupont-Sommer|first1=André|title=Une nouvelle inscription araméenne d'Asoka trouvée dans la vallée du Laghman (Afghanistan)|journal=Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres| volume=114|issue=1| year=1970|pages=158–173| doi=10.3406/crai.1970.12491}}</ref>

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.

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[[File:SakastanMap.jpg|thumb|Satrapian provinces in northwestern India which ceaded to Chandragupta due to [[Treaty of Indus]]]]

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.

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<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."  

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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).