Seleucid–Mauryan war: Difference between revisions

{{blockquote|He (Seleucus) crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. | [[Appian]]| ''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars [https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_11.html 55]}}

[[File:Mauryan head from Sarnath.jpg|thumb|upright|Figure of a foreigner, found in [[Sarnath]], 3rd century BCE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bachhofer |first1=Ludwig |title=Early Indian Sculpture Vol. I |date=1929 |publisher=The Pegasus Press |location=Paris |pages=239–240 |url=https://indianculture.gov.in/rarebooks/early-indian-sculpture-vol-i |language=en}}</ref> This is a probable member of the West Asian [[Pahlava]] or [[Saka]] elite in the [[Gangetic plain]]s during the Mauryan period.<ref name="Gupta 122">Page 122: About the [[Masarh lion]]: "This particular example of a foreign model gets added support from the male heads of foreigners from Patna city and Sarnath since they also prove beyond doubt that a section of the elite in the Gangetic Basin was of foreign origin. However, as noted earlier, this is an example of the late Mauryan period since this is not the type adopted in any Ashoka pillar. We are, therefore, visualizing a historical situation in India in which the West Asian influence on Indian art was felt more in the late Mauryan than in the early Mauryan period. The term West Asia in this context stands for Iran and Afghanistan, where the Sakas and Pahlavas had their base-camps for eastward movement. The prelude to future inroads of the Indo-Bactrians in India had after all started in the second century B.C."... in {{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Swarajya Prakash |author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan |year=1980 |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-391-02172-3 |pages=88, 122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}.</ref><ref name="Gupta 318">According to Gupta [[:File:Mauryan head from Sarnath.jpg|this is]] a non-Indian face of a foreigner with a conical hat: "If there are a few faces which are nonIndian, such as one head from Sarnath with conical cap ( Bachhofer, Vol . I, Pl . 13 ), they are due to the presence of the foreigners their costumes, tastes and liking for portrait art and not their art styles." in {{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Swarajya Prakash |author-link=Swaraj Prakash Gupta|title=The Roots of Indian Art: A Detailed Study of the Formative Period of Indian Art and Architecture, Third and Second Centuries B.C., Mauryan and Late Mauryan |year=1980 |publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-391-02172-3 |page=318 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lDqAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Annual Report 1907-08 |date=1911 |page=55 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.35434/page/n101/mode/2up}}</ref>]]

===Treaty of Indus===

{{blockquote|After having made a treaty with him (Sandrakotos) and put in order the Orient situation, Seleucos went to war against [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus|Antigonus]].|[[Junianus Justinus]]|''Historiarum Philippicarum, libri XLIV'', [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html XV.4.15]}}

The treaty on "[[Epigamia]]" implies lawful marriage between Greeks and Indians. {{citation needed|date=July 2009}}

===Indian Sources and Epigamia===

Indian source Bhavishya Purana also mentioned about Chandrgupta marriage:

(Bhavishya Purana - Pratisarga Parva 1: Chapter 6, Verse 43,44)<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/NHJr_bhavishya-maha-puran-1959-khem-raj-shri-krishna-lal-shri-venkateshwar-steam-press-mumbai|title=Bhavishya Maha Puran, 1959 Khem Raj Shri Krishna Lal, Shri Venkateshwar Steam Press, Mumbai|last=Khem Raj Shri Krishna Lal|first=Shri Venkateshwar Steam Press}}</ref>

</blockquote>

=== Chandragupta conquest of four provinces===

[[File:Sophytes hemidrachm.jpg|300px|thumb|[[Sophytes]] may have been the [[Mauryan Empire]] satrap of [[Arachosia]], succeeding [[Sibyrtius]], after Seleucus had ceeded the Hellenistic territory of Arachosia to [[Chandragupta Maurya]] in the Seleucid–Mauryan war (305–303 BC).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bernard |first1=Paul |last2=Pinault |first2=Georges-Jean |last3=Rougemont |first3=Georges |title=Deux nouvelles inscriptions grecques de l'Asie centrale |journal=Journal des Savants |date=2004 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=301 ff |doi=10.3406/jds.2004.1686 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/jds_0021-8103_2004_num_2_1_1686}}</ref>]]

From this, it seems that Seleucus surrendered the easternmost provinces of [[Arachosia]], [[Gedrosia]], [[Paropamisadae]] and perhaps also [[Aria (satrapy)|Aria]]. On the other hand, he was accepted  by other satraps of the eastern provinces. His Iranian wife may have helped him implement his rule in [[Bactria]] and [[Sogdiana]].<ref>[[Vincent Arthur Smith|Vincent A. Smith]] (1998). ''Ashoka''. Asian Educational Services. {{ISBN|81-206-1303-1}}.</ref><ref>[[Walter Eugene Clark]] (1919). "The Importance of Hellenism from the Point of View of Indic-Philology", ''Classical Philology'' '''14''' (4), p. 297-313.</ref>  

The arrangement proved to be mutually beneficial.{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=33–34}} The border between the Seleucid and Mauryan Empires remained stable in subsequent generations, and friendly diplomatic relations are reflected by the ambassador [[Megasthenes]], and by the envoys sent westward by Chandragupta's grandson [[Ashoka]]. Chandragupta's gift of war elephants "may have alleviated the burden of fodder and the return march"{{sfn|Kosmin|2014|p=33–34}} and allowed him to appropriately reduce the size and cost of his large army, since the major threats to his power had now all been removed.{{sfn|Grainger|2014|pp=108–110}}