After becoming the Emperor of Magadha in 321 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya initiated a conquest of the Indian territories which were under rule of Greek governors of Alexander the Great. The conquest resulted in a Maurya victory, with Mauryas annexing all the Greek satrapies in India and executing some of the Greek governors.
| Mauryan conuest of Greek satrapies | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the conquests of the Maurya Empire | |||||||||
 Alexander the Great's Satrapies in Northern India | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Mauryan Empire | Greek satraps | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Chandragupta Maurya Chanakya |
Nicanor † Philip † Eudemus Peithon | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| unknown | unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| unknown | Execution of several Greek governors | ||||||||
Background
editThe Indian campaign of Alexander the Great ended before Chandragupta came to power. Alexander had left India in 325 BCE and assigned the northwestern Indian subcontinent territories to Greek governors.[1][2]
Conquests
editThe nature of the early relationship between these governors and Chandragupta is unknown. The Roman historian Justin mentions Chandragupta as a rival of the Alexander's successors in north-western India.[3] He states that after Alexander's death, Chandragupta freed Indian territories from the Greeks and executed some of the governors.[4] 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.[5] Megasthenes served as a Greek ambassador in his court for four years.[6] Justin described how Sandrocottus (Greek version of Chandragupta's name) conquered the northwest:
"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 [7]
Aftermath
editThese conquests were one of the reasons for another Greek-Indian conflict, the Seleucid-Mauryan war, which happened when Seleucus I Nicator of Seleucid Empire decided to recapture these satrapies. The war resulted in another Mauryan victory, with the Mauryas not only defending but also annexing further Greek territories.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Mookerji 1988, pp. 2, 25–29.
- ^ Sastri 1988, p. 26.
- ^ Habib & Jha 2004, p. 15.
- ^ Mookerji 1988, pp. 6–8, 31–33.
- ^ Boesche 2003, pp. 9–37.
- ^ Roy 2012, p. 62.
- ^ Justin XV.4.12-13[usurped]
Works cited
edit- Boesche, Roger (2003), "Kautilya's Arthaśāstra on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India" (PDF), The Journal of Military History, 67 (1): 9, doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0006, ISSN 0899-3718, S2CID 154243517
- Habib, Irfan; Jha, Vivekanand (2004), Mauryan India, A People's History of India, Aligarh Historians Society / Tulika Books, ISBN 978-81-85229-92-8
- Mookerji, Radha Kumud (1988) [first published in 1966], Chandragupta Maurya and his times (4th ed.), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0433-3
- Roy, Kaushik (2012), Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-01736-8
- Sastri, Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta (1988), Age of the Nandas and Mauryas, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-0466-1