Chandragupta Maurya's Greek Satrapies campaigns
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Chandragupta Maurya's Greek satrapies campaigns were a series of campaigns by Chandragupta Maurya who conquered the satrapies in the Indus Valley and northwest India.[1][2]
| Chandragupta Maurya's Macedonian campaigns | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Mauryan Empire | Macedonian Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Chandragupta Maurya hired mercenaries |
Nicanor Philip | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| unknown | Remaining Greek governors executed | ||||||||
Background
[change | change source]The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great ended before Chandragupta Maurya came into power. Alexander had left India in 325 BCE and assigned the northwestern Indian subcontinent territories to Greek governors.[7][8]
The campaigns
[change | change source]After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya led a series of campaigns in 305 BCE to take satrapies in the Indus Valley and northwest India.[1]
The nature of early relationship between these governors and Chandragupta Maurya is unknown. Justin mentions Chandragupta as a rival of the Alexander's successors in north-western India.[9] He states that after Alexander's death, Chandragupta Maurya freed Indian territories from the Greeks and executed some of the governors.[10] 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.[11]
Notes, references and sources
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 From Polis to Empire, the Ancient World, C. 800 B.C.-A.D. 500. Greenwood Publishing. 2002. ISBN 0313309426. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- ↑ K.M. Munishi, Pg 15-16 : Chandragupta drove out the Greeks from the Punjab in a brilliant war of liberation. The successful war against the Greeks awoke Chandragupta (c.324-300 B.C.) to a consciousness of his strength. ... Consolidating his position in the Punjab, and inspired by his teacher Chanakya, Chandragupta marched on Pataliputra; killed Dhana Nanda, assumed the sovereignty of Magadha; vanquished Seleucus, the Greek, who was moving towards India to recapture Alexander’s lost possessions; and started on a career of becoming the architect of an all-India empire.[1]
- ↑ Alain Daniélou (2003). A brief history of India. Internet Archive. Inner Traditions. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0-89281-923-2.
In the Swat, Nicanor was killed. Philip, who was guarding Taxila with Ambhi, replaced Nicanor as satrap of Gandhara, but was himself assassinated in 325 B.C.E. ....... Chandragupta began attacking the Greek principalities. The Brahmans fomented revolts against the unclean foreigners. Peithon withdrew to Arachosia (Kandahar) in 316. After treacherously killing an Indian prince probably Ambhi. Eudemus left India with one hundred and twenty elephants to join Eumenes army. He was beaten and put to death with Eumenes by Antigonus, king of Babylon. It took no great effort for Chandragupta to annex the Greek kingdoms, which had prepared the terrain for him. Due to their "barbarian" customs and impiety, the Greeks had aroused profound hostility among the Indian masses and the priests. Only the Greek kingdoms beyond the Khyber Pass survived.
- ↑ ALEXANDER THE GREAT THE RISE OF MACEDONIA 359-323 BC. 2003. p. 105.
The local Macedonian governors, Nicanor and Philippos, were assassinated. An obscure rebel named Chandragupta Maurya (Sandrocottus according to Greek historians), rose to power.
- ↑ Roger Boesche (2003). The First Great Political Realist: Kautilya and His Arthashastra. Internet Archive. Lexington Books. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7391-0607-5.
By about 321 B.C.E., Chandragupta had taken the Punjab and Sindh from the Greeks, and by about 305 B.C.E., he had forced Alexander's successor in that area, Seleucus, into a humiliating treaty in which Seleucus married his daughter to Chandragupta.
- ↑ History of India from the Earliest Times upto 300 C.E. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. 2019. p. 320. ISBN 978-93-89499-83-4.
Chandragupta was quick to realize the importance of erecting a huge empire. He went about to unite the whole of Punjab and, later, the northern India after overthrowing the Nandas. He not only added the southern states but also integrated the four satrapies of Aria, Arachosia, Gedrosia and Paropamisadae which were ceded by Seleucus to Chandragupta after the demise of Alexander.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ↑ 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.