Mauryan conquest of Greek satrapies
| 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 | Greek satraps | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| unknown | unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| unknown | Execution of several Greek governors | ||||||||
After becoming the Emperor of Magadha in 321 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya initiated the conquest, between 317 and 313 BCE, of the Indian territories east of the Indus which were under control of Greek governors of Alexander the Great. The conquest resulted in a Maurya victory, with Mauryas annexing all the Greek satrapies in east of the Indus in India and executing some of the Greek governors.
The 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]
The 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][better source needed] Megasthenes served as a Greek ambassador in his court for four years.[6]
These 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, immediately west of the Indus, in 303 BCE.
See also
[edit]References
[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.
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