Chandragupta Maurya And His Conquest
Introduction –
Chandragupta Maurya (350-295 BCE) known as Sandrakottos (or Sandrokottos) to the Greeks. He was the first emperor of the Mauryan Empire in Ancient India. He extensively expanded the Kingdom of Magadha and founded the Maurya dynasty. He reigned from 320 BCE to 298 BCE. He defeated the last of the Nanda kings, Dhana Nanda, in 321 BCE and occupied his capital Pataliputra.
Chandragupta Maurya was an important figure in the history of India, who laid the foundations of the first state that united most of India. Chandragupta, under the tutelage of Chanakya, created a new empire based on the principles of statecraft, built a large army, and continued expanding the boundaries of his empire until ultimately renouncing it for an ascetic life in his final years.
Read Also
Conquest of Chandragupta Maurya
1. Punjab Victory
First of all, Chandragupta conquered Punjab. After the departure of Alexander, the situation in Punjab was favourable. Taking advantage of this situation, Chandragupta along with Chanakya recruited army from Punjab itself and waged a struggle against the Greek rulers there. In 323 AD, Chandragupta drove out the Greeks from Punjab and put those who remained in India to death.
2. War with Seleucus
At the time when Chandragupta was busy expanding the kingdom of Magadha, at the same time Alexander’s general and friend in West Asia, Seleucus, was planning to attack India. Seleucus also wanted to emulate Alexander. For this reason, he tried to establish Greek power over the provinces on this side of Sindh, but now India’s political situation was not as weak as before, now India’s political situation had changed.
At this time Punjab and Sindh were powerful parts of the Indian Empire. In 305 AD, Seleucus reached the banks of the Sindh river. The details of the war between Seleucus and Chandragupta are not available. Even the Greek writers did not write anything about this, who was defeated and who won the war, but from the treaty that was made between these two, it can be clearly inferred that Chandragupta must have won in this war. . According to this treaty, Seleucus’s daughter was decided to be married to Chandragupta and the son who would be from the daughter would not be made the emperor of the Mauryan Empire and with this Seleucus gave a large part of his empire to Chandragupta. In this there were Herat, Kandahar, Makran, and Kabul of the state of Iran. Chandragupta presented 500 elephants to Seleucus in return. Due to this treaty, Chandragupta’s power and his empire expanded.
3. West Conquest
The Junagarh inscription of Rudra Draman mentions the appointment of Punya Gupta as the governor of Chandragupta in Saurashtra province. Dr. Rai Chaudhary is of the opinion that Chandragupta had expanded his limits up to the Saurashtra region of western India. It cannot be said clearly whether Chandragupta gained authority over the western regions of India by invasion or they were already under Nandavansh.
4. Conquest of South India
As far as Ashoka’s records are found in South India, historians believe that Chandragupta must have won the kingdom there, because Ashoka did not fight any war except the war of Kalinga and there is no description of any war of Bindusara. Some scholars believe that Chandragupta had conquered South India and made it under his authority.
5. State expansion of Chandragupta
Chandragupta took over the whole of India except a few provinces. His kingdom extended from the Hindukush Mountains to the Bay of Bengal and included the south of the Krishna River in the south. In this state there were Afghanistan, Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh, Kashmir, Nepal, the region of Doab, Magadha, Bengal, Avanti region, Saurashtra and Mysore in South India. This was the result of his military talent, immense power and continuous victories.
