Chandragupta Maurya’s war with Seleucus

01The treaty

No account of the fighting has come down; the terms have. Appian says Seleucus crossed the Indus and warred with Androcottus, king of the Indians, until they came to an understanding and a marriage alliance. Strabo says the lands along the Indus, once held by the Persians, were given to the Indians, and Seleucus received five hundred elephants. The territories named are Arachosia around Kandahar, Gedrosia in Baluchistan and the Paropamisadae around Kabul. Megasthenes went to Pataliputra as Seleucus’ envoy and wrote the Indica.

02Elephants at Ipsus

The elephants mattered far from India. In 301 BCE, at Ipsus in Asia Minor, Seleucus used them to cut off Demetrius’ cavalry and win the battle that settled Alexander’s empire among his generals. Chandragupta, for his part, now ruled from the Bay of Bengal to beyond Kandahar. Ashoka’s edicts in Greek and Aramaic at Kandahar, a lifetime later, stand in the land this treaty gave.

Person · Reigned c. 321–297 BCEChandragupta MauryaWith Chanakya at his side, Chandragupta overthrew the Nandas, drove out the Greek garrisons of the Punjab and then made Seleucus Nikator give up the lands west of the Sindhu. For the first time one throne at Pataliputra ruled from Afghanistan to Bengal.Read →