Ruling from 324 to 297 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya was the
founder of the first and one of the greatest empires that appeared in Indian subcontinent.
The scarcity of sources dealing with the military conquests
of Chandragupta Maurya makes it difficult for us to ascertain whether he first
overthrew Mahapadma Nanda, the unpopular last Nanda ruler, or drove out the
Greeks from the North-West part of India.
From the inferences from the Jaina and Greek sources, it
seems that liberation of Punjab was the first military activity by Chandragupta
Maurya who felt emboldened by the confusion in the Greek empire that followed Macedonian
ruler Alexander’s sudden death in 323 BC in Babylon. Greek writer Justin writes
about the prevailing condition of the time, “India, after the death of
Alexander, had shaken, as it were, the yoke of servitude from its neck and put
his Governors to death. The architect of this liberation was Sandrocottus.”
Chandragupta Maurya is described as Sandrocottus in the
Greek sources.
After driving out the Greeks, Chandragupta turned his
attention to the overthrow of the Nanda dynasty that was ruling Pataliputra at
that time. Again, we are faced with the scarcity of accounts about this
conquest. From the Jaina work Parisisthaparvan (12th-century Sanskrit work by Hemachandra, the court poet of the Chalukyas of Anhilwara) we come to know
that Chankya, the able Brahmin advisor of Chandragupta, aided him in the
conquest of Pataliputra by making him allying with a neighbouring king
Parvataka. The combined armies of both the powers dealt the body-blow to the
Nanda empire. According to the Buddhist text Milinda-panho which
dates from sometime between 100 BC and 200 AD, Nanda army was led by its
general Bhaddasala.
After the defeat of the Nanda power, Chandragupta declared
himself the ruler of Magadha. He, however, again embarked on a policy of fresh
military expeditions thereby bringing different parts of India under his
suzerainty.
War with Seleucus I Nicator
A war with Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander’s generals,
became inevitable for Chandragupta as the former after his master’s death
became ruler of Babylon and tried to recover Alexander’s Indian provinces which
had become part of the Mauryan empire.
However, Seleucus was defeated and entered into an alliance by ceding
the Satrapies of Archosia (Kandahar) and the Paropanisade (Kabul), together
with portions of Aria (Herat) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan). Under the terms of
the alliance, the Mauryan emperor presented 500 elephants to the Greek general.
According to Appian, the peace was concluded by a marriage alliance. However,
the exact nature of this alliance is not known. Megasthenes was sent as
ambassador to the Mauryan court to reside at Pataliputra.
Conquests of Western India and South
That western India was included in the Mauryan empire under
Chandragupta can be ascertained from the Saka ruler Rudradaman I's Girnar Rock
Inscription of about 150 AD which refers to his (Rudradaman I's ) reconstruction
of a great dam and reservoir for irrigation which was excavated by Pushyagupta,
the provincial governor (rashtriya) of Chandragupta Maurya in the provinces of
Anarta and Saurashtra (Gujarat).
Chandragupta further extended his boundaries into the Konkan in
Maharashtra where Asoka’s Rock Edict has been found at Sopara. Ashoka, grandson
of Chandragupta Maurya, had excavated several edicts and inscriptions
throughout the length and breadth of his kingdom. Since Bindusara, who was the
son and successor of Chandragupta Maurya, is not known to have made any
conquest and Asoka only conquered the Kalinga kingdom of Odisha, it can be said
with certainty that Konkan was annexed to the Mauryan empire by Chandragupta.
Same can be said of Chandragupta’s expansion of his
territories beyond the Vindhyas. The Rock Edicts II and XIII of Asoka state
that the Mauryan empire shares its border with those of the southern kingdoms
of the Cholas, Pandyas, Satyaputras and Keralaputras.
