Seleucid–Mauryan war
Seleucid–Mauryan War | |
---|---|
Part of Conquests of Indus River Valley | |
Result | Mauryan victory[1] |
Chanakya
The Seleucid–Mauryan War was fought between 305 and 303 BC.
The war ended in a
Background
The Persian provinces in what is now modern Afghanistan, together with the wealthy kingdom of
Always lying in wait for the neighboring nations, strong in arms and persuasive in council, he acquired Mesopotamia, Armenia, 'Seleucid' Cappadocia, Persis, Parthia, Bactria, Arabia, Tapouria, Sogdia, Arachosia, Hyrcania, and other adjacent peoples that had been subdued by Alexander, as far as the river Indus, so that the boundaries of his empire were the most extensive in Asia after that of Alexander. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus.
Chandragupta turned his attention to Northwestern India (modern
The Roman historian Justin described how Sandrocottus (Greek version of Chandragupta's name) conquered the northwest:
"India, after the death of Alexander, had assassinated his prefects, as if shaking the burden of servitude. The author of this liberation was Sandracottos [Chandragupta], but he had transformed liberation in servitude after victory, since, after taking the throne, he himself oppressed the very people he has liberated from foreign domination."
—Junianus Justinus, Histoires Philippiques Liber, XV.4.12-13 [8]
War
Details of the conflict are lacking. According to Appian,
[Seleucus] crossed the Indus and waged war with Sandrocottus [Maurya], king of the Indians, who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship. Some of these exploits were performed before the death of Antigonus and some afterward.
It is unknown if there was in fact a pitched battle.[7] Military historian John D. Grainger has argued that Seleucus, upon crossing the Indus, "would find himself in a trap, with a large river at his back and a hostile continent before him," and consequently could not have advanced much farther than the Indus. According to Grainger, the details of the conflict are unclear, but the outcome clearly must have been "a decisive Indian victory," with Chandragupta driving back Seleucus' forces as far as the Hindu Kush and consequently gaining large territories in modern-day Afghanistan.[9] Wheatley and Heckel suggest that the degree of friendly Maurya-Seleucid relations established after the war implies that the hostilities were probably "neither prolonged nor grievous".[10]
Aftermath
Seleucus Nicator ceded the Hindu Kush, Punjab and parts of Afghanistan to Chandragupta Maurya.[11] In consequence of their arrangement, Seleucus received 500 war elephants from Chandragupta Maurya, which subsequently influenced the Wars of the Diadochi in the west. Seleucus and Chandragupta also agreed to a marriage alliance, probably the marriage of Seleucus' daughter (named Berenice in Indian Pali sources) to Chandragupta. According to Strabo, the ceded territories bordered the Indus:
The geographical position of the tribes is as follows: along the Indus are the Paropamisadae, above whom lies the Paropamisus mountain: then, towards the south, the Arachoti: then next, towards the south, the Gedroseni, with the other tribes that occupy the seaboard; and the Indus lies, latitudinally, alongside all these places; and of these places, in part, some that lie along the Indus are held by Indians, although they formerly belonged to the Persians. Alexander [III 'the Great' of Macedon] took these away from the Arians and established settlements of his own, but
Sandrocottus [Chandragupta], upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange five hundred elephants. — Strabo 15.2.9[12]
From this, it seems that Seleucus surrendered the easternmost provinces of
Some authors claim that the argument relating to Seleucus handing over more of what is now southern Afghanistan is an exaggeration originating in a statement by Pliny the Elder referring not specifically to the lands received by Chandragupta, but rather to the various opinions of geographers regarding the definition of the word "India":[16]
Most geographers, in fact, do not look upon India as bounded by the river Indus, but add to it the four satrapies of the
Paropamisadë, the River Cophes, thus forming the extreme boundary of India. According to other writers, however, all these territories, are reckoned as belonging to the country of the Aria. — Pliny, Natural History VI.(23).78[17]
The arrangement proved to be mutually beneficial.[7] The border between the Seleucid and Mauryan Empires remained stable in subsequent generations, and friendly diplomatic relations are reflected by the ambassador Megasthenes।,[18] and by the envoys sent westward by Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka. Chandragupta's gift of war elephants "may have alleviated the burden of fodder and the return march"[7] and allowed him to appropriately reduce the size and cost of his large army, since the major threats to his power had now all been removed.[9]
With the war elephants acquired from the Mauryas, Seleucus was able to defeat his rival, Antigonus, along with his allies at the Battle of Ipsus. Adding Antigonus's territories to his own, Seleucus would found the Seleucid Empire, which would endure as a great power in the Mediterranean and the Middle East until 64 BC.
Mauryan control of territory in what is now Afghanistan helped guard against invasion of India from the northwest.[9] Chandragupta Maurya went on to expand his rule in India southward into the Deccan.[11]
See also
- First Battle of Jhelum
Notes
References
- ^ "Pg.101 : Towards the close of the reign of Chandrgupta, the Maurya empire received a further extension in the north-west Seleucus the general of Alexander, who had made himself master of Babylon, gradually extended his empire from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus and even tried to regain the provinces to the east of that river. He failed and had to conclude a treaty with Chandragupta by which he surrendered a large territory including, in the opinion of certain writers, the satrapies of Paropanisadai(Kabul), Aria (Herat), Arachosia (Qandahar), and Gedrosia (Baluchistan), in return for 500 elephant."Majumdar, R. C. (1953). Advanced history of India. Macmillan & Company. p. 101.
- ISBN 978-0-02-862581-2.
- ^ "The Seleucid-Mauryan War: Clash of Titans in Ancient Asia | History Unravelled". historyunravelled.com. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
- ^ "How Seleucus Nicator gave away most of Pakistan and Afghanistan for 500 elephants". The Indian Express. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
- ^ a b https://www.livius.org/sources/content/appian/appian-the-syrian-wars/appian-the-syrian-wars-11/
- ^ Radha Kumud Mookerji, Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, 4th ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988 [1966]), 31, 28–33.
- ^ a b c d Kosmin 2014, p. 33–34.
- ^ Justin XV.4.12-13
- ^ a b c Grainger 2014, pp. 108–110.
- ^ Wheatley & Heckel 2011, p. 296.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7566-7341-3.
- ^ Strabo, Geography, xv.2.9
- .
- ISBN 81-206-1303-1.
- ^ Walter Eugene Clark (1919). "The Importance of Hellenism from the Point of View of Indic-Philology", Classical Philology 14 (4), p. 297-313.
- ^ Debated by Tarn, "The Greeks in Bactria and India", p. 100
- ^ Pliny, Natural History VI.(23).78
- ^ "Seleucus maintained friendly relations with the Mauryan Court and sent Megasthanes as his ambassador who lived in Pataliputra for a long time and wrote a book on India." Munishi, K.M. (1953). The Age Of Imperial Unity Volume II. p. 60.
Sources
- Grainger, John D. (2014), Seleukos Nikator: Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-317-80099-6
- ISBN 978-0-674-72882-0
- ISBN 81-208-0436-8
- Trautmann, Thomas (2015), Elephants and Kings: An Environmental History, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-26453-0
- Wheatley, Pat; Heckel, Waldemar (2011), ""Commentary (Book 15)"", Justin: Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus: Volume II, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-927759-9