The Seleucid–Mauryan War was fought between 305 and 303 BCE. It started when Seleucus I Nicator of the Seleucid Empire sought to retake the Indian satrapies of the Macedonian Empire, which had been occupied by Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, of the Maurya Empire.
| Seleucid–Mauryan War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Conquests of Maurya Empire | |||||||||
 Alexander the Great's Satrapies in Northern India | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Maurya Empire | Seleucid Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Chandragupta Maurya Chanakya | Seleucus I Nicator | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| unknown | unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| unknown | unknown | ||||||||
The war ended in a Mauryan victory[4] resulting in the annexation of the Indus Valley region and part of Afghanistan to the Maurya Empire, with Chandragupta securing control over the areas that he had sought, and a marriage alliance between the two powers. After the war, the Maurya Empire emerged as the dominant power of the Indian subcontinent, and the Seleucid Empire turned its attention toward defeating its rivals in the west.
Background
editChandragupta Maurya established himself as Emperor of Magadha around 321 BC. He decided to conquer the Nanda Dynasty, rulers at the time of the Gangetic Plain. He fought the empire for eleven years with successful guerrilla campaigns, and captured the Nanda capital of Pataliputra. This led to the fall of the empire and the eventual creation of the Maurya Empire with Chandragupta Maurya as its emperor.
The Persian provinces in what is now modern Afghanistan, together with the wealthy kingdom of Gandhara and the states of the Indus Valley, had all submitted to Alexander the Great and become part of his empire. When Alexander died, the Wars of the Diadochi ("Successors") split his empire apart; as his generals fought for control of Alexander's empire. In the eastern territories one of these generals, Seleucus I Nicator, was taking control and was starting to establish what became known as the Seleucid Empire. According to the Roman historian Appian, Seleucus,
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.
Alexander had appointed satraps in control of his territories, including those of the Indus Valley. The Mauryans annexed the areas governed by Nicanor, Phillip, Eudemus and Peithon. This established Mauryan control all the way to the banks of the Indus. Chandragupta's victories convinced Seleucus that he needed to secure his eastern flank. Seeking to hold the Macedonian territories there, Seleucus thus came into conflict with the emerging and expanding Mauryan Empire over the Indus Valley.[6]
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 [7]
War
editDetails 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.[6] 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.[8] 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".[9]
Consequences
editSeleucus Nicator ceded the Hindu Kush, Punjab and parts of Afghanistan to Chandragupta Maurya.[10] 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 Mountains: 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 Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus [Chandragupta], upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange five hundred elephants.
— Strabo 15.2.9[11]
From this, it seems that Seleucus surrendered the easternmost provinces of Arachosia, Gedrosia, Paropamisadae and perhaps also Aria. On the other hand, he was accepted by other satraps of the eastern provinces. His Iranian wife, Apama, may have helped him implement his rule in Bactria and Sogdiana.[13][14] This would tend to be corroborated archaeologically, as concrete indications of Mauryan influence, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka which are known to be located in, for example, Kandahar and Laghman provinces, in today's southern Afghanistan.[citation needed]
Most geographers, in fact, do not look upon India as bounded by the river Indus, but add to it the four satrapies of the Gedrosia, the Arachotë, the Aria, and 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[15]
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]
"Certain areas in the north-west were acquired through the treaty with Seleucus... It has been suggested that the territory ceded consisted of Gedrosia, Arachosia, Aria, and the Paropamisadae."
—Romila Thapar (1963). Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas.[3]
The arrangement proved to be mutually beneficial.[6] The border between the Seleucid and Mauryan Empires remained stable in subsequent generations, and friendly diplomatic relations are reflected by the ambassador Megasthenes, 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"[6] 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.[8]
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.[8] Chandragupta Maurya went on to expand his rule in India southward into the Deccan.[10]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Romila Thapar (1966). Ancient India. Ncert. p. 70.
Chandragupta soon conquered the whole of the Punjab. Some of the land in the extreme north was held by the Greek general Seleucus Nicator. Chandragupta fought a long campaign against him and finally defeated him in 303 B.C. He acquired the territory across the Indus in part of what is now modern Afghanistan. There was also a marriage alliance between the two families. In addition Chandragupta had conquered parts of Central India, so that by the time his reign ended northern India was under the Mauryas.
References
edit- ^ Kistler, John M. (October 2007). War Elephants. Bison Books. p. 64. ISBN 9780803260047.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Kosmin 2014, p. 33: "The ancient historians Justin, Appian, and Strabo preserve the three main terms of what I will call the Treaty of the Indus:
(i) Seleucus transferred to Chandragupta's kingdom the easternmost satrapies of his empire, certainly Gandhara, Parapamisadae, and the eastern parts of Gedrosia, and possibly also Arachosia and Aria as far as Herat.
(ii) Chandragupta gave Seleucus 500 Indian war elephants.
(iii) The two kings were joined by some kind of marriage alliance (ἐπιγαμία οι κῆδος); most likely Chandragupta wed a female relative of Seleucus." - ^ a b Thapar 1963, p. 16.
- ^ "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 "Appian, the Syrian Wars 11 - Livius".
- ^ a b c d Kosmin 2014, p. 33–34.
- ^ Justin XV.4.12-13[usurped]
- ^ a b c Grainger 2014, pp. 108–110.
- ^ Wheatley & Heckel 2011, p. 296.
- ^ a b Publishing, D. K. (16 August 2010). Commanders. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-7566-7341-3.
- ^ Strabo, Geography, xv.2.9
- ^ Bernard, Paul; Pinault, Georges-Jean; Rougemont, Georges (2004). "Deux nouvelles inscriptions grecques de l'Asie centrale". Journal des Savants. 2 (1): 301 ff. doi:10.3406/jds.2004.1686.
- ^ Vincent A. Smith (1998). Ashoka. Asian Educational Services. 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.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History VI.(23).78
- ^ Debated by Tarn, "The Greeks in Bactria and India", p. 100
Sources
edit- Grainger, John D. (2014), Seleukos Nikator: Constructing a Hellenistic Kingdom, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-317-80099-6
- Kosmin, Paul J. (2014), The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-72882-0
- Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (2003) [1952], Ancient India, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0436-8
- Thapar, Romila (1963). Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. Oxford University Press. p. 16.
Certain areas in the north-west were acquired through the treaty with Seleucus... It has been suggested that the territory ceded consisted of Gedrosia, Arachosia, Aria, and the Paropamisadae.
- 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