Was Chandragupta inspired by Alexander?

Chandragupta went down in history as King of India, founder of the Maurya Empire, and ruled from 321 to 297 BC; he was the first to unify India as we know it today. His Greek name was Sandracottus or Sandrokottos, as is reported by Megasthenes, the Greek envoy of Seleucos Nicator, Alexander’s successor in that part of the world.

Yet Chandragupta’s appearance in history started much earlier when, as a youngster, he spent time at Alexander’s camp either as a fugitive or as an exile. He was born in 340 BC, making him only sixteen years younger than Alexander. How and under what circumstances both men met is told in different ways. Some say that after his victory over Porus, Alexander had been approached by Chandragupta to help him overthrow the neighboring Nanda Kingdom, which extended from Punjab to the Bay of Bengal and whose capital was Pataliputra (the Greek Palimbothra), modern Patna. Another theory presented by Plutarch is that Chandragupta, being of lower birth on his mother’s side, sneered at the base origin of his King Xandrames of the Nanda Empire, whose father was a barber. The pot calls the kettle black! Dad had murdered his king to marry the queen with whom he was romantically involved, although Curtius claims that the queen killed her husband with her own hands. Well, if his father did indeed murder the king, this led evidently to the exile of Chandragupta. Whatever version is true, Chandragupta ended up spending time at Alexander’s camp. He must have been 14 or 15 years old at the time, which means that he was about the same age as Philip, Alexander’s father, when he was taken to Thebes as a hostage – in other words, the right age to be influenced to accomplish great deeds (and Chandragupta did not need much conviction, it seems!)   

The fact is that the last king of the Nanda Dynasty was Mahapadma Nanda, and that the collapse of his empire, just east of Porus’ realm, was imminent. It seems that Alexander was informed of this situation while he was at the Hyphasis River (modern Beas). The prospect of including this important and powerful country in his conquest may have been the true reason for Alexander’s decision to march further east and not his dream to reach the end of the world, as is generally assumed. The mutiny of his army changed the course of history. This is, however, where Chandragupta takes over. As soon as Alexander left India, Chandragupta managed to unify the northern tribes and assemble a formidable force, and since Alexander had not overthrown the Nanda Dynasty, he decided to do it himself.

When Alexander died in 323 BC, Chandragupta seized his chance and set out to throw the Macedonians out and successfully conquer Punjab. The Macedonian successors were too busy and too late to realize that they had neglected India in their cutting up of Alexander’s empire at the Partition of Babylon. Besides, Antigonus Monophthalmus, as a self-proclaimed master of Asia, showed little interest in the eastern part of his empire and left it pretty much to rule itself.

Chandragupta needs no further encouragement to dethrone the Nanda king, and he exterminates every member of his family. As a result, he became the first king of the Mauryan Empire in 322 BC. He inherits Nanda’s huge army, which, increased with his own forces, brings it to a total force of 30,000 cavalry, 600,000 infantry, 9,000 elephants, and a multitude of chariots. By now, there is nothing to stop Chandragupta from further expansion, which is favored by the conference of Triparadeisus held by the Diadochi in 321 BC, where they once again failed to make clear provisions for the Indian satrapies. By 317 BC, Chandragupta effectively controlled all of northern India, reaching from the Khyber Pass to the Ganges delta, and he then concentrated on further expansion, becoming eventually the absolute ruler of this new empire that reached from the Himalayas down to the Arabian Sea.

In 309 BC, Seleucos entered a pitched battle with the 70-year-old Antigonus Monophthalmus, who was defeated and withdrew to Syria, leaving Seleucos as the sole ruler of Bactria, Sogdia, and India. Four years later, Seleucos attempts to reconquer the territories west of the Indus, which Alexander had occupied some twenty years before, but he obviously lacks the time and the resources. The best he could do was to reach a diplomatic agreement with Chandragupta, along the same line as the settlement he had previously reached with the Sogdians. This happened after both parties faced each other in a fierce battle in 304 BC, from which Chandragupta emerged victoriously, and where Seleucos ceded the provinces of Arachosia, Gandaris, Paropamisadae, as well as parts of Areia and Gedrosia in exchange for 500 war elephants and their handlers; a marriage alliance completed the compromise.

This settlement of 303 BC could well be inspired by Alexander’s earlier agreement with Porus, and since Antiochus the Great renewed this very treaty a century later, it indicates that it was the most practical solution for all parties involved. It is important to note that the treaty included a guarantee of connubial rights, meaning that the rights of those children born from mixed marriages of Greeks with natives were protected – a small detail but an important one.

None of Alexander’s easternmost territories were ever recovered by any of the Diadochi, and after Seleucos attempted to that end, nobody ever contemplated it again, and all Seleucid kings from Seleucos Nicator I to Antiochus III simply accepted India as semi-independent. This may, in fact, be exactly what Alexander had in mind when he left Porus to rule his own territory and more. Besides, we should not forget the role played by the substantial number of Greek colonists who had to live alongside the native population. The growth of Mauryan power did not mean the Greek settlers were exterminated or expelled. It was a matter of simple judgment; they either adapted to local conditions and native rules to become independent from Macedonia and part of India, or they saw themselves purged.

At this point, the Hindu Kush Mountains, the Greek Paropanisos, became Chandragupta’s western frontier, an inglorious end to Alexander’s eastern conquest, it may seem. Yet all those who ever fought at Alexander’s side had learned his lessons very thoroughly. Seleucos was one of his outstanding pupils, and immediately after the conclusion of the treaty, he sent an envoy to the court of Chandragupta. This was Megasthenes, who spent many years at Palimbothra, the capital of the Mauryan Empire. We owe him some excellent reports about the geography, products, and institutions of India, for he was a unique source of information from that part of the world. His work on Chandragupta’s civil and military administration is considered to be accurate and trustworthy, although only fragments have survived. Strabo interestingly tells us that Megasthenes said we should not believe the old stories about the Indians simply because they never invaded any country outside India, and no foreign army ever invaded India till Alexander. Megasthenes must have been a fine diplomat, for he not only had to comply with Chandragupta but also with his capable advisor and minister Kautilya (also named Chanakya), who wrote down the very first laws and the constitution of the Maurya Empire, which were strictly enforced. This handbook for effectively running an empire, the Arthashastra, contained extensive information about diplomacy and military strategy, but also careful recommendations on taxation, irrigation, coinage, agriculture and mining, manufacturing and trade, and many other useful topics.

It was this Kautilya who was responsible for the administration of Palimbothra, which was headed by a Municipal Commission divided into six boards or committees of five members each, entrusted with specific duties. The administration of the distant provinces was, in turn, placed in the hands of viceroys, usually members of the royal family. The matter of land irrigation was extremely important in India, and Chandragupta made sure that everyone got their fair share, and a special department was created to oversee the land measurements and the sluice regulations. The roads were well-maintained, and milestones were set up at regular intervals of ten stadia; a royal road is said to connect the northwest frontier with Pataliputra, 10,000 stadia long! The general honesty of the people was high on the list of duties of every citizen, and Megasthenes tells us that crimes like theft or giving false evidence were severely punished. Arrian already reported that elephants, horses, and camels were only used by the king, the wealthy, and those of the king’s entourage. All in all, an organization that is very different from that known in the West or even in Persia.

At the summit of his power, Chandragupta had eliminated all his opponents and ruled over an empire larger than what British India ever would be! He owed his power and empire to his enormous army, which was organized and equipped in such a way that it became extremely efficient. Not unlike Alexander’s forces, it was a standing army where each man was on a regular payroll, and the government provided horses, arms, and other equipment. From his Nanda campaign, Chandragupta acquired 8,000 cavalry, 200,000 infantry, 8,000 chariots, and 6,000 elephants. Just imagine what Alexander would have done with such an army force that exceeded his own by far. He definitely could have marched to the end of the earth!

The reality was that the impressive number of troops from the Nanda Dynasty increased Chandragupta’s own troops, totaling his infantry to 600,000, some 30,000 cavalry, and a staggering 9,000 elephants, besides an unspecified number of chariots. His men were very well-equipped, and sources tell us that each cavalry carried two lances (saunia) and a small shield (buckler). All infantrymen were equipped with a broadsword and would additionally have javelins or a bow and arrows. Each elephant, beside its mahout, would typically be manned by three archers, implying a force of 36,000 men. Each chariot, as we have seen during Alexander’s fight at the Hydaspes (see: The Battle of the Hydaspes and the Genius of Alexander), would accommodate two soldiers next to the driver, requiring 24,000 men. If we add up all these numbers, Chandragupta’s army would have reached at least 690,000 men, and that is without counting its followers in the baggage train.

It is obvious that no battle could or would be fought involving the whole of this huge army, but portions of it must have been distributed all over the many provinces of Chandragupta’s newly conquered empire.

Despite such a great achievement, or maybe just because of it, Chandragupta decided to spend his final years in religious devotion as a follower of Jainism. In 298 BC, after a reign of 24 years, he left his throne to his son Bindusara. Chandragupta died shortly afterward as he starved himself to death; his empire, however, would live on for more than a century.

History or legend has it that Chandragupta liked to tell his Greek guests, “I watched Alexander when I was still a young man. Alexander had been within an ace of seizing India because its king was so hated and despised, both for his character and his low birth”. Yes, Alexander might have strolled through Palimbothra’s gardens, admiring its fish ponds, which were not far from the silt-brown fields along the Ganges River. Alexander was only three months away from taking all of India, but his soldiers refused to follow him, not realizing how much this would have meant to their king and eventually to their own conquests.

[Picture credits and links: 
Young Chandragupta from JatLand.org
Map of Nanda Empire
Head of Seleucos from Pompeii
Statue of Chandragupta from Wikimedia
Map of Maurya Empire
Place where Chandragupta died]