Jump to content

File:Chandragupta Maurya Empire c.290 BCE v2.png

Page contents not supported in other languages.
This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Original file (2,099 × 2,057 pixels, file size: 2.02 MB, MIME type: image/png)

Summary

Description
English: Extent of Chandragupta's empire, with realistic extent, and maximum extent based on a literal reading of territories ceeded by Seleucus. Jansari (2023), Chandragupta Maurya: The creation of a national hero in India, p.33, warns that "the dependence on a small group of sources from only one literary tradition necessitates a cautious approach to these texts and the events they describe." (Jansari

Tarn (1922), The Greeks in Bactria and India, p.100, explicitly criticises V.A. Smith: "Extravagant ideas have been put forward as to what Seleucus did cede [...] The worst has been that of V. A. Smith, who gave Chandragupta the satrapies of Gedrosia, Arachosia, Paropamisadae, and Aria on the strength of Pliny VI, 69, a historical absurdity of unknown origin." According to Tarn, Smith's idea that Seleucus handed over more of what is now southern Afghanistan is an exaggeration originating in a statement by Pliny the Elder in his Geographia VI, 69, referring not specifically to the lands received by Chandragupta, but rather to the various opinions of geographers regarding the definition of the word "India."

Tarn further refers to Eratosthenes, who states (in Tarn words) that "Alexander [...] took away from Iran the parts of these three satrapies which lay along the Indus and made of them separate [...] governments or province; it was these which Seleucus ceded, being districts predominantly Indian in blood. In Gedrosia the boundary is known: the country ceded was that between the Median Hydaspes (probably the Purali) and the Indus."

Mookerji, Radhakumud (1966). Chandragupta Maurya and His Times. Motilal Banarsidass Publisher. ISBN 978-81-208-0405-0: "By the terms of the treaty, Seleukos ceded to Chandragupta the Satrapies of Arachosia' (Kandahar) and the Paropanisadae (Kabul), together with portions of Aria (Herat) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan)."

According to Kosmin (2014), The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire, p.33: "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."

The acquisition of Aria (modern Herat) is disputed. According to Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee (1996), p.594, it "has been wrongly included in the list of ceded satrapies by some scholars [...] on the basis of wrong assessments of the passage of Strabo [...] and a statement by Pliny." According to John D Grainger (2014, p. 109), "Seleucus "must [...] have held Aria", and furthermore, his "son Antiochos was active there fifteen years later".
Date 30 november 2024
Source Own work, adaptation of File:Chandragupta Maurya Empire c.290 BCE.png
Author Joshua Jonathan

Licensing

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
Creative Commons CC-Zero This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Captions

Extent of Chandragupta's empire

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

30 November 2024

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current05:17, 30 November 2024Thumbnail for version as of 05:17, 30 November 20242,099 × 2,057 (2.02 MB)Joshua JonathanUploaded own work with UploadWizard

Metadata