r
316 B.C.;
312 B.C.
306-298
B.C.
Punjab , each with his plot for winning a kingdom or crushing \
a rival, Chandra Gupta , an exile from the Gangetic valley, i
is said to have played a part. According to a doubtful story,he tried to tempt the wearied Greeks on the Beas withschemes of conquest in the rich south-eastern Provinces; but,having personally offended Alexander, he had to fly the camp(326 b.c.). In the confused years which followed, he managed, *
with the aid of plundering hordes, to found a kingdom onthe ruins of the Nanda dynasty in Magadha, or Behar (316b.c .). 1 He seized their capital, Pataliputra, the modern Patna ;established himself firmly in the Gangetic valley, and com-pelled the Punjab principalities, Greek and native alike,to acknowledge his suzerainty. 2 While, therefore, SeleukosNikator was winning his w T ay to the Syrian monarchy duringthe eleven years which followed Alexander’s death, Chandra >
Gupta w r as building up an empire in Northern India. Seleukos reigned in Syria from 312 to 280 b.c.; Chandra Gupta in theGangetic valley from 316 to 292 b.c. In 312 b.c., the powerof both had been consolidated, and the two new sovereigntieswere soon brought face to face.
About that year, Seleukos , having recovered Babylon, pro- *
ceeded to re-establish his authority in Bactria and the Punjab .
In the Punjab he found Greek influence decayed. Alex-ander had left a mixed force of Greeks and Indians at Taxila .
But no sooner had he departed from India, than the Indians
rose and slew the Greek governor. The Macedonians next ,
massacred the Indians . A new governor, sent by Alexander,
murdered the friendly Punjab prince, Porus ; and was himself
driven out of India by the advance of Chandra Gupta from i.
the Gangetic valley. Seleukos, after a war with Chandra
Gupta, determined to ally himself with the new power in India
rather than to oppose it. In return for 500 elephants, he
ceded to the Indian king the Greek settlements in the Punjab
and the Kabul valley; gave his daughter to Chandra Gupta in
marriage; and stationed an ambassador, Megasthenes , at the
Gangetic court (306-298 b.c.). Chandra Gupta became
familiar to the Greeks as Sandrokottos, King of the Prasii and
Gangaridee; his capital, Pataliputra," or Patna , was rendered
3 Corpus Inscriptiomim Indicarum, i. 7. Jacobi’s Jaina Sitiras, xliii. >
2 For the dynasty of Chandra Gupta , see Numismata Orientalia (Ceylonfasciculus), pp. 41-50.
3 The modern Patna , or Pattana, means simply ‘the city.’ For itsidentification with Pataliputra by means of Mr. Ravenshaw’s final dis-coveries, see General Cunningham’s Anc. Geog. of India , p. 452 et set/ .