The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.253

v1.c26.253

As regards territory, the arrangement appears, upon the face of it, to have been entirely favourable to Chandragupta. Not only did Seleucus acquiesce in his sovereignty over all the country beyond the Indus. He also transferred to him the satrapies of Arachosia (Kandahār) and the Paropanisadae (Kābul), with at least some portion of Gedrosia (Baluchistān) and of Aria (Herāt). In other words, the frontiers of the Maurya empire were extended so as to embrace the southern half of Afghānistān and perhaps the whole of British Baluchistān. The expression 'presented' (ἔδωκε), which is used by Strabo (*loc. cit.*) to describe the transaction, does not preclude the possibility of the transfer having been made upon conditions. A return gift of 500 war-elephants is, in fact, mentioned. But under no circumstances could that have been looked on as an equivalent. We may take it that there were further stipulations as to freedom of trade and the like, such as would naturally accompany an *ἐπιγαμία*. There may even have been a nominal and unmeaning acknowledgment of suzerainty. It must be borne in mind that the written record contains nothing to show that Seleucus suffered defeat, nothing even to suggest that the rival armies ever came to blows at all. The probability is that, while he was still endeavouring to gauge the magnitude of the task that confronted him, an urgent call for help reached him from the confederate kings across the 2500 miles that separated him from Asia Minor. The instinct of self-preservation required that he should assist them. If he allowed Antigonus to crush Cassander, Lysimachus, and Ptolemy, his own turn would not be long in coming. It was only politic, therefore, to make the best terms he could with Chandragupta, whose 500 elephants reached the theatre of war in time to play a conspicuous part in the final overthrow of Antigonus at Ipsus in the year 301.