The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c30.16

v1.c30.16

Beyond the zones of border peoples lay realms of whose complete independence there is no question. On the north-west Açoka’s sphere of influence ended at the frontiers of the Yavana king Antiochus, i.e. the Seleucid monarch Antiochus II Theos; and on the south it probably did not extend much beyond the locality of his southernmost group of inscriptions at Isila, the modern Siddāpura in the Chitaldroog District of N. Mysore. The apex of the peninsula was occupied by the ancient Dravidian kingdoms of the Sātiyaputas, the Chēras, the Chōḷas, and the Pāṇḍyas. With these independent nations Açoka’s relations were merely such as might be expected to exist between friendly powers.