Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c9.45

c9.45

Menander was not content, however, with the conquest of the Panjāb. He aimed at nothing less than the Empire of all northern India, the position of *Chakravarti*, attained by his great predecessor, Chandragupta. Perhaps his object was partly religious. He may have hoped to restore the *Dharma* to its old dominant position in Pāṭaliputra from which it had been ousted by the Śunga kings. Of his invasion of Magadha, echoes are found in contemporary Hindu literature¹. Menander's first move was against the frontier towns of Magadha. He besieged Mathurā, Madhyamikā near Chitor, and Sāketa in Oude.