Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.93

c11.93

Alexander died in 323 B.C. His successors, who met to partition the Macedonian empire at Babylon on the day after his death, and again at Triparadisus in Syria towards the end of 321 B. C., had no desire to withdraw altogether from the Indian provinces. They could not however be blind to certain new developments. The Macedonians were torn by internal dissensions and their ranks were getting thinner in India. Antipater, regent of Macedonia from 321 to 318 B.C., managed to retain control over the satrapy of India which "bordered on the Paropanisadae" which he gave to Pithon in 321 B.C. "Of the adjacent kingdoms he gave that which lay along the Indus to Porus, and that along the Hydaspes (Jhelum) to Taxiles (Ambhi), for it was impossible to remove these kings without royal troops under the command of some distinguished general."² Smith seems to think that the names of the Rājās have been interchanged.³ This is not improbable. But it is well to remember that the city of Taxila did not lie far from the Hydaspes, and Porus might have been given charge of a part of the Indus valley over which Eudamus, the Thracian, exercised sway as one of the joint successors of Philippus.