Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s38.13

c11.s38.13

Tāranātha's Virasena, said to have been ruling in Gandhāra, must have been related to Subhāgasena with whom Antiochus the Great of Syria renewed his friendship about 206 B. C. Polybius says of Antiochus¹: ‘Crossing the Caucasus he descended into India and renewed his alliance with Sophagasenus the Indian king. Here he procured more elephants, so that his total force of them amounted now to hundred-and-fifty, and after a further distribution of corn to his troops, set out himself with his army, leaving Androsthenes of Cyzicus to collect the treasure which the king had agreed to pay.’ Clearly this was a renewal of the friendly relations that had prevailed between the Seleucids and the Mauryas since the days of the founders of both lines ; as usual the Greek monarch asked for and obtained some elephants for his army from the Indian ruler. Subhāgasena may well have been a Maurya².