[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924) › c19 # The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c19: Appendix F. The Extent of the Cession of Ariāna by Seleukos Nikator to Chandragupta Maurya The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c19 - **Language:** English ### Appendix F. The Extent of the Cession of Ariāna by Seleukos Nikator to Chandragupta Maurya ### [c19.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.2) The statement in the text that the cession made in 303 B. C. by Seleukos Nikator to Chandragupta Maurya included the provinces of the Paropanisadae (Kābul), Aria (Herāt), Arachosia (Kandahār), and probably Gedrosia (Makrān), or a large part of that satrapy, is based upon the original authorities, which are five in number, namely, Strabo (two passages), Appian, Plutarch, Justin, and Pliny. The relevant extracts, being brief, may be quoted in full. All that has been written by modern authors on the subject is based upon these short extracts. ### [c19.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.3) (I) The two passages from Strabo are as follows : μάλιστα ἐκ τῆς διαίτης ἐδόκει τῆς τότε πιστότατα εἶναι τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἐρατοσθένους ἐν τῷ τρίτῳ τῶν γεωγραφικῶν ἐκτεθέντα κεφαλαιωδῶς περὶ τῆς τότε νομιζομένης Ἰνδικῆς, ἡνίκα Ἀλέξανδρος ἐπῆλθε· καὶ ἦν ὁ Ἰνδὸς ὅριον ταύτης τε καὶ τῆς Ἀριανῆς, ἣν ἐφεξῆς πρὸς τῇ ἑσπέρᾳ κειμένην Πέρσαι κατεῖχον· ὕστερον γὰρ δὴ καὶ τῆς Ἀριανῆς πολλὴν ἔσχον οἱ Ἰνδοὶ λαβόντες παρὰ τῶν Μακεδόνων (Bk. xv, ch. i (India), sec. 10 in Müller and Dübner's ed.). ### [c19.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.4) (II) ἡ δὲ τάξις τῶν ἐθνῶν τοιαύτη· παρὰ μὲν τὸν Ἰνδὸν οἱ Παροπαμισάδαι, ὧν ὑπέρκειται ὁ Παροπάμισος ὄρος, εἶτ᾽ Ἀραχωτοὶ πρὸς νότον, εἶτ᾽ ἐφεξῆς πρὸς νότον Γεδρωσηνοὶ σὺν τοῖς ἄλλοις πρὸς τὴν παραλίαν ἔχουσιν· ἅπασι δὲ παρὰ τὰ πλάτη τῶν χωρίων παράκειται ὁ Ἰνδός. τούτων δ᾽ \[ἐκ μέρους\] τῶν παρὰ τὸν Ἰνδὸν ἔχουσί τινα Ἰνδοί, πρότερον ὄντα Περσῶν. ἃ ἀφείλετο μὲν ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος τῶν Ἀριανῶν καὶ κατοικίας ἰδίας συνεστήσατο, ἔδωκε δὲ Σέλευκος ὁ ### [c19.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.5) Νικάτωρ Σανδροκόττῳ, συνθέμενος ἐπιγαμίαν καὶ ἀντιλαβὼν ἐλέφαντας πεντακοσίους (ibid., Bk. xv, ch. ii, 9). ### [c19.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.6) (III) Appian writes : καὶ τὸν Ἰνδὸν περάσας \[Σέλευκος\] ἐπολέμησεν Ἀνδροκόττῳ, βασιλεῖ τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν Ἰνδῶν, μέχρι φιλίαν αὐτῷ καὶ κῆδος συνέθετο (\*Syr.\* 55). ### [c19.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.7) (IV) Plutarch, arguing that the accounts of the military force of the Prasii were not exaggerated, says : καὶ κόμπος οὐκ ἦν περὶ ταῦτα. Ἀνδρόκοττος γὰρ ὕστερον οὐ πολλῷ βασιλεύσας Σελεύκῳ πεντακοσίους ἐλέφαντας ἐδωρήσατο, καὶ στρατοῦ μυριάσιν ἑξήκοντα τὴν Ἰνδικὴν ἐπῆλθεν ἅπασαν καταστρεφόμενος’ (\*Alex.\* ch. 62). ### [c19.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.8) (V) Justin’s testimony is : ‘\[Seleucus\] transitum deinde in Indiam fecit, quae post mortem Alexandri, veluti cervicibus iugo servitutis excusso, praefectos eius occiderat. Auctor libertatis Sandrocottus fuerat . . . cum quo facta pactione Seleucus, compositisque in oriente rebus, in bellum Antigoni descendit ’ (xv, 4). ### [c19.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.9) (VI) Pliny, when treating of the Indus and the boundary of India, says : ‘Etenim plerique ab occidente non Indo amne determinant, sed adiiciunt quatuor satrapias, Gedrosos, Arachosias, Arios, Paropamissadas ’ (Bk. vi, ch. 20, Basle ed., 1554 (\*al.\* ch. 23) ). ### [c19.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.10) These texts comprise the whole of the direct evidence on the subject. It seems to me self-evident that the two passages of Strabo refer to the same event; and that when he says in the first that the Indians received from the Macedonians ‘a large part of Arianē ’, which had been under the rule of the Persians up to the time of Alexander, he briefly alludes to the cession of the countries west of the Indus, formerly in the possession of the Persians, which Seleukos ceded to Chandragupta, as specifically stated in the second extract. ### [c19.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.11) The statements of Appian, Plutarch, and Justin do not deal in terms with the extent of the cession, but are of value as proving that Seleukos actually crossed the Indus, waged an unsuccessful war, and was obliged to make peace on conditions very favourable to his adversary, and very unfavourable to himself. ### [c19.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.12) The observation of Pliny that numerous (\*plerique\*) authors include in India the four satrapies of Gedrosia, Arachosia, Aria, and the Paropanisadae must have been based on the fact that at some period previous to A. D. 77, when his book was published, those four provinces were actually reckoned as part of India. At what time other than the period of the Maurya dynasty is it possible that those provinces should have formed part of India ? Pliny’s information about the country was mainly drawn from the writings of Megasthenes and the other contemporaries of Alexander, Chandragupta and Seleukos ; and the natural interpretation of his observation requires us to believe that the four satrapies in question were ‘the large part of Arianē’ ceded by Seleukos. Kābul and Kandahār frequently have been held by the sovereigns of India, and form part of the natural frontier of the country. Herāt (Aria) is undoubtedly more remote, but can be held with ease by the power in possession of Kābul and Kandahār. ### [c19.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19.13) The satrapy of Gedrosia (or Gadrosia) extended far to the west, and probably only the eastern part of it was annexed by Chandragupta. The Mālin range of mountains, which Alexander experienced such difficulty in crossing, would have furnished a natural boundary. Whether Chandragupta undertook the administration of the whole of Gedrosia or not, I have no doubt that Seleukos abandoned to him all control over the province, and that it was included by numerous authors in India, along with Aria, Arachosia, and the Paropanisadae; because Seleukos, intent upon the urgent business of crushing Antigonos, was constrained to surrender the four outlying satrapies named by Pliny, and to concentrate his strength in Central and Western Asia. ## Linked texts (1) - [Naturalis historia](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.la.imperial.pliny-elder) — C. Plinius Secundus, Latin --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.smith-1924.c19) · Pramāṇa