Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c25.2

c25.2

§ 129. The empire of the Mauryas included the republican areas. Greek writers say that Chandragupta won Arachosia and Aria from Seleucus.¹ Aśoka in his inscriptions tells us that Antiochus was his neighbour.² Antiochus held Syria and Persia. The Maurya empire thus extended up to Persia in the north-west. In the south it extended up to the Tamil country.³ What was the fate of the republics under this gigantic monarchical system? To understand this, let us first examine the Maurya policy towards republics. Kauṭilya makes an excellent statement of that policy:—