Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c13.2

c13.2

**Chandragupta’s Army.** We have now considered the various aspects of Mauryan Civil Administration. We shall now give an account of the Mauryan Military Administration. Chandragupta must have built up a powerful military force by which he was able not merely to overthrow the Greek rule in the Panjab and the powerful empire of the Nandas, but also to “overrun the whole of India,” in the words of Plutarch. The Greek account of Nanda’s Army estimates it at 2,00,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, 3,000 elephants, and 8,000 four-horsed chariots. Nanda, therefore, is called in the *Purāṇas* a *Mahāpadmapati*, ‘the Lord of an infinite host.’ Chandragupta must have mustered a larger and more powerful army to break this host. His army is computed by Pliny at 6,00,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry and 9,000 elephants [*Natural History*, IV. 22]. Pliny does not mention the number of his war-chariots which may be taken as the same as that of Nanda, namely, 8,000 chariots. If, as Arrian has pointed out, each chariot carried two soldiers, besides the driver, and an elephant carried three archers, besides the Mahout, then the total number of men in Chandragupta’s army would be 6,00,000 infantry, 30,000 horse-men, 36,000 men with the elephants, and 24,000 men with the chariots, totalling 6,90,000 in all, excluding followers and attendants.