Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c4.7

c4.7

**Sources: Greek and Latin Works.** An advantage of Mauryan History lies in the abundance, authenticity, and variety of its sources. One of the greatest discoveries of Indian History (which we owe to Sir William Jones) is the correspondence of the Greek name Sandrocottos or Androkottos to the Indian name Chandragupta [*Asiatic Researches*, IV. p. 11]. This led to the consequential conclusion that Chandragupta was a contemporary of Alexander whom he had also personally interviewed. We get this fact from Plutarch who states: "Androkottos himself, who was then but a youth, saw Alexander himself.” The result of this discovery has been a bountiful crop of evidence bearing on Chandragupta Maurya and his times, furnished by the historians of Alexander’s campaigns in India. Foreign sources thus throw a flood of light on what might have remained a most obscure chapter of Indian History, though it was so glorious by its achievements. To these sources, Indian History is also indebted for what has been called ‘the sheet-anchor of its chronology,’ for the starting-point of Indian chronology is the date of Chandragupta’s accession to sovereignty.