Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c5.92

c5.92

**Conquest of Western India.** Along with all this general evidence pointing to the extension of Chandragupta's empire to the South, we have a piece of definite evidence proving that Western India formed part of his empire. It was not so in the time of his predecessor, Nanda, who was known to the Greeks as the king of the Gangaridae and the Prasii, of the Ganges Valley and eastern India. The Girnar Rock Inscription of Rudradāman of 150 A.D. describes how the lake (*taḍāga*) Sudarśana was created on Mount Ūrjayat by the construction of a dam (*setu*) across the rivers flowing down the hill, such as Suvarṇasikatā, Palāśinī, and others. The dam rivalled the rock with its joints well cemented against leakage (*niḥsandhivaddha-dṛiḍha-sarvapātikatvāt-parvata-pāda-pratispardhi-suślishṭavandham*). It was constructed by the provincial governor (*Rāshṭriya*) of King Chandragupta Maurya. He is named Vaiśya Pushyagupta. The reservoir was lavishly provided with conduits (*praṇālibhiralaṁkṛitam*) in the time of Asoka Maurya by the Yavana (Greek) Rāja Tushāspha appointed to that province. The province is described as the province of Ānarta and Surāshtra. Thus Western India was so efficiently governed as a province of Chandragupta Maurya’s empire that even its irrigation facilities were provided by the construction of costly and difficult works like a reservoir for the storage of water, fitted with sluices and channels for its distribution among the cultivated fields below.