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The Mauryan empire was India's first great unified empire. It lasted from 321 to 185 BCE, and was ruled by the Mauryan dynasty. At its height it ruled virtually all of northern and central India and even parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
When Alexander the Great conquered the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent in 326 BCE, he allied with king Ambhi of Taxila (called Taxiles or Omphis in Greek sources), and with his support managed to submit king Porus of Pauravas, a state of eastern Punjab, defeating him at the Battle of the Hydaspes River.
Alexander thereafter established vassal states ( satrapies), headed by the previous kings Ambhi and Porus, and founded several garrison towns. A Greek satrapSatrap ( Greek satrapes from Old Persian xSarap(van i. protector of the land/country"). In the ancient Persian Achaemenid and Sassanid empires, the name given to the governors of the provinces. By the earlier Greek authors ( Herodotus, Thucydides and ofte named Philippus controled a Macedonian occupation force. After his assassination he was replaced by the Thracian Eudamus .
Following the refusal of his troops to go further east, Alexander returned to Babylon, and redeployed most of his troops west of the IndusThe Indus is a river; the Indus River. A culture grew in the Indus River valley; the Indus Valley Civilization. Mingburnu fought Genghis Khan at the river Indus; the Battle of Indus. Indus (the Indian) is a southern group of stars; Indus (constellation) I. When Alexander died in BabylonBabylon was the capital city of Babylonia in Mesopotamia (in contemporary Iraq, about 70 miles south of Baghdad). The name is the Greek form of Babel which is derived in turn from the Semitic form Babilu meaning "The Gate of God". This Semitic word is a t soon after in 323 BCE, his empire fragmented, which opened up opportunities for the rise of new kingdoms everywhere, an opportunity seized in India by Chandragupta MauryaChandragupta Maurya ( 322 298 BC), known to the Greeks as Sandracottus was the first emperor of the Mauryan empire. Alexander's invasion prompted Indians to develop a centralised state, and Chandragupta came to rule much of North India. As a youth he was.
Chandragupta (known to the Greeks as Sandracotta) was a member of the warrior cast of the KshatriyaA Kshatriya is a member of the military or reigning order, according to the law-code of Manu the second ranking caste of the Indian varna system of four castes, the first being the Brahmin or priestly caste, the third the Vaishya or peasant caste and the. He was originally from the Taxila area, and had had many opportunities to observe the Greeks.
After the dislocation of Alexander's empire, he established an army with fighting techniques inspired from those of the Macedonians. Then, Chandragupta went east to overthrow the Nanda dynasty of the Magadha region, and "with the help of Macedonian mercenaries, (he) had established a kingdom in the Ganges Basin" (Robert Morkot) by 321 BCE.
Chandragupta then invaded the Punjab, after one of Alexander's satraps, Peithon of Media had tried to raise a coalition against him. He managed to conquer the Punjab capital of Taxila.
Chandragupta was again in conflict with the Greeks, when Seleucus I, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, tried to reconquer the northwestern parts of India which had been lost, during a campaign in 305 BCE.
After an inconclusive confrontation, the two rulers exchanged a peace treaty, Chandragupta received the daughter of the Seleucid king Seleucus I and the territories of Gandara and Arachosia, and Seleucus I received 500 war elephants that were to have a decisive role in his victory against western Hellenistic kings at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BCE. Diplomatic relations were established, and several Greeks, such as the historian Megasthenes, resided at the Mauryan court.
Chandragupta established a strong centralized state with a complex administration under the advisorship of Kautilya, established at the capital of Pataliputra, which, according to Magasthenes, was "surrounded by a wooden wall pierced by 64 gates and 570 towers— (and) rivaled the splendors of contemporaneous Persian sites such as Susa and Ecbatana".
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