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English: Seleucid territories acquired by Chandragupta.

According to Jansari, Sushma (2023) Chandragupta Maurya: The creation of a national hero in India[1], UCL Press, ISBN 9781800083882, Chandragupta Maurya: The creation of a national hero in India, in the 20th century diverging views on Chandragupta have developed between western academics and Indian scholars. While westerners tend to take a reserved view on Chandragupta's accomplishments, Indian authors have portrayed Chandragupta as a very succesfull king who established the first Indian nation.

Jansari (p.33) warns that "the dependence on a small group of sources from only one literary tradition necessitates a cautious approach to these texts and the events they describe."

Jansari (p.35) further notes that "them," in Strabo, refers to "territories previously held by Alexander, but it is not scpecified which these were."[1] Jansari further notes that "None of the ancient authors depicted either Seleucus or Chandragupta as the clear victor of this battle."

Tarn (1922), The Greeks in Bactria and India, p.100, explicitly criticises V.A. Smith: "Extravagant ideas have been put forward as to what Seleucus did cede [...] The worst has been that of V. A. Smith, who gave Chandragupta the satrapies of Gedrosia, Arachosia, Paropamisadae, and Aria on the strength of Pliny VI, 69, a historical absurdity of unknown origin." According to Tarn, Smith's idea that Seleucus handed over more of what is now southern Afghanistan is an exaggeration originating in a statement by Pliny the Elder in his Geographia VI, 69, referring not specifically to the lands received by Chandragupta, but rather to the various opinions of geographers regarding the definition of the word "India."

Tarn further refers to Eratosthenes, who states (in Tarn words) that "Alexander [...] took away from Iran the parts of these three satrapies which lay along the Indus and made of them separate [...] governments or province; it was these which Seleucus ceded, being districts predominantly Indian in blood. In Gedrosia the boundary is known: the country ceded was that between the Median Hydaspes (probably the Purali) and the Indus."

Mookerji, Radhakumud (1966). Chandragupta Maurya and His Times. Motilal Banarsidass Publisher. ISBN 978-81-208-0405-0: "By the terms of the treaty, Seleukos ceded to Chandragupta the Satrapies of Arachosia' (Kandahar) and the Paropanisadae (Kabul), together with portions of Aria (Herat) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan)."

According to Kosmin (2014), The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire, p.33: "Seleucus transferred to Chandragupta's kingdom the easternmost satrapies of his empire, certainly Gandhara, Parapamisadae, and the eastern parts of Gedrosia, and possibly also Arachosia and Aria as far as Herat."

(2015) The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE–200 CE, Cambridge University Press ISBN: 978-1-316-41898-7. , p.453, question the extent of control over eastern Afghanistan, noting that the Mauryan edicts and inscription may indicate the maximum extent of contact, insted of the maximum extent of control.

The acquisition of Aria (modern Herat) is disputed. According to Raychaudhuri & Mukherjee (1996), p.594, it "has been wrongly included in the list of ceded satrapies by some scholars [...] on the basis of wrong assessments of the passage of Strabo [...] and a statement by Pliny." According to John D Grainger (2014, p. 109), "Seleucus "must [...] have held Aria", and furthermore, his "son Antiochos was active there fifteen years later".
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Seleucid Mauryan War.jpg
Author Joshua Jonathan

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  1. Jansari, 2023, p. 34

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Seleucid territories acquired by Chandragupta

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30 November 2024

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current07:59, 5 December 2024Thumbnail for version as of 07:59, 5 December 20241,126 × 1,021 (939 KB)Joshua JonathanKabul-Kandahar questioned by Tarn and Coningham & Young
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