Indian Invasion of Alexander the Great:

Introduction:

 Alexander the great was a Macedonian king.

 Born in 356 BCE in Greek city state Macedon.

 His Father was Macedonian king Philip II.

 His mother was Olympia, referred as Deity Queen.

 A legend says, Alexander was the son of Zeus God and Olympia.

Early Life:

 He was tutored by a great teacher Leonidas in his early ages.

 Latter on, he came under the tutelage of Aristotle.

 He had shown some great qualities in his early age. Such as, once he controlled and

rod a fury horse and he suppressed the rebellions in Thrace.

Succession to Throne:

 He was the sole heir to his father’s kingdom

 In his mid-life, he had some conflict with his father, due to the new marriage of his

father with a 20 years old girl namely Cleopatra.

 He went to exile along with his mother, but soon Philip II mediated and took him

back to Macedon.

 It is believed that, Olympia killed Philip II to ascend her son Alexander to the throne.

Important Wars:
  As soon as he succeeds the throne, he had begun to conquer all Greek city states.

 Soon after he turned his intentions toward their traditional rival, Persian Empire,

Achaemenid Dynasty.

 He conquered all the Persian Empire and defeated Darius II at the battle of

Gaugamela.

 He made Persia his vassal state and married with the daughter of Darius namely

Roxana, Persian version Rukhsana.

 He then captured whole Egypt.

 At last, he turned toward India.

Alexander in India:

 It was the time when India was divided into 16 different kingdoms or states.

 Alexander was the contemporary of Kautilya and Chandra Gupta Maurya in India.

 During the Invasion of Alexander, Kautilya was preparing Chandra against Nanda

Dynasty of India.

 It is believed that Alexander and Chandra Gupta had met and had a furious debate

where Chandra Gupta escaped and saved his life.

 Chandra Gupta asked Alexander’s Alliance against Nanda Dynasty.

Alexander Vs Porus (Battle of Hydespass):

 Alexander entered in subcontinent and captured Sindh and forwarded to Taxila

(Multan).

 He made Alliance with Taxilian king (Ambhi Kumar).

 Ambhi was the arch enemy of Porus.

 Alexander took his forces near River Jhelum where Porus was on 2nd bank of river.

 Porus had a huge Army against Alexander, the ratio was 1:5.
  Porus had war elephants, Chariots, Cavalry and infantry.

 Alexander was amused by elephants; it was something new for him.

 While Alexander’s army composed of very trained soldiers, well armored and

composed of advanced weapons and archers.

 The Face off of two armies continued for days.

 It was very hard for Alexander to cross the river.

 He tricked Porus and sent a light cavalry to north eastern areas and crossed the river.

 They attacked the rear and central plank of Porus’ army.

 Macedonian army attacked on the eyes of Elephants which made them furious and

they start running and crushed many of Porus’ soldiers.

 the unfortune chased Porus to the end, it was rain heavily and Chariots were unable to

move in mud.

 Finally, Porus’ army lost the battle and Porus captured.

 Alexander asked Porus how he should be treated, Porus replied; how a king treats

another king.

 Alexander inspired of him, and reinstitute him as king but as a vassal king.

Death Theories of Alexander:

1st Theory:

 After the battle of Hydespass, his army was exhausted.

 And rebellion erupts in other region of empire, he had to stopped the Indian campaign

and returned.

 On the way back, his legions were attacked in Multan by a tribe called Malhi.

 Alexander was injured and died in Macedonia in 323.

2nd Theory:

 On the way back, he became ill in Sindh, it was malaria which caused his death.

 He took back to Macedon where he dies due to Malaria.

3rd Theory:

 He had a good friend namely Hespiation.

 He had some extra-Affairs with him.

 Hespiation dies in 323.

 Alexander died due to his grievance after 10 days of his friend’s death.

Legacy:

 He was the first who unified whole Greek region under a centralized government.

 Alexander conquered the regions in very short time period.

 He never forced Greek religion and did not touch regional religions.

 He built many cities and named them Alexandria, most of them destroyed but one

survived in Egypt.

 After his death, his governors divided his empire among themselves.

 His generals established some prominent dynasties in Egypt and Persia.

 Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt and Seleucid Dynasty in Persia.

Maurya Dynasty:

 One of the most prominent dynasty in Indian history

 It was the Mauryan empire who ruled over united India.

  It included the territory of mainland India and some parts Afghanistan and Persia.

 It was the Mauryan empire who had given birth to great kings like Ashoka the Great.

 It was the first Empire who possessed a centralized government in India.

 The first king of this empire was Chandra Gupta Maurya.

 The king was standing on the political principles of Kautilya described in Arthshastra

 Arthshastra is one of the oldest books on Politics.

 With the establishment of Empire Kautilya Became the PM of Chandra Gupta

Maurya.

 Initially he was his tutor, thus Chandra established Empire under the Tutelage of

Kautilya.

Kautilya’s Political Thought:

Introduction:
 Kautilya also known as Chanakya.

 The 4th century BCE, Ancient Indian political philosopher.

 He lived in Maurya Empire and was the adviser of King Chandra Gupta.

 Chandra Gupta was inspired by his political ideas.

 Kautilya’s master work is Arth-Shastra, it is a collection of 15 books also called

parts.
Kautilya’s Political Views:
 His political views fall under the realist school of thought.

 His political views are very similar to Medieval Political philosopher Machiavelli.

 He encourages war against neighbor for acquiring lands.

 According to him, the first enemy of state is its neighbor.

 And he considers war a positive act of state.

Arth-Shastra of Kautilya:
 Arth-shastra was composed in 15 parts of 150 chapters.

 It mainly focuses on the state craft.

 It argues in his book that how a ruler should be.

 In his book, Kautilya discusses mainly on followings:

o First 5 parts on Internal Matter of State.

o 6 to 13 deals with External Matters of State.

o And last 2 parts discuss the casual matters of state.

 In his book he described 34 institutions of any Government.

 In his book he describes the art of war.

 This book is considered the first of book of geo-politics.

External Affairs According to Kautilya:

 A large portion of his book contains the strategies that how to deal external affairs of

any state.

 He believes there is no permanent friend or enemy in International Affairs.

 As he argued that the material wellbeing is supreme of all goals.

 The land was the main material source of ancient time.

 In this regard, in his master piece, he dictated the idea of acquiring lands.

 He argues that war for acquiring the lands is natural and positive.
  As he considers neighbors are the first enemy, he encourages to war against them for

capturing lands.

 He was very rigid on external affairs of state.

Kautilya’s Theory of State:

 His theory of state is a realist theory.

 His theory of state is organic, which means, state is an organism.

 State has seven 7 organs or elements.

 The first element is king and king is the center of state.

 And all the other 6 elements are around and under the king.

Senior
Minister

Fort/
Allies
Defence

King
Treasury/ People/
Economy territory

Military
The Characteristics of Kautilya’s King:
 A king is a central organ or element of the state and irreplaceable.

 He said, king should not be arrogant towards his subjects.

 As per he said, the happiness of king is lies in the happiness of his subjects.

 But not as polite that anyone could exploit him easily.

 His statement for king is similar that of Machiavelli.

o “A ruler must be feared more than he loved”

 Also, according to him, a ruler must not be cruel toward his subjects.

 He argues, the important objective of the king is to secure the material wellbeing of its

subjects.

 The ARTH in his master piece denotes the material wellbeing.

o “Material wellbeing is supreme of all goals” (Kautilya).

Kautilya’s Art of War:

 According to Kautilya, King should adopt following Diplomatic strategies for

achieving its national interests:

1. Treaty: Go for a treaty if your enemy is strong.

2. Break Treaty: Break the treaty when you are strong.

3. Station your Army: Station you army near enemy’s border.

4. Deterrence: conduct military exercises near enemy’s border to deter you her

5. Objectives: Make allies who have same objectives as yours.

6. Dual Policy: Don’t go war on two fronts, friendship with one war with other.

Upayas Diplomacy of Kautilya:

 The Upayas strategy of Kautilya are four types of diplomacy for achieving what the

king and state desires for its material wellbeing.

 Sam: First seek for conciliation or making peace through treaty.

  Dam: Economically trap the enemy. Economic Diplomacy.

 Dand: If not achieved what you desired for, then use force.

 Bhed: indirectly creates anarchy in enemy state. Creating separatist groups and

supporting such activities. Simply division is called Bhed A/c to Kautilya.

Chandra Gupta Maurya

 Not much information available about early life of Chandra Gupta Maurya.

 He was the born in a peacock rearing family, a shudra family, in Maghad.

 An Ashokan pilar discovered and engraved a peacock, considered as state symbol.

 Orphaned in childhood and raised by a group of shepherds.

 It is believed that he served under Great army of Alexander.

 But some sources claim that, his role in Greek was the part of conspiracy against

Greeks.

 It was believed that Chandra Gupta played a role to disclose the secrets of Greek

Army.

 With the help of his advisor and Tutor he established Maurya Dynasty.

 He trained in Taxila for eight years.

 He was the grand father of Ashoka the Great.

Advices of Kautilya:

 According to the teachings of Kautilya he succeeded in establishing his Empire.

 Kautilya provided Strategy and Chandra executed, this is how they expanded.

 Kautilya trained him and attacked on Nanda dynasty but failed at first.

 Later on, Kautilya advised him to attack the weak kingdoms where civil wars are on

the verge or continue

 The best options were the abandoned state of Greeks in India.

  The Greek governors were indulged into Civil Wars.

 Chandra took advantage of this disruption and conquered those territories.

 He made alliance on one side attacked the other.

 He was great Ally was the king of mountains.

 Conquering all the other week states, Gupta turned toward Maghad.

 Together with king of Mountains he destroyed Nanda Dynasty.

 At last, by the teachings of Kautilya he killed kings of Mountain through a VESH-

KANNIYA (Poisonous Girl).

 He unified much of the Indian land mass.

Conquest of Chandra Gupta Maurya:

 He met alexander and asked for help against Nanda dynasty.

 A furious debate disrupts between them and Chandra escaped to save his life.

 After the death of Alexander, he came again and liberates the Sindh from Macedonian

Generals in 321 BCE.

 After Sindh, he turned toward Punjab.

 Punjab was the cup of tea for Chandra.

 Ambhi Kumar was in exile, Greek General killed Porus and escaped to hide outs.

 Punjab was conquered with less hurdles.

 Now it was the turn of Nanda Dynasty.

 He allied him self with king of mountain and destroyed Nanda dynasty.

 At last, he killed King of mountains and became sole ruler of most parts of India.

 He fought battles with Seleucids who were Greek rulers in Persia.

 Chandra Gupta successfully eliminated all Greek generals and rulers in India.
  Signed treaty with Seleucids, Magesthenes visited court of Gupta as an ambassador of

Seleucids.

Conversion into Jainism:

 In 298 BCE, abdicated throne to his son Bindusara.

 He converted into Jainism

 He left for meditation.

 He addressed Kautilya to advise his son for administration.

 He starved to death as per Jain teachings.

Bindusara:

 2nd King of Mauryan Empire.

 His mother was Dhurdara.

 She ate Poisonous Food.

 She was nearly dying, Kautilya ordered nurses to Caesar her and deliver the child.

 The child was Bindusara.

 Kautilya was his guide and tutor and advisor too.

 With the conspiracy of some courtiers Bindusara considered Kautilya as the murderer

of his mother.

 Kautilya resigned to his post on these Allegations.

 He was an ordinary ruler of Mauryan Empire.

 He conquered a little and dies by a natural death.

 Succeeded by his son Ashoka.

 Ashoka The Great:

Accession of Throne:

 Born in 304 BCE in Pataliputra.

 He was an ugly child.

 His father Bindusara discriminated him.

 Bindusara never want him to success the throne but his eldest son Susima.

 But he was supported by a minister Radha Gupta.

 It is believed that Radha Gupta was the grandson of Kautilya.

 Bindusara became ill while Susima was busy in campaign in Taxila against rebels.

 Ashoka forcibly ascended on throne with the help of Radha Gupta.

 It is believed that he had killed his 99 brothers out of 100.

Kalinga War:

 Kalinga was separate state and prospered one. (Present day Odissa)

 No one conquered Kalinga.

 Kalinga was important city due to coastal line.

 Kalinga was Feudal Republic

 Ashoka attacked Kalinga in 261 BCE.

 It was a destructive war for both parties.

 Some 100,000 soldiers had been killed.

 150,000 people injured and deported.

 Finally, Ashoka conquered Kalinga but Ahsoka transformed.

Conversion to Buddhism:

 The destruction and Bloodshed in Kalinga war depressed Ashoka.

  He folded his policy of conquest into non-Violence.

 He returned to Pataliputra and inspired by a Buddhist Monk.

 Soon he came know that, the Monk was the son of his Eldest Brother Susima who he

has been killed long ago.

 He apologized to his son.

 And accepted Buddhist Religion.

 He spread Buddhism in whole region.

 He ordered some 84,000 Stupas of Buddha.

 It was due to Ashoka Buddhism spread from central India to south eastern Asia in east

and central Asia in northern west.

Quick Facts about Ashoka:

 The first ruler who conquered whole Indian region along with Afghanistan and some

parts of Persia.

 He killed his 99 brothers

 He fought battle of Kalinga

 After battle of Kalinga, he converted in Buddhism

 He was the very first ruler who introduced Animal protection Laws.

 He banned female animals.

 He eructed edicts about ethics and asked for apology to the people of Kalinga.

 He established a ministry for ethics. He sent teacher to teach ethics in different

villages.

 Ashok chakar in Indian national emblem is taken by Ashoke.

 History almost lost Ashoka, however thanks to James Princip, an English

archaeologist and historian who deciphered Brahmi script and world became to know

about Ashoka.

 Ashoka was the last strong ruler of Maurya Dynasty.