మౌర్య సామ్రాజ్యం: కూర్పుల మధ్య తేడాలు

అయినప్పటికీ అశోకుడి శాసనాలు వాస్తవ సంఘటనల కంటే పాలకుల కోరికను ప్రతిబింబిస్తాయి; రాజ వేట సంరక్షణలో జింకలను వేటాడినందుకు 100 'పనాస ' (నాణేలు) జరిమానా ప్రస్తావించడం చట్టాన్ని అతిక్రమించే వారు ఉన్నట్లు చూపిస్తుంది. చట్టపరమైన ఆంక్షలు సాధారణ ప్రజలు వేటాడటం, నరికివేయడం, చేపలు పట్టడం - అడవుల్లో మంటలు వేయడంలో పద్ధతులతో విభేదించాయి.

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[[File:MauryanRingstone.JPG|thumb|Mauryan ringstone, with standing goddess. Northwest Pakistan. 3rd Century BCE]]

 

Relations with the Hellenistic world may have started from the very beginning of the Maurya Empire. [[Plutarch]] reports that Chandragupta Maurya met with [[Alexander the Great]], probably around [[Taxila]] in the northwest:<ref name="RM16">{{cite book |last1=Mookerji |first1=Radhakumud |author-link1=Radha Kumud Mukherjee |title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times |date=1966 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=9788120804050 |pages=16–17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-y6ZUheQH8C&pg=PA16 |language=en}}</ref>

 

:"Sandrocottus, when he was a stripling, saw Alexander himself, and we are told that he often said in later times that Alexander narrowly missed making himself master of the country, since its king was hated and despised on account of his baseness and low birth". Plutarch 62-4<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243&layout=&loc=62.1|title=Plutarch, Alexander, chapter 1, section 1|publisher=}}</ref><ref name="RM16"/>

 

Chandragupta ultimately occupied Northwestern India, in the territories formerly ruled by the Greeks, where he fought the satraps (described as "Prefects" in Western sources) left in place after Alexander (Justin), among whom may have been [[Eudemus (general)|Eudemus]], ruler in the western Punjab until his departure in 317&nbsp;BCE or [[Peithon, son of Agenor]], ruler of the Greek colonies along the Indus until his departure for [[Babylon]] in 316&nbsp;BCE.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

 

:"Later, as he was preparing war against the prefects of Alexander, a huge wild elephant went to him and took him on his back as if tame, and he became a remarkable fighter and war leader. Having thus acquired royal power, Sandracottos possessed India at the time Seleucos was preparing future glory." Justin XV.4.19<ref>"Molienti deinde bellum aduersus praefectos Alexandri elephantus ferus infinitae magnitudinis ultro se obtulit et ueluti domita mansuetudine eum tergo excepit duxque belli et proeliator insignis fuit. Sic adquisito regno Sandrocottus ea tempestate, qua Seleucus futurae magnitudinis fundamenta iaciebat, Indiam possidebat." [http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html Justin XV.4.19] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420013859/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/justin/trad15.html |date=20 April 2017 }}</ref>

 

[[File:Diadoch.png|thumb|left|A map showing the north western border of Maurya Empire, including its various neighboring states.]]

[[Seleucus I Nicator]], the Macedonian [[satrap]] of the [[Asia]]n portion of Alexander's former empire, conquered and put under his own authority eastern territories as far as Bactria and the Indus ([[Appian]], ''History of Rome'', The Syrian Wars 55), until in 305&nbsp;BCE he entered into a confrontation with Emperor Chandragupta: