Seleucid–Mauryan war
Seleucus I and Chandragupta Maurya end their war with a treaty
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗The most famous bride in the story is never named — and the Greek sources never actually say she was Seleucus's daughter.
No battle, and probably not 304
The surviving account compresses the campaign into a sentence: Seleucus crossed the Indus, fought Chandragupta's Mauryan state, and the two eventually reached an understanding. It does not record a set-piece Mauryan victory in 304 BCE or in any other year.
Modern scholarship generally places the settlement somewhere between 305 and 303 BCE, with published reconstructions ranging from about 306–305 to 305–303. The listed year is an approximation.
Everything known comes from brief, much later Greco-Roman references; no detailed battle narrative survives at all.
What the settlement contained
Seleucus relinquished eastern territory, received Indian war elephants and entered an alliance or marriage relationship with Chandragupta. He had crossed the Indus while trying to reassert control over Alexander's former eastern possessions, which Chandragupta now held.
Which territory changed hands is disputed. Arachosia, Gedrosia and Paropamisadae are commonly proposed, but the ancient geographical wording is imprecise, and "all the Eastern Satrapies" claims more than the sources support.
The Greek terms used — epigamia, kedos — indicate intermarriage or a dynastic connection. They do not establish that Chandragupta married an otherwise unknown daughter of Seleucus, and no source trades elephants for a bride.
Where the elephants went
The literary tradition gives 500 elephants, a round figure scholars consider suspect. Only a few years later, at Ipsus in 301 BCE, Plutarch reports 400 elephants in Seleucus's coalition army; another ancient account gives 480.
Ipsus was a separate battle in Anatolia against Antigonus I and Demetrius, not the Seleucid–Mauryan confrontation. It matters here because that is where the newly acquired corps was deployed.
Regular diplomacy followed the settlement: Megasthenes later served at Chandragupta's court as Seleucus's representative.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date disputed
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →
Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~-0304.
What the sources leave uncertain
- The conflict and settlement are known only from brief, much later Greco-Roman references; no detailed battle narrative survives.
- Published reconstructions range from about 306–305 BCE to 305–303 BCE. The listed year 304 BCE is therefore only an approximation.
- The extent of the transferred territory is disputed. Arachosia, Gedrosia and Paropamisadae are commonly proposed, but the ancient geographical wording is not precise.
- The terms epigamia and kedos can indicate intermarriage or a dynastic connection. They do not establish that Chandragupta personally married an otherwise unknown daughter of Seleucus.