page_title: History of Pakistan
section_title: Mauryan Empire
hierarchical_section_title: History of Pakistan / Early history – Iron Age / Mauryan Empire
caption_attribution_description: Edicts of Ashoka
context_page_description: The history of Pakistan encompasses the region of the Indus Valley, which spans the western expanse of the Indian subcontinent and the eastern Iranian plateau. The region served both as the fertile ground of a major civilisation and as the gateway of South Asia to Central Asia and the Near East.
  Situated on the first coastal migration route of Homo sapiens out of Africa, the region was inhabited early by modern humans. The 9,000-year history of village life in South Asia traces back to the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh in Pakistan, and the 5,000-year history of urban life in South Asia to the various sites of the Indus Valley Civilization, including Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.
  The ensuing millennia saw the region of present-day Pakistan absorb many influences—represented among others in the ancient Buddhist sites of Taxila, and Takht-i-Bahi, the 14th-century Islamic-Sindhi monuments of Thatta, and the 17th-century Mughal monuments of Lahore.
context_section_description: Due to the internal conflicts between Alexander's generals, Chandragupta saw an opportunity to expand the Mauryan Empire from its Ganges Plain heartland by defeating Nanda Dynasty one of the Mahajanpadas of that time towards the Indus Valley between 325 BCE to 303 BCE. At the same time, Seleucus I now ruler much of the Macedonian Empire was advancing from Babylon in order to establish his writ in the former Persian and Indus Valley provinces of Alexander. During this period, Chandragupta's mercenaries may have assassinated Satrap of Punjab Philip. They presumably also fought Eudemus, Porus and Taxiles of Punjab and Peithon of Sindh. In 316 BCE, both Eudemus and Peithon left Punjab and Sindh for Babylon, thus ending Macedonian rule. The Mauryan Empire now controlled Punjab and Sindh. As the Seleucid Empire expanded eastwards towards the Indus, it was becoming more difficult for Seleucus to assert control over the vast eastern domains. Seleucus invaded Punjab in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya. It is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. After two years of war, Seleucus reached an agreement with Chandragupta, in which he gave his daughter in marriage to Chandragupta and exchanged his eastern provinces for a considerable force of 500 war elephants, which would play a decisive role at The Battle of Ipsus (301 BCE). Strabo, in his Geographica, wrote:
   "He [Seleucus] crossed the Indus and waged war with Maurya who dwelt on the banks of that stream, until they came to an understanding with each other and contracted a marriage relationship."
  Alexander took these away from the Indo-Aryans and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus (Chandragupta), upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange 500 elephants.
  — Strabo, 64 BC–24 AD
  Thus Chandragupta was given Gedrosia (Balochistan) and much of what is now Afghanistan, including the modern Herat and Kandahar provinces, thereby ending Macedonian control in the Indus Valley by 303 BC.
  Under Chandragupta and his successors, internal and external trade, agriculture and commercial activities all thrived and expanded across the Indian subcontinent due to the establishment of a cohesive system of finance, administration, and security. The empire was divided into four provinces, the imperial capital being at Pataliputra. From Asokan edicts, the names of the four provincial capitals were Tosali (in the eastern Ganges plain), Ujjain (in the western Ganges plain), Suvarnagiri (in the Deccan), and Taxila (in the northern Indus Valley). The head of the provincial administration was the Kumara (royal prince), who governed the provinces as king's representative and was assisted by Mahamatyas and a council of ministers. The empire also enjoyed an era of social harmony, religious transformation, and expansion of the sciences and of knowledge. 
  Members of the Maurya dynasty were primarily adherents of Buddhism and Hinduism. Chandragupta Maurya's embrace of Jainism increased social and religious renewal and reform across his society, while Ashoka's embrace of Buddhism has been said to have been the foundation of the reign of social and political peace and non-violence across the empire. Proselytization of Buddhism was extended even to the Indo-Iranian and Greek peoples in the western frontiers and dominions of the empire, as mentioned by the Edicts of Asoka:
  Now they work among all religions for the establishment of Dhamma, for the promotion of Dhamma, and for the welfare and happiness of all who are devoted to Dhamma. They work among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Gandharas, the Rastrikas, the Pitinikas and other peoples on the western borders. (Edicts of Asoka, 5th Rock Edict, S. Dhammika)
  By the time Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka had become emperor, Hinduism was flourishing through the Indus Valley and much of the eastern Seleucid Empire. Many of the Greek and Indo-Iranian peoples in the western domains also converted to Buddhism during this period, according to the Edicts of Asoka: 
  Here in the ki
caption: Locations of the Edicts of Ashoka.
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