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File:EasternSatrapsAfterAlexander.jpg File:AlexanderIndiaMap-es.svg

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Threatened by Chandragupta’s growing power, Seleucis of Syria, Alexander’s successor, challenged him by invading northern India in 305 BC but suffered a devastating defeat. A treaty ending the conflict gave Chandragupta all lands north to the Hindu Kush, including Baluchistan and Afghanistan. Chandragupta used an extensive and elaborate civil service, an army, and a secret service to rule.

—Ian Barnes , Robert Hudson and Bhikhu Parekh , The history atlas of Asia, Pg.42[1]

Certain areas in the north-west were acquired through the treaty with Seleucus... It has been suggested that the territory ceded consisted of Gedrosia, Arachosia, Aria, and the Paropamisadae.

—Romila Thapar, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Pg.16[2]

The ceded country comprised a large portion of Ariana itself, a fact ignored by Tarn. In exchange the Maurya a monarch gave the "comparatively small recompense of 500 elephants. It is believed that the territory ceded by the Syrian king included the four satrapies: Aria, Arachosia, Gedrosia and the Paropanisadai, i.e., Herat, Kandahar, Makran and Kabul. Doubts have been entertained about this by several scholars including Tarn. The inclusion of the Kabul valley within the Maurya Empire is, however, proved by the inscriptions of Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, which speak of the Yonas and Gandharas as vassals of the Empire. And the evidence of Strabo probably points to the cession by Seleukos of a large part of the Iranian tableland besides the riparian provinces on the Indus.

—Hemchandra Raaychaudhari, Political history of ancient India, Pg.273[3]

Net result of the expedition, however, clearly indicate that Seleucus met with a miserable failure. For he had not only to finally abandon the idea of reconquering the Panjab, but had to buy peace by ceding Paropanisadai, Arachosia, and Aria, three rich provinces with the cities now known as Kabul, Kandähär and Herät respectively as their capitals, and also Gedrosia (Baluchistan), or at least a part of it. The victorious Maurya king probably married the daughter of his Greek rival, and made a present of five hundred elephants to his royal father-in-law.

—R. C. Majumdar, Ancient India, Pg.105[4]

By 311 B.C. or somewhat later the Indus had become the frontier of the Magadhan Empire. Further westward expansion was largely the outcome of the successful military encounter with Seleucus Nicator (Seleukos Nikator), founder of the Seleucid dynasty and inheritor of Alexander's eastern empire from northern Syria to India Between 305 and 302 B.C. Seleucus ceded the satrapies of Gedrosia. Arachosia, Paropamisadai, and probably Aria, gave his adversary a Greek princess in marriage, and obtained in return 500 war elephants and permanent peace and friendship on his eastern frontier. About this time, perhaps earlier, western Gandhara and areas north to the Hindu Kush, Abhisara, and probably Kasmira were also annexed to the Mauryan dominions.

—Schwartzberg, Schwartzberg Atlas, Pg.170[5]

Towards the north-west, his empire marched with that of the Syrian monarch, Antiochos [Rock Edict II], and hence extended up to Persia and Syria which were held by Antiochos, while it is also known how Asoka's grandfather, Chandragupta, had wrested from Selukos the provinces of Aria, Arachosia, Paropanisadai and Gedrosia, which descended to Asoka as his inheritance.

—Radhakumud Mukharjee, Asoka, Pg.15[6]

In 324 B.C.E. Chandragupta Maurya unified northern India by defeating his rivals. He went on to war against the successor of Alexander The Great in Asia, Seleucus Nicator, expelling his forces from the borderlands of India. In 305 B.C.E. the two men concluded a treaty in which the Greeks withdrew from the Punjab in northwestern India and which fixed the western boundary of the Mauryan Empire to the crest of the Hindu Kush. There was also exchange of ambassadors, gifts, and a vague mention of a marriage alliance. Megasthenes was Seleucus’s representative at Chandragupta’s court.

—Marsha E. Ackermann & Mark F. Whitters, Encyclopedia Of World History Volumes 7, Pg.270[7]

Seleucus had to purchase peace by ceding to Chandragupta territories then known as Aria, Arachosia, and Paropanisadae (the capitals of which were respectively the cities now known as Herat, Kandahar and Kabul), and probably also a part of Gedrosia (Baluchistan). In return Chandragupta presented him with 500 war elephants. The terms of the peace leave no doubt that the Greek ruler fared badly at the hands of Chandragupta. His defeat and discomfiture at the hands of an Indian ruler would naturally be passed over by Greek writers, and their silence goes decidedly against Seleucus. The peace was ratified by a matrimonial alliance between the rival parties.

—K.M. Munishi, The Age Of Imperial Unity Volume II, Pg.60[8]

Chandragupta Maurya, and the four satrapies of Aria, Arachosia, Gedrosia, and the Paropanisadai were ceded to him by Seleukos Nikator about B.C. 305. The Maurya frontier was thus extended as far as the Hindû Kush Mountains, and the greater part of the countries now called Afghanistan, Balûchistan and Makran, with the North-Western Frontier Province, became incorporated in the Indian Empire. That empire included the famous strongholds of Kabul, Zabul, Kandahar, and Herat, and so possessed the scientific frontier' for which Anglo-Indian statesmen have long sighed in vain.

—Vincent Aurther, Asoka-the Buddhist emperor of India, Pg.75[9]

Asoka inherited an extensive empire from his father Bindusara and his grandfather Chandragupta. On the north-west his frontier roughly corresponded to the so-called scientific frontier of the nineteenth century, the Kabul-Ghazni Kandahar line. These territories had been ceded to Chandragupta Maurya by Seleucus Nikator and comprised the satrapies of Paropanisadai, Aria, Arachosia, and part of Gedrosia.

—Davies C. Collin, An Historical Atlas Of The Indian Peninsula, Pg.12[10]

Seleucus Nikator who was in charge of the Greek kingdoms in the Indian frontier relinquished his rights to that portion of the country belonging to the Indian Empire, the satrapies of the Paropanisadai, Aria. Arachosia, and Gedrosia, and he was presented in return with 500 elephants. Seleucus felt the strength of the arms of Candragupta and arranged for peace through negotiations. This peace was effected with success by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador of Seleucus in 303 B.C.

—R.V. Dikshitar, The Mauryan Polity, Pg.183[11]

Greek sources tell us that Seleucus found the enterprise too haz- ardous and preferred to form an alliance with Chandragupta. He ceded to Chandragupta the territories of Arachosia (Kandahar), and Paropanisadae (Kabul), as well as certain parts of Aria (Herat), and Gedrosia (Baluchistan). Seleucus also established an embassy at Pataliputra and signed a treaty of friendship that was to remain in force for many generations. In exchange for abandoning his claims to Alexander's satrapies, Seleucus received five hundred elephants, a meager recompense, implying, however, acknowledgement of his suzerainty over the northern provinces. Furthermore, the elephants were to prove very useful to him in pursuing his war against Antigonus.

—Alain Daniélou, A brief history of India, Pg.86[12]

The ancient historians Justin, Appian, and Strabo preserve the three main terms of what I will call the Treaty of the Indus: (i) 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. (ii) Chandragupta gave Seleucus 500 Indian war elephants. (iii) The two kings were joined by some kind of marriage alliance (ἐπιγαμία οι κῆδος); most likely Chandragupta wed a female relative of Seleucus.

—Paul J Kosmin, The Land of the Elephant Kings, Pg.33[13]

Seleukus, one of Alexander's generals, had made himself king of western and central Asia. But in 305 B.C. Chandragupta, after a successful campaign, forced him not only to give up all thought of conquest in India but also to cede the provinces of Parapamisadai, Aria, Arachosia, and probably Gedrosia (see maps 3 and 5). Thus the Hindu Kush mountains became the frontier of the first Indian Empire. Its capital was Pataliputra (now Patna). Chandragupta died in 297 B.C. and was succeeded by his son Bindusura (272 B.C.) and his grandson, the renowned Asoka (272-232). Asoka's Empire extended in the north-west to the Hindu Kush, and included most of the territory now called Afghanistan, the greater part of Baluchistan, and all Sindh.

—Joppen, Historical Atlas of India, Pg.6-7[14]