Which foreign invader surrendered his territories to Chandragupta Maurya?
- A.Menander
- B.Demosthenes
- C.Seleucus Nicator
- D.Gondophernes
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Seleucus Nicator. Seleucus was the Macedonian general who took over Alexander's eastern conquests and tried to recover the Indian provinces around 305 BCE. Chandragupta Maurya defeated him, and by the treaty that followed Seleucus gave up the territories of Arachosia, Gedrosia and Paropamisadae, roughly eastern Afghanistan and Baluchistan, in exchange for five hundred elephants. He also sent Megasthenes as his ambassador to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra, and that embassy produced the Indica.
Option A, Menander or Milinda, was an Indo-Greek king of the second century BCE, two centuries later, known for his dialogue with the monk Nagasena in the Milindapanha. Option B, Demosthenes, was an Athenian orator who never came to India. Option D, Gondophernes, was an Indo-Parthian ruler of the first century CE in the north-west. Only Seleucus was a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya.
Read the full article: Ancient Bihar: Magadha, Mauryas, Guptas and Pataliputra
Practice Questions
View allWhich Haryanka ruler shifted the capital of Magadha to Pataliputra?
- A.Bimbisara
- B.Ajatashatru
- C.Udayin
- D.Shishunaga
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Udayin, the son and successor of Ajatashatru, built a fort at the meeting point of the Ganga and the Son and moved the Magadhan capital there from Rajagriha.
Read the full explanation →The First Buddhist Council was held at Rajgir during the reign of which ruler?
- A.Bimbisara
- B.Ajatashatru
- C.Kalashoka
- D.Ashoka
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The First Buddhist Council met at the Sattapanni cave in Rajagriha soon after the death of the Buddha, under the patronage of Ajatashatru of the Haryanka dynasty.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following was not a land related tax during the Mauryan period?
- A.Bhag
- B.Bali
- C.Udaka
- D.Shulk
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Shulka was a duty on goods, collected at the gates of towns and at ferries and frontiers on trade, not on land or its produce.
Read the full explanation →Who founded the Nanda dynasty of Magadha?
- A.Shishunaga
- B.Kalashoka
- C.Mahapadma Nanda
- D.Dhana Nanda
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Mahapadma Nanda overthrew the Shishunagas and founded the Nanda dynasty in the fourth century BCE.
Read the full explanation →The Prayag Prashasti, the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta, was composed by
- A.Harisena
- B.Kalidasa
- C.Vasubandhu
- D.Amarasimha
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Harisena was Samudragupta's court poet and a high officer, and he composed the long eulogy engraved on an older Ashokan pillar now at Allahabad.
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