.jpg)
FRIEZE FROM A BUDDHIST STUPA.
CHAPTER V
CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA AND BINDUSARA
321 B. C. TO 272 B. C.
WHEN Alexander quitted the Panjab, he posted no Macedonian garrisons in that province, making over the care of his interests to King Poros, who must have been independent in practice. Ambhi, King of Taxila, was also entrusted with authority as a colleague of Poros. After the assassination of Philippos, Alexander had sent orders from Karmania to Eudamos, commandant of a Thracian garrison on the Indus, to act as resident pending the appointment of a satrap, and to supervise the native princes. But this officer had no adequate force at his command to enforce his authority, which must have been purely nominal. He managed, however, to remain in India, probably somewhere in the basin of the Indus, until about 317 B.C., when he departed to help Eumenes against Antigonos, taking with him a hundred and twenty elephants, and a small force of infantry and cavalry. He had obtained the elephants by treacherously slaying a native prince, perhaps Poros, with whom he had been associated as a colleague.
103
