Alexander vs Chandragupta

Who would win

  • Chandragupta

    Votes: 69 48.3%
  • Alexander

    Votes: 74 51.7%

  • Total voters
    143
It would be very tough for Alexander. Chandragupta is younger than Alexander by a fair margin, and the age difference can play its part in ways that cannot be predicted on morale, battlefield performance and other things. Furthermore, India's population even at that time was simply too huge to take on, especially an unified India. Unless Alexander managed to mobilize the manpower of his entire empire against India (which would at best give him parity in numbers), he stands no chance. In a war of attrition, India would simply outlast his empire.
 
It would be very tough for Alexander. Chandragupta is younger than Alexander by a fair margin, and the age difference can play its part in ways that cannot be predicted on morale, battlefield performance and other things. Furthermore, India's population even at that time was simply too huge to take on, especially an unified India. Unless Alexander managed to mobilize the manpower of his entire empire against India (which would at best give him parity in numbers), he stands no chance. In a war of attrition, India would simply outlast his empire.

A united India under a strong ruler like Chandragupta can withstand most foreign invaders, it is true. But it has been conquered time and again throughout its history by foreigners who were probably just as outnumbered as the army of Alexander the Great.
 
After alaxender please tall me how many time invader come to India, almost after and after 50 years -
1 Alexander
2-greek
3-shak
3-hun
4-Shushan
5-Arabian
6-Turk
7-Mughal
8-British
A very big list no other country can survive but we survived due to we fight which we don't wage
 
I'll read through most of this thread later but I think we're missing an important detail: Chandragupta was no more than 16 when Alexander took the fealty of King Ambhika of Taxila.

But lets fudge the timeline for a moment and say that Chandragupta had already begun his tutelage under Chanakya and had overthrown Dhana Nanda.

The sole problem with an Alexandrian conquest of the Indus Valley and the Gangetic plains is the sheer amount of manpower behind the Mauryans.

The Persian empire at the time of Darius III was at its most decentralized. Satraps like the Atropates and Bessus were immensely powerful feudal lords only paying lip service to Susa.

In contrast the provincial system was disbanded in the subcontinent years prior with Ajatshatru's conquests. Their conquest of Anga, Kasi and the Vrjji Republic broke the political system of Iron Age India where kingdoms vied for suzerainty rather than conquest of each other. The Shishunagas and Nandas that followed continued to enlargen a 'Magadhan Empire' laying further framework for a centralised power in Pataliputra. With this the Mauryan empires could call upon and arm men faster than any other world power and form a small corpus of professional mercenaries in the form of the srenikas, something that would not advent in Europe till the advent of the Landsknechts.

Srenikas would have been armed with wootz steel, the predecessor to Damascened steel and theoretically were armed and armoured just as well as a Macedonian phalangite if not as tactically well-organised. Unlike the Persian levies the Mauryan armies formed according to the Arthashastra were also very well organised.

TLDR; Could Alexander take on Chandragupta? Possibly. Could he do it with the forces he had after his victory over Porus?

No.

Alexander would need to replenish his ranks, retire some older Macedonian officers and call upon more of the Persian nobility as well as call Antipater to send reinforcements from Macedonia proper. It could possibly take up to 5 years of preparation for a campaign that is going to allow them to achieve anything close to victory. Does Alexander have this time? Its very doubtful.

Chandragupta will be refocusing his aims very shortly on resecuring Taxila from Ambhika and Alexander will need local princes to aid him. Porus (Skr. Pururavas?) may not stay loyal for long either if Chandragupta comes to annex the border princes like him and the Malla chieftans.
 
Top