Mauryan Dynasty Timeline: The Mauryas was an Indian dynasty which existed between the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE and which unified the subcontinent for the first time and also contributed to the spread of Buddhism. This Dynasty ruled between 327 to 158 BCE. The timeline of this dynasty is as follows:

Mauryan Dynasty Timeline
Mauryan Empire

Mauryan Dynasty Timeline

327BCE – In the latter part of 327 BCE, the Macedonian king Alexander the Great invaded the valley of the river Kabul, and in the next months, he also conquered Taxila, defeated the Indian king Porus at the river Hydaspes, and reached the eastern border of Punjab.

He wanted to continue to the kingdom of Magadha in the Lower Ganges valley, but his soldiers refused to go any further, and Alexander was forced to go south. Many Indians now resisted the invaders.

325BCE – The Macedonian king left the area of the present day Karachi, and his admiral Nearchus was forced out of Patiala.

323BCE -Alexander The Great died in Babylon and by this time he had redeployed nearly all his troops west of the Indus. This was the first time that he had lost a part of his empire.

321BCE – A young man named Chandragupta Maurya seized the throne of Magadha. This conquest gave birth to the Mauryan Empire and also became the first Mauryan Emperor.

320 BC -By this time, the empire had successfully occupied Northwestern India, defeating and conquering the satraps left by Alexander.

317BCE – One of Alexander’s successors, named Peithon, the satrap of Media, tried to subdue the leaders of the eastern provinces, who united against him. This civil war offered Chandragupta the opportunity which he needed and taking advantage of this favorable situation, he was able to capture Taxila which was the capital of Punjab.

316BCE – Chandragupta Maurya, under the directions of Chanakya, defeated the Greek generals Eudemus, and Peithon, and thereby consolidated the region under the control of his new seat of power in Magadha.

305BCE – Chandragupta destroyed the Greeks when Seleucus I, the ruler of the Seleucid Empire, tried to re-conquer the northwestern parts of India, during a campaign but failed. The two rulers finally concluded a peace treaty.

302BCE – The Battle of Ipsus took place in which the 500 war elephants which were gifted by Chandragupta Maurya to Seleucus I under the peace treaty played a decisive role.

298 -297BCE – According to the ancient scriptures of the Jainists, Chandragupta the king renounced his kingship in favor of his son Bindusara, and converted to the Jaina faith; he died as an ascetic, having fasted to death.

272BCEAshoka, who was the son of Bindusara succeeded the throne and became the third Mauryan ruler.

240BCE – The Bactrian leaders, who were of Greek descent revolted from their Seleucid overlords

206 BCE – The Greek king Antiochus III the Great restored back the order and the Bactrian leader Euthydemus declared himself independent within a decade.

185BCEBrihadrata who is believed to be the last Mauryan Empire was assassinated during a military parade, by the commander-in-chief of his guard, the Brahmin general Pusyamitra Sunga, who then took over the throne and established the Sunga dynasty.

180BCE – The fall of the Mauryas left the Khyber Pass unprotected, due to which a wave of invasions was undertaken. The Greco-Bactrian king, Demetrius capitalizing on the break-up, conquered southern Afghanistan and Pakistan which resulted in forming the Indo-Greek Kingdom.