Chandraguptra Maurya succeeded in uniting the Indian subcontinent through the use of force.
After deposing King Mahapadma Nanda of Magadha, he dominated much of northern India, creating the first great Indian empire, which was later extended by his son Bindusara and his grandson Aśoka. It is believed that he fought Alexander the Great when he invaded northern India.
Chandragupta created an empire that ran from the Indus River in the west to Bengal in the east. The first great confrontation of Chandragupta with a foreign monarch occurred when Seleucus I, one of the generals of Alexander who had inherited the eastern regions of his empire, tried to conquer India in 305 BC. Chandragupta managed to defeat Seleucus, after which all the lands west of the Indus until the present Kabul passed to Maury sovereignty.