Commenting on the lack of any mention of "the greatest (religious revolution) which the world has ever seen during the reign of Asoka, R.C. The Vishnu Purana says, "upon the cessation of the race of Nanda, The Mauryas Will possess the earth". They are contemptuously dismissed as 'Sudras' or 'Vrishals', or 'Kulhinas', by the dramatist, Vishakhadatta, of Mudra Rakshasa fame and as 'utterly irreligious' by Yuga Purana. The Puranas, apart from mentioning the periods of different rulers of the Maurya dynasty, give on other information about Porus, his war with Alexander, or the origins of Mauryas.
Even Chanakya, who must have witnessed the high stakes drama in the Punjab (nay, he was an actor in it), though writing about almost everything under the sun, has not said a word about Porus or the origins of the Mauryas, whom he is supposed to have given the Indian Empire on a platter. Indian writers and works, not only fail to mention Porus, but have completely ignored Alexander himself. To that extent, barring the pardonable partiality for their national hero, their accounts may be taken at their face value after due cross-checking.
Whatever is known about Porus, the brilliant adversary of Alexander the Great, has come down to us from the Greek writers whose main source of information is the account of the conquests of Alexander, given by those who accompanied his expedition.
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