According to Plutarch, at the time of the Battle of the Hydaspes, the Nanda Empire's army

numbered 200,000 infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots, and 6,000 war elephants, which
discouraged Alexander's men and prevented their further progress into India:
As for the Macedonians, however, their struggle with Porus blunted their courage and stayed
their further advance into India. For having had all they could do to repulse an enemy who
mustered only twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse, they violently opposed
Alexander when he insisted on crossing the river Ganges also, the width of which, as they
learned, was thirty-two furlongs, its depth a hundred fathoms, while its banks on the further side
were covered with multitudes of men-at-arms and horsemen and elephants. For they were told
that the kings of the Ganderites and Praesii were awaiting them with eighty thousand horsemen,
two hundred thousand footmen, eight thousand chariots, and six thousand fighting elephants.
And there was no boasting in these reports. For Androcottus, who reigned there not long
afterwards, made a present to Seleucus of five hundred elephants, and with an army of six
hundred thousand men overran and subdued all India.
Plutarch, Parallel Lives, "Life of Alexander" 62.1-4

In order to defeat the powerful Nanda army, Chandragupta needed to raise a formidable army of
his own.[20]

Conquest of the Nanda Empire

Main article: Conquest of the Nanda Empire

Chanakya had trained and guided Chandragupta and together they planned the destruction of
Dhana Nanda. The Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta as well as the Jain work Parishishtaparvan
talk of Chandragupta's alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, sometimes identified with
Porus.[21]
It is noted in the Chandraguptakatha that Chandragupta and Chanakya were initially rebuffed by
the Nanda forces. Regardless, in the ensuing war, Chandragupta faced off against Bhadrasala, the
commander of Dhana Nanda's armies.[22] He was eventually able to defeat Bhadrasala and Dhana
Nanda in a series of battles, culminating in the siege of the capital city Pataliputra[19] and the
conquest of the Nanda Empire around 322 BCE,[19] thus founding the powerful Maurya Empire
in Northern India by the time he was about 20 years old.[citation needed]