alexander the great speech india

But for the purpose of making you understand when you take yourselves off, what kind of men you have been to us who have conferred such benefits upon you. In the first place, as is reasonable, I shall begin my speech from my father Philip. For he found you vagabonds and destitute of means, most of you clad in hides, feeding a few sheep up the mountain sides, for the protection of which you had to fight with small success against Illyrians, Triballians, and the border Thracians.

Instead of the hides he gave you cloaks to wear, and from the mountains he led you down into the plains, and made you capable of fighting the neighboring barbarians, so that you were no longer compelled to preserve yourselves by trusting rather to the inaccessible strongholds than to your own valor. He made you colonists of cities, which he adorned with useful laws and customs; and from being slaves and subjects, he made you rulers over those very barbarians by whom you yourselves, as well as your property, were previously liable to be carried off or ravaged.

He also added the greater part of Thrace to Macedonia, and by seizing the most conveniently situated places on the sea-coast, he spread abundance over the land from commerce, and made the working of the mines a secure employment. He made you rulers over the Thessalians, of whom you had formerly been in mortal fear; and by humbling the nation of the Phocians, he rendered the avenue into Greece broad and easy for you, instead of being narrow and difficult.

The Athenians and Thebans, who were always lying in wait to attack Macedonia, he humbled to such a degree, I also then rendering him my personal aid in the campaign, that instead of paying tribute to the former and being vassals to the latter, those states in their turn procure security to themselves by our assistance. He penetrated into the Peloponnese, and after regulating its affairs, was publicly declared commander-in-chief of all the rest of Greece in the expedition against the Persian, adding this glory not more to himself than to the commonwealth of the Macedonians.

These were the advantages which accrued to you from my father Philip; great indeed if looked at by themselves, but small if compared with those you have obtained from me. For though I inherited from my father only a few gold and silver goblets, and there were not even sixty talents in the treasury, and though I found myself charged with a debt of 500 talents owing by Philip, and I was obliged myself to borrow 800 talents in addition to these, I started from the country which could not decently support you, and forthwith laid open to you the passage of the Hellespont, though at that time the Persians held the sovereignty of the sea.

Having overpowered the satraps of Darius with my cavalry, I added to your empire the whole of Ionia, the whole of Aeolis, both Phrygias and Lydia, and I took Miletus by siege. All the other places I gained by voluntary surrender, and I granted you the privilege of appropriating the wealth found in them. The riches of Egypt and Cyrene, which I acquired without fighting a battle, have come to you. Coele-Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia are your property. Babylon, Bactra, and Susa are yours.

The wealth of the Lydians, the treasures of the Persians, and the riches of the Indians are yours; and so is the External Sea. You are viceroys, you are generals, you are captains. What then have I reserved to myself after all these labors, except this purple robe and this diadem? I have appropriated nothing myself, nor can any one point out my treasures, except these possessions of yours or the things which I am guarding on your behalf. Individually, however, I have no motive to guard them, since I feed on the same fare as you do, and I take only the same amount of sleep.

Nay, I do not think that my fare is as good as that of those among you who live luxuriously; and I know that I often sit up at night to watch for you, that you may be able to sleep.

But some one may say, that while you endured toil and fatigue, I have acquired these things as your leader without myself sharing the toil and fatigue. But who is there of you who knows that he has endured greater toil for me than I have for him? Come now, whoever of you has wounds, let him strip and show them, and I will show mine in turn; for there is no part of my body, in front at any rate, remaining free from wounds; nor is there any kind of weapon used either for close combat or for hurling at the enemy, the traces of which I do not bear on my person.

For I have been wounded with the sword in close fight, I have been shot with arrows, and I have been struck with missiles projected from engines of war; and though oftentimes I have been hit with stones and bolts of wood for the sake of your lives, your glory, and your wealth, I am still leading you as conquerors over all the land and sea, all rivers, mountains, and plains. I have celebrated your weddings with my own, and the children of many of you will be akin to my children.

Moreover I have liquidated of all those who had incurred them, without inquiring too closely for what purpose they were contracted, though you received such high pay, and carry off so much booty whenever there is booty to be got after a siege. Most of you have golden crowns, the eternal memorials of your valor and of the honor you receive from me. Whoever has been killed has met with a glorious end and has been honored with a splendid burial.

Brazen statues of most of the slain have been erected at home, and their parents are held in honor) being released from all public service and from taxation. But no one of you has ever been killed in flight under my leadership. And now I was intending to send back those of you who are unfit for service, objects of envy to those at home; but since you all wish to depart, depart all of you!

Go back and report at home that your king Alexander, the conqueror of the Persians, Medes, Bactrians, and Sacians; the man who has subjugated the Uxians, Arachotians, and Drangians; who has also acquired the rule of the Parthians, Chorasmians, and Hyrcanians, as far as the Caspian Sea; who has marched over the Caucasus, through the Caspian Gates; who has crossed the rivers Oxus and Tanais, and the Indus besides, which has never been crossed by any one else except Dionysus; who has also crossed the Hydaspes, Acesines, and Hydraotes, and who would have crossed the Hyphasis, if you had not shrunk back with alarm; who has penetrated into the Great Sea by both the mouths of the Indus; who has marched through the desert of Gadrosia, where no one ever before marched with an army; who on his route acquired possession of Carmania and the land of the Oritians, in addition to his other conquests, his fleet having in the meantime already sailed round the coast of the sea which extends from India to Persia - report that when you returned to Susa you deserted him and went away, handing him over to the protection of conquered foreigners.

Perhaps this report of yours will be both glorious to you in the eyes of men and devout I ween in the eyes of the gods. Depart!  

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• History - Early History of India

ALEXANDER THE GREAT HALTS HIS CAMPAIGN AND HEADS DOWN THE INDUS TO THE ARABIAN SEA

Alexander's troops mutiny.

Alexander quelling the Opis mutiny

Alexander's next goal was to reach the Ganges River, which was actually 400 kilometers away, a considerable distance, because he thought that it flowed into the outer Ocean. His troops, however, had heard tales of the powerful Indian tribes that lived on the Ganges and remembered the difficulty of the battle with Porus, so they refused to go any farther east.

On the banks of the Hyphias (now Beas) River, Alexander ordered his men to head east, the men refused. Alexander was enraged and was little consoled by the words of one of his noble advisors, who told him, "A noble thing, O king, is to know when to stop.” Alexander reacted by saying anyone who disobeyed him would be accused of desertion and went to his tent to sulk. After confining himself to his tent from three days, he consulted his omens and was conveniently told he trouble awaited him in India. On hearing the news his men shouted: "Alexander allowed us, but no others, to defeat him."Alexander then decided to head back home. In retrospect this may have been a hasty decision as a major Indian army had already been defeated and all of India was within their grasp. Alexander was extremely disappointed, but he accepted their decision and persuaded them to travel south down the rivers Hydaspes and Indus to reach the Arabian Sea and ships that would take them home.

Arrian wrote: “It was reported that the country beyond the river Hyphasis was fertile, and that the men were good agriculturists, and gallant in war; and that they conducted their own political affairs in a regular and constitutional manner. For the multitude was ruled by the aristocracy, who governed in no respect contrary to the rules of moderation. It was also stated that the men of that district possessed a much greater number of elephants than the other Indians, and that those men were of very great stature, and excelled in valour. These reports excited in Alexander an ardent desire to advance farther; but the spirit of the Macedonians now began to flag, when they saw the king raising one labour after another, and incurring one danger after another. Conferences were held throughout the camp, in which those who were the most moderate bewailed their lot, while others resolutely declared that they would not follow Alexander any farther, even if he should lead the way. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

Plutarch wrote: “On the banks of the Hyphias (now Beas) River, Alexander ordered his men to head east, the men refused. Alexander was enraged and was little consoled by the words of one of his noble advisors, who told him, "A noble thing, O king, is to know when to stop." Alexander reacted by saying anyone who disobeyed him would be accused of desertion and went to his tent to sulk. After confining himself to his tent from three days, he consulted his omens and was conveniently told he trouble awaited him in India. On hearing the news his men shouted: "Alexander allowed us, but no others, to defeat him."Alexander then decided to head back home. In retrospect this may have been a hasty decision as a major Indian army had already been defeated and all of India was within their grasp. [Source: Plutarch (A.D. 45-127), “Life of Alexander”, A.D. 75 translated by John Dryden, 1906, MIT, Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org ]

“But this last combat with Porus took off the edge of the Macedonians’ courage, and stayed their further progress into India. For having found it hard enough to defeat an enemy who brought but twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse into the field, they thought they had reason to oppose Alexander’s design of leading them on to pass the Ganges too, which they were told was thirty-two furlongs broad and a hundred fathoms deep, and the banks on the further side covered with multitudes of enemies. For they were told that the kings of the Gandaritans and Præsians expected them there with eighty thousand horse, two hundred thousand foot, eight thousand armed chariots, and six thousand fighting elephants. Nor was this a mere vain report, spread to discourage them. For Androcottus,* who not long after reigned in those parts, made a present of five hundred elephants at once to Seleucus, and with an army of six hundred thousand men subdued all India.

“Alexander at first was so grieved and enraged at his men’s reluctancy, that he shut himself up in his tent, and threw himself upon the ground, declaring, if they would not pass the Ganges, he owed them no thanks for any thing they had hitherto done, and that to retreat now, was plainly to confess himself vanquished. But at last the reasonable persuasions of his friends and the cries and lamentations of his soldiers, who in a suppliant manner crowded about the entrance of his tent, prevailed with him to think of returning. Yet he could not refrain from leaving behind him various deceptive memorials of his expedition, to impose upon after-times, and to exaggerate his glory with posterity, such as arms larger than were really worn, and mangers for horses, with bits of bridles above the usual size, which he set up, and distributed in several places. He erected altars, also, to the gods, which the kings of the Præsians even in our time do honor to when they pass the river, and offer sacrifice upon them after the Grecian manner. Androcottus, then a boy, saw Alexander there, and is said often afterwards to have been heard to say, that he missed but little of making himself master of those countries; their king, who then reigned, was so hated and despised for the viciousness of his life, and the meanness of his extraction.”

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Why Did Alexander the Great’s Army Refuse to Advance?

By the time of the defeat of Porus in India, the monsoons had set in and Alexander's men were wet to the bone, tired, homesick and mutinous and perhaps scared of facing off against the Nandas, their next foes, who were referred to in Greeks texts and possessing a formidable army and controlling the Mauryan Empire. Alexander biographer Lane Fox told Smithsonian magazine, “It was pelting with rain, the men were terrified, there snakes everywhere. They were lost and did not feel they could go on anymore." Historian Peter Green told National Geographic, Alexander was basically screwed by ignorance of geography. He had been telling his men, We'll just go over the hill, boys — and then suddenly he had the whole of the Ganges plain before him."

Rama Shankar Tripathi wrote: “It is true the Greek soldiers were war-worn, home-sick, disease-stricken, and destitute; and many of them were ill-equipped, for it was now increasingly difficult to transport and supply garments from Greece, and not a few were depressed because their friends had perished by disease or fallen victims to sanguinary battles. But was there any other ground for their conduct which doubtless savoured of mutiny ? Plutarch gives us some clue to this mystery, for he indicates that even after the contest with Poros the Macedonian forces were considerably dispirited, and it was with reluctance that they had advanced as far as the Hyphasis at Alexander’s bidding. He says : “The battle with Poros depressed the spirits of the Macedonians and made them very unwilling to advance farther into India. For, as it was with the utmost difficulty they had beaten him when the army he led amounted only to 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry, they now most resolutely opposed Alexander when he insisted that they should cross the Ganges.” The Greeks had been impressed by the heroism and skill of Indian soldiers. Indeed, according to Arrian, “in the art of war they were far superior to the other nations by which Asia was at that time inhabited.” That is perhaps why the Greeks showed even after fighting against Poros that they had “no stomach for further toils in India.” But when Alexander egged them on to march forward it was like putting the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back. [Source: “History of Ancient India” by Rama Shankar Tripathi, Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Benares Hindu University, 1942]

“During their progress towards the Hyphasis Alexander’s troops had heard all sorts of alarming rumours that beyond it there were extensive and uninviting deserts, impetuous and unfathomable rivers, and what was more disquieting, powerful and wealthy nations maintaining huge armies. Curtius represents Phegeus (Phegelis P), identified with Bhagala, as giving the following information to Alexander : “The farther bank of the Ganges was inhabited by two nations, the Gangaridae, and the Prasii, whose king Agrammes kept in the field for guarding the approaches to his country 20,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry besides 2,000 four-horsed chariots, and what was most formidable force of all, a troop of elephants, which ran up to the number of 3,ooo”. Similarly, Plutarch says that “the kings of the Gangaritai and Praisiai were reported to be waiting for him with an army of 80,000 horse and 200,000 foot, 8,000 war-chariots and 6,000 fighting elephants. Nor was this an exaggeration, for not long afterwards Androkottos who had by that time mounted the throne, presented Seleukos with 500 elephants and overran and subdued the whole of India with an army of 600,000 men.” The substantial truth of these statements is borne out by indigenous sources also, which tell us of the enormous riches and power of the Nanda monarch holding sway over the Gangaridai and Prasii nations. [Source: “History of Ancient India” by Rama Shankar Tripathi, Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Benares Hindu University, 1942]

Arrian’s deposition, too, is much to the same effect, but he seems to refer to the country im- mediately beyond the Hyphasis. He observes : “It was exceedingly fertile, and the inhabitants were good agriculturists, brave in war, and living under an excellent system of internal government; for the multitude was governed by the aristocracy, who exercised their authority with justice and moderation. It was also reported that the people there had a greater number of elephants than the other Indians, and that those were of superior size and courage.” These details spurred the indomitable spirit of Alexander and made him all the more keen to advance into the heart of India. The Macedonians, on the other hand, as affirmed by Arrian, “now began to lose heart when they saw the king raising up without end toils upon toils and dangers upon dangers.” Indeed, the army held conferences “at which the more moderate men bewailed their condition, while others positively asserted that they would follow no farther though Alexander himself should lead the way ”.

Alexander’s Speech to the Officers

Alexander made a fervent appeal to his comrades to rumours and follow him with “alacrity and confidence.” He declared : “I am not ignorant, soldiers, that during these last days the natives of this country have been spreading all sorts of rumours designed expressly to work upon your fears, but the falsehood of those who invent such lies is nothing new in your experience ”. This assurance was, however, of no avail. The troops persisted in their refusal to enter into further contests with the Indians beyond the Beas, “whose numbers,” so answered Koinos, “though purposely exaggerated by the barbarians, must yet, as I can gather from the lying report itself, be very considerable.” Alexander made his last desperate attempt to rouse the spirit of his soldiers by threatening to march on even if forsaken by them : “Expose me then to the dangers of rivers, to the rage of elephants, and to those nations whose very names fill you with terror. I shall find men that will follow me though I be deserted by you.” [Source: “History of Ancient India” by Rama Shankar Tripathi, Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Benares Hindu University, 1942]

Arrian wrote: “When he heard of this, before the disorder and pusillanimity of the soldiers should advance to a great degree, be called a council of the officers of the brigades and addressed them as follows:—“O Macedonians and Grecian allies, seeing that you no longer follow me into dangerous enterprises with a resolution equal to that which formerly animated you, I have collected you together into the same spot, so that I may either persuade you to march forward with me, or may be persuaded by you to return. If indeed the labours which you have already undergone up to our present position seem to you worthy of disapprobation, and if you do not approve of my leading you into them, there can be no advantage in my speaking any further. But, if as the result of these labours, you hold possession of Ionia, the Hellespont, both the Phrygias, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Pamphylia, Phoenicia, Egypt together with Grecian Libya, as well as part of Arabia, Hollow Syria, Syria between the rivers, Babylon, the nation of the Susians, Persia, Media, besides all the nations which the Persians and the Medes ruled, and many of those which they did not rule, the land beyond the Caspian Gates, the country beyond the Caucasus, the Tanais, as well as the land beyond that river, Bactria, Hyrcania, and the Hyrcanian Sea; if we have also subdued the Scythians as far as the desert; if, in addition to these, the river Indus flows through our territory, as do also the Hydaspes, the Acesines, and the Hydraotes, why do ye shrink from adding the Hyphasis also, and the nations beyond this river, to your empire of Macedonia? Do ye fear that your advance will be stopped in the future by any other barbarians? Of whom some submit to us of their own accord, and others are captured in the act of fleeing, while others, succeeding in their efforts to escape, hand over to us their deserted land, which we add to that of our allies, or to that of those who have voluntarily submitted to us.” [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“I, for my part, think, that to a brave man there is no end to labours except the labours themselves, provided they lead to glorious achievements. But if any one desires to hear what will be the end to the warfare itself, let him learn that the distance still remaining before we reach the river Ganges and the Eastern Sea is not great; and I inform you that the Hyrcanian Sea will be seen to be united with this, because the Great Sea encircles the whole earth. I will also demonstrate both to the Macedonians and to the Grecian allies, that the Indian Gulf is confluent with the Persian, and the Hyrcanian Sea with the Indian Gulf. From the Persian Gulf our expedition will sail round into Libya as far as the Pillars of Heracles. From the pillars all the interior of Libya becomes ours, and so the whole of Asia will belong to us, and the limits of our empire, in that direction, will be those which God has made also the limits of the earth. But, if we now return, many warlike nations are left unconquered beyond the Hyphasis as far as the Eastern Sea, and many besides between these and Hyrcania in the direction of the north wind, and not far from these the Scythian races. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“Wherefore, if we go back, there is reason to fear that the races which are now held in subjection, not being firm in their allegiance, may be excited to revolt by those who are not yet subdued. Then our many labours will prove to have been in vain; or it will be necessary for us to incur over again fresh labours and dangers, as at the beginning. But, O Macedonians and Grecian allies, stand firm! Glorious are the deeds of those who undergo labour and run the risk of danger; and it is delightful to live a life of valour and to die leaving behind immortal glory. Do ye not know that our ancestor reached so great a height of glory as from being a man to become a god, or to seem to become one, not by remaining in Tiryns or Argos, or even in the Peloponnese or at Thebes? The labours of Dionysus were not few, and he was too exalted a deity to be compared with Heracles. But we, indeed, have penetrated into regions beyond Nysa; and the rock of Aornus, which Heracles was unable to capture, is in our possession. Do ye also add the parts of Asia still left unsubdued to those already acquired, the few to the many. But what great or glorious deed could we have performed, if, sitting at ease in Macedonia, we had thought it sufficient to preserve our own country without any labour, simply repelling the attacks of the nations on our frontiers, the Thracians, Illyrians, and Triballians, or even those Greeks who were unfriendly to our interests? If, indeed, without undergoing labour and being free from danger I were acting as your commander, while you were undergoing labour and incurring danger, not without reason would you be growing faint in spirit and resolution, because you alone would be sharing the labours, while procuring the rewards of them for others. But now the labours are common to you and me, we have an equal share of the dangers, and the rewards are open to the free competition of all. For the land is yours, and you act as its viceroys. The greater part also of the money now comes to you; and when we have traversed the whole of Asia, then, by Zeus, not merely having satisfied your expectations, but having even exceeded the advantages which each man hopes to receive, those of you who wish to return home I will send back to their own land, or I will myself lead them back; while those who remain here, I will make objects of envy to those who go back.”

Answer of Coenus

Alexander's route through Pakistan and India to the Arabian Sea

Arrian wrote: “When Alexander had uttered these remarks, and others in the same strain, a long silence ensued, for the auditors neither had the audacity to speak in opposition to the king without constraint, nor did they wish to acquiesce in his proposal. Hereupon, he repeatedly urged any one who wished it, to speak, if he entertained different views from those which he had himself expressed. Nevertheless the silence still continued a long time; but at last, Coenus, son of Polemocrates, plucked up courage and spoke as follows:—“O king, inasmuch as thou dost not wish to rule Macedonians by compulsion, but sayest thou wilt lead them by persuasion, or yielding to their persuasion wilt not use violence towards them, I am going to make a speech, not on my own behalf and that of my colleagues here present, who are held in greater honour than the other soldiers, and most of us have already carried off the rewards of our labours, and from our preeminence are more zealous than the rest to serve thee in all things; but I am going to speak on behalf of the bulk of the army. On behalf of this army I am not going to say what may be gratifying to the men, but what I consider to be both advantageous to thee at present, and safest for the future. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“I feel it incumbent upon me not to conceal what I think the best course to pursue, both on account of my age, the honour paid to me by the rest of the army at thy behest, and the boldness which I have without any hesitation displayed up to the present time in incurring dangers and undergoing labours. The more numerous and the greater the exploits have been, which were achieved by thee as our commander, and by those who started from home with thee, the more advantageous does it seem to me that some end should be put to our labours and dangers. For thou thyself seest how many Macedonians and Greeks started with thee, and how few of us have been left. Of our number thou didst well in sending back home the Thessalians at once from Bactra, because thou didst perceive that they were no longer eager to undergo labours. Of the other Greeks, some have been settled as colonists in the cities which thou hast founded; where they remain not indeed all of them of their own free will. The Macedonian soldiers and the other Greeks who still continued to share our labours and dangers, have either perished in the battles, become unfit for war on account of their wounds, or been left behind in the different parts of Asia. The majority, however, have perished from disease, so that few are left out of many; and these few are no longer equally vigorous in body, while in spirit they are much more exhausted. All those whose parents still survive, feel a great yearning to see them once more; they feel a yearning after their wives and children, and a yearning for their native land itself; which it is surely pardonable for them to yearn to see again with the honour and dignity they have acquired from thee, returning as great men, whereas they departed small, and as rich men instead of being poor.

“Do not lead us now against our will; for thou wilt no longer find us the same men in regard to dangers, since free-will will be wanting to us in the contests. But, rather, if it seem good to thee, return to thy own land, see thy mother, regulate the affairs of the Greeks, and carry to the home of thy fathers these victories so many and great. Then start afresh on another expedition, if thou wishest, against these very tribes of Indians situated towards the east; or, if thou wishest, into the Euxine Sea; or else against Carchedon and the parts of Libya beyond the Carchedonians. It is now thy business to manage these matters; and the other Macedonians and Greeks will follow thee, young men in place of old, fresh men in place of exhausted ones, and men to whom warfare has no terrors, because up to the present time they have had no experience of it; and they will be eager to set out, from hope of future reward. The probability also is, that they will accompany thee with still more zeal on this account, when they see that those who in the earlier expedition shared thy labours and dangers have returned to their own abodes as rich men instead of being poor, and renowned instead of being obscure as they were before. Self-control in the midst of success is the noblest of all virtues, O king! For thou hast nothing to fear from enemies, while thou art commanding and leading such an army as this; but the visitations of the deity are unexpected, and consequently men can take no precautions against them.”

Alexander Resolves to Return

Arrian wrote: “When Coenus had concluded this speech, loud applause was given to his words by those who were present; and the fact that many even shed tears, made it still more evident that they were disinclined to incur further hazards, and that return would be delightful to them. Alexander then broke up the conference, being annoyed at the freedom of speech in which Coenus indulged, and the hesitation displayed by the other officers. But the next day he called the same men together again in wrath, and told them that he intended to advance farther, but would not force any Macedonian to accompany him against his will; that he would have those only who followed their king of their own accord; and that those who wished to return home were at liberty to return and carry back word to their relations that they were come back, having deserted their king in the midst of his enemies. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“Having said this, he retired into his tent, and did not admit any of the Companions on that day, or until the third day from that, waiting to see if any change would occur in the minds of the Macedonians and Grecian allies, as is wont to happen, as a general rule among a crowd of soldiers, rendering them more disposed to obey. But on the contrary, when there was a profound silence throughout the camp, and the soldiers were evidently annoyed at his wrath, without being at all changed by it, Ptolemy, son of Lagus, says that he none the less offered sacrifice there for the passage of the river, but the victims were unfavourable to him when he sacrificed. Then indeed he collected the oldest of the Companions and especially those who were friendly to him, and as all things indicated the advisability of returning, he made known to the army that he had resolved to march back again.”

Alexander Recrosses the Hydraotes and Acesines

The Macedonian army retreated from the Punjab in September, 326 B.C., . Soon Alexander reached the bank of the Hydaspes (Jhelum), which was the scene of his conflict with Poros. Here Alexander made proper arrangements for keeping the conquered parts of the Punjab under his subjection. [Source: “History of Ancient India” by Rama Shankar Tripathi, Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Benares Hindu University, 1942]

Arrian wrote: “Then they shouted as a mixed multitude would shout when rejoicing; and most of them shed tears of joy. Some of them even approached the royal tent, and prayed for many blessings upon Alexander; because by them alone he suffered himself to be conquered. Then he divided the army into brigades, and ordered twelve altars to be prepared, equal in height to very large towers, and in breadth much larger than towers, to serve as thank-offerings to the gods who had led him so far as a conqueror, and also to serve as monuments of his own labours. When the altars were completed, he offered sacrifice upon them according to his custom, and celebrated a gymnastic and equestrian contest. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“After adding the country as far as the river Hyphasis to the dominion of Porus, he marched back to the Hydraotes. Having crossed this river, he continued his return march to the Acesines, where he found the city which Hephaestion had been ordered to fortify, quite built. In this city be settled as many of the neighbouring people as volunteered to live in it, as well as those of the Grecian mercenaries who were now unfit for military service; and then began to make the necessary preparations for a voyage down the river into the Great Sea. At this time Arsaces, the ruler of the land bordering on that of Abisares, and the brother of the latter, with his other relations, came to Alexander, bringing the gifts which are reckoned most valuable among the Indians, including some elephants from Abisares, thirty in number.

“They declared that Abisares himself was unable to come on account of illness; and with these men the ambassadors sent by Alexander to Abisares agreed. Readily believing that such was the case, he granted that prince the privilege of ruling his own country as his viceroy, and placed Arsaces also under his power. After arranging what tribute they were to pay, he again offered sacrifice near the river Acesines. He then crossed that river again, and came to the Hydaspes, where he employed the army in repairing the damage caused to the cities of Nicaea and Bucephala by the rain, and put the other affairs of the country in order.”

Preparations for a Voyage down the Indus

Alexander then made preparations for sailing down the rivers, but before the voyage actually began he cleared the path of all potential enemies by bringing about the subjugation of Sophytes (Saubhuti ?), whose kingdom had “a mountain of fossil salt which could supply all India.” He was thus the chief of the country of the Salt range. Incidentally, it may be noted that according to Strabo the land of Sophytes had dogs of “astonishing courage” and mettle, and Alexander witnessed their fight oven with a lion. Curtius further avers that the people of Sophytes “excelled in wisdom, and lived under good laws and customs.” Like the Kathaians, they held beauty in great esteem and marriages were contracted not on considerations of high birth but of looks. They examined every infant medically, and if they found “anything deformed or defective in the limbs of a child they ordered it to be killed ” [Source: “History of Ancient India” by Rama Shankar Tripathi, Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Benares Hindu University, 1942]

Plutarch wrote: “Alexander was now eager to see the ocean. To which purpose he caused a great many row-boats and rafts to be built, in which he fell gently down the rivers at his leisure, yet so that his navigation was neither unprofitable nor inactive. For by several descents upon the banks, he made himself master of the fortified towns, and consequently of the country on both sides.[Source: Plutarch (A.D. 45-127), “Life of Alexander”, A.D. 75 translated by John Dryden, 1906, MIT, Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org ]

Arrian wrote: “Alexander now resolved to sail down the Hydaspes to the Great Sea, after he had prepared on the banks of that river many thirty-oared galleys and others with one and a half bank of oars, as well as a number of vessels for conveying horses, and all the other things requisite for the easy conveyance of an army on a river. At first he thought he had discovered the origin of the Nile, when he saw crocodiles in the river Indus, which he had seen in no other river except the Nile, as well as beans growing near the banks of the Acesines of the same kind as those which the Egyptian land produces. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“This conjecture was confirmed when he heard that the Acesines falls into the Indus. He thought the Nile rises somewhere or other in India, and after flowing through an extensive tract of desert country loses the name of Indus there; but afterwards when it begins to flow again through the inhabited land, it is called Nile both by the Aethiopians of that district and by the Egyptians, and finally empties itself into the Inner Sea. In like manner Homer made the river Egypt give its name to the country of Egypt. Accordingly when he wrote to Olympias about the country of India, after mentioning other things, he said that he thought he had discovered the sources of the Nile, forming his conclusions about things so great from such small and trivial premisses. However, when he had made a more careful inquiry into the facts relating to the river Indus, he learned the following details from the natives:—That the Hydaspes unites its water with the Acesines, as the latter does with the Indus, and that they both yield up their names to the Indus; that the last-named river has two mouths, through which it discharges itself into the Great Sea; but that it has no connection with the Egyptian country. He then removed from the letter to his mother the part he had written about the Nile. Planning a voyage down the rivers as far as the Great Sea, he ordered ships for this purpose to be prepared for him. The crews of his ships were fully supplied from the Phoenicians, Cyprians, Carians, and Egyptians who accompanied the army.”

Indus River and it Tributaries, including Hydraotes (Ravi), Acesines (Chenab) and Hydaspes (Jhelum)

Voyage down the Hydaspes

Towards the close of October the signal for departure was given with the sound of the trumpet, and the Macedonian boats glided down the river in grand array, protected on both the banks by troops under the command of Hephsestion and Krateros respectively, until they reached the confluence of the Akesines and the Hydaspes. The army rode down the rivers on the rivers on rafts and stopped to attack and subdue villages along the way. During this trip, Alexander sought out the Indian philosophers, the Brahmins, who were famous for their wisdom, and debated them on philosophical issues. He became legendary for centuries in India for being both a wise philosopher and a fearless conqueror. [Source: “History of Ancient India” by Rama Shankar Tripathi, Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Benares Hindu University, 1942]

Arrian wrote: “At this time Coenus, who was one of Alexander’s most faithful Companions, fell ill and died, and the king buried him with as much magnificence as circumstances allowed. Then collecting the Companions and the Indian envoys who had come to him, he appointed Porus king of the part of India which had already been conquered, seven nations in all, containing more than , cities. After this he made the following distribution of his army. With himself he placed on board the ships all the shield-bearing guards, the archers, the Agrianians, and the body-guard of cavalry. Craterus led a part of the infantry and cavalry along the right bank of the Hydaspes, while along the other bank Hephaestion advanced at the head of the most numerous and efficient part of the army, including the elephants, which now numbered about . [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“These generals were ordered to march as quickly as possible to the place where the palace of Sopeithes was situated, and Philip, the viceroy of the country beyond the Indus extending to Bactria, was ordered to follow them with his forces after an interval of three days. He sent the Nysaean cavalry back to Nysa. The whole of the naval force was under the command of Nearchus; but the pilot of Alexander’s ship was Onesicritus, who, in the narrative which he composed of Alexander’s campaigns, falsely asserted that he was admiral, while in reality he was only a pilot. According to Ptolemy, son of Lagus, whose statements I chiefly follow, the entire number of the ships was about eighty thirty-oared galleys; but the whole number of vessels, including the horse transports and boats, and all the other river craft, both those previously plying on the rivers and those built at that time, fell not far short of ,.” “When he had made all the necessary preparations the army began to embark at the approach of the dawn; while according to custom he offered sacrifice to the gods and to the river Hydaspes, as the prophets directed. When he had embarked he poured a libation into the river from the prow of the ship out of a golden goblet, invoking the Acesines as well as the Hydaspes, because he had ascertained that it is the largest of all the rivers which unite with the Hydaspes, and that their confluence was not far off. He also invoked the Indus, into which the Acesines flows after its junction with the Hydaspes. Moreover he poured out libations to his forefather Heracles, to Ammon, and the other gods to whom he was in the habit of sacrificing, and then he ordered the signal for starting seawards to be given with the trumpet. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

bridge over the Chenan (Acesines) river

“As soon as the signal was given they commenced the voyage in regular order; for directions had been given at what distance apart it was necessary for the baggage vessels to be arranged, as also for the vessels conveying the horses and for the ships of war; so that they might not fall foul of each other by sailing down the channel at random. He did not allow even the fast-sailing ships to get out of rank by outstripping the rest. The noise of the rowing was never equalled on any other occasion, inasmuch as it proceeded from so many ships rowed at the same time; also the shouting of the boatswains giving the time for beginning and stopping the stroke of the oars, and the clamour of the rowers, when keeping time all together with the dashing of the oars, made a noise like a battle-cry. The banks of the river also, being in many places higher than the ships, and collecting the sound into a narrow space, sent back to each other an echo which was very much increased by its very compression. In some parts too the groves of trees on each side of the river helped to swell the sound, both from the solitude and the reverberation of the noise. The horses which were visible on the decks of the transports struck the barbarians who saw them with such surprise that those of them who were present at the starting of the fleet accompanied it a long way from the place of embarkation. For horses had never before been seen on board ships in the country of India; and the natives did not call to mind that the expedition of Dionysus into India was a naval one. The shouting of the rowers and the noise of the rowing were heard by the Indians who had already submitted to Alexander, and these came running down to the river’s bank and accompanied him singing their native songs. For the Indians have been eminently fond of singing and dancing since the time of Dionysus and those who under his bacchic inspiration traversed the land of the Indians with him.”

Voyage down the Hydaspes and Acesines

Arrian wrote: “Sailing thus, he stopped on the third day at the spot where he had instructed Hephaestion and Craterus to encamp on opposite banks of the river at the same place. Here he remained two days, until Philip with the rest of the army came up with him. He then sent this general with the men he brought with him to the river Acesines, with orders to march along the bank of that river. He also sent Craterus and Hephaestion off again with instructions how they were to conduct the march. But he himself continued his voyage down the river Hydaspes, the channel of which is nowhere less than twenty stades broad. Mooring his vessels near the banks wherever he could, he received some of the Indians dwelling near into allegiance by their voluntary surrender, while he reduced by force those who came into a trial of strength with him. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

Hydaspes (Jhelum) river

“Then be sailed rapidly towards the country of the Mallians and Oxydracians, having ascertained that these tribes were the most numerous and the most warlike of the Indians in that region; and having been informed that they had put their wives and children for safety into their strongest cities, with the resolution of fighting a battle with him, be made the voyage with the greater speed with the express design of attacking them before they had arranged their plans, and while there was still lack of preparation and a state of confusion among them. Thence he made his second start, and on the fifth day reached the junction of the Hydaspes and Acesines. Where these rivers unite, one very narrow river is formed out of the two; and on account of its narrowness the current is swift. There are also prodigious eddies in the whirling stream, and the water rises in waves and plashes exceedingly, so that the noise of the swell of waters is distinctly heard by people while they are still far off. These things had previously been reported to Alexander by the natives, and be had told his soldiers; and yet, when his army approached the junction of the rivers, the noise made by the stream produced so great an impression upon them that the sailors stopped rowing, not from any word of command, but because the very boatswains who gave the time to the rowers became silent from astonishment and stood aghast at the noise.”

“When they came near the junction of the rivers, the pilots passed on the order that the men should row as hard as possible to get out of the narrows, so that the ships might not fall into the eddies and be overturned by them, but might by the vigorous rowing overcome the whirlings of the water. Being of a round form, the merchant vessels which happened to be whirled round by the current received no damage from the eddy, but the men who were on board were thrown into disorder and fright. For being kept upright by the force of the stream itself, these vessels settled again into the onward course.

“But the ships of war, being long, did not emerge so scatheless from the whirling current, not being raised aloft in the same way as the others upon the plashing swell of water. These ships had two ranks of oars on each side, the lower oars being only a little out of the water. These vessels getting athwart in the eddies, their oars could not be raised aloft in proper time and were consequently caught by the water and came into collision with each other. Thus many of the ships were damaged; two indeed fell foul of each other and were destroyed, and many of those sailing in them perished. But when the river widened out, there the current was no longer so rapid, and the eddies did not whirl round with so much violence. Alexander therefore moored his fleet on the right bank, where there was a protection from the force of the stream and a roadstead for the ships. A certain promontory also in the river jutted out conveniently for collecting the wrecks. He preserved the lives of the men who were still being conveyed upon them; and when he had repaired the damaged ships, he ordered Nearchus to sail down the river until he reached the confines of the nation called Mallians.

“He himself made an inroad into the territories of the barbarians who would not yield to him, and after preventing them from succouring the Mallians, he again formed a junction with the naval armament. Hephaestion, Craterus, and Philip had already united their forces here. Alexander then transported the elephants, the brigade of Polysperchon, the horse-archers, and Philip with his army, across the river Hydaspes, and instructed Craterus to lead them. He sent Nearchus with the fleet with orders to set sail three days before the army started. He divided the rest of his army into three parts, and ordered Hephaestion to go five days in advance, so that if any should flee before the men under his own command and go rapidly forward they might fall in with Hephaestion’s brigade and thus be captured. He also gave a part of the army to Ptolemy, son of Lagus, with orders to follow him after the lapse of three days, so that all those who fled from him and turned back again might fall in with Ptolemy’s brigade. He ordered those in advance to wait, when they arrived at the confluence of the rivers Acesines and Hydraotes, until he himself came up; and he instructed Craterus and Ptolemy also to form a junction with him at the same place.”

Campaign against the Mallians

The Mallians were said to be one of the most warlike of the Indian tribes. Alexander was wounded several times in this attack, most seriously when an arrow pierced his breastplate and his ribcage. The Macedonian officers rescued him in a narrow escape from the village. [Source: Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations, Thomson Gale, 2007]

Arrian wrote: “He then took the shield-bearing guards, the bowmen, the Agrianians, Peithon’s brigade of men, who were called foot Companions, all the horse bowmen and half the cavalry Companions, and marched through a tract of country destitute of water against the Mallians, a tribe of the independent Indians. On the first day he encamped near a small piece of water which was about stades distant from the river Acesines. Having dined there and caused his army to rest a short time, he ordered every man to fill whatever vessel he had with water. After travelling the remaining part of that day and all the ensuing night a distance of about stades, he at daybreak reached the city into which many of the Mallians had fled for refuge. Most of them were outside the city and unarmed, supposing that Alexander would never come against them through the waterless country. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“It was evident that he led his army by this route for this very reason, because it was difficult to lead an army this way, and consequently it appeared incredible to the enemy that he would lead his forces in this direction. He therefore fell upon them unexpectedly, and killed most of them without their even turning to defend themselves, since they were unarmed. He cooped the rest up in the city, and posted his cavalry all round the wall, because the phalanx of infantry had not yet come up with him. He thus made use of his cavalry in place of a stockade. As soon as the infantry arrived, he sent Perdiccas with his own cavalry regiment and that of Clitus, as well as the Agrianians, against another city of the Mallians, whither many of the Indians of that region had fled for refuge. He ordered Perdiccas to blockade the men in the city, but not to commence the action until he himself should arrive, so that none might escape from this city and carry news to the rest of the barbarians that Alexander was already approaching. He then began to assault the wall; but the barbarians abandoned it, finding that they were no longer able to defend it, since many had been killed in the capture, and others had been rendered unfit for fighting on account of their wounds. Fleeing for refuge into the citadel, they defended themselves for some time from a position commanding from its height and difficult of access. But as the Macedonians pressed on vigorously from all sides, and Alexander himself appeared now in this part of the action and now in that, the citadel was taken by storm, and all the men who had fled into it for refuge were killed, to the number of ,. Perdiccas also reached the city to which he had been despatched and found it deserted; but learning that the inhabitants had fled from it not long before, he made a forced march on the track of the fugitives. The light-armed troops followed him as quickly as they could on foot, so that he took and massacred as many of the fugitives as could not outstrip him and flee for safety into the river-marshes.”

“After dining and causing his men to rest until the first watch of the night, Alexander marched forward; and travelling a great distance through the night, he arrived at the river Hydraotes at daybreak. There he ascertained that most of the Mallians had already crossed the river; but coming upon those who were still in the act of crossing, he slew many of them in their passage. Having crossed with them in pursuit without any delay by the same ford, he kept close up with those who had outstripped him in their retreat.

“Many also of these he slew; some he took prisoners; but the majority of them escaped into a place strong by nature and made more so by fortifications. When the infantry reached him, Alexander despatched Peithon against the men in the fortress, giving him the command of his own brigade of infantry and two regiments of cavalry. These, attacking the place, took it at the first assault, and made slaves of all those who had fled thither for safety, at least as many of them as had not perished in the attack. After accomplishing this, Peithon returned again to the camp. Alexander in person led his forces against a certain city of the Brachmans, because he ascertained that some of the Mallians had fled for refuge into it. When he reached it, he led his phalanx in serried ranks close up to the wall on all sides. The enemy seeing that their walls were being undermined, and being themselves repulsed by the missiles, abandoned the walls, and having fled for safety into the citadel, began to defend themselves from thence. A few Macedonians having rushed in with them, turning round and drawing together into a close body, drove some of them back and killed five-and-twenty of them in their retreat. Hereupon Alexander ordered the scaling-ladders to be placed against the citadel on all sides, and the wall to be undermined; and when one of the towers, being undermined, fell down, and a part of the wall between two towers was breached, and thus rendered the citadel more accessible to assault in this quarter, he was seen to be the first man to scale the wall and get hold of it. The other Macedonians seeing him were ashamed of themselves and mounted the ladders in various places. The citadel was soon in their possession. Some of the Indians began to set fire to the houses, and being caught in them were killed; but most of them were slain fighting. About , in all were killed; and on account of their valour, only a few were taken prisoners.”

Defeat of the Mallians at the River Hydraotes

Arrian wrote: “Having remained there one day to give his army rest, he advanced on the morrow against the other Mallians. He found the cities abandoned, and ascertained that the men had fled into the desert. There he again gave the army one day’s rest, and on the next day sent Peithon and Demetrius the cavalry general back to the river, in command of their own troops, giving them in addition as many battalions of the light-armed infantry as were sufficient for the enterprise. Their instructions were to go along the bank of the river, and if they met any of those who had fled for safety into the woods, of which there were many near the river’s bank, to kill all who refused to surrender. Peithon and Demetrius captured many of these in the woods and killed them. He himself led his forces against the largest city of the Mallians, whither he was informed many from the other cities had taken refuge. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“But this also the Indians abandoned when they heard that Alexander was marching against it. Crossing the river Hydraotes, they remained with their forces drawn up upon its bank, because it was high, and they thought they could obstruct Alexander’s passage. When he heard this, he took all the cavalry which he had with him, and went to the part of the river where he was informed that the Mallians had drawn themselves up for battle; and the infantry was ordered to follow. When he reached the river and beheld the enemy drawn up on the opposite bank, he made no delay, but instantly plunged into the ford with the cavalry alone. When they saw that he was now in the middle of the river, though they were drawn up ready for battle, they withdrew from the bank with all speed; and Alexander followed them with his cavalry alone. But when the Indians perceived only cavalry, they wheeled round and fought with desperate valour, being about , in number. When Alexander perceived that their phalanx was densely compact, and that his own infantry was absent, he rode right round their army and made charges upon them, but did not come to close fighting with them. Meanwhile the archers, the Agrianians and the other battalions of light-armed infantry, being picked men whom he was leading with him, arrived, and his phalanx of infantry was seen not far off. As all kinds of danger were threatening them at once, the Indians now wheeled round again and began to flee with headlong speed into the strongest of their adjacent cities; but Alexander followed them and slew many, while those who escaped into the city were cooped up within it. At first indeed he surrounded the city with the horse-soldiers as they came up from the march; but when the infantry arrived, he encamped all round the wall for this day, because not much of it was left for making the assault, and his army had been exhausted, the infantry by the long march, and the cavalry by the uninterrupted pursuit, and especially by the passage of the river.”

Storming of the Mallian Stronghold

Arrian wrote: “On the following day, dividing the army into two parts, he himself assaulted the wall at the head of one, and Perdiccas led on the other. Upon this the Indians did not wait to receive the attack of the Macedonians, but abandoned the walls of the city and fled for safety into the citadel. Alexander and his troops therefore split open a small gate, and got within the city long before the others; for those who had been put under Perdiccas were behind time, having experienced difficulty in scaling the walls, as most of them did not bring ladders, thinking that the city had been captured, when they observed that the walls were deserted by the defenders. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“But when the citadel was seen to be still in the possession of the enemy, and many of them were observed drawn up in front of it to repel attacks, some of the Macedonians tried to force an entry by undermining the wall, and others by placing scaling ladders against it, wherever it was practicable to do so. Alexander, thinking that the men who carried the ladders were too slow, snatched one from a man who was carrying it, placed it against the wall, and began to mount it, crouching under his shield. After him mounted Peucestas, the man who carried the sacred shield which Alexander took from the temple of the Trojan Athena and used to keep with him, and have it carried before him in all his battles. After Peucestas, by the same ladder ascended Leonnatus the confidential body-guard; and up another ladder went Abreas, one of the soldiers who received double pay for distinguished services. The king was now near the battlement of the wall, and leaning his shield against it was pushing some of the Indians within the fort, and had cleared that part of the wall, by killing others with his sword. The shield-bearing guards becoming very anxious for the king’s safety, pushed each other with ardour up the same ladder and broke it; so that those who were already mounting fell down and made the ascent impracticable for the rest. Alexander then, standing upon the wall, was being assailed all round from the adjacent towers; for none of the Indians dared approach him. He was also being assailed by the men in the city, who were throwing darts at him from no great distance; for a mound of earth happened to have been heaped up there opposite the wall.

“Alexander was conspicuous both by the brightness of his weapons and by his extraordinary display of audacity. He therefore perceived that if he remained where he was, he would be incurring danger without being able to perform anything at all worthy of consideration; but if he leaped down within the fort he might perhaps by this very act strike the Indians with terror, and if he did not, but should only thereby be incurring danger, at any rate he would die not ignobly after performing great deeds of valour worthy of recollection by men of after times. Forming this resolution, he leaped down from the wall into the citadel; where, supporting himself against the wall, he struck with his sword and killed some of the Indians who came to close quarters with him, including their leader, who rushed upon him too boldly. Another man who approached him he kept in check by hurling a stone at him, and a third in like manner. Those who advanced nearer to him he again kept off with his sword; so that the barbarians were no longer willing to approach him, but standing round him cast at him from all sides whatever any one happened to have or could get hold of at the time.”

Alexander Dangerously Wounded

the ladder breaks stranding Alexander and some companions within the Mallian town

Plutarch wrote: “At a siege of a town of the Mallians, who have the repute of being the bravest people of India, he ran in great danger of his life. For having beaten off the defendants with showers of arrows, he was the first man that mounted the wall by a scaling ladder, which, as soon as he was up, broke and left him almost alone, exposed to the darts which the barbarians threw at him in great numbers from below. [Source: Plutarch (A.D. 45-127), “Life of Alexander”, A.D. 75 translated by John Dryden, 1906, MIT, Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org ]

“In this distress, turning himself as well as he could, he leaped down in the midst of his enemies, and had the good fortune to light upon his feet. The brightness and clattering of his armor when he came to the ground, made the barbarians think they saw rays of light, or some bright phantom playing before his body, which frightened them so at first, that they ran away and dispersed. Till seeing him seconded but by two of his guards, they fell upon him hand to hand, and some, while he bravely defended himself, tried to wound him through his armor with their swords and spears. And one who stood further off, drew a bow with such just strength, that the arrow finding its way through his cuirass, stuck in his ribs under the breast. This stroke was so violent, that it made him give back, and set one knee to the ground, upon which the man ran up with his drawn scimitar, thinking to despatch him, and had done it, if Peucestes and Limnæus had not interposed, who were both wounded, Limnæus mortally, but Peucestes stood his ground, while Alexander killed the barbarian. But this did not free him from danger; for besides many other wounds, at last he received so weighty a stroke of a club upon his neck, that he was forced to lean his body against the wall, still, however, facing the enemy. At this extremity, the Macedonians made their way in and gathered round him.”

On the same Arrian wrote: “Peucestas and Abreas, the soldier entitled to double pay, and after them Leonnatus, being the only men who happened to have scaled the wall before the ladders were broken, had leaped down and were fighting in front of the king. Abreas, the man entitled to double pay, fell there, being shot with an arrow in the forehead. Alexander himself also was wounded with an arrow under the breast through his breastplate into the chest, so that Ptolemy says air was breathed out from the wound together with the blood. But although he was faint with exhaustion, he defended himself, as long as his blood was still warm. But the blood streaming out copiously and without ceasing at every expiration of breath, he was seized with a dizziness and swooning, and bending over fell upon his shield. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“After he had fallen Peucestas defended him, holding over him in front the sacred shield brought from Troy; and on the other side he was defended by Leonnatus. But both these men were themselves wounded, and Alexander was now nearly fainting away from loss of blood. For the Macedonians had experienced great difficulty in the assault also on this account, because those who saw Alexander being shot at upon the wall and then leaping down into the citadel within, in their ardour arising from fear lest their king should meet with any mishap by recklessly exposing himself to danger, broke the ladders.

“Then some began to devise one plan and others another to mount upon the wall, as well as they could in their state of embarrassment, some fixing pegs into the wall, which was made of earth, and suspending themselves from these hoisted themselves up with difficulty by their means; others got up by mounting one upon the other. The first man who got up threw himself down from the wall into the city, and so on in succession; and when they saw the king lying there on the ground they all raised a loud lamentation and howl of grief. Now ensued a desperate conflict around his fallen body, one Macedonian after another holding his shield in front of him. In the meantime some of the soldiers having shivered in pieces the bar by which the gate in the space of wall between the towers was secured, entered the city a few at the time; while others, inasmuch as a gap had been made in the gate, put their shoulders under it and forced it into the space inside the wall, and thus laid the citadel open in that quarter.”

“Hereupon some of them began to kill the Indians, all of whom they slew, sparing not even a woman or child...Many other things concerning this catastrophe have been recorded by the historians; and Rumour having received the statements as they were given by the first falsifiers of the facts, still preserves them even to our times, nor will she desist from handing the falsehoods on to others also in regular succession, unless a stop is put to it by this history. For example, the common account is, that this calamity befell Alexander among the Oxydracians; whereas, it really occurred among the Mallians, an independent tribe of Indians; the city belonged to the Mallians, and the men who wounded him were Mallians. These people, indeed, had resolved to join their forces with the Oxydracians and then to make a desperate struggle; but he forestalled them by marching against them through the waterless country, before any aid could reach them from the Oxydracians, or they could render any help to the latter.

Alexander Recovers While His Soldiers Worry

Wounded Alexander passing through his fleet in India

Arrian wrote: Others carried off the king, who was lying in a faint condition, upon his shield; and they could not yet tell whether he was likely to survive. Some authors have stated that Critodemus, a physician of Cos, an Asclepiad by birth, made an incision into the injured part and drew the weapon out of the wound. Other authors say that as there was no physician present at the critical moment, Perdiccas, the confidential body-guard, at Alexander’s bidding, made an incision with his sword into the wounded part and removed the weapon. On its removal there was such a copious effusion of blood that Alexander swooned again; and the effect of the swoon was, that the effusion of blood was stanched. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

Plutarch wrote: “They took him up, just as he was fainting away, having lost all sense of what was done near him, and conveyed him to his tent, upon which it was presently reported all over the camp that he was dead. But when they had with great difficulty and pains sawed off the shaft of the arrow, which was of wood, and so with much trouble got] off his cuirass, they came to cut out the head of it, which was three fingers broad and four long, and stuck fast in the bone. During the operation, he was taken with almost mortal swoonings, but when it was out he came to himself again. Yet though all danger was past, he continued very weak, and confined himself a great while to a regular diet and the method of his cure, till one day hearing the Macedonians clamoring outside in their eagerness to see him, he took his cloak and went out. And having sacrificed to the gods, without more delay he went on board again, and as he coasted along, subdued a great deal of the country on both sides, and several considerable cities.[Source: Plutarch (A.D. 45-127), “Life of Alexander”, A.D. 75 translated by John Dryden, 1906, MIT, Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org ]

Arian wrote: “While Alexander was remaining in this place until his wound was cured, the first news which reached the camp from which he had set out to attack the Mallians was that he had died of the wound; and at first there arose a sound of lamentation from the entire army, as one man handed the rumour on to another. When they ceased their lamentation, they became spiritless, and felt perplexed as to the man who was to become the leader of the army; for many of the officers seemed to have stood in equal rank and merit, both in the opinion of Alexander and in that of the Macedonians.

“They were also in a state of perplexity how to get back in safety to their own country, being quite enclosed by so many warlike nations, some of whom had not yet submitted, and who they conjectured would fight stoutly for their freedom; while others would no doubt revolt as soon as they were relieved of their fear of Alexander. Besides, they seemed at that time to be in the midst of impassable rivers, and all things appeared to them uncertain and impracticable now that they were bereft of Alexander. But when at length the news came that he was still alive, they with difficulty acquiesced in it; and did not yet believe that he was likely to survive. Even when a letter came from the king, saying that he was coming down to the camp in a short time, this did not appear to most of them worthy of credit, on account of their excessive fear; for they conjectured that the letter was concocted by his confidential body-guards and generals.”

Joy of the Soldiers at Alexander’s Recovery

Arrian wrote: “When Alexander became acquainted with this, for fear some attempt at a revolution might be made in the army, he had himself conveyed, as soon as it could be done with safety, to the bank of the river Hydraotes, and placed in a boat to sail down the river. For the camp was at the confluence of the Hydraotes and Acesines, where Hephaestion was at the head of the army, and Nearchus of the fleet. When the ship bearing the king approached the camp, he ordered the tent covering to be removed from the stern, that he might be visible to all. But they were still incredulous, thinking, forsooth, that Alexander’s corpse was being conveyed on the vessel; until at length he stretched out his hand to the multitude, when the ship was nearing the bank. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“Then the men raised a cheer, lifting their hands, some towards the sky and others to the king himself. Many even shed involuntary tears at the unexpected sight. Some of the shield-bearing guards brought a litter for him when he was conveyed out of the ship; but he ordered them to fetch his horse. When he was seen again mounting his horse, the whole army re-echoed with loud clapping of hands, so that the banks of the river and the groves near them reverberated with the sound. On approaching his tent he dismounted from his horse, so that he might be seen walking. Then the men came near, some on one side, others on the other, some touching his hands, others his knees, others only his clothes. Some only came close to get a sight of him, and went away having chanted his praise, while others threw garlands upon him, or the flowers which the country of India supplied at that season of the year.

“Nearchus says that some of his friends incurred his displeasure, reproaching him for exposing himself to danger in the front of the army in battle; which they said was the duty of a private soldier, and not that of the general. It seems to me that Alexander was offended at these remarks, because be knew that they were correct, and that he deserved the censure. However, like those who are mastered by any other pleasure, he had not sufficient self-control to keep aloof from danger, through his impetuosity in battle and his passion for glory. Nearchus also says that a certain old Boeotian, whose name he does not mention, perceiving that Alexander was offended at the censures of his friends and was looking sullenly at them, came near him, and speaking in the Boeotian dialect, said: “O Alexander, it is the part of heroes to perform great deeds!” and repeated a certain Iambic verse, the purport of which is, that the man who performs anything great is destined also to suffer. This man was not only acceptable to Alexander at the time, but was afterwards received into his more intimate acquaintance.”

Voyage down the Hydraotes and Acesines into the Indus

Indus River

Arrian wrote: “At this time arrived envoys from the Mallians who still survived, offering the submission of the nation; also from the Oxydracians came both the leaders of the cities and the governors of the provinces, accompanied by the other most notable men, with full powers to make a treaty, bringing the gifts which are considered most valuable among the Indians, and also, like the Mallians, offering the submission of their nation. They said that their error in not having sent an embassy to him before was pardonable, because they excelled other races in the desire to be free and independent, and their freedom had been secure from the time Dionysus came into India until Alexander came; but if it seemed good to him, inasmuch as there was a general report that he also was sprung from gods, they were willing to receive whatever viceroy he might appoint, pay the tribute decreed by him, and give him as many hostages as he might demand. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“He therefore demanded the thousand best men of the nation, whom he might hold as hostages, if he pleased; and if not, that he might keep them as soldiers in his army, until he had finished the war which he was waging against the other Indians. They accordingly selected the thousand best and tallest men of their number, and sent them to him, together with chariots and charioteers, though these were not demanded. Alexander appointed Philip viceroy over these people and the Mallians who were still surviving. He sent back the hostages to them, but retained the chariots. When he had satisfactorily arranged these matters, since many vessels had been built during the delay arising from his being wounded, he embarked , of the cavalry Companions, as many of the light-armed troops as before, and , infantry, and sailed a short distance down the river Hydraotes. But when that river mingled its waters with the Acesines, the latter giving its name to the united stream, he continued his voyage down the Acesines, until he reached its junction with the Indus. For these four large rivers, which are all navigable, discharge their water into the river Indus, though each does not retain its distinct name. For the Hydaspes discharges itself into the Acesines, and after the junction the whole stream forms what is called the Acesines. Again this same river unites with the Hydraotes, and after absorbing this river, still retains its own name. After this the Acesines takes in the Hyphasis, and finally flows into the Indus under its own name; but after the junction it yields its name to the Indus. From this point I have no doubt that the Indus proceeds stades, and perhaps more, before it is divided so as to form the Delta; and there it spreads out more like a lake than a river.”

Voyage down the Indus to the Land of Musicanus

Arrian wrote: “There, at the confluence of the Acesines and Indus, he waited until Perdiccas with the army arrived, after having routed on his way the independent tribe of the Abastanians. Meantime, he was joined by other thirty-oared galleys and trading vessels which had been built for him among the Xathrians, another independent tribe of Indians who had yielded to him. From the Ossadians, who were also an independent tribe of Indians, came envoys to offer the submission of their nation. Having fixed the confluence of the Acesines and Indus as the limit of Philip’s viceroyalty, he left with him all the Thracians and as many men from the infantry regiments as appeared to him sufficient to provide for the security of the country. He then ordered a city to be founded there at the very junction of the two rivers, expecting that it would become large and famous among men. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“He also ordered a dockyard to be made there. At this time the Bactrian Oxyartes, father of his wife Roxana, came to him, to whom he gave the viceroyalty over the Parapamisadians, after dismissing the former viceroy, Tiryaspes, because he was reported to be exercising his authority improperly. Then he transported Craterus with the main body of the army and the elephants to the left bank of the river Indus, both because it seemed easier for a heavy-armed force to march along that side of the river, and the tribes dwelling near were not quite friendly. He himself sailed down to the capital of the Sogdians; where he fortified another city, made another dockyard, and repaired his shattered vessels. He appointed Oxyartes viceroy, and Peithon general of the land extending from the confluence of the Indus and Acesines as far as the sea, together with all the coastland of India. He then again despatched Craterus with his army through the country of the Arachotians and Drangians; and himself sailed down the river into the dominions of Musicanus, which was reported to be the most prosperous part of India.

“He advanced against this king because he had not yet come to meet him to offer the submission of himself and his land, nor had he sent envoys to seek his alliance. He had not even sent him the gifts which were suitable for a great king, or asked any favour from him. He accelerated his voyage down the river to such a degree that he succeeded in reaching the confines of the land of Musicanus before he had even heard that Alexander had started against him. Musicanus was so greatly alarmed that he went as fast as he could to meet him, bringing with him the gifts valued most highly among the Indians, and taking all his elephants. He offered to surrender both his nation and himself, at the same time acknowledging his error, which was the most effectual way with Alexander for any one to get what he requested. Accordingly for these considerations Alexander granted him an indemnity for his offences. He also granted him the privilege of ruling the city and country, both of which Alexander admired. Craterus was directed to fortify the citadel in the capital; which was done while Alexander was still present. A garrison was also placed in it, because he thought the place suitable for keeping the circumjacent tribes in subjection.”

Indian Philosophers

Plutarch wrote: “In this voyage, he took ten of the Indian philosophers prisoners, who had been most active in persuading Sabbas to revolt, and had caused the Macedonians a great deal of trouble. These men, called Gymnosophists, were reputed to be extremely ready and succinct in their answers, which he made trial of, by putting difficult questions to them, letting them know that those whose answers were not pertinent, should be put to death, of which he made the eldest of them judge. The first being asked which he thought most numerous, the dead or the living, answered, “The living, because those who are dead are not at all.” Of the second, he desired to know whether the earth or the sea produced the largest beast; who told him, “The earth, for the sea is but a part of it.” His question to the third was, Which is the cunningest of beasts? “That,” said he, “which men have not yet found out.” He bade the fourth tell him what argument he used to Sabbas to persuade him to revolt. “No other,” said he, “than that he should either live or die nobly.” Of the fifth he asked, Which was eldest, night or day? The philosopher replied, “Day was eldest, by one day at least.” [Source: Plutarch (A.D. 45-127), “Life of Alexander”, A.D. 75 translated by John Dryden, 1906, MIT, Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org ]

“But perceiving Alexander not well satisfied with that account, he added, that he ought not to wonder if strange questions had as strange answers made to them. Then he went on and inquired of the next, what a man should do to be exceedingly beloved. “He must be very powerful,” said he, “without making himself too much feared.” The answer of the seventh to his question, how a man might become a god, was, “By doing that which was impossible for men to do.” The eighth told him, “Life is stronger than death, because it supports so many miseries.” And the last being asked, how long he thought it decent for a man to live, said, “Till death appeared more desirable than life.” Then Alexander turned to him whom he had made judge, and commanded him to give sentence. “All that I can determine,” said he, “is, that they have every one answered worse than another.” “Nay,” said the king, “then you shall die first, for giving such a sentence.” “Not so, O king,” replied the gymnosophist, “unless you said falsely that he should die first who made the worst answer.” In conclusion he gave them presents and dismissed them.

“But to those who were in greatest reputation among them, and lived a private quiet life, he sent Onesicritus, one of Diogenes the Cynic’s disciples, desiring them to come to him. Calanus, it is said, very arrogantly and roughly commanded him to strip himself, and hear what he said, naked, otherwise he would not speak a word to him, though he came from Jupiter himself. But Dandamis received him with more civility, and hearing him discourse of Socrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes, told him he thought them men of great parts, and to have erred in nothing so much, as in having too great respect for the laws and customs of their country. Others say, Dandamis only asked him the reason why Alexander undertook so long a journey to come into those parts. Taxiles, however, persuaded Calanus to wait upon Alexander. [243] His proper name was Sphines, but because he was wont to say Cale, which in the Indian tongue is a form of salutation, to those he met with anywhere, the Greeks called him Calanus. He is said to have shown Alexander an instructive emblem of government, which was this. He threw a dry shrivelled hide upon the ground, and trod upon the edges of it. The skin when it was pressed in one place, still rose up in another, wheresoever he trod round about it, till he set his foot in the middle, which made all the parts lie even and quiet. The meaning of this similitude being that he ought to reside most in the middle of his empire, and not spend too much time on the borders of it.”

Campaign against Oxycanus and Sambus

Arrian wrote: “Then he took the archers, Agrianians, and cavalry sailing with him, and marched against the governor of that country, whose name was Oxycanus, because he neither came himself nor did envoys come from him, to offer the surrender of himself and his land. At the very first assault he took by storm the two largest cities under the rule of Oxycanus; in the second of which that prince himself was captured. The booty he gave to his army, but the elephants he led with himself. The other cities in the same land surrendered to him as he advanced, nor did any one turn to resist him; so cowed in spirit had all the Indians now become at the thought of Alexander and his fortune. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“He then marched back against Sambus, whom he had appointed viceroy of the mountaineer Indians and who was reported to have fled, because he learned that Musicanus had been pardoned by Alexander and was ruling over his own land. For he was at war with Musicanus. But when Alexander approached the city which the country of Sambus held as its metropolis, the name of which was Sindimana, the gates were thrown open to him at his approach, and the relations of Sambus reckoned up his money and went out to meet him, taking with them the elephants also. They assured him that Sambus had fled, not from any hostile feeling towards Alexander, but fearing on account of the pardon of Musicanus. He also captured another city which had revolted at this time, and slew as many of the Brachmans as had been instigators of this revolt. These men are the philosophers of the Indians, of whose philosophy, if such it may be called, I shall give an account in my book descriptive of India.”

Musicanus Executed, Capture of Patala

Opulence of the Indian kings

Arrian wrote: “Meantime he was informed that Musicanus had revolted. He despatched the viceroy, Peithon, son of Agenor, with a sufficient army against him, while he himself marched against the cities which had been put under the rule of Musicanus. Some of these he razed to the ground, reducing the inhabitants to slavery; and into others he introduced garrisons and fortified the citadels. After accomplishing this, be returned to the camp and fleet. By this time Musicanus had been captured by Peithon, who was bringing him to Alexander. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“The king ordered him to be hanged in his own country, and with him as many of the Brachmans as had instigated him to the revolt. Then came to him the ruler of the land of the Patalians, who said that the Delta formed by the river Indus was still larger than the Egyptian Delta. This man surrendered to him the whole of his own land and entrusted both himself and his property to him. Alexander sent him away again in possession of his own dominions, with instructions to provide whatever was needful for the reception of the army. He then sent Craterus into Carmania with the brigades of Attalus, Meleager, and Antigenes, some of the archers, and as many of the Companions and other Macedonians as, being now unfit for military service, he was despatching to Macedonia by the route through the lands of the Arachotians and Zarangians. To Craterus he also gave the duty of leading the elephants; but the rest of the army, except the part of it which was sailing with himself down to the sea, he put under the command of Hephaestion. He transported Peithon with the cavalry-lancers and Agrianians to the opposite bank of the Indus, not the one along which Hephaestion was about to lead the army.

“Peithon was ordered to collect men to colonize the cities which had just been fortified, and to form a junction with the king at Patala, after having settled the affairs of the Indians of that region, if they attempted any revolutionary proceedings. On the third day of his voyage, Alexander was informed that the governor of the Patalians had collected most of his subjects and was going away by stealth, having left his land deserted. For this reason Alexander sailed down the river with greater speed than before; and when he arrived at Patala, he found both the country and the city deserted by the inhabitants and tillers of the soil. He however despatched the lightest troops in his army in pursuit of the fugitives; and when some of them were captured, he sent them away to the rest, bidding them be of good courage and return, for they might inhabit the city and till the country as before. Most of them accordingly returned.”

Voyage down the Indus

Arrian wrote: “After instructing Hephaestion to fortify the citadel in Patala, he sent men into the adjacent country, which was waterless, to dig wells and to render the land fit for habitation. Certain of the native barbarians attacked these men, and falling upon them unawares slew some of them; but having lost many of their own men, they fled into the desert. The work was therefore accomplished by those who had been sent out, another army having joined them, which Alexander had despatched to take part in the work, when he heard of the attack of the barbarians. Near Patala the water of the Indus is divided into two large rivers, both of which retain the name of Indus as far as the sea. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“Here Alexander constructed a harbour and dockyard; and when his works had advanced towards completion he resolved to sail down as far as the mouth of the right branch of the river. He gave Leonnatus the command of , cavalry and , heavy and light-armed infantry, and sent him to march through the island of Patala opposite the naval expedition; while he himself took the fastest sailing vessels, having one and a half bank of oars, all the thirty-oared galleys, and some of the boats, and began to sail down the right branch of the river. The Indians of that region had fled, and consequently he could get no pilot for the voyage, and the navigation of the river was very difficult. On the day after the start a storm arose, and the wind blowing right against the stream made the river hollow and shattered the hulls of the vessels violently, so that most of his ships were injured, and some of the thirty-oared galleys were entirely broken up. But they succeeded in running them aground before they quite fell to pieces in the water; and others were therefore constructed. He then sent the quickest of the light-armed troops into the land beyond the river’s bank and captured some Indians, who from this time piloted him down the channel. But when they arrived at the place where the river expands, so that where it was widest it extended stades, a strong wind blew from the outer sea, and the oars could hardly be raised in the swell; they therefore took refuge again in a canal into which his pilots conducted them.”

Voyage down the Indus into the Sea

Indus River Delta

Arrian wrote: “While their vessels were moored here, the phenomenon of the ebb and flow of the tide in the great sea occurred, so that their ships were left upon dry ground. This caused Alexander and his companions no small alarm, inasmuch as they were previously quite unacquainted with it. But they were much more alarmed when, the time coming round again, the water approached and the hulls of the vessels were raised aloft. The ships which it caught settled in the mud were raised aloft without any damage, and floated again without receiving any injury; but those that had been left on the drier land and had not a firm settlement, when an immense compact wave advanced, either fell foul of each other or were dashed against the land and thus shattered to pieces. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“When Alexander had repaired these vessels as well as his circumstances permitted, he sent some men on in advance down the river in two boats to explore the island at which the natives said he must moor his vessels in his voyage to the sea. They told him that the name of the island was Cilluta. As he was informed that there were harbours in this island, that it was a large one and had plenty of water in it, he made the rest of his fleet put in there; but he himself with the best sailing ships advanced beyond, to see if the mouth of the river afforded an easy voyage out into the open sea. After advancing about stades from the first island, they descried another which was quite out in the sea. Then indeed they returned to the island in the river; and having moored his vessels near the extremity of it, Alexander offered sacrifice to those gods to whom he said he had been directed by Ammon to sacrifice. On the following day he sailed down to the other island which was in the deep sea; and having come to shore here also, he offered other sacrifices to other gods and in another manner. These sacrifices he also offered according to the oracular instructions of Ammon. Then having gone beyond the mouths of the river Indus, he sailed out into the open sea, as he said, to discover if any land lay anywhere near in the sea; but in my opinion, chiefly that he might be able to say that he had navigated the great outer sea of India. There he sacrificed some bulls to Poseidon and cast them into the sea; and having poured out a libation after the sacrifice, he threw the goblet and bowls, which were golden, into the deep as thank-offerings, praying the god to escort safely for him the fleet, which he intended to despatch to the Persian Gulf and the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigres.”

Exploration of the Mouths of the Indus

Arrian wrote: “Returning to Patala, he found that the citadel had been fortified and that Peithon had arrived with his army, having accomplished everything for which he was despatched. He ordered Hephaestion to prepare what was needful for the fortification of a naval station and the construction of dockyards; for he resolved to leave behind here a fleet of many ships near the city of Patala, where the river Indus divides itself into two streams. He himself sailed down again into the Great Sea by the other mouth of the Indus, to ascertain which branch of the river is easier to navigate. The mouths of the river Indus are about stades distant from each other. In the voyage down he arrived at a large lake in the mouth of the river, which the river makes by spreading itself out; or perhaps the waters of the surrounding district draining into it make it large, so that it very much resembles a gulf of the sea. For in it were seen fish like those in the sea, larger indeed than those in our sea. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“Having moored his ships then in this lake, where the pilots directed, he left there most of the soldiers and all the boats with Leonnatus; but he himself with the thirty-oared galleys and the vessels with one and a half row of oars passed beyond the mouth of the Indus, and advancing into the sea also this way, ascertained that the outlet of the river on this side (i.e. the west) was easier to navigate than the other. He moored his ships near the shore, and taking with him some of the cavalry went along the sea-coast three days’ journey, exploring what kind of country it was for a coasting voyage, and ordering wells to be dug, so that the sailors might have water to drink. He then returned to the ships and sailed back to Patala; but he sent a part of his army along the sea-coast to effect the same thing, instructing them to return to Patala when they had dug the wells. Sailing again down to the lake, he there constructed another harbour and dockyard; and leaving a garrison for the place, he collected sufficient food to supply the army for four months, as well as whatever else he could procure for the coasting voyage.”

Campaign against the Oritians

One last battle in India

Arrian wrote: “The season of the year was then unfit for voyaging; for the periodical winds prevailed, which at that season do not blow there from the north, as with us, but from the Great Sea, in the direction of the south wind. Moreover it was reported that there the sea was fit for navigation after the beginning of winter, from the setting of the Pleiades until the winter solstice; for at that season mild breezes usually blow from the land, drenched as it has been with great rains; and these winds are convenient on a coasting voyage both for oars and sails. Nearchus, who had been placed in command of the fleet, waited for the coasting season; but Alexander, starting from Patala, advanced with all his army as far as the river Arabius. [Source: Arrian the Nicomedian (A.D. 92-175), “Anabasis of Alexander”, translated, by E. J. Chinnock, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884, gutenberg.org ]

“He then took half of the shield-bearing guards and archers, the infantry regiments called foot Companions, the guard of the Companion cavalry, a squadron of each of the other cavalry regiments, and all the horse-bowmen, and turned away thence on the left towards the sea to dig wells, so that there might be abundance of them for the fleet sailing along on the coasting voyage; and at the same time to make an unexpected attack upon the Oritians, a tribe of the Indians in this region, which had long been independent. This he meditated doing because they had performed no friendly act either to himself or his army. He placed Hephaestion in command of the forces left behind. The Arabitians, another independent tribe dwelling near the river Arabius, thinking that they could not cope with Alexander in battle, and yet being unwilling to submit to him, fled into the desert when they heard that he was approaching. But crossing the river Arabius, which was both narrow and shallow, and travelling by night through the greater part of the desert, he came near the inhabited country at daybreak. Then ordering the infantry to follow him in regular line, he took the cavalry with him, dividing it into squadrons, that it might occupy a very large part of the plain, and thus marched into the land of the Oritians. All those who turned to defend themselves were cut to pieces by the cavalry, and many of the others were taken prisoners. He then encamped near a small piece of water; but when Hephaestion formed a junction with him, he advanced farther. Arriving at the largest village of the tribe of the Oritians, which was called Rhambacia, he commended the place and thought that if he colonized a city there it would become great and prosperous. He therefore left Hephaestion behind to carry out this project.”

Alexander the Great Reaches the Arabian Sea

Plutarch wrote: “His voyage down the rivers took up seven months’ time, and when he came to the sea, he sailed to an island which he himself called Scillustis, others Psiltucis, where going ashore, he sacrificed, and made what observations he could as to the nature of the sea and the sea-coast. Then having besought the gods that no other man might ever go beyond the bounds of this expedition, he ordered his fleet, of which he made Nearchus admiral, and Onesicritus pilot, to sail round about, keeping the Indian shore on the right hand, and returned himself by land through the country of the Orites, where he was reduced to great straits for want of provisions, and lost a vast number of men, so that of an army of one hundred and twenty thousand foot and fifteen thousand horse, he scarcely brought back above a fourth part out of India, they were so diminished by diseases, ill diet, and the scorching heats, but most by famine. For their march was through an uncultivated country whose inhabitants fared hardly, possessing only a few sheep, and those of a wretched kind, whose flesh was rank and unsavory, by their continual feeding upon sea-fish. [Source: Plutarch (A.D. 45-127), “Life of Alexander”, A.D. 75 translated by John Dryden, 1906, MIT, Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org ]

“After sixty days march he came into Gedrosia, where [244] he found great plenty of all things, which the neighboring kings and governors of provinces, hearing of his approach, had taken care to provide. When he had here refreshed his army, he continued his march through Carmania, feasting all the way for seven days together. He with his most intimate friends banqueted and revelled night and day upon a platform erected on a lofty, conspicuous scaffold, which was slowly drawn by eight horses. This was followed by a great many chariots, some covered with purple and embroidered canopies, and some with green boughs, which were continually supplied afresh, and in them the rest of his friends and commanders drinking, and crowned with garlands of flowers. Here was now no target or helmet or spear to be seen; instead of armor, the soldiers handled nothing but cups and goblets and Thericlean drinking vessels, which, along the whole way, they dipped into large bowls and jars, and drank healths to one another, some seating themselves to it, others as they went along.

All places resounded with music of pipes and flutes, with harping and singing, and women dancing as in the rites of Bacchus. For this disorderly, wandering march, besides the drinking part of it, was accompanied with all the sportiveness and insolence of bacchanals, as much as if the god himself had been there to countenance and lead the procession. As soon as he came to the royal palace of Gedrosia, he again refreshed and feasted his army; and one day after he had drunk pretty hard, it is said, he went to see a prize of dancing contended for, in which his favorite Bagoas, having gained the victory, crossed the theatre in his dancing habit, and sat down close by him, which so pleased the Macedonians, that they made loud acclamations for him to kiss Bagoas, and never stopped clapping their hands and shouting till Alexander put his arms round him and kissed him.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Canadian Museum of History historymuseum.ca ; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT, Online Library of Liberty, oll.libertyfund.org ; Gutenberg.org gutenberg.org Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" [∞] and "The Creators" [μ]" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum.Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated September 2020

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Alexander the Great in India

During the battle of Hydaspes Alexander and his men attacked the war elephants of Porus of India. Macedonian soldiers were flung into the air like dolls, or trampled underfoot. The bulk of the Indian infantry was waiting behind the pachyderms to attack.

By Martin Leavitt

It was raining, raining with a force and intensity few had ever experienced. The Macedonian army was marching upstream near the northern banks of the Hydaspes River in India (now Pakistan), trying to reach a ford under the cloak of darkness. The year was 326 b.c., the month probably May, and the Macedonians were in the latter stages of a campaign that, with some brief interruptions, had lasted almost eight years.

The rain came down in sheets, the droplets driven by howling gales, and lighting danced and crackled across the sodden skies. The bolts thundered and pealed, causing the rain to fall even heavier, as if the very floodgates of heaven had been rent asunder by the booming reports. The soldiers must have been soaked to the skin, wrapped in cloaks that were so wet protection was minimal.

Alexander of Macedon, later known as Alexander the Great, was in the van of the army, sharing as usual the discomforts as well as the glories of war. He was probably pleased that the night was so stormy; Zeus the Thunderer was plainly coming to Macedonian aid. Just across the river a large and formidable Indian army under Rajah Porus of the Pauvaras was trying to block the Macedonians from crossing. The violent storm, coupled with the pitch-black night, would screen Alexander’s movements from the prying eyes of enemy scouts. Yet inclement weather alone could not insure battlefield success. Would the Macedonian king’s nocturnal maneuver be crowned with success?

Alexander Lauded For His Military Timing & Tactics

Alexander III of Macedon, in Greek Alexandros III Philippou Makedon, is without question one of the great captains of military history. He certainly looked the part of a hero. Alexander was handsome, with even features and a flowing mane of blond hair. He had one blue eye and one brown eye, though the startling contrast in no way altered his basic appeal. He was athletic and tough, and though he was shorter than average his charisma made him seem larger than life. Alexander was courageous, yet rarely, if ever, foolhardy; he usually looked before he “leaped.”

Some historians, eager to debunk the legend, have tried to downplay his military talents by attributing his victories to subordinates. It seemed inconceivable to them that military genius could dwell in one so youthful, yet he began to command armies at 16. Even when elements of the legend are stripped away the facts speak for themselves: Alexander the Great was a military genius. He had a keen eye for terrain, a good sense of timing, and a solid knowledge of tactics. Above all he was adaptable, able to alter his plans to reflect changing circumstances. If he had one fault it was his tendency to unduly expose himself to danger and fight like a common soldier—a trait that nevertheless endeared him to his men.

Greek Coalition Defeated; Macedonia Rises

In the fourth century b.c. Macedonia was a state just to the north of Greece. Its population was an amalgam of several peoples, with at least some infusion of Greek blood. Its language was a reflection of this polyglot nature; Macedonian had Greek elements in it, but was so diluted with “barbarian” words most Greeks could not understand it. Nevertheless, Macedonia did have a patina of Greek civilization and was Helenized enough for its athletes to be accepted as competitors in the Olympic Games. Certainly, both Alexander and his father Philip II were strong admirers of Greek culture.

Philip II laid the foundations of Macedonia’s greatness. At the battle of Charonea in September 338 b.c., Philip defeated a coalition of Greek states that included Athens. Although he granted them a measure of autonomy, Philip made it clear that Macedonia would not stand for the bickering and fratricidal bloodshed that had been a hallmark of Greek politics for decades. Philip imposed peace and unity on Greece by forcing all Greek states save Sparta to join a Macedonian-dominated League of Corinth.

Alexander Assumes Crown After Assassination

Philip now looked across the Aegean to the Persian empire, long an enemy of the Greeks. In fact, in 490 and 480 b.c. Persian kings had invaded Greece in an attempt to make the country part of their empire. They failed, but the enmity between the two cultures remained. Philip proposed to invade the Persian empire, his first goal to liberate the Greek city states in Asia Minor. But Philip was assassinated in 336 b.c. at the age of 46 before his plans could reach fruition. Alexander, a young man who had shown his mettle in battle but was still only 20 years old, assumed the crown.

There was no question that Alexander would pick up where his father left off. In the fourth century b.c. conquest did not need to be justified, and Macedonian kings were expected to be warriors. Alexander was bursting with ambition, eager to make a name for himself. His old tutor, the Greek philosopher Aristotle, instilled in Alexander a love for all things Hellene. Conquering the Persian empire would fulfill his personal ambitions and satisfy a desire to the “avenger” of Greece.

Alexander’s army crossed the Hellespont into Asia in the spring of 334 b.c. It was the beginning of an odyssey that would conquer an empire and travel to the farthest limits of the known world—the known world, that is, of Greek classical civilization. In the battles of Granicus (334 b.c.), Issus (333 b.c.) and finally at the climatic battle of Gaugamela (331 b.c.), Alexander defeated the armies of King Darius III. When Darius was murdered by his own men Alexander’s victory over the Persians was complete.

The Indian Expedition

But once started, conquest can be a kind of addiction, a process that can prove an irresistible temptation. At least, it seemed to be so in Alexander’s case. The eastern provinces of Bactria and Sogdiana had been only loosely attached to the old Persian empire; Alexander decided to go there to make sure of a firmer connection. After some time in Bactria and Sogdiana, the Macedonian king was determined to go to India. Perhaps he wanted to follow in the legendary footsteps of Dionysus and Heracles (Hercules); the Macedonian royal family claimed descent from Heracles.

Maybe Alexander was motivated by a desire to explore the unknown. The Macedonian king believed, as did most educated people of the classical times, that the land mass of Europe and Asia was surrounded by a great body of water known as the Ocean Stream. In Greek thought, Europe and Asia were a giant “island” set in the vast ocean. Alexander wanted to see the Ocean Stream with his own eyes, at the same time setting the boundary of his empire to the edge of the world.

Apparently Alexander gave considerable thought to this Indian expedition and planned accordingly. Before this time most soldiers wore corselets/cuirasses; now they were being discarded, presumably for greater ease and mobility. Yet the change was probably not universal; some units or even individuals most likely maintained the old armor, even if it was hot and cumbersome.

Seeking To Bridge The Indus

The Macedonian army’s initial objective was the region around the great Indus River, in the area that today is generally called the Punjab. The Indus is one of the world’s great rivers and a cradle of civilization. It rises in the Himalayas then continues some 1,700 miles before emptying into the Arabian Sea. The Indus has four tributaries, which the Greeks called the Hydaspes, Acesines, Hydraotes, and Hyphasis. (Today they are the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Beas.) The region was poetically dubbed the “land of the five rivers,” but to Alexander and the Macedonians waterways were barriers to overcome, not objects of romance.

Alexander sent his subordinate Hephaestion ahead to the Indus while the king himself dealt with troublesome hill tribes. Hephaestion began bridging the broad Indus in anticipation of Alexander’s arrival with the main body. Little is known about how the Macedonians bridged the Indus, but Arrian, a Greek writer who lived in Roman times, suggested a bridge of boats. The bridge consisted of a line of boats or galleys placed side by side with a roadbed on top.

In the meantime, Alexander started to march toward the Indus, en route giving orders to have trees felled for the construction of boats. Luckily, there were trees not far from the river that yielded high-quality lumber, and before long boats and galleys were sliding into the brown river waters. Meanwhile, Hephaestion completed the bridging of the Indus, a major engineering feat and the start of a new phase in the campaign. Alexander marked the occasion with sacrifices to the gods, athletic competition, and displays of horsemanship.

A New Foe Emerges On The Eastward March

The ceremonies over, Alexander crossed the Indus and marched on Taxila, a kingdom between the Indus and the Hydaspes rivers. The ruler of Taxila, whose real name was probably “Amphi,” was dubbed “Taxiles” by Alexander as a kind of dynastic title. Amphi/Taxiles proved a good friend to Alexander, allowing the Macedonians to rest and refit. Taxila was the crossroads of several trade routes to Bactria, Casmir, and the distant Ganges River valley.

Alexander was not unmindful of Taxiles’s support and rewarded the Indian prince with additional territory. Northwestern India was a patchwork of kingdoms, and several rulers sent representatives to treat with the Macedonian king. Porus, king of the Pauravas, failed to send an envoy. In fact, such an ambassador was conspicuous by his absence. It was then the truth must have dawned, and the reason for Taxiles’s eager friendship made clear: he and Porus were bitter enemies. Taxiles hoped to enlist Alexander’s aid in the feud. The Macedonian was more than happy to oblige; he wanted to go further east, and Porus’s kingdom blocked the way. If Porus could not be coaxed into an alliance, Alexander was more than ready to go to war.

Porus’s kingdom lay beyond the Hydaspes, which in the spring of 326 b.c. was a barrier of major proportions. Melting snows from Himalayan peaks combined with heavy rains to transform a placid, meandering stream into a foaming, raging torrent filled with treacherous currents. Porus stationed his troops along the southern bank, in essence using the river as a gigantic natural moat to protect his realm. The rajah paid particular attention to the fords, posting soldiers to make sure that, even if Alexander was lucky enough to thwart the forces of nature, he would not succeed in establishing a toehold on the south bank.

Preparing For War

Alexander established a base camp on the banks of the Hydaspes just opposite Porus’s own camp across the river. The Macedonian camp was plainly visible to the Indians, but Alexander purposely chose the site so he could be observed. Although acutely aware of being watched, the Macedonians nonchalantly set up their tents, prepared food, and undid bed rolls for sleep. Alexander’s army was a multinational force composed of many peoples. There were various Asiatics and even Indian soldiers from his new allies. Greek mercenaries were there, distinctive because of their full beards; Macedonians were clean shaven by Alexander’s express orders. The Macedonians were the heart of the army, and Porus must have had some curiosity about the appearance and habits of his new foes.

Years of almost constant campaigning had taken their toll on the men’s clothes and equipment. Many were shabby, their tunics threadbare and worn, and replacement Greek dress was hard to come by. Some recut Indian garments, some adopted Persian dress, and some mixed national styles in a “crazy quilt” fashion that must have amazed enemy observers.

The Toughest Battle of Alexander’s Career

Alexander knew he faced a challenge, one of the greatest of his career. The river was well-nigh impossible to cross in its present state, yet he couldn’t wait until winter reduced the waters to fordable levels. Even if he did attempt a crossing, Porus had a weapon that might tip the scales against the Macedonians: war elephants. The rajah had 100 to 200 of these great beasts (accounts vary), and their size and loud trumpeting usually terrified horses which were not used to them. The Macedonian cavalry was one of the key elements to Alexander’s success; elephants might neutralize this advantage. In truth, the elephants were also a terror to men as well as horses. A way had to be found to deal with them.

Yet time was running out, and delay might be fatal to the Macedonian cause. A Rajah Abisares of Casmir seemed about to join Porus against Alexander, and his army was as least as large as that of the Pauravan king. If the two rajahs united, Alexander might well find himself in serious difficulties.

A Cat-And-Mouse Game With Porus

For the next few weeks Alexander played a kind of cat-and-mouse game with Porus, doing all he could to deceive the Indian and keep him off balance. Macedonian troops were in constant movement, with detachments probing up and down the river as if preparing to cross. Since it was well known that Alexander was usually with his assault troops, the king resorted to a double to mask his personal movements. Attalus, a soldier who bore a striking resemblance to Alexander, walked about the royal pavilion and around camp when the king was not present. For days on end Macedonian cavalry would be seen at various points, as if a vanguard to a major crossing attempt, yet when Porus sent troops to the threatened sectors, the Indians would find their adversaries had disappeared.

Moving On His Complacent Foes

Porus must have been frustrated and baffled. Macedonian soldiers would march up and down making as much noise as possible, trumpets blaring, men shouting war cries and oaths. Finally, after several weeks of such maneuvers, the Indian king began to relax his guard. His troops were exhausted, worn out by trying to counter Alexander’s feints. Perhaps Porus began to think that Alexander’s movements were mere bluff, designed to conceal the fact that the Macedonians were going to wait for the winter and the river to recede. In fact, Alexander himself mentioned he would wait until winter, knowing such announcements would find their way back to Porus.

Alexander had no intention of waiting until winter, but decided on crossing the Hydaspes at night, right under the very noses of the Indians. Indian scouts’ senses, dulled by false alarms, were so inured to the sounds of enemy troop movements they would scarcely notice the noise of a crossing—or so Alexander hoped.

The crossing of the Hydaspes was a masterpiece of maneuver and a fitting prologue to the subsequent battle. Alexander outlined his plans during an emergency conference that was held probably in his royal pavilion. As previously mentioned, the king had decided on a surprise night crossing and, once on the southern bank, hoped to defeat Porus before Abisares could come up. Craterus was left in command of the base camp with about 2,000 cavalry and 9,000 infantry. Porus was still in camp with nearly his whole army, but once he realized Alexander was on the move he was sure to follow.

The Macedonians Hide Their Forces On Island

Alexander told Craterus not to cross the river unless Porus had moved his whole army upstream, or he was sure the Macedonians had been victorious. The Macedonian king now moved upriver, his goal a point just opposite Adamana Island. Alexander hoped to use Admana as a giant shield against the eyes of Porus’s scouts. He’d embark his strike or turning force on galleys behind the island, then go downstream with Admana to his left still blocking the Indians’ view. The Macedonian flotilla would round the tip of Admana and go ashore on the southern bank beyond.

En route to the crossing place Alexander detached Meleager, Attalus, and Gorgias with some 1,000 cavalry and 16,000 infantry about halfway between the base camp and Admana Island. Like Craterus, the trio were ordered to cross the river only if they determined Porus was occupied, that is, engaging Alexander. Now Alexander’s foresight and careful planning began to reap rich rewards. Some weeks earlier he had dispatched one of his officers, one Coenus, to the Indus with orders to bring back the galleys and boats the Macedonians had used there. To accomplish this task the galleys were cut in three sections, the smaller boats in two sections, and their pieces transported by wagon to the Hydaspes and reassembled.

The Long March To Admana Island

Alexander’s march to the Admana Island area assembly point took him inland, but the snaking course of the Hydaspes made the route a kind of shortcut. It must have taken hours for the Macedonian strike force to reach the assembly point; one historian estimates the 17- or 18-mile journey must have taken at least six hours under monsoon rain conditions. When the king arrived he found the oared galleys and boats waiting for him. Everything was falling into place; in addition to the troops under Meleager already mentioned, Alexander had posted small detachments all along the river, a “chain of communication” that linked him with the base camp under Craterus some 18 miles away. Signals could be relayed via trumpet calls.

The most notable unit in Alexander’s force was the royal squadron ( Basilike ile ) of the elite Companions ( hetairoi ) cavalry, known also as the agema or Royal vanguard. Alexander himself wore the striking purple tunic and cuirass of a senior Companions officer. The royal agema was supplemented by the hipparchies (cavalry unit, from the Greek word hippus , horse,) of Hephaestion, Perdiccas, and Demetrius. Each hipparchy had about 1,000 horsemen. There were also allied cavalry of Bactrians, Sogdians, and hard-riding Dahae archers and Sythians. Alexander’s infantry consisted of two phalanx pike units under Coenus and Clitus, some hypaspists (probably light troops) and various Asiatic allies. The king must have been eager to reach the southern bank of the river; if Porus caught the Macedonians in the act of crossing, or even partly across, the results could be disastrous. Large wooden rafts were constructed and given added buoyancy by attaching straw-filled watertight skin floats. The cavalry would be transported on these rafts, a delicate and time-consuming operation as well as a vulnerable one. If Porus’s war elephants appeared as the horses were embarking or disembarking, utter chaos might ensue. Even if they were still on the rafts midstream, the horses might still try to drive into the river if they heard or saw the elephants or caught their scent.

Flotilla Moves Seen By Indians

The flotilla set out before dawn, Alexander leading the way in a 30-oar galley that was towing a cavalry raft. Some of his closest personal companions were with him on the galley, including Ptolemy, son of Lagos. Ptolemy, later ruler of Egypt, left an account of the Indian campaign that was a source for later historians.

Dawn finally broke over the eastern horizon; the rain storm had abated, and the discomforts of the night must have been forgotten in the excitement and anticipation of battle. As planned, Admana Island blocked the view of the Macedonian fleet from the river shoreline, but once Alexander’s galley nosed around its western tip, the vessel was spotted by Porus’s scouts. Mounting their horses with alacrity, the scouts galloped back to their rajah with the news that the Macedonians were at last on the move.

Macedonians Make It To The Shore

Alexander was first ashore and started to supervise the disembarkation of his men. But it was soon discovered that the Macedonians were not on the southern bank of the river, but only on another island! This long finger of land ran parallel to the real southern bank and from a distance blended with it. As seen from the Macedonian side of the river, there was not the slightest hint it was an island. This was a major setback for the Macedonians, a crimp in what had been so far a flawlessly executed operation.

The channel between the real southern bank and the island was narrow, but also deep with treacherous currents. A passable ford was found, and the hapless Macedonian troops had to wade across it with water up to their shoulders. Even the horses had a rough time of it, the water coming up to their necks. It must have taken several hours to cross the ford, precious hours where Porus could have regained the initiative and attacked Alexander when he was at his most vulnerable. Timing is everything in war, and rarely are generals given a second chance. Porus missed this golden opportunity, and Alexander managed to get his entire force safely on shore.

Porus’ Son & Macedonian Forces Colide

Knowing that Porus’s army was somewhere downstream, Alexander led his cavalry south at a rapid pace, ordering the infantry to follow as best they could. Porus had indeed received the reports of a Macedonian crossing, but it still seemed that Alexander’s main force (really just Craterus) was still encamped across the river. Puzzled, Porus decided to send his son (some say brother) with a reconnaissance force of cavalry and chariots to see what was going on upstream. Was this crossing Alexander’s main force, or merely a diversionary feint?

This Indian scouting force consisted of some 2,000 cavalry and 120 chariots, far too little to deal with Alexander had they known he was there. The Macedonian king drew rein at the sight of the cavalry and chariots, uncertain if this was the van of Porus’s whole army. When he determined it was a detached force, Alexander led his Companions cavalry against Porus’s son. The chariot was obsolete tactically, and the Indian cavalry was no match for battle-hardened Macedonian troops.

Alexander Defeats Detached Force

Alexander’s horse archers unleashed showers of arrows into the chariots, killing and wounding drivers and warrior passengers with random impartiality. Each Indian chariot must have made a good target, for these large fighting platforms held six men—only two of whom had shields. The horses that drew the chariots were probably also hit with these lethal shafts, and once a horse was down in harness, that chariot was rendered instantly immobile. Once the charioteers were “softened up” by the archer’s stinging shafts, Alexander moved in with his Companions cavalry to finish the job.

The Companions cavalry moved forward at a gallop, the soldier’s purple tunics blending to form an undulating purple band across the horizon. Purple and yellow cloaks billowed behind them, and each soldier was wearing a bronze helmet in the Boeotian style, with a large curved “floppy” brim that gave the wearer an excellent field of vision. Although often depicted as bare headed for artistic purposes, Alexander himself often wore a Boeotian helmet. The members of the Companions cavalry were superb horsemen. They had to be; the ancients did not have stirrups. Each Companion cavalryman wielded a xyston, a long lance that featured a spear point on both ends. Made of sturdy cornel wood, it nevertheless frequently shattered in battle. That is why there was a spear point on both ends; if a lance shattered, a cavalryman could quickly reverse the haft and fight on.

The Indian charioteers were hard put to mount an adequate defense. Not only were Alexander’s men pressing on all sides, but the chariots had lost their main battle advantage—mobility. The soft clay near the river had been turned into a quagmire by the heavy rains, and the churning caused by horses’ hooves and chariot wheels made it worse. Within a very short time the chariots’ defense ground to a halt, literally bogged down in the mud. Those charioteers and cavalry not killed by the Macedonians took to their heels—or hooves—in a frantic attempt to escape. They left behind 400 dead, including Porus’s own son. It is said that virtually all the chariots—probably many disabled or deep in mud—were captured.

Porus Prepares For Battle

Porus was informed of the disaster, but took the evil tidings like a king, setting aside his personal feelings to deal with the crisis at hand. The rajah decided to give battle, but forewarned by his son’s fate he chose his ground carefully, selecting a broad sandy plain that would be suitable for cavalry.

Again, authorities differ on specifics, but Porus probably had 4,000 cavalry, 300 chariots, 200 elephants, and 30,000 infantry. The typical Indian infantryman was an archer, his principal weapon a heavy bamboo bow that shot an unusually long arrow. It must have taken strength to draw the bow, because Greek sources maintain Indian arrows could pierce corselets and shields with little difficulty. The Indian infantryman wore no armor; bare chested, he merely had a white cotton skirt girded around his loins. The Indians generally wore no helmets, either, but pulled their black hair into a topknot, bun, or small “ponytail.”

Porus’ Biggest Weapon? Gray “Battering Rams”

Porus placed his most formidable weapons, the war elephants, in his first line of battle. The elephant was something new to the Greeks and Macedonians, and certainly Alexander had never faced such a terrible threat. When properly used, elephants could be terrifying, great gray “battering rams” whose metal-tipped tusks could rend and gore and whose huge feet could trample and crush. The elephants were placed at 100-foot intervals with some infantry between the gaps to protect the elephant’s flanks. The bulk of the Indian infantry was behind the pachyderms and formed the second line of battle. Cavalry and chariots protected the army’s flanks.

Meanwhile, Alexander was advancing toward Porus’s assembling army. When the king and his Companions cavalry saw that the Indians were offering battle, he paused to let his own infantry come up and rest. Even though many were veterans who were inured to hardships, the march must have been a taxing one. Some may not have had body armor, but they did have helmets, swords, shields, and spears, and these tools of a soldier’s trade added extra weight.

They were marching in muddy ground, and it must have seemed to the Macedonian infantry that the very soil of India was on Porus’s side. Every time a soldier made a step, he sank deeply into the mud, and when he raised his foot, he would find it nearly trapped in the mud’s viscous embrace. Once the mud-spattered infantry arrived, they must have welcomed the rest Alexander allowed them. There was a practical reason why the king allowed them a “breather”; he didn’t want to have his winded troops engage a fresh enemy.

The Battle of Hydaspes was about to begin. The actual date of the battle is a matter of considerable dispute. The ancient writer Diodorus places it in “the archonship of Chiemes at Athens,” that is, about July. In one passage Arrian maintains it was in the Attic month of Munchion, or in about April/May. Yet later he contradicts himself by saying the battle was “after the summer solstice,” which would be after June 21. The “jury is still out” on the matter, but most sources say the date was May 326 b.c.

Exposing The Indian Horseman

Alexander opened the battle by sending a swarm of horse archers against the cavalry on the Indian left. It was a tactic he used earlier against the chariots, but now the stakes were much higher. Pelted by the arrow storm, the left-wing Indian cavalry moved against their swift-riding tormentors. This is exactly what Alexander hoped they’d do: Once exposed, the Indian horsemen would be easy prey for his Companions cavalry.

The king personally led his men forward, his Companions as usual in the van. The Macedonian cavalry smashed into the opposing horsemen like a juggernaut, the battlefield quickly dissolving into a bloody chaos of flailing hooves, clashing swords, and thrusting lances. Alexander was in the very midst of the melee, giving little thought to his personal safety as he traded blows with Indian horsemen.

Alexander Offers Himself As Bait

When Porus saw what was happening he ordered cavalry from his right wing to come to the aid of those on the hard-pressed left. The Indian right-wing cavalry moved in a kind of oblique fashion across the battlefield, riding in the “no man’s land” between the two armies. Apparently these right-wing “rescuers” were just about to fall on Alexander when Macedonian horsemen appeared in their rear as if by magic.

Alexander had been the bait, and now the Indian cavalry was well within the trap. In a prearranged maneuver orchestrated by Alexander, Coenus had taken at least one hipparchy and swung around to attack the Indian cavalry from the rear. Coenus had taken a wide, circuitous route; some speculate he had ridden behind the Macedonian infantry to conceal his movements and maintain the surprise. In any event, the Indian cavalry was thrown back in utter route, the survivors seeking refuge with the elephants.

Porus’ War Elephants Ready To Charge

Almost as if on cue the war elephants now took center stage, lumbering out to the attack. The Macedonian infantry accepted the challenge, but the situation was spine-chilling: A solid gray wall of powerful beasts, each weighing upward of two tons, rapidly closed the gap between them. As the elephants drew closer and the gap between the two sides grew narrower, the Macedonians were probably awed by these living fortresses of muscle, ivory, and bone. Trunks poised in a s-curve, the elephants trumpeted again and again, their cries heard distinctly over the din of battle. The celebrated Macedonian phalanx was about to receive an elephant charge; would it stand up to the test?

Along with the Companions cavalry, the Macedonian phalanx was a pillar of Alexander’s successes. The phalanx was a formation consisting of 16 files of men, each soldier armed with a two-handed pike of Balkan origin called a sarissa (plural sarissai) The sarissai were very long, about 15-18 feet from butt to spear point, and the use of such weapons required highly trained soldiers. Drill must have been constant.

Macedonian Phalanx Clash With Porus’ Elephants

The heart of the Macedonian phalanx formations were the Foot Companions, ( pezhetairoi ), formed into battalions usually named after their commanders. Like the cavalry some of the Foot Companions may have worn corselets/cuirasses, but it is certain all wore bronze helmets. The “Phrygian” style, which featured a bulbous crown that was likened to a cockscomb, seemed to be most popular. Most infantry helmets seem to have been painted blue, possibly an infantry color. Most soldiers had swords as secondary weapons and shields for protection. Since the sarissa was a two-handed weapon, some authorities have suggested that the shield was hung on a strap around a soldier’s neck to free his arms.

The leading ranks of the phalanx formations lowered their pikes, thus presenting a prickly forest of points to the onrushing elephants. Details are sketchy, but apparently the elephants smashed through the sarissai like so many matchsticks. The Macedonians were also throwing javelins—smaller, lighter spears—and both javelins and pikes began to find their marks. Unfortunately, wounds only enraged the elephants, goading them into a nearly uncontrollable fury. Ponderous heads slashed left and right, impaling Macedonian soldiers on their tusks, and probing trunks grasped struggling soldiers and flung them into the air like dolls. Other Macedonians were trampled underfoot, crushed into bloody pulp by rearing pachyderms.

Wounds Take Toll On Elephants

Yet other Macedonian soldiers brave or foolhardy enough to get close used swords and axes to chop and slash the elephants’ feet. Each elephant had a mahout or driver and one or two warriors on their backs. The warriors carried spears with bamboo hafts, and the mahout was also armed, but the real weapon was the elephant’s sheer brute strength. Behind their massive façade, however, the elephants had serious weaknesses. As noted earlier, they were very sensitive to wounds, and if wounded enough would go into paroxysms of fear and rage. Once in this state they were uncontrollable, dangerous to friend as well as foe. They also tended to go crazy in the heat of battle if their mahout was killed and they had no one to guide them.

According to some sources Alexander had given orders on how to deal with the elephants before the battle was joined. The king told his men to concentrate missile fire on the lead elephants, with special attention paid to the mahouts/drivers. Obeying his instructions to the letter, Macedonian pikes impaled mahouts from all sides, tumbling the drivers from their high perches straddling the elephants’ necks. Javelins also did their work, wounding elephants and killing or wounding their riders. Maddened with pain, rage, and fear, the elephants began floundering about, trampling and goring Indians as well as Macedonians. The battlefield was transformed into an amorphous mass of infantry, cavalry, elephants, and even chariots all jammed together in bloody confusion.

Phalanxes Destroy The Indian Cavalry

The initiative passed to Alexander; the battle was won. The king ordered his phlangites (men of the phalanxes) into the “locked shield” or sysnaspismos formation. With this order the phalanx formations closed up on a narrower front, thus presenting a near-solid line of men, shields, and pikes to the enemy. Once in sysnaspismos , the phalanxes moved inexorably forward. The Indian cavalry and chariots were in disarray, and the Indian infantry was no match for the phalanx. By this time, weakened by wounds and exhaustion, the elephants were a spent force, and many were captured by the Macedonians.

Porus’s army disintegrated, the survivors taking to their heels at first opportunity. Their retreat was suddenly cut off by Craterus, who had crossed the river from the base camp when he judged the Macedonians had been victorious. His timing was impeccable, and thousands of Indians were cut down in flight. Some did manage to make their escape, but Porus’s army was finished as a fighting force.

Porus Belatedly Surrenders

Rajah Porus himself did not flee. He had fought with his troops and been wounded, but refused to surrender. By some accounts he remained on his elephant, spear in hand, defying the Macedonians and rejecting all notions of flight or capitulation. His old enemy Taxiles was sent forward in an effort to get him to lay down his arms, but old grudges were hard to forget, and Porus nearly speared the rival rajah. Another Indian went forward, and he was more successful. Porus came down from his elephant and surrendered; although feeling faint from his wound he presented himself to Alexander.

Some sources claim Porus was five cubits high—that is, about seven and one-half feet tall! Others maintain that his height was measured by the shorter Attic cubit, which would reduce it to a more believable 6 feet or so. In any event, he must have towered over Alexander, who was said to be shorter than average.

“Treat Me Like A King”

“What do you wish I should do with you?” Alexander queried, and Porus’s answer was straight and to the point. “Treat me like a king,” said the proud rajah, an answer that was said to have pleased Alexander very much. The Macedonian not only spared Porus, but he made him a client king.

Casualty figures for the Battle of Hydaspes vary widely. Diodorus, who is as good a source as any, claims Porus lost 12,000 men and 9,000 captured. Others say 20,000 Indians were killed. Diodorus places Macedonian losses at 280 cavalry and 700 infantry. Whatever the figures, Hyspades was one of the bloodiest and hardest fought battles in Alexander’s career.

Soldiers Munity; Alexander Ends The Eastward March

Alexander wanted to push on to the Ganges River some 250 miles distant. He was sure that the Ganges emptied into Ocean, and thus marked the end of the terrestrial world. His war-weary soldiers did not share this enthusiasm for exploration. They had fought in many campaigns and endured many hardships in the quest for glory, and now they had had their fill. They had campaigned for almost eight years and marched some 17,000 miles. Now, the Macedonians wanted to enjoy their spoils and see their families if they had any. The soldiers mutinied, refusing to go any farther, and even an impassioned speech by Alexander failed to sway them.

Alexander finally acquiesced and started the long trek of return. He never again saw his homeland. Three years into the journey back he died in Babylon, aged only 32. His empire proved ephemeral, but he crafted a lasting achievement—the spreading of Greek culture. His conquests marked the beginning of the Hellenistic age that would last for centuries.

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Alexander the Great in India: Furthest and Final Conquests 327-325 BCE

After conquering most of the Achaemenid Empire Alexander the Great turned his attention to India. Here on the Indian subcontinent, he would fight some of the hardest battles of his career.

With the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire all but complete, Alexander the Great continued to march his armies eastwards into the Indian subcontinent. The Achaemenid Empire had established at least two satrapies in the Indus River Valley . Moreover, the Indian subcontinent was a fabulously wealthy land that few Greeks or Macedonians had ever seen. Yet, the various rulers of India were also powerful warlords who commanded enormous armies and would not easily be defeated by Alexander the Great. As a result, there, the Macedonians would face their most arduous of campaigns. In the end, the conquest of India was to prove too much, and Alexander the Great was forced to turn back.

India in the Age of Alexander the Great

The invasion of India by Alexander the Great was limited to the area of the Indus River Basin. In the decades prior to the invasion, the Achaemenid Empire had controlled most of the region, but evidence of Achaemenid rule east of the Indus River was nonexistent. Most of the region was ruled by small states centered around the dominance of a particular tribe. These states had recognized Achaemenid overlordship and supplied troops to the Achaemenid Empire’s armies. This was a highly urbanized region with extensive agricultural cultivation and well-established trade routes. There were also some far less developed communities in areas around the forests, deserts, and coasts.

Greek accounts make no mention of Buddhism , temples, or even religion. The only reference to the caste system is the Brahmans , who are described not as priests but as philosophers and advisors to the kings and princes of India. Greek observers also witnessed Sati , the practice of widows immolating themselves on their husband’s funeral pyres, the ritual exposure of dead bodies to vultures, and the practice of slavery. However, the Greeks also recognized cultural differences between different groups of Indians in different parts of the Indus River Valley. Perhaps what made the greatest impression, though, were the Indian medical sciences which in several areas were more advanced than those of the Greeks.

Completing the Conquest of the Achaemenid Empire: The Invasion of India

The invasion of India was in many ways the next logical phase in Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Achaemenid Empire. This was, after all, the only remaining part of the Achaemenid Empire that had not submitted to him. In 327 BCE, Alexander summoned the chieftains of the satrapy of Gandhara to submit to him. Ambhi (in Greek Omphis), ruler of Taxila , complied and would lead his forces alongside Alexander the Great during the invasion. Alexander married Roxana to cement his relations with the satraps in Central Asia and secure his supply routes and lines of communication. He also detached his general Amyntas with 3,500 cavalry and 10,000 infantry to guard the region before embarking on his campaign.

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Between May 327 BCE and March 326 BCE, Alexander the Great began the first phase of his invasion with what is now known as the Cophen Campaign. His goal was to secure his line of communication by capturing fortresses of the Aspasioi, Guraeans, and Assakenoi tribes in the Kunar valley of modern Afghanistan and the Panjkora (Dir) and Swat valleys of modern Pakistan. The Aspasians were the first to be conquered and Alexander the Great took their cities after a series of sharp engagements during which both he and his general Ptolemy were wounded; though Ptolemy killed the Apasian king. The Guraeans then razed their cities and attempted to catch the Macedonians off guard but were defeated. Next, the Assacenians were defeated in a tough battle and their king was slain. However, Cleophis, the mother of the Assacenian king, refused to surrender the capital city of Massaga, which only fell after a tough siege. Finally, Alexander took Aornus, which proved to be his last great siege and secured his lines of communication across the Hindu Kush.

The Battle of the Hydaspes (326 BCE)

After debouching from the Hindu Kush, Alexander the Great’s army linked up with the forces of king Ambhi of Taxila. Continuing their march to the east, they entered the territory of king Porus (possibly Paurava) , who ruled between the Hydaspes and Acesines (Chenab) rivers in the Punjab region. Porus and Ambhi had long been rivals and now Porus was determined to defend his kingdom. Against Alexander the Great’s army of 40,000 infantry, 5-7,000 cavalry, and roughly 5,000 allied Indians, Porus mustered 20-50,000 infantry, 2-4,000 cavalry, 1,000 chariots, and 85-200 war elephants. Both armies encamped on opposite banks of the Hydaspes (Jhelum) river, which was so deep and fast that whichever side attempted to attack across it would likely be destroyed by the other. For several days Alexander moved his cavalry up and down the riverbank looking for a place to cross while Porus shadowed him. Eventually, Alexander was able to move a force across the river while his general Craterus distracted Porus’ forces.

Porus soon discovered Alexander had crossed the river and dispatched his son and chariots to try and stop him. However, they were defeated, and Porus’ son was killed. When the main battle began Alexander the Great sent his horse archers to attack the Indian cavalry on the right wing, while his Companion cavalry attacked the Indian cavalry on the left. Seeing their compatriots on the left in trouble, the Indian cavalry on the right rode to their aid. They were followed by the rest of the Macedonian cavalry, attacked from the rear, and scattered. The Indian war elephants and infantry then attacked and were met by the Macedonian phalanx. A tough hand to hand battle ensued with each side launching repeated attacks and suffering many casualties. Eventually, Craterus arrived with reinforcement just as Alexander the Great was able to attack the rear of the Porus’ army with his cavalry, finally breaking it and effectively ending the Battle of the Hydaspes .

An Army Revolt Sends Alexander the Great Home

The Macedonians suffered heavy casualties during the battle of the Hydaspes. Nonetheless, when Porus surrendered, Alexander the Great spared his life, returned his throne, and helped him reconcile with Ambhi out of admiration for his bravery and prowess. An able local ruler also helped Alexander administer his territory. During the battle, Alexander the Great’s horse, Bucephalus , had suffered a mortal wound. Having first received Bucephalus as a teen and ridden him across Asia, Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria Bucephalus in his honor. Alexander the Great then marched on receiving the surrender of additional kings until near the Hyphasis (modern Beas) river, his men finally refused to go further. They mutinied and begged Alexander to turn back and allow them to return home.

The Hyphasis river is not too distant from the Ganges, which the Macedonians had been told was incredibly wide and deep, making any crossing difficult. It also sat on the border of the vast and powerful Nanda Empire. Having been mauled in battle by Porus’ army, Alexander the Great’s Macedonians were utterly demoralized by the prospect of facing another more powerful Indian army. Unable to convince his men to march further on, Alexander sulked in his tent for several days until the soldiers begged him to lead them once more and professed their love and loyalty. Thus reconciled, Alexander and the Macedonian army began the long march west. Interestingly, the Nanda king, Dhana Nanda would only rule for a few more years as he was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya , founder of the Mauryan Empire, in 322 BC.

Alexander the Great’s Final Wounds

After the mutiny, Alexander the Great marched his army down river along the Hydaspes to Acesine in order to define the eastern limits of his empire. However, the Mallians and Oxydracians, though traditionally enemies, had formed an alliance to oppose the Macedonians. Their combined forces were said to number 90,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 900 chariots. Unbeknownst to the Indians, Alexander the Great was willing to wage war year-round, which was unthinkable to most ancient armies. Therefore, the Indians were caught off guard by the speed of Alexander’s advance. Not wanting to let any Indians escape, Alexander carried out a sophisticated campaign of river crossings and rapid marches with different corps of his army acting independently. Soon the alliance between the Mallians and Oxydracians collapsed as they could not agree on who should command or what their strategy should be, and they retreated into their capitals.

Finally, Alexander the Great approached the capital of the Mallians, possibly the modern city of Multan. The Mallians attempted to meet Alexander the Great in the field one last time but were again defeated. When the Macedonians approached the city, the Mallians abandoned the outer fortifications and retreated into the city. Alexander set his men to undermine the walls but became impatient. He seized a ladder and scaled the walls with two other soldiers. The rest of the Macedonians attempted to follow but so crowded the ladders that they broke under the weight. When the Mallians realized who Alexander was and how vulnerable he was, they desperately sought to kill him. Although the Macedonians begged Alexander to jump off the wall onto their shields, he instead rushed further into the citadel. There, he killed the Mallian leader but was shot in the lung with an arrow . The Macedonians then broke into the citadel and rescued Alexander, whom they carried back for medical treatment and proceeded to massacre the Mallians, who they believed had killed their king.

Legacy of Alexander the Great in India

After hovering near death for four days, Alexander recovered from his wound and received the surrender of the surviving Mallians. He then continued down the river, conquering the remaining Indians tribes in his path. Upon reaching the coast, Alexander the Great commissioned a fleet to explore the Persian Gulf and marched the rest of his army back to Babylon across the brutal Gedrosian desert. In India, he left Peithon and Eudemus as his satraps alongside Porus and Ambhi with a large army. After Alexander the Great’s sudden death in 323 BC , Porus was assassinated by Eudemus, who was then executed by another of Alexander’s former generals, while Peithon was killed in battle, and Ambhi lost his kingdom to Chandraguta Maurya.

Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Achaemenid Empire ’s territory in the Indian subcontinent brought two vastly different cultures into direct contact for the first time. Greek colonies were established, so that cultural contact and exchange continued long after Alexander the Great departed. As a result, there was a lively exchange of ideas about philosophy, religion, medicine, science, mathematics, geography, warfare, trade, and art. The Indo-Greek artworks that have survived form their own distinct style and are some of the most impressive pieces to have been produced during this period. Stories of India were passed down through the centuries in Europe so that Alexander’s conquests assumed mythic proportions and exerted a profound influence. It would not be unreasonable to therefore conclude that Alexander the Great’s time in India was the most important aspect of his legacy.

Alexander The Great: 11 Facts on the Greatest Conqueror

By Robert C. L. Holmes MA Ancient & Medieval History, BA Archaeology Robert Holmes has an MA in Ancient & Medieval History and a BA in Archaeology. He is an independent historian and author, who specializes in the Military History of the Ancient and Medieval World and has published over a dozen articles on related topics. Originally from Massachusetts, he now lives in Florida where he works doing public history leading tours, giving lectures, and educating people about the local history.

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The Impacts of Alexander’s Conquest of India: Examining Consequences and Legacies

Alexander the Great, the renowned ancient Greek conqueror, embarked on a remarkable expedition that had far-reaching consequences and left a lasting legacy on the Indian subcontinent. This article delves into the intricacies of Alexander’s conquest of India , examining the background, motives, battle campaigns, consequences, and legacies of this momentous event.

The background of Alexander’s expedition sets the stage for his conquest of India. Born in 356 BCE in Macedonia, Alexander grew up to become one of history’s most formidable military leaders . Building upon the accomplishments of his father, Philip II, he inherited a well-trained army and a burning ambition to expand his empire .

Driven by glory, personal ambition, and a desire to expand the boundaries of his empire, Alexander set out on his conquest of Asia in 334 BCE. With a formidable army, he embarked on a series of military campaigns, conquering vast territories , and establishing Greek influence across the regions he conquered.

The battle campaign of Alexander’s conquest is a tale of strategic brilliance and military might . Upon entering India, Alexander faced fierce resistance from various regional kingdoms. The invasion of northern India proved to be a challenging endeavor, marked by intense battles and strategic maneuvering. It was the Battle of the Hydaspes River that showcased Alexander’s tactical genius, as he defeated the powerful King Porus and established his dominance.

The consequences of Alexander’s conquest were profound, shaping the Indian subcontinent’s future. The impact on Indian kingdoms was substantial, as many fell under the influence or direct control of Alexander and his successors. Socio-political changes occurred as Greek cultural elements blended with Indian traditions, resulting in a cultural exchange that left its mark on both civilizations.

The legacy of Alexander’s conquest reverberated through history. Historically, it marked a significant milestone in Greek and Indian interactions, leading to a fusion of ideas and knowledge. The conquest served as a model for later conquerors, inspiring them to seek the grandeur and glory that Alexander achieved. it sparked reflections on empire-building strategies and the complexities of ruling vast territories.

In examining Alexander’s conquest of India , it becomes clear that its consequences and legacies transcend mere military conquest. This article delves into the intricacies of this remarkable historical event, shedding light on its profound impact on Indian history, culture, and the development of empire-building strategies.

Key takeaway:

• Alexander’s Conquest of India led to socio-political changes: The conquest resulted in significant impact on Indian kingdoms, leading to changes in the social and political landscape of the region.
• Alexander’s Conquest facilitated cultural exchange and influence: The interaction between Alexander’s forces and the Indian kingdoms allowed for a cultural exchange and influenced the local traditions and practices.
• Alexander’s Conquest had a lasting historical significance: The conquest of India by Alexander the Great left a lasting historical impact, shaping the perception of empire-building strategies for future conquerors.

Alexander’s Conquest of India

When Alexander set his sights on India , he embarked on one of history’s most daring conquests. In this section, we’ll uncover the captivating story behind Alexander’s conquest of India. From the fascinating background of his expedition to the motives that drove him to conquer, we’ll dive into the epic battle campaign that unfolded. Journey back in time and discover the remarkable consequences and enduring legacies of Alexander’s quest for Indian conquest .

The Background of Alexander’s Expedition

The background of Alexander’s expedition to India is crucial for comprehending his motives and outcomes. Alexander the Great , the Macedonian king , embarked on this campaign in 326 BCE after successfully conquering Persia and the Eastern Mediterranean.

1. The political situation in India: The Indian subcontinent was divided into powerful kingdoms like the Nanda Empire and the Maurya Empire . These kingdoms’ wealth, resources, and strategic location made them alluring targets for Alexander’s expansionist ambitions.

2. The influence of previous Greek expeditions: Alexander drew inspiration from accounts of Greek navigators and merchants who had previously ventured into India. These stories depicted India’s riches, such as spices, precious metals, and exotic flora and fauna. Alexander’s objective was to control these lucrative trade routes and establish Greek influence.

3. Cultural and intellectual curiosity: Alexander, a student of Aristotle, was fueled by his thirst for knowledge, exploration, and conquest. He sought to learn about diverse cultures and spread Greek customs and philosophy. The various cultures and spiritual traditions in India captivated his interest.

4. The legend of Hercules: Alexander believed himself to be a descendant of Hercules, the legendary Greek hero. According to mythology, Hercules had successfully journeyed to India, leaving behind a legacy that Alexander aimed to surpass. The allure of following in his mythological ancestor’s footsteps motivated his determination.

5. Desire for personal glory and legacy: Alexander possessed great ambition and aspired to establish a vast empire that would secure his place in history. Conquering India presented an opportunity to achieve extraordinary accomplishments and solidify his legacy as one of the greatest conquerors.

The background of Alexander’s expedition showcases a intricate combination of political, economic, intellectual, and personal motivations. These factors set the stage for subsequent battles and their far-reaching consequences on Indian kingdoms, socio-political structures, and cultural exchange. Understanding this context is vital to fully grasp the magnitude and significance of Alexander’s conquest of India.

The only thing more motivating than conquering the world is conquering it with a killer sense of style – Alexander the Great ‘s got it all.

The Motives behind Alexander’s Conquest

The motives behind Alexander’s conquest of India included personal ambition, territorial expansion, a thirst for glory, economic interests, strategic considerations, and a desire to spread Greek culture.

Alexander sought to solidify his position as a great conqueror and expand his empire by establishing dominance over a vast and diverse territory.

He believed that conquering India would secure his place in history as one of the greatest conquerors of all time.

India’s wealth and valuable resources presented an opportunity for Alexander to acquire vast riches and increase his empire’s economic prosperity.

Conquering India would also demonstrate Alexander’s military prowess and strategic acumen.

Alexander aimed to spread Greek culture and civilization by bringing Greek influences to India, thereby cultivating cultural unity within his empire.

This combination of personal ambition , economic interests , strategic considerations , and a desire for cultural diffusion shaped Alexander’s decision to embark on this ambitious military campaign, leaving a profound impact on the history of the ancient world.

The Battle Campaign

The Battle Campaign during Alexander’s conquest of India was a significant part of his expedition. It involved strategic military maneuvers and decisive clashes with Indian forces. Here are the key events and developments during the Battle Campaign:

1. The Invasion of Northern India: Alexander’s campaign in India began with his invasion of the northern region. He faced resistance from powerful Indian rulers, including King Ambhi of Taxila and King Porus of Punjab.

2. The Battle of the Hydaspes River: One of the most pivotal battles during Alexander’s Indian campaign was the Battle of the Hydaspes River. Alexander’s forces, heavily outnumbered, fought against King Porus and his army. Alexander used superior tactics and organization, leading to his victory and the submission of King Porus .

During the Battle Campaign, Alexander demonstrated his military prowess and strategic acumen. His tactical decisions and adaptability to different terrains played crucial roles in his victories. The Battle of the Hydaspes River, in particular, showcased his leadership and the effectiveness of his Macedonian phalanx formation .

In addition to his military achievements, it is important to note the significant impact of the Battle Campaign on the Indian kingdoms. Alexander’s conquest resulted in the establishment of Greek-influenced regions and the diffusion of Hellenistic culture.

Alexander’s conquest of India: Where tiger meets titan, it’s a battle that roared with chaos and conquest.

The Invasion of Northern India

The Invasion of Northern India by Alexander the Great was a pivotal event in his conquests. This military campaign played a significant role in shaping the history of the region. Here, we provide important details about this invasion.

1. Alexander’s strategy: He embarked on the Invasion of Northern India with the goal of expanding his empire, extending his dominion to the east, and consolidating his power in the region.

2. Military prowess: Alexander possessed a formidable army, consisting of highly skilled soldiers and cavalry. They employed superior tactics, such as the Macedonian phalanx formation , to conquer various kingdoms in Northern India.

3. Resistance from Indian kingdoms: Powerful realms, including the Nanda Empire and the Pauravas , fiercely opposed Alexander’s invasion . They proved no match for his disciplined army and military strategies.

4. Battle of the River Hydaspes: The most significant confrontation occurred between Alexander’s forces and the army led by King Porus . Despite Porus’ valiant efforts, Alexander emerged victorious, firmly establishing his control over the region.

5. Consequences of the invasion: Alexander’s incursion brought about a shift in power dynamics as Indian kingdoms came under Hellenistic influence . The territories he conquered served as a foundation for future foreign invasions and cultural exchanges.

6. Cultural exchange and influence: The invasion facilitated a fruitful exchange of culture between the Greeks and Indians . Greek art, architecture, and philosophy spread, influencing Indian culture and society.

7. Legacy: This invasion marked a turning point in Indian history , profoundly influencing the political landscape and leaving a lasting impact on the conquered kingdoms. It served as a blueprint for later conquerors, influencing their strategies and approaches to building empires.

The Invasion of Northern India by Alexander the Great had far-reaching consequences. It fundamentally transformed the region’s political, cultural, and social landscape, leaving an indelible mark on Indian history .

The Battle of the Hydaspes River

The Battle of the Hydaspes River was a significant event during Alexander the Great’s conquest of India. It took place in 326 BCE between Alexander’s army and King Porus’ army , located in Punjab .

During the battle, Alexander strategically positioned his troops to take advantage of Porus’ larger but less organized forces. The Macedonian phalanx , Alexander’s formidable infantry formation, played a crucial role. With their tightly packed shields and long spears, they resisted Porus’ war elephants, the backbone of his army.

In the end, Alexander emerged victorious due to disciplined tactics and skilled use of cavalry. Despite Porus’ brave efforts, he was captured but spared by Alexander. Alexander even appointed Porus as a satrap , allowing him to retain his kingdom under Alexander’s authority.

The Battle of the Hydaspes River had important implications for Alexander’s conquest of India. It marked the easternmost extent of his empire and showcased his military prowess. It also inspired fear and awe among local rulers, paving the way for future conquests.

The battle impacted the region by incorporating Punjab into Alexander’s empire , with Greek influence. It also promoted cultural exchange and trade between Greeks and the local population, fostering an amalgamation of ideas and traditions.

The Battle of the Hydaspes River demonstrates Alexander’s military genius and strategic acumen, solidifying his reputation as one of history’s greatest conquerors. Its consequences left a lasting legacy on the conquered lands and shaped history’s course.

The Consequences of Alexander’s Conquest

The aftermath of Alexander the Great’s conquest in India reverberated across the land, resulting in significant consequences that shaped the course of history. In this section, we will delve into the impact on Indian kingdoms , the socio-political changes that unfolded, and the cultural exchange and influence that ensued. Get ready to journey through a pivotal era where the clash of civilizations left an indelible mark on the subcontinent , forever altering its landscape and legacy .

Impact on Indian Kingdoms

The conquest of India by Alexander the Great had a significant impact on the Indian kingdoms. The consequences of his conquest and its lasting effects on the region can be explored.

1. Political upheaval: Alexander’s invasion caused political instability in the Indian kingdoms. Many rulers were defeated or forced to pay tribute, disrupting traditional power structures . This had a profound impact on the governance and establishment of political systems in the Indian kingdoms.

2. Territorial changes: The conquest created new territories and regions under Alexander’s control. He established cities like Alexandria on the Indus, which served as important centers of administration and trade. These territorial changes reshaped the geographic landscape and influenced the boundaries of the Indian kingdoms.

3. Cultural exchange: The interaction between the Greeks and the Indian kingdoms led to a significant cultural exchange. Greek influences spread across art, architecture, literature, and philosophy, resulting in a synthesis of Greek and Indian cultures known as the Greco-Indian culture. This cultural exchange had a profound impact on the artistic and intellectual pursuits of the Indian kingdoms.

4. Military advancements: The Indian kingdoms learned valuable military tactics and strategies from Alexander’s forces. Exposure to the Greek army influenced their military practices and improved their capabilities. This military exchange brought about a transformation in the military strength and strategic thinking of the Indian kingdoms.

5. Trade and commerce: The conquest opened up new trade routes between the Indian kingdoms and the Hellenistic world, boosting economic growth and prosperity in the region. The establishment of these trade routes had a significant impact on the trade networks and economic activities of the Indian kingdoms.

6. Social and religious changes: Greek culture impacted the social and religious practices of the Indian kingdoms. The spread of Hellenistic ideas brought changes in art, religious rituals, and belief systems. These social and religious changes brought about a transformation in the cultural and religious fabric of the Indian kingdoms.

*Disclaimer: The information provided is based on historical records and accounts from various sources.

Socio-Political Changes

Socio-political changes played a significant role in Alexander the Great’s conquest of India . His military campaigns brought about profound transformations in the political landscape, governance, and social structures of the conquered regions.

1. Political Reorganization: Alexander implemented Greek Satraps (governors) to govern the conquered territories, effectively establishing Greek political influence in India . These Satraps ensured the preservation of Greek influence and executed Alexander’s policies.

2. Administrative Systems: Alexander introduced administrative reforms, which included the adoption of Greek practices such as a standardized system of taxation and the establishment of Greek-style local governments.

3. Cultural Assimilation: The socio-political changes led to the assimilation of Greek and Indian cultures, resulting in the development of a syncretic Hellenistic culture. Greek art, philosophy, and education became integral parts of Indian society.

4. Social Stratification: Alexander’s conquest brought changes to social hierarchies. A new social class emerged, consisting of the ruling Greek elite and Indian aristocracy, while the local population experienced shifts in their social status. Land ownership and redistribution were altered.

5. Influence on Indian Rulers: The socio-political changes exerted a lasting influence on Indian rulers in the centuries that followed. Greek political systems and cultural elements left an indelible impact on Indian governance and society.

6. Expansion of Greek Influence: Alexander’s conquest expanded Greek influence and facilitated the dissemination of Hellenistic culture throughout India. This influence extended beyond politics to encompass art, literature, and architecture.

The socio-political changes resulting from Alexander the Great’s conquest of India fundamentally reshaped the political and social fabric of the region. Greek influence and elements of Hellenistic culture continued to predominate long after Alexander’s reign, leaving an enduring impact on Indian history.

Cultural Exchange and Influence

The conquest of India by Alexander the Great had a profound impact on the cultural exchange and influence between the Greeks and the Indians. This interaction between the two civilizations resulted in a significant cultural exchange and mutual influence, leading to the blending and transmission of ideas, beliefs, and practices.

1. Exchange of Knowledge:

During this time, the Greeks introduced Indian scholars to their philosophy, science, and literature. In return, the Indians fascinated the Greeks with their mathematical and astronomical knowledge. This exchange of knowledge greatly enhanced the intellectual growth of both civilizations.

2. Art and Architecture:

The Greeks had a strong influence on the Buddhist and Hindu sculptures of ancient India, which began to display Hellenistic features. Simultaneously, elements of Indian art, such as vibrant colors and intricate details, started to influence Greek artistic traditions.

3. Religious Syncretism:

The exchange between the Greeks and Indians also had a significant impact on their religious beliefs and practices. Greek ideas of philosophical inquiry influenced Indian philosophical thought, leading to the development of new religious ideas and syncretic belief systems. The blending of these influences can be seen in the art and symbolism of Gandhara.

4. Linguistic and Literary Exchange:

The Greek presence in India played a role in the development of Sanskrit, with Greek loanwords appearing in ancient Sanskrit texts. Indian epics like the Mahabharata were translated into Greek and circulated in the Hellenistic world, thus promoting Indian literary traditions.

5. Trade and Commerce:

The conquest of India by Alexander the Great facilitated trade and commerce between the Greeks and Indians. Greek colonies in India, including Alexandria Bucephalous, became important centers of exchange for goods, ideas, and cultural practices. The trade routes established during this time connected the Mediterranean world with India, contributing to a vibrant exchange of goods and cultural practices.

From laying the foundation for future empires to inspiring conquerors throughout history, Alexander’s conquest of India leaves a lasting legacy that echoes through the ages.

The Legacy of Alexander’s Conquest

Alexander the Great’s conquest of India left a lasting legacy that shaped history. In this section, we’ll explore the profound impact of his conquest and the consequences it had on future conquerors. Discover the historical significance , how it influenced later conquerors, and gain insights into the strategies of empire-building. Brace yourself for a journey through time as we delve into the enduring legacy of Alexander’s conquest .

Historical Significance

The historical significance of Alexander’s conquest of India cannot be understated. This event marked a turning point in ancient history and had far-reaching implications for both India and the world.

Territorial Expansion: Alexander conquered India , extending his empire to the borders of the Indian subcontinent. This vast empire covered a significant portion of the known world at the time and established Alexander as one of the greatest conquerors in history.

Cultural Exchange: The invasion of India facilitated a significant cultural exchange between the Greeks and Indians. Greek influence on Indian art, architecture, literature, and philosophy can be seen in the fusion of Hellenistic and Indian styles during this period. This exchange of ideas had a profound impact on both civilizations, shaping their future development.

Spread of Hellenistic Culture: Alexander’s conquest introduced Greek culture to India , paving the way for the spread of Hellenistic influence in the region. Greek settlements were established, and Greek customs and traditions began to intertwine with Indian society. This cultural syncretism laid the foundation for the later Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, which continued to shape Indian history.

Influence on Successor Empires: Alexander’s conquest served as inspiration for future conquerors and empire builders. His vast empire and military strategies became a model for subsequent rulers, including the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire and the Mauryan

Historical Record: Alexander’s expedition to India was extensively documented by Greek and Roman historians, such as Megasthenes , Arrian , and Plutarch . Their writings provide valuable insights into the conquest and its impact on the region, shaping our understanding of ancient India and its interactions with the broader world.

The historical significance of Alexander’s conquest cannot be overstated. It reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the ancient world, facilitated cultural exchange, and influenced future conquerors. The legacy of Alexander’s conquest continues to be studied and appreciated for its remarkable impact on history.

Understanding the historical significance of Alexander’s conquest provides valuable insights into the complexities of ancient empires and the interconnectedness of different civilizations. It serves as a reminder of the transformative power of conquests and the enduring impact they can have on societies. Historical events like this remind us of the intricate tapestry of human history and the importance of studying and appreciating the past .

Influence on Later Conquerors

Alexander the Great’s conquest of India had a significant influence on later conquerors. The impact of Alexander’s conquest on future military campaigns and empire-building strategies can be explored in the following ways:

1. Adaptation of Military Tactics: Alexander introduced and popularized revolutionary military tactics, including combined arms (infantry, cavalry, and siege engines). Later conquerors, like Julius Caesar, emulated these techniques to expand their empires and create formidable armies.

2. Inspiration for Conquerors: Alexander’s conquest of India inspired future conquerors by demonstrating the vast territories that could be conquered. Tamerlane, for example, embarked on expeditions to emulate Alexander’s achievements and establish his own empire in Central Asia and the Middle East.

3. Cultural Exchange and Influence: Alexander’s conquest resulted in a significant cultural exchange between the Greeks and the Indian subcontinent. This exchange of knowledge, ideas, and traditions had a lasting impact on later conquerors. The Hellenistic period witnessed the spread of Greek culture, language, and philosophy throughout the conquered territories, perpetuating this cultural fusion under subsequent conquerors.

4. Enhanced Empire-Building Strategies: Alexander’s conquest provided valuable lessons for future conquerors in terms of governing vast territories. The establishment of administrative systems like satrapies (provinces) and adapting to local customs and institutions facilitated governance in distant regions. Later conquerors, such as the Mauryas in India and the Romans in their imperial expansions, valued and emulated these strategies.

Genghis Khan , the legendary Mongol conqueror, was influenced by Alexander’s conquest. Inspired by Alexander, Khan aimed to build an even more expansive empire. He implemented military tactics and administrative structures inspired by Alexander, enabling the establishment of the largest contiguous empire in history. This illustrates how the influence of previous conquerors can shape the aspirations and strategies of future ones.

Reflection on Empire-Building Strategies

When reflecting on Alexander’s conquest of India , it is evident that his empire-building strategies were both ambitious and effective. His military brilliance and strategic planning enabled him to expand his empire across vast territories. Here are some key reflections on Alexander’s strategies for building his empire:

1. Adaptability: Alexander’s ability to adapt to different terrains, climates, and enemy tactics was crucial to his success. This flexibility allowed him to overcome the challenges he faced during his expedition in India.

2. Local Alliances: Alexander recognized the importance of forming alliances with local rulers to consolidate power and gain support from the local population. These alliances played a vital role in maintaining control over the territories he conquered in India.

3. Cultural Assimilation: Alexander actively promoted cultural exchange and assimilation between his Macedonian troops and the local Indian populations . This fostered collaboration and helped him gain acceptance and loyalty from the Indian people.

4. Consolidation of Power: Alexander understood the significance of consolidating his power through the establishment of administrative structures and the appointment of loyal governors. This ensured effective governance of his empire.

5. Infrastructure Development: Alexander invested in the development of infrastructure to enhance connectivity and trade within his empire. The construction of roads and bridges facilitated efficient administration and trade between different regions.

6. Military Strategy: Alexander’s conquest of India showcased his strategic brilliance in planning and executing military campaigns. His utilization of both conventional and unconventional warfare tactics provided him with an advantage on the battlefield.

7. Legacy of Empire: Alexander’s empire-building strategies laid the groundwork for future conquerors. His successful conquests and the establishment of Hellenistic kingdoms across Asia served as inspiration for later empires, such as the Roman Empire.

As we reflect on Alexander’s conquest, we can consider how his strategies can be applied in modern contexts. Adapting to changing circumstances, forming alliances, embracing cultural diversity, and investing in infrastructure can all contribute to successful empire-building. By learning from history, we can develop proficiency in contemporary strategies for expanding influence and power.

Some Facts About Alexander’s Conquest of India: Consequences and Legacies:

• ✅ Alexander’s invasion of India established a Greek population in the region, leading to cultural exchanges and the development of Greco-Buddhism. (Source: dailyhistory.org)
• ✅ Alexander’s conquests in India influenced Indian art, architecture, and coinage. (Source: thecollector.com)
• ✅ The invasion of India by Alexander and the subsequent interaction between Greek and Indian cultures influenced the development of Hellenistic philosophy and Buddhism. (Source: dailyhistory.org)
• ✅ Greek settlements in India, established during Alexander’s conquests, continued to speak Greek and became a distinct ethnic group known as Yavanas. (Source: dailyhistory.org)
• ✅ Alexander’s invasion of India resulted in significant contacts between Greek and Indian civilizations, paving the way for trade and further cultural exchange. (Source: thecollector.com)

Frequently Asked Questions

1. what were the consequences of alexander the great’s invasion of india.

Alexander’s invasion of India had significant consequences, such as establishing a Greek population in India, increasing cultural exchanges between the Hellenistic and Indian world, and influencing the development of Hellenistic philosophy and Buddhism.

2. How did Alexander the Great’s invasion impact the Indian world?

Alexander’s invasion led to increased contacts between the Greek and Indian cultures, Greek settlements in India, the influence of Greek art, architecture, and coinage, the spread of Buddhism through Greco-Buddhism, and the development of Indian philosophy influenced by Hellenistic philosophies.

3. What territories did Alexander conquer in India?

Alexander first attacked tribal confederations in the Hindu Kush valleys, then crossed the Indus River and absorbed much of Punjab into his empire. He planned to invade the Indian heartland but was forced to retreat when his troops mutinied at the Hyphasis River.

4. What happened after Alexander’s invasion of India?

After Alexander’s death, his generals fought civil wars for control over his empire. Chandragupta Maurya emerged as the victor and founded the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta then invaded the Macedonian territories in Punjab and Sind, leading to the war between the Mauryan Empire and the Seleucid Empire.

5. How did Alexander’s invasion of India influence Greek culture?

Alexander’s invasion allowed for direct interaction between India and Greece, leading to cultural exchange, the establishment of Greek settlements in India, and the influence of Greek art, architecture, and coinage on Indian society.

6. What was the legacy of Alexander’s conquest of India?

Alexander’s conquest of India left a lasting impact on both the Hellenistic and Indian world, contributing to the development of Hellenistic philosophy, the spread of Buddhism through Greco-Buddhism, and the establishment of Greek colonies in India. It also initiated closer trade relations between India and the West.

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Alexander the Great Invades India

An Indian History Story for Children

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• M.A., English Literature, University of North Bengal

The following text is excerpted from " Our Empire Story " by H. E. Marshall.

India is no new-discovered land. At a time when England was still unknown, still lost in the cold gray mists of the ocean, ships sailed from India's sunny shores, and caravans wound through the sandy deserts laden with silks and muslins, with gold and jewels and spices.

For through long ages India has been a place of trade. The splendors of King Solomon came from out the East. He must have traded with India when he built great ships and sent "his shipmen that had knowledge of the sea" to sail to the far land of Ophir, which perhaps may have been in Africa or equally perhaps the island of Ceylon. From there these ship-men fetched such "great plenty" of gold and precious stones, that "silver was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon."

The court, too, of many an ancient heathen king and queen was made rich and beautiful by the treasures of the East. Yet little was known of the land of gold and spice, of gems and peacocks. For beside the merchants, who grew rich with their traffickings, few journeyed to India.

But at length, in 327 B.C., the great Greek conqueror Alexander found his way there. Having subdued Syria, Egypt, and Persia, he next marched to invade the unknown land of gold.

Alexander Arrives in India

The part of India which Alexander invaded is called the Punjab, or land of the five rivers. At that time it was ruled by a king called Porus. He was overlord of the Punjab, and under him were many other princes. Some of these princes were ready to rebel against Porus, and they welcomed Alexander gladly. But Porus gathered a great army and came marching against the Greek invader.

On one side of a wide river lay the Greeks, on the other side lay the Indians. It seemed impossible for either to cross. But in the darkness of a stormy night, Alexander and his men passed over, wading part of the way breast high.

A great battle was fought. For the first time, the Greeks met elephants in war. The huge beasts were very terrible to look upon. Their awful trumpetings made the Greek horses shiver and tremble. But Alexander's soldiers were far better drilled and far stronger than the Indians. His horsemen charged the elephants in flank, and they stung to madness by the Greek darts, turned to flee, trampling many of the soldiers of Porus to death in their fright. The Indian war-chariots stuck fast in the mud. Porus himself was wounded. At length, he yielded to the conqueror.

But now that Porus was defeated Alexander was gracious to him, and treated him as one great king and warrior should treat another. Henceforth they became friends.

As Alexander marched through India he fought battles, built altars, and founded cities. One city he called Boukephala in honor of his favorite horse Bucephalus, who died and was buried there. Other cities he called Alexandria in honor of his own name.

Continuing the Journey

As they journeyed, Alexander and his soldiers saw many new and strange sights. They passed through boundless forests of mighty trees beneath whose branches roosted flocks of wild peacocks. They saw serpents, glittering with golden scales, glide swiftly through the underwood. They stared in wonder at fearful combats of beasts and told strange stories when they returned home, of dogs that were not afraid to fight with lions, and of ants that dug for gold.

At length, Alexander reached the city of Lahore and marched on to the banks of the river Sutlej beyond. He was eager to reach the holy river the Ganges and conquer the people there. But his men had grown weary of the hardships of the way, weary of fighting under the burning suns or torrent rains of India, and they begged him to go no further. So, greatly against his will, Alexander turned back.

The Greeks did not return as they had come. They sailed down the rivers Jhelum and Indus. And so little was known of India in those days, that they believed at first that they were upon the Nile and that they would return home by way of Egypt. But they soon discovered their mistake, and after long journeyings reached Macedonia again.

The Legacy of Alexanders Conquest

It was only the north of India through which Alexander had marched. He had not really conquered the people, although he left Greek garrisons and Greek rulers behind him, and when he died the people quickly revolted against the rule of Macedonia. So all trace of Alexander and his conquests soon disappeared from India. His altars have vanished and the names of the cities which he founded have been changed. But for long ages, the deeds of the great "Secunder," as they called him, lived in the memory of the Indians.

And it is since the time of Alexander that the people of the West have known something of the wonderful land in the East with which they had traded through many centuries.

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How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall

Elon musk’s factory in china saved his company and made him ultrarich. now, it may backfire..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Katrin Bennhold. This is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today, the story of how China gave Tesla a lifeline that saved the company — and how that lifeline has now given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game. My colleague, Mara Hvistendahl, explains.

It’s Tuesday, April 9.

So, Mara, you’ve spent the past four months investigating Elon Musk and his ties to China through his company, Tesla. Tell us why.

Well, a lot of American companies are heavily invested in China, but Tesla’s kind of special. As my colleagues and I started talking to sources, we realized that many people felt that China played a crucial role in rescuing the company at a critical moment when it was on the brink of failure and that China helps account for Tesla’s success, for making it the most valuable car company in the world today, and for making Elon Musk ultra rich.

That’s super intriguing. So maybe take us back to the beginning. When does the story start?

So the story starts in the mid 2010s. Tesla had been this company that had all this hype around it. But —

A lot of people were shocked by Tesla’s earnings report. Not only did they make a lot less money than expected, they’re also making a lot less cars.

Tesla was struggling.

The delivery of the Model 3 has been delayed yet again.

Tesla engineers are saying 40 percent of the parts made at the Fremont factory need reworking.

At the time, they made their cars in Fremont, California, and they were facing production delays.

Tesla is confirming that Cal/OSHA is investigating the company over concerns over workplace safety.

Elon Musk has instituted a kind of famously grueling work culture at the factory, and that did not go over well with California labor law.

The federal government now has four active investigations involving Tesla.

They were clashing with regulators.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate a second crash involving Tesla’s autopilot system.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk — friends are really concerned about him. That’s what Musk told “The New York Times.”

And by 2018, he was having all of these crises.

According to “The Times,” Musk choked up multiple times and struggled to maintain his composure during an hour-long interview about turmoil at his electric car company, Tesla.

So all of this kind of converged to put immense pressure on him to do something.

And where does China come in?

Well, setting up a factory in China, in a way, would solve some of these problems for Musk. Labor costs were lower. Workers couldn’t unionize there. China provided access to this steady supply of cheaper parts. So Elon Musk was set on going to China. But first, Tesla and Musk wanted to change a key policy in China.

Hmm, what kind of policy?

So they wanted China to adopt a policy that was aimed at lowering car emissions. And the idea was that it would be modeled after a similar policy in California that had benefited Tesla there.

OK, so explain what that policy actually did. And how did it benefit Tesla?

So California had this system called the Zero-Emission Vehicle program. And that was designed to encourage companies to make cleaner cars, including electric vehicles. And they did that by setting pollution targets. So companies that made a lot of clean cars got credits. And then companies that failed to meet those targets, that produced too many gas-guzzling cars, would have to buy credits from the cleaner companies.

So California is trying to incentivize companies to make cleaner cars by forcing the traditional carmakers to pay cleaner car makers, which basically means dirtier car makers are effectively subsidizing cleaner cars.

Yes, that’s right. And Tesla, as a company that came along just making EVs, profited immensely from this system. And in its early years, when Tesla was really struggling to stay afloat, the money that it earned from selling credits in California to polluting car companies were absolutely crucial, so much so that the company structured a lot of its lobbying efforts around this system, around preserving these credits. And we talked to a former regulator who said as much.

How much money are we talking about here?

So from 2008, when Tesla unveiled its first car, up until the end of last year, Tesla made almost $4 billion by selling credits in California.

Wow. So Musk basically wants China to recreate this California-style program, which was incredibly lucrative for Tesla, there. And they’re basically holding that up as a condition to their building a factory in China.

Right. And at this point in the story, an interesting alliance emerges. Because it wasn’t just Tesla that wanted this emissions program in China. It was also environmentalists from California who had seen the success of the program up close in their own state.

If you go back to that period, to the early 2010s, I was living in China at the time in Beijing and Shanghai. And it was incredibly polluted. We called it airpocalypse at times. I had my first child in China at that point. And as soon as it was safe to put a baby mask on her, we put a little baby mask on her. There were days where people just would try to avoid going outside because it was so polluted. And some of the pollution was actually wafting across the Pacific Ocean to California.

Wow, so California is experiencing that Chinese air pollution firsthand and, in a way, has a direct stake in lowering it.

That’s right. So Governor Jerry Brown, for example — this became kind of his signature issue, was working with China to clean up the environment, in part by exporting this emission scheme. It was also an era of a lot more US-China cooperation. China was seen as absolutely crucial to combating climate change.

So you had all these groups working to get this California emissions scheme exported to China — and the governor’s office and environmental groups and Tesla. And it worked. In 2017, China did adopt a system that was modeled after California’s.

It’s pretty incredible. So California basically exports its emissions-trading system to China, which I imagine at the time was a big win for Californian environmentalists. But it was also a big win for Tesla.

It was definitely a big win for Tesla. And we know that in just a few years Tesla, made almost $1 billion from the emissions-trading program he helped lobby for in China.

So Elon Musk goes on, builds a factory in China. And he does so in Shanghai, where he builds a close relationship with the top official in the city, who actually is now the number-two official in all of China, Li Qiang.

So according to Chinese state media, Elon Musk actually proposed building the factory in two years, which would be fast. And Li came back and proposed that they do it in one year, which — things go up really quickly in China. But even for China, this is incredibly fast. And they broke ground on the factory in January 2019. And by the end of the year, cars were rolling off the line. So then in January 2020, Musk was able to get up on stage in Shanghai and unveil the first Chinese-made Teslas.

Really want to thank the Tesla team and the government officials that have been really helpful in making this happen.

Next to him on stage is Tesla’s top lobbyist who helped push through some of these changes.

Thank you. Yeah, everybody can tell Elon’s super, super happy today.

[SPEAKING CHINESE]

And she says —

Music, please.

Cue the music. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

And he actually broke into dance. He was so happy, a kind of awkward dance.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

And what is the factory like?

The Shanghai factory is huge. 20,000 people work there. Tesla’s factories around the world tend to be pretty large, but the Shanghai workers work more shifts. And when Tesla set up in China, Chinese banks ended up offering Tesla $1.5 billion in low-interest loans. They got a preferential tax rate in Shanghai.

This deal was so generous that one auto industry official we talked to said that a government minister had actually lamented that they were giving Tesla too much. And it is an incredibly productive factory. It’s now the flagship export factory for Tesla.

So it opens in late 2019. And that’s, of course, the time when the pandemic hits.

Yes. I mean, you might think that this is really poor timing for Elon Musk. But it didn’t quite turn out that way. In fact, Tesla’s factory in Shanghai was closed for only around two weeks, whereas the factory in Fremont was closed for around two months.

That’s a big difference.

Yes, and it really, really mattered to Elon Musk. If you can think back to 2020, you might recall that he was railing against California politicians for closing his factory. In China, the factory stayed open. Workers were working around the clock. And Elon Musk said on a podcast —

China rocks, in my opinion.

— China rocks.

There’s a lot of smart, hardworking people. And they’re not entitled. They’re not complacent, whereas I see —

We’ve seen a lot of momentum and enthusiasm for electric vehicles, stocks, and Tesla certainly leading the charge.

Tesla’s stock price kept going up.

Tesla has become just the fifth company to reach a trillion-dollar valuation. The massive valuation happened after Tesla’s stock price hit an all-time high of more than $1,000.

So this company that had just a few years earlier been on the brink of failure, looking to China for a lifeline, was suddenly riding high. And —

Tesla is now the most valuable car company in the world. It’s worth more than General Motors, Ford, Fiat, Chrysler.

By the summer, it had become the most valuable car company in the world.

Guess what? Elon Musk is now the world’s richest man.

“Forbes” says he’s worth more than $255 billion.

And Elon Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla stock. And in the following year, he became the wealthiest man in the world.

So you have this emission trading system, which we discussed and which, in part, thanks to Tesla, is now established in China. It’s bringing in money to Tesla. And now this Shanghai factory is continuing to produce cars for Tesla in the middle of the pandemic. So China really paid off for Tesla. But what was in it for China?

Well, China wasn’t doing this for charity.

What Chinese leaders really wanted was to turn their fledgling electric vehicle industry into a global powerhouse. And they figured that Tesla was the ticket to get there. And that’s precisely what happened.

We’ll be right back.

So, Mara, you’ve just told us the story of how Elon Musk used China to turn Tesla into the biggest car maker in the world and himself — at one point — into the richest man in the world. Now I want to understand the other side of this story. How did China use Tesla?

Well, Tesla basically became a catfish for China’s EV industry.

A catfish, what do you mean by that?

It’s a term from the business world. And, essentially, it means a super aggressive fish that makes the other fish in the pond swim faster. And by bringing in this super competitive, aggressive foreign company into China, which at that point had these fledgling EV companies, Chinese leaders hoped to spur the upstart Chinese EV makers to up their game.

So you’re saying that at this point, China actually already had a number of smaller EV companies, which many people in the West may not even be aware of, these smaller fish in the pond that you were referring to.

Yes, there were a lot of them. They were often locally based. Like, one would be strong in one city, and one would be strong in another city. And Chinese leaders saw that they needed to become more competitive in order to thrive.

And China had tried for decades to build up this traditional car industry by bringing in foreign companies to set up joint ventures. They had really had their sights set on building a strong car industry, and it didn’t really work. I mean, how many traditional Chinese car company brands can you name?

Exactly none.

Yeah, right. So going back to the aughts and the 2010s, they had this advantage that many Chinese hadn’t yet been hooked on gas-guzzling cars. There were still many people who were buying their first car ever. So officials had all these levers they could pull to try to encourage or try to push people’s behavior in a certain direction.

And their idea was to try to ensure that when people went to buy their first car, it would be an EV — and not just an EV but, hopefully, a Chinese EV. So they did things like — at the time, just a license plate for your car could cost an exorbitant amount of money and be difficult to get. And so they made license plates for electric vehicles free. So there were all these preferential policies that were unveiled to nudge people toward buying EVs.

So that’s fascinating. So China is incentivizing consumers to buy EV cars and incentivizing also the whole industry to get its act together by chucking this big American company in the mix and hoping that it will increase competitiveness. What I’m particularly struck by, Mara, in what you said is the concept of leapfrogging over the conventional combustion engine phase, which took us decades to live through. We’re still living in it, in many ways, in the West.

But listening to you, it sounds a little bit like China wasn’t really thinking about this transition to EVs as an environmental policy. It sounds like they were doing this more from an industrial-policy perspective.

Right. The environment and the horrible era at the time was a factor, but it was a pretty minor factor, according to people who were privy to the policy discussions. The more significant factor was industrial policy and an interest in building up a competitive sphere.

So China now wants to become a leader in the global EV sector, and it wants to use Tesla to get there. What does that actually look like?

Well, you need sophisticated suppliers to make the component parts of electric vehicles. And just by being in China, Tesla helped spur the development of several suppliers. Like, for example, the battery is a crucial piece of any EV.

And Tesla, with a fair amount of encouragement — and also various levers from the Chinese government — became a customer of a battery maker called CATL, a homegrown Chinese battery maker. And they have become very close to Tesla and have even set up a factory near Teslas in Shanghai. And today, with Tesla’s business — and, of course, with the business of some other companies — CATL is the biggest battery maker in the world.

But beyond just stimulating the growth of suppliers, Tesla also made these other fish in the pond swim faster. And the biggest Chinese EV company to come out of that period is one called BYD. It’s short for Build Your Dreams.

We are BYD. You’ve probably never heard of us.

From battery maker to the biggest electric vehicle or EV manufacturer in China.

They’ve got a lot of models. They’ve got a lot of discounts. They’ve got a lot of market growth.

China’s biggest EV maker just overtook Tesla in terms of worldwide sales.

BYD 10, Chinese automobile redefined.

I’ve actually started seeing that brand on the streets here in Europe recently, especially in Germany, where my brother actually used to lease a Tesla and now leases a BYD.

Does he like it?

He does. Although he did, to be fair, say that he misses the luxury of the Tesla, but it just became too expensive, really.

The price point is a huge reason that BYD is increasingly giving Tesla a run for its money. Years ago, back in 2011 —

Although there’s competitors now ramping up. And, as you’re familiar with, BYD, which is also —

— Elon Musk actually mocked their cars.

— electric vehicles, here he is trying to compete. Why do you laugh?

He asked an interviewer —

Have you seen their car?

I have seen their car, yes.

— have you seen their cars? Sort of suggesting, like, they’re no competition for us.

You don’t see them at all as a competitor?

Why is that? I mean, they offer a lower price point.

I don’t think they have a great product. I think their focus is — and rightly should be — on making sure they don’t die in China.

But they have been steadily improving. They’ve been in the EV space for a while, but they really started improving a few years ago, once Tesla came on the scene. That was due to a number of factors, not entirely because of Tesla. But Tesla played a role in helping train up talent in China. One former Tesla employee who worked at the company as they were getting set up in China told me that most of the employees who were at the company at the time now work for Chinese competitors.

So they have really played this important role in the EV ecosystem.

And you mentioned the price advantage. So just for comparison, what does an average BYD sell for compared to a more affordable Tesla car?

So BYD has an ultra-cheap model called the Seagull that sells for around $10,000 now in China, whereas Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys in China sell for more than twice that.

Wow. How’s BYD able to sell EVs at these much lower prices?

Well, the Seagull is really just a simpler car. It has less range than a Tesla. It lacks some safety measures. But BYD has this other crucial advantage, which is that they’re vertically integrated. Like, they control many aspects of the supply chain, up and down the supply chain. When you look at the battery level, they make batteries. But they even own the mines where lithium is mined for the batteries.

And they recently launched a fleet of ships. So they actually operate the boats that are sending their cars to Europe or other parts of the world.

So BYD is basically cutting out the middleman on all these aspects of the supply chain, and that’s how they can undercut other car makers on price.

Yeah. They’ve cut out the middleman, and they’ve cut out the shipping company and almost everything else.

So how is BYD doing now as a company compared to Tesla?

In terms of market cap, they’re still much smaller than Tesla. But, crucially, they overtook Tesla in sales in the last quarter of last year.

Yeah, that was a huge milestone. Tesla still dominates in the European market, which is a very important market for EVs. But BYD is starting to export there. And Europe traditionally is kind of automotive powerhouse, and the companies and government officials there are very, very concerned. I interviewed the French finance minister, and he told me that China has a five - to seven-year head start on Europe when it comes to EVs.

Wow. And what has Elon Musk said about this incredible rise of BYD in recent years? Do you think he anticipated that Tesla’s entry into the Chinese market could end up building up its own competition?

Well, I can’t get inside his head, and he did not respond to our questions. But —

The Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world.

— he has certainly changed his tune. So, remember, he was joking about BYD some years ago.

Yeah, he’s not joking anymore.

I think they will have significant success.

He had dismissed Chinese EV makers. He now appears increasingly concerned about these new competitors —

Frankly, I think if there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world.

— to the point that on an earnings call in January, he all but endorsed the use of trade barriers against them.

They’re extremely good.

I think it’s so interesting, in a way — of course, with perfect hindsight — the kind of maybe complacency or naivete with which he may not have anticipated this turn of events. And in some ways, he’s not alone, right? It speaks to something larger. Like, China, for a long time, was seen as kind of the sweatshop or the manufacturer of the world — or perhaps as an export market for a lot of these Western companies. It certainly wasn’t putting out its own big brand names. It was making stuff for the brand names.

But recently, they have quite a lot of their own brand names. Everybody talks about TikTok. There’s Huawei. There’s WeChat, Lenovo. And now there is BYD. So China is becoming a leader in technology in certain areas. And I think that shift in some ways has happened. And a lot of Western companies — perhaps like Tesla — were kind of late to waking up to that.

Right. Tesla is looking fragile now. Their stock price dropped 30 percent in the first quarter of this year. And to a large degree, that is because of the threat of companies like BYD from China and the perception that Tesla’s position as number one in the market is no longer guaranteed.

So, Mara, all this raises a much bigger question for me, which is, who is going to own the future of EVs? And based on everything you’ve said so far, it seems like China owns the future of EVs. Is that right?

Well, possibly, but the jury is still out. Tesla is still far bigger for now. But there is this increasing fear that China owns the future of EVs. If you look at the US, there are already 25 percent tariffs on EVs from China. There’s talk of increasing them. The Commerce Department recently launched an investigation into data collection by electric vehicles from China.

So all of these factors are creating uncertainty around what could happen. And the European Union may also add new tariffs against Chinese-made cars. And China is an economic rival and a security rival and, in many ways, our main adversary. So this whole issue is intertwined with national security. And Tesla is really in the middle of it.

Right. So the sort of new Cold War that people are talking about between the US and China is, in a sense, the backdrop to this story. But on one level, what we’ve been talking about, it’s really a corporate story, an economic story that has this geopolitical backdrop. But it’s also very much an environmental story. So, regardless of how Elon Musk and Tesla fare in the end, is BYD’s rise and its ability to create high-quality and — perhaps more importantly — affordable EVs ultimately a good thing for the world?

If I think back on those years I spent living in Shanghai and Beijing when it was extremely polluted and there were days when you couldn’t go outside — I don’t think anyone wants to go back to that.

So it’s clear that EVs are the future and that they’re crucial to the green energy transition that we have to make. How exactly we get there is still unclear. But what is true is that China did just make that transition easier.

Mara, thank you so much.

Thank you, Katrin.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

[CROWD CHEERING]

Millions of people across North America were waiting for their turn to experience a rare event on Monday. From Mexico —

Cuatro, tres, dos, uno.

— to Texas.

Awesome, just awesome.

We can see the corona really well. Oh, you can see —

[BACKGROUND CHATTER]

Oh, and we are falling into darkness right now. What an incredible sensation. And you are hearing and seeing the crowd of 15,000 gathered here in south Illinois.

Including “Daily” producers in New York.

It’s like the sky is almost —

— like a deep blue under the clouds.

Wait, look. It’s just —

Oh my god. The sun is disappearing. And it’s gone. Oh. Whoa.

All the way up to Canada.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I’m talking about.

The moon glided in front of the sun and obscured it entirely in a total solar eclipse, momentarily plunging the day into darkness.

It’s super exciting. It’s so amazing to see science in action like this.

Today’s episode was produced by Rikki Novetsky and Mooj Zadie with help from Rachelle Bonja. It was edited by Lisa Chow with help from Alexandra Leigh Young, fact checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Diane Wong, Elisheba Ittoop, and Sophia Lanman and was engineered by Chris Wood.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m catching Katrin Bennhold. See you tomorrow.

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• April 4, 2024   •   32:37 Israel’s Deadly Airstrike on the World Central Kitchen
• April 3, 2024   •   27:42 The Accidental Tax Cutter in Chief
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Hosted by Katrin Bennhold

Featuring Mara Hvistendahl

Produced by Rikki Novetsky and Mooj Zadie

With Rachelle Bonja

Edited by Lisa Chow and Alexandra Leigh Young

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Diane Wong ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Sophia Lanman

Engineered by Chris Wood

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When Elon Musk set up Tesla’s factory in China, he made a bet that brought him cheap parts and capable workers — a bet that made him ultrarich and saved his company.

Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains why, now, that lifeline may have given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game.

On today’s episode

Mara Hvistendahl , an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

A pivot to China saved Elon Musk. It also bound him to Beijing .

Mr. Musk helped create the Chinese electric vehicle industry. But he is now facing challenges there as well as scrutiny in the West over his reliance on China.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Fact-checking by Susan Lee .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Katrin Bennhold is the Berlin bureau chief. A former Nieman fellow at Harvard University, she previously reported from London and Paris, covering a range of topics from the rise of populism to gender. More about Katrin Bennhold

Mara Hvistendahl is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on Asia. More about Mara Hvistendahl

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