Alexander III of Macedon (20 July 356 BC – 10 June 323 BC), also known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He created one of the largest empires of the ancient world by leading unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, stretching from Greece to Northwestern India. He is widely considered as one of history’s most successful military commanders.
He subdued the mighty Persian King Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety. After burning down the ancient city of Persepolis, Alexander sought to reach the “End of the world and the Great Outer Sea” and invaded India in 326 BC with a formidable army comprising of Greek cavalry, Balkan fighters and Persians allies. The total number of fighting men numbered more than 41,000.
Greek and other European historians claim that after an important victory over the Pauravas at the Battle of the Hydaspes (Jhelum). he turned back because his troops were homesick and died in Babylon in 323 BC. Although Alexander defeated only a few minor kingdoms in India’s northwest, in the view of many gleeful colonial writers the conquest of India was complete.
Alexander’s arrival at the gates of India
The campaign took Alexander through Media (NW Persia), Parthia, Aria (West Afghanistan), Drangiana (SW Afghanistan) , Arachosia (South and Central Afghanistan), Bactria (North and Central Afghanistan), and Scythia (Central Asia).
Alexander’s troubles began as soon as he crossed the Indian border. He first faced resistance in the Kunar, Swat, Buner and Peshawar valleys where the Aspasioi and Assakenoi, known in Hindu texts as Ashvayana and Ashvakayana, stopped his advance. Although small by Indian standards they did not submit before Alexander’s killing machine.
The Assakenoi offered stubborn resistance from their mountain strongholds of Massaga, Bazira and Ora. On the first day after bitter fighting the Macedonians and Greeks were forced to retreat with heavy losses. Alexander himself was seriously wounded in the ankle. On the fourth day the king of Massaga was killed and the command of the army went to his old mother, which brought the entire women of the area into the fighting but the city refused to surrendered.
Alexander being a shrewd military general and realising the futility of fighting men and women who are willing to fight till death, called for a truce and Assakenois agreed. Clearly, the Indians till then were not aware of the Trojan horse episode, for the Greeks slaughtered the unaware and unarmed citizens. That night when the citizens of Massaga had gone off to sleep after their celebrations, Alexander’s troops entered the city and massacred the entire citizenry. A similar slaughter then followed at Bazira and Ora.
However, the fierce resistance put up by the Indian defenders had reduced not just the strength but the confidence of the all-conquering Macedonian army. The stubborn resistance and bloody fighting at Massaga and Ora was a prelude to what awaited Alexander in India.
When Alaxender was busy at Swat Valley, King of Taxila, King Omphis (Ambhi) heard about Alexander’s plunder of Persia and hastened to prevent the wrath of Alexander. He met Alexander with valuable presents, placing himself and all his forces at his disposal. In return Alexander presented him with “Persian robes, gold and silver ornaments, 30 horses and 1000 talents in gold”.
The action of king Ambhi was due to his hostility towards the neighbouring kindgoms of Paurava and Abhisara in the east and the north.
In his entire conquering career Alexander’s hardest encounter was the Battle of Hydaspes, in which he faced king Porus of Paurava, a small but prosperous Indian kingdom on the river Jhelum.
Crossing Hydaspes River
The Battle of the Hydaspes was fought by Alexander in July 326 BC against Porus (Paurava), a Kshatriya king of Mid Punajb region located on the Hydaspes River (Jhelum).
In May 326 BCE, the European and Paurava armies faced each other across the banks of the Jhelum. By all accounts it was an awe-inspiring spectacle. The 34,000 Macedonian infantry and 7000 Greek cavalry were bolstered by the Indian king Ambhi.
Facing this tumultuous force led by the genius of Alexander was the Paurava army of 20,000 infantry, 2000 cavalry and 200 war elephants. Being a comparatively small kingdom by Indian standards, the figures are quite exaggerated. Paurava couldn’t have maintained such a large standing army, so it’s likely many of its defenders were hastily armed civilians.
In the Battle of Hydaspes, the Indians fought with bravery and war skills that no other army had shown against the Greeks. In the first charge by the Indians, Puru’s brother Amar killed Alexander’s favourite horse Bucephalus, forcing Alexander to dismount. In battles outside India the elite Macedonian bodyguards had not allowed a single enemy soldier to deliver so much as a scratch on their king’s body, let alone slay his mount. Yet in this battle with the Paurava army, not only was Alexander injured, the Indians killed Nicaea, one of the leading Greek commanders.
The facts of Alexander’s miserable defeat and his shattered dream at Indian soil have been avoided consistently by Greek historians and the same was perpetuated during British regime. But the truth which is documented in many narratives of the Europeans themselves presents a totally different picture. The depictions by Curtius, Justin, Diodorus, Arrian and Plutarch are quite consistent and reliable in concluding that Alexander was defeated by Porus and had to make a treaty with him to save his and his soldiers’ lives. He was a broken man at his return from his mis-adventures in India.
Mr Badge further writes that the soldiers of Alexander were grief- stricken and they began to bewail the loss of their compatriots. They threw off their weapons. They expressed their strong desire to surrender. They had no desire to fight. Alexander asked them to give up fighting and himself said, “Porus, please pardon me. I have realized your bravery and strength. Now I cannot bear these agonies. WIth a sad heart I am planning to put an end to my life. I do not desire that my soldiers should also be ruined like me. I am that culprit who has thrust them into the jaw of death. It does not become a king to thrust his soldiers into the jaws of death.”
These expressions of ‘Alexander, The Great!’ do not indicate from any stretch of imagination his victory over Porus? Can such words be uttered by a ‘World Conquerer”?
The Hindutva Times 