Alexander's invasion of India

Also called: Alexander's invasion · Topic: The Mauryan Empire · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"; Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"

Meaning

Alexander's invasion of India was the campaign of Alexander, king of Macedon, in the northwest of the subcontinent (c. 327–325 BCE). He defeated Porus at the Hydaspes (Jhelum) but met fierce resistance, and his tired army refused to march on to the Ganga. He turned back and died at Babylon (324–323 BCE), and his Indian lands soon broke up.

It matters because it changed little in politics but opened the way for Indo-Greek cultural contact. It also gave us Greek written accounts of India. And it created the setting in which Chandragupta Maurya built his empire.

Explanation

Background: why the northwest, and why Alexander

• The northwest was split up. It was not one big kingdom.
• It had many smaller kingdoms and tribes.

• Divided lands were easier for an outside army to attack one by one.

• It lay on an old trade route to the Mediterranean (the sea between Europe, West Asia and North Africa).

• This made it rich, and goods, people and ideas moved through it.

• So it was the first part of India that outside armies reached.

• Key rulers of the region:

• Porus, ruler of the Pauravas. "Porus" is probably the Greek form of Paurava, the ruler of the Puru tribe named in old Indian texts [3].
• Porus's land lay between the Jhelum (Greek: Hydaspes) and the Chenab (Greek: Acesines) [3].

• Taxiles of Taxila was another northwestern ruler of the time. He did not fight Alexander [3].

• Alexander's aim. He had already beaten the Persian empire. He wanted to reach what he called the "end of the world", because he believed the land ended just past India.

The campaign, step by step

• c. 327 BCE: Alexander enters the northwest.
• 326 BCE, Battle of the Hydaspes: fought on the banks of the Jhelum. It was the last great battle of Alexander's Asian campaign [2].
• Alexander had about 40,000 men. Porus had about 30,000, plus chariots and war elephants [2].
• The Macedonians had never fought elephants before [2].
• Alexander crossed the river under cover of a storm and attacked from two sides. He hit the flanks (the sides of the army), so the elephants could not charge straight ahead [2].

• The sarissa (a very long Macedonian spear, about 5–6 m) helped push the elephants back [2].

• After the win he founded two cities: Alexandria Nicaea ("Nicaea" means victory) and Bucephala, named after his horse Bucephalus, which died there [2].

• Porus restored. Alexander asked Porus how he wished to be treated. Porus answered "Like a King".

• Alexander was impressed and left him ruling his own land as a satrap (a provincial governor in the Persian and later Greek empires). A satrap collected taxes, kept an army and ran his province, but he owed loyalty to the overlord.

• Fierce resistance. Beating Porus did not make the rest easy.

• Local tribes and rulers fought hard.
• Greek records say that in some battles "women fought side by side with their men".

• Alexander himself was seriously wounded.

• The army refuses (at the Beas). The Ganga plain, with its much larger kingdoms, lay ahead.

• His soldiers were tired after years of marching, and they refused to advance.
• This mutiny (soldiers refusing orders) forced him to turn back. He never entered the Ganga valley.

Retreat and death

• He did not go back the way he came. He took the southern coastal route, then crossed the harsh deserts of Iran.
• Thirst, hunger and disease killed many of his soldiers. More died on this march home than in many of his battles.
• c. 325 BCE: his Indian campaign ends. It lasted about two years, according to the Class 12 timeline.
• 324–323 BCE: he died at Babylon, aged 32. His empire was divided among his generals and satraps.
• Porus stayed loyal to the Macedonians. Eudemus, one of Alexander's generals, killed him sometime between 321 and 315 BCE [3].

Results: how much did it change?

• Little political change.
• The campaign lasted only about two years.
• He never reached the big kingdoms of the Ganga plain.
• He restored Porus, so local rule mostly went on.

• His Indian holdings broke up soon after 323 BCE.

• Real cultural contact.

• Greek soldiers, traders and ideas stayed on in the northwest.

• This later fed into Indo-Greek kingdoms, coins with Greek writing, and Greek-influenced art.

• The Gymnosophists. This is the Greek word for Indian naked ascetics (holy men who gave up wealth and comfort). It literally means "naked wise men".

• Alexander tested them with riddles, and a bad answer meant death.
• They answered calmly. Asked "Which is stronger, life or death?", they said "Life, because it endures while death does not."

• Historians see this as a meeting of Greek and Indian philosophy.

• The link to the Mauryas. The power gap and the broken Greek satrapies in the northwest became the setting in which Chandragupta Maurya built his empire.

Time, place and evidence

• When: c. 327–325 BCE. The Battle of the Hydaspes was in 326 BCE, and Alexander died at Babylon in 324–323 BCE. This is the period just before the Mauryan Empire rose.
• Where: the northwest of the subcontinent, mainly Punjab. Key places:
• the Jhelum (Hydaspes) and Chenab (Acesines) rivers
• Taxila
• Bucephala and Alexandria Nicaea, the cities founded after the battle
• the Beas, where the army stopped

• Babylon, where Alexander died

• Key people:

• Alexander of Macedon
• Porus (Paurava), ruler of the Pauravas
• Taxiles of Taxila
• Eudemus, the Macedonian general who later killed Porus

• the Gymnosophists

• How we know: almost all of it comes from Greek accounts, written by Greek authors who came with or after Alexander.

• Porus is known only by a Greek name, and the ascetics only by a Greek label.
• These are one side's records, so historians check them against archaeology and later Indian evidence.
• Class 7 (Ch 5) and Class 12 (Ch 2) NCERT books cover the episode.

Don't confuse with

• Hydaspes vs Acesines: Hydaspes is the Greek name for the Jhelum, where the 326 BCE battle was fought. Acesines is the Greek name for the Chenab [3].
• Porus vs Taxiles: Porus fought Alexander at the Hydaspes and was then restored as a satrap. Taxiles, ruler of Taxila, did not fight him [3].
• Alexander's invasion vs the Indo-Greek kingdoms: the invasion was a short campaign of about two years that left no lasting state. The Indo-Greek kingdoms came later. They grew out of the Greek presence in the northwest that the invasion began.
• Bucephala vs Alexandria Nicaea: both were founded after the Hydaspes battle. Bucephala is named after Alexander's horse. Nicaea means "victory" [2].

Prelims Hooks

• Battle of the Hydaspes, 326 BCE, on the Jhelum: the last great battle of Alexander's Asian campaign [2].
• Porus (Paurava) ruled the land between the Jhelum and the Chenab [3].
• Asked how he wished to be treated, Porus said "Like a King". He was left ruling as a satrap (provincial governor).
• Trap: Alexander never entered the Ganga valley. His army refused to go on, and he went home by the southern coast and Iran's deserts.
• Alexander died at Babylon, aged 32 (324–323 BCE). Porus was later killed by Eudemus (between 321 and 315 BCE) [3].
• Gymnosophists is the Greek term for Indian naked ascetics. They said life is stronger than death "because it endures".

Mains Points

• Conquest vs contact.
• Alexander won battles but built no lasting state in India. He restored Porus, stopped at the Beas, and his satrapies fell apart within years of 323 BCE.
• What lasted was contact: Greek settlers in the northwest, Greek written accounts of India, and later Indo-Greek coins and art.

• His exit also left the setting in which Chandragupta Maurya expanded.

• Indian resistance and the "unstoppable conqueror" myth.

• Even the Greek sources admit there was fierce fighting by tribes and rulers.
• Women fought alongside men, and Alexander was badly wounded.

• His own army mutinied before the Ganga. All this shows the strength of the northwestern kingdoms and tribes.

• Sources and bias.

• Our picture of 327–325 BCE rests almost entirely on Greek accounts. Even Porus and the Gymnosophists are known by Greek names.
• A good answer should say this is one side's story and needs checking against archaeology and Indian evidence.
• The northwest's place on the route to the Mediterranean explains both the invasions and the flow of trade and ideas.

Related concepts

• Alexander of Macedon
• Battle of the Hydaspes
• Porus
• Gymnosophists
• Satrap

Read more

• Alexander and the northwest (327-325 BCE)