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Bahria University

Islamabad Campus

Department of Law
Spring 2015
South Asia (History)

Instructor: Rashid Ali

Two Foreign Intrusions


By the middle of the fourth century bc, a new force came to dominate all the Greek
city-states: the kingdom of Macedon. Its ruler, Philip II, created a formidable
military structure, which was based on phalanxes backed by armoured cavalry and
siege trains of catapults. He left this formidable inheritance to his son, Alexander,
who became king in 336 BC.
Alexander first destroyed the continuing Persian hold over the Greek cities of Asia
Minor by his victory over them at the battle of Issus in 333 bc. Two years later, at
Gaugamela, Persian power was decisively broken when the last Achaemenid,
Darius III, fled to Bactria, where he was murdered. After burning Persepolis (330
bc), Alexander marched through the heart of Iran towards the eastern Persian
satrapies of Drangiana, Arachosia, Bactria and Sogdiana.
The news of his victories and cruelties preceded him, creating great panic and fear
among those who awaited his arrival. In the spring of 327 bc he had nearly reached
the western banks of the River Indus.
The first groups of people that Alexander met on South Asian soil were those
whom the Greeks called the Assakenois, who lived on the present borders of the
North West Frontier province and Kashmir in Pakistan. They resisted him, in the
way the frontier people have done throughout history, but in vain.Alexander
proved much too strong for them.

Next was the turn of the Gandhara satrapy, with its capital of Pushkalavati taken.
In this case, overwhelming force was unnecessary because of Indian collaboration.
The most significant collaboration was offered by the new king of Taxila, Ambhi,
whose forces dominated the lands between the rivers Indus and Jhelum. Taxila was
an ancient city where Vedic culture had flourished for centuries, and to a certain
extent Ambhis collaboration made sense. His reward came with the confirmation
of his kingdom within the Alexandrine world empire.
The next stage in Alexanders conquest was the encounter with Porus, the Paurava
king,

who

ruled the lands between the rivers Jhelum and Chenab. Porus has been portrayed as
a figure of heroic grandeur and a worthy opponent of Alexander.
He did fight bravely, but his army was massacred and he was decisively beaten.
Legend has it that he refused to cringe or be obsequious to Alexander, but the
reality was that he had become a subaltern to Alexander. The latter awarded him
with an extension of territories beyond the Chenab almost to the Ravi, but with the
strategic aim of protecting his own larger stake in the Indus basin.
Alexander moved yet further east to the River Beas, which joins up with the Sutlej
to become a mighty tributary of the Indus basin. Reaching the Beas was the high
point of Alexanders military adventure; but however further east he wished to go,
both he and his men realised that it would be a journey without
end in the vast Indian landscape that spread before them. Finally, in July 326 bc,
his pride and ambition gave way before the demands of his armies to turn back.
On his way he met ferocious resistance from the Mallavas, a hardy and freespirited people, and from the brahman clans who considered it a part of their
dharma or religious duty to fight him. With overwhelming force and some good
fortune he saved himself and his crew. After sailing through the confluence of the
Indus tributaries, he devised a three-pronged exit strategy. One army, under a
general called Craterus, was to return through Arachosia. Then, at the mouth of the
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Indus, Alexander ordered his navy, under Nearchus, to proceed through the Arabian
Sea towards the Perso-Arabian Gulf, while he himself proceeded to Iran through
the scorching desert of Baluchistan. He never reached hisMacedonian homeland,
dying in Babylon in 323 bc.
In the context of India,Alexanders intrusion was only a minuscule event; India
was not Hellen ised . . .and soon forgot the passing of the Macedonian storm.30
However, the settlement of many of his soldiers all along the northwest of India,
within a number of succeeding Indo-Greek kingdoms, influenced the politics, art,
religion and trade of India in later centuries. The intellectual worlds of both Greece
and India also came to know each other better.
1. Alexander the Great 336-323 BC
Alexander was a King of Macedonia which was a Greek speaking country in the North of
Greece.
In 336 BC the warrior king, Philip, was murdered and his son Alexander, only 20 years
old, became king.
Alexander was a brilliant soldier and military strategist.
After becoming king, he began to carry out his fathers plans to attack the Persian
Empire who had conquered the Greek colonies in what is now Turkey and around the
Mediterranean Sea.

Alexander crossed into Asia Minor and defeated the Persian King Darius in a battle (333
BC) and freed the Greek colonies from Persian rule.
Alexander again defeated Persian army in 332 BC and occupied Syria, Israel, and Egypt
to his Empire.
In 332 BC, Alexander, at the age of 26 only became ruler of vast Persian Empire, except
its north-western part, the Gandhara province.
2. Alexanders Invasion of India

Alexander entered north-west India (327 BC) to occupy the rest of Persia and Gandhara
the richest most province of the Persian Empire.
Areas now are part of Pakistan at that time was parcelled out into small chieftain- ships,
who were feudatories of the Persian Empire.
The first local ruler he encountered was that of Taxila, Raja Ambhi.
Raja Ambhi had received the information that the Achaemenian Emperor Darius III was
ignominiously defeated by Alexander and that entire Iran had been over-run and
devastated by his armies and he considered it prudent to conclude peace with the Greek
dictator.
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The Raja of Taxila joined him and welcomed him but the Raja of other parts of the nortwestern India decided to fight with.
Raja Porous used war elephants to terrify the Greek army. His army fought valiantly but
committed strategic mistake.
Alexander had planned well and defeated vast army of Raja Porous.
Alexander was impressed by the bravery of Raja Porous and made him Raja again.
Alexander wanted to go to eastwards to the great sea which he believed was the edge of
the world.
Alexander went up to the bank of the Beas somewhere near Gurdaspur where his army,
according to historians, refused to move further. Whatever the immediate cause, by
reaching Beas Alexander had almost touched the eastern-most frontier of the traditional
boundaries of Pakistan and accomplished his mission.
He decided to back, his men built 800 ships and sailed down the Indus.
On the way, at Multan a powerful tribe called Mali was being attacked by his army.
Alexander himself fought bravely and defeated the Mali tribe. Every living thing in the
city was killed by Alexanders army.
Alexanders invasion of this area and the extent of his journey again boldly highlight the
fact that Pakistans present boundaries were almost the same in those days. From Hindu
Kush, Dir and Swat to the banks of the Beas and down to Karachi this entire area was
one single geographical, political and cultural bloc under the suzerainty of the Persians. It
will also be recalled that this was the same area as covered by the Indus Valley
Civilization which continued to remain separate from India through the ages.
Alexanders halt and return from the bank of the Beas is not without significance in this
context. The sphere of Persian influence in these early times can hardly have reached
beyond the realm of the Indus and its affluent. We may assume, accordingly, that when
Alexander reached the river Hyphasis, the ancient vipac, and modern Beas, and was then
forced by his generals and soldiers to start upon his retreat, he had touched the extreme
limits of the Persian dominion over which he had triumphed throughout.

3. Alexander Retreats

Alexander and his army reached near where Karachi is today, part of his army set out to
march back to Persia through the scorching heat of Makran Desert.
The rest of his army went by Sea to the north of the Persian Gulf.
About half of Alexanders army died in the desert from hunger, thirst, attacks by wild
tribesmen, snakes and poisonous plants.
It was the worst defeat that Alexander had ever suffered.

4. Demise of the Empire of Alexander

Alexander planned to attack Arabia, but he died mysteriously before he the invasion of
Arabia could start.
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Cause of his death remained controversial, but in eleven years, he had conquered an
empire much bigger than the whole of the sub-continent and had established strong links
between the east and the west.
Alexanders influence did not last long in India and the Greeks were driven out in 305
BC by Chandragupta, who later became the first king of the Mauryan Empire.

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