The Great
Janapadas
The idea of a
universal king was present before the minds of the Rig-Vedic poets, and in the
later Vedic texts we find mention of several rulers who went round the “earth”
conquering on every side. These conquests, however, did not normally involve a
permanent annexation of the territories of the vanquished people, though minor
tribes may now and then have been reduced to vassalage and governed by rulers
(sthapati) appointed by the conquering rajan (king). But from the sixth century
BC. we can trace a new development in Indian politics. We have the growth of a
number of powerful kingdoms in eastern India-the very region which in the
Brahmana texts is associated with rulers consecrated to a superior kind of
kingship, styled samrajya-which gradually absorbed the neighboring states till
at last one great monarchy swallowed up the rest and laid the foundations of an
empire which ultimately stretched from the Hindukush to the northern districts
of Mysore. But before we take up the history of this remarkable political
transformation, it is necessary for us to note the changes in the map of India
since the period of the Brahmanas and the clear Upanishads.
The widest area
known to the Aryans of the Brahmana period is that described in the Aitareya
Brahmana. The boundaries of the Aryan world stretched from the countries of the
Uttara Kurus and the Uttara Madras beyond the Himalayas to the land of the
Satvats (and Bhojas), south of the Jumna, and the Chambal, and from the
territory of the Nichyas and Apachyas in the west to the realm of the Prachyas
in the east. The exact position of the Nichyas and Apachyas cannot be
determined. But the Prachyas were doubtless the Prasii of Greek writers, i.e.,
the people of Magadha and the neighboring provinces. Beyond Magadha lived the
Pundras of North Bengal and the Vangas of central and eastern Bengal who were
outside the pale of Aryandom. The Vangas, however, are not mentioned in the
Brahmana proper but possibly in the Aranyaka attached to it. In the south,
besides the Aryan realms of the Bhojas, we find the Andhras of the Godavari
valley and some aboriginal tribes inhabiting the Vindhyan forests.
The later
literature of the Brahmanical Hindus and the sacred canon of the Buddhists
introduce some new names, e.g. Kalinga on the east coast stretching from the
Vaitarani in Orissa to the neighbourhood of the Godavari, Asmaka and Mulaka on
the Upper Godavari, Avanti in Malwa, Surashtra in Kathiawar and Sindhu-Sauvira
in the lower valley of the Indus. In an early Buddhist text we have a list of
sixteen great nations that occupied the territory from the Kabul valley to the
banks of the Godvari shortly before the rise of Buddhism. The names of these
states are Anga (East-Bihar), Magadha (South Bihar), Kasi (Benares), Kosala
(Oudh), Vriji (North Bihar), Malla (Gorakhpur district), Chedi (between the
Jumna and the Narmada,), Vatsa (Allahabad region), Kuru (Thanesar, Delhi and
Meerut districts), Panchala (Bareilly, Budaun and Farrukhabad districts),
Matsya (Jaipur), Surasena (Mathura), Asmaka (on the Godavari), Avanti (in
Malwa), Gandhara (Peshawar and Rawalpindi districts), and Kamboja (Southwest
Kashmir and parts of Kafiristan). The palmy days of the Kurus and the Panchalas
were now over, and the centre of political gravity had shifted to the east.
The Vrijian State
Among the eastern
nations mentioned in the above list, the name of the Videhas is conspicuous by
its absence, and in its place we find mention of Vriji (Vajji). The Vrijian
State was formed by the union of several clans including the Lichchhavis and
the Jnatrikas. Its capital was at Vaisali, modern Besarh or Basarh and Bakhira
in the district of Muzaffarpur. The Vriji people have been represented by a
modern writer as of Mongolian origin because they followed certain customs that
are classed as Tibetan, such as exposure of the dead, and also because they are
regarded by the Brahmana law-givers as Vratyas or degraded Kshatriyas. But
similar customs are found also among the Iranians; and the Vratyas, judging
from Vedic evidence, were clearly an Aryan people, though outside the pale of
orthodox Brahmanism. It is significant that in Buddhist literature the fine
appearance of the Lichchhavis is compared to that of the Tavatimsa gods.
The Vrijis had no
monarch, but a popular assembly and elders who carried on the business of the
State. This type of polity was known as a Gana or republic. The Mallas had a
similar constitution and there were besides these a number of smaller
republics, e.g., the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, the Bhargas of Sumsumara Hill, the
Mauryas of Pipphalivana, etc.
Four Great Kingdoms
The republics had
soon to contend with formidable enemies in the persons of the ambitious
potentates of the neighbouring monarchies. Four of the kingdoms had grown more
powerful than the rest and were following a policy of expansion and
aggrandisement at the expense of their neighbours. These were Avanti, Vatsa,
Kosala and Magadha.
uKosala was ruled
by King Mahakosala and his son Prasenajit, It roughly corresponded to modern
Oudh. In the heroic age it had its capital at Ayodhya, on the bank of the river
Sarayu, and was ruled by a dynasty that claimed descent from the illustrious
Ikshvaku, famed in Vedic and epic tradition. Kosala kings like Para, son of
Atnara, won renown as conquerors and secriticers. Epic tradition represents
Kosalan princes as having penetrated through the wilds of Dandakaranya, in the
Deccan, to the bank of the Pampa or the Tungabhadra and even to the distant
island of Ceylon. A branch of the ruling family established itself in Sravasti,
which has been identified with the great ruined city on the south bank of the
Rapti represented by Saheth-Maheth. Members of this line extended the
boundaries of Kosala in several directions and absorbed the territory of the
Sakyas in the Nepalese Tarai and that of the Kasis in the present district of
Benares. But the ambitious designs of Kosala were soon frustrated by another
power that arose in the fastnesses of South Bihar.
Magadha, embracing
the districts of Patna and Gaya in the southern part of Bihar, could boast of powerful
chieftains even in the days of the Vedic Rishis and the epic poets. As the
probable home of the non-Aryan Kikatas, who were noted for their wealth of
kine, it was a coveted prize of the Aryan invader, who, however, could not
Brahmanise it thoroughly even in the period of the Kalpa Sutras. It came to
possess a mixed population.
Brahmanas and
Kshatriyas coming to the land were spoken of in a derisive tone as
Brahma-bandhu and Kshatra-bandhu, that is, so-called Brahmanas and Kshatriyas.
It had special relations with Aryans outside the pale to whom the name Vratya
was given in the Vedic canon.
In the sixth and
fifth centuries B.C. the throne of Magadha was occupied by a line of kings
styled Saisunagas in the Puranas, an appellation derived from Sisunaga, the
first king of the line in the Puranic list. Buddhist writers, however, place
Sisunaga much lower in the list of kings, and split up the line into two
distinct groups. To the earlier of the two groups they give the name Haryanka.
The second and later group, consisting of Sisunaga, his son and grandsons,
alone deserve, according to their evidence, the name Saisunaga.
Bimbisara
The
most remarkable king of the Haryanka line was Srenika or Bimbisara, who was
anointed king by his father while yet a boy of fifteen. The event took place,
according to Ceylonese tradition, sixty years before the Parinirvana, or the
death of the Buddha. The Parinirvana happened in 544 BC. according to a
Ceylonese reckoning and in 486 B.C. according to a Cantonese tradition Of A.D.
489. The date 544 B.C. can, however, hardly be reconciled with a statement in
the Ceylonese Chronicles that Asoka Maurya, who is known to have flourished in
the third century B.C., was consecrated two hundred and eighteen years after
the Buddha had passed into Nirvana. This fact and certain Chinese and Chola
synchronisms led Geiger and a few other scholars to think that the era of 544
B.C. is a comparatively modern fabrication and that the true date of the death
of the Buddha is 483 B.C.-a result closely approaching that to which the
Cantonese tradition leads us.
The Chinese account of embassies which
King Meghavarna sent to Samudra Gupta and King Kia-che (Kassapa) sent to China
in A.D. 527 also speaks in favour of the date 486 B.C. or 483 B.C. for the Parinirvana.
Geiger’s date, however, is not explicitly recognised by tradition. The
Cantonese date, therefore, may be accepted as a working hypothesis for the
Asokan and pre-Asokan periods. The date of Bimbisara’s accession, according to
this reckoning, would fall about 545 B.C.
From
the first, Bimbisara pursued a policy of expansion. He possessed certain
advantages denied to many of his contemporaries. He was the ruler of a compact
kingdom protected on all sides by mountains and rivers. His capital, Girivraja,
was enclosed by five hills. It was also girded with stone walls which are among
the oldest extant stone structures in India. The soil of the country was rich,
yielding luxuriant crops. It was made richer by the gold-bearing stream, the
Hiranyavaha or the Sona, which unites with the Ganges near Patna. The people
profited by the trade that passed along the Ganges, or followed the land-route
through the city of Gaya. In his war-elephants the eastern monarch had a
fighting machine which could be used with terrible effect against his western
neighbours.
The most notable
achievement of Bimbisara was the annexation of the neighbouring kingdom of Anga
or East Bihar, which had its capital at Champa near Bhagalpur. He also entered
into matrimonial alliances with the ruling families of Kosala and Vaisali. His
Kosalan wife brought a Kasi village yielding a large revenue. The Vaisali
marriage ultimately paved the way for the expansion of Magadha northward to the
borders of Nepal. Bimbisara organised an efficient system of administration. He
is also credited by a Chinese pilgrim with having built a new city at the foot
of the hills lying to the north of Girivraja, which he named Raj agriha, or the
king’s house, the modern Rajgir in the Patna district. Under him Magadha became
a flourishing kingdom which attracted the most enlightened men of the age. Both
Vardhamana Mahavira, the last apostle of the Jainas, and Gautama Buddha, the
great Master of the Buddhists, preached their doctrines during the reign of
Bimbisira. Tradition affirms that in his old age the king was murdered by his
son Ajatasatru.
Ajatasatru
Ajatasatru, also
known as Kunika, soon found that his throne was not a bed of roses. Prasenajit
of Kosala, brother of the queen-dowager, who had died of grief, resolved to
avenge himself on the parricide. The republican tribes on the northern and
northwestern borders of Magadha were restive and entered into a league with the
enemies of Ajatasatu in Kasi- Kosala. The Magadhan king had thus to face the
hostility not only of the ruler of Sravasti but also of the Vrijis of Vaisali
and the Mallas of Kusinagara (Kasia in Gorakhpur) and Pava (probably Padraona
on the Gandak river). To repel the Vrijis, Magadhan statesmen fortified the
village of Pataligrama which stood near the confluence of the Ganges and the
Sona. Thus was founded the famous fortress which, within a generation,
developed into the stately city of Pataliputra, the metropolis of India for
well-nigh four centuries.
Thanks to his own
tenacity and the Machiavellian policy of his ministers, Ajatasatru succeeded in
defeating all his adversaries. The Vriji territory was annexed to the kingdom
of Magadha. Kosala was humbled but not crushed, and, at a slightly later
period, we hear of a Kosalan king, a son of Prasenajit, powerful enough to
perpetrate a massacre of the Sakyas. Prasenajit himself had to renounce his
claim to the Kasi village which had hitherto formed a bone of contention, and
give his Magadhan antagonist his daughter in marriage. In religious tradition
Ajatasatru is remembered as a patron of Devadatta, the schismatic cousin of the
Buddha, and also as a friend of both the Jainas and the Buddhists. Both
Mahavira and the Buddha are said to have died early in his reign. After the
death of the latter, a Buddhist Council was held at Rajagriha which took
disciplinary measures against certain prominent members of the Church and
compiled the holy scriptures.
Successors of Ajatasatru
According to the
Puranas, the immediate successor of Ajatasatru was Darsaka, after whom came his
son Udayi. The name of Darsaka occurs also in a play named Svapna-Vasavadatta,
attributed to Bhasa, which represents him as a brother-in-law and contemporary
of Udayana, king of Kausambi. But Buddhist and Jain writers agree in asserting
that Udayi was the son of Ajatasatru and also his successor. A Naga-dasaka is
placed by the former at the end of the list of kings of Bimbisara’s line, and
this ruler is identified by some with the Darsaka of the Puranas. In view of
the antiquity of the Buddhist tradition, it is difficult to accept the Puranic
statement about Udayi’s relationship with Darsaka and Ajatasatru as correct.
Udayi had probably
to fight with the king of Avanti, but the most notable event of his reign was
the foundation of the city of Kusumapura or Pataliputra nestling under the
shelter of the fortress erected by the ministers of Ajatasatu.
The history of
Magadha after Udayi is obscure. The Puranic Chronicles place immediately after
him two kings named Nandivardhana and Mahanandin, the last of whom is said to
have had a son, by a Sudra woman, named Mahapadma or Mahapadmapati Nanda, with
whom began a line of Sudra or semi-Sudra kings. Buddhist writers, on the other
hand, insert thirteen additional names between Udayi and Nandivardhana. They omit
and mention in his place a prince named Panchamaka. According to the Buddhist
account, Udayi was followed by Anuruddha, Munda, and Nagadasaka, all
parricides, of whom the last was banished by the indignant citizens, who met
together and anointed as their king a worthy minister known by the name of
Sisunaga (Susunaga). Sisunaga was succeeded by his son Kalasoka, after whom
came his sons, ten in number, of whom the ninth was Nandivardhana and the tenth
Panchamaka. One Buddhist work, the Asokavadana, mentions Kakavarnin, instead of
Kalasoka, amount the successors of Munda.
The most important
divergence between the Buddhist and Puranic accounts is in regard to the place
assigned to Sisunaga and Kakavarnin (Kakavarna) in the dynastic lists. While
Buddhist writers place them long, after Bimbisira, Ajatasatru and even Udayi,
and represent them as belonging to a different family, the Puranas make them
head the whole list and actually refer to them as ancestors of Bimbisara and
Ajatasatru. There is, however, one detail in the Puranic account which throws
doubt on the credibility of the tradition it transmits, and tends to confirm
the Buddhist evidence. After mentioning the successors of Pradyota, king of
Avanti, whom we know to be a contemporary of Bimbisara and Ajatasatru, the
Puranas say : “Sisunaga will destroy all their prestige and will be king.” This
clear assertion undoubtedly supports the view that Sisunaga came long after
Bimbisara and Ajatasatru, and carried on their forward policy by the absorption
of the powerful kingdom of Avanti (Malwa).
Sisunaga’s
successor, Kalasoka or Kakavarnin, seems to have been a ruler of some
consequence. He transferred his royal residence permanently from Girivraja to
Patalipurta , though Vaisali was occasionally graced by the presence of the
sovereign. It was in this last city that the second great Council of the
Buddhists is said to have been held in the tenth year of the king’s reign when,
a century had gone by since the Parinirvana of the Buddha. The Assembly settled
some disputed points of discipline and condemned the action of certain Vrijian
monks who tried to introduce a relaxation of the rules. The end of Kakavarna
was tragic. Tradition affirms that he had a dagger thrust into his throat in
the vicinity of a city which may have been Pataliputra, Vaisali or some other
important city in the empire. His sons were probably young and inexperienced
and soon made room for a man of sterner stuff.
The Nandas
The
new king belonged to a family called Nanda by all our authorities. His personal
name or epithet was Mahapadma, or Mahapadmapati, “sovereign of an infinite
host”, or “of immense wealth”, according to the Puranas, and
Ugrasena,”possessed of a terrible army”, according to Buddhist writers. After
him his eight sons ruled in succession, and then the crown went to
Chandra-gupta Maurya, the founder of a new and more illustrious dynasty.
The
total duration of the Nanda line was 155 years according to the Jain texts, a
century according to the Puranas and only 22 years according to the Buddhist
chronicles of Ceylon. The Jain figure is too high for a couple of generations.
The Puranas agree in assigning a period of 12 years to the sons of Mahapadma.
But they differ in regard to the duration of the reign of Mahapadma himself,
which some put at 88 years and others at 28 years. The smaller figure 28 when
added to 12 does not make up the total 100. The higher figure 88 for one reign
is incredible and its rejection involves a reduction of the total period of 100
years assigned by Puranic tradition to the Nandas. In view of this, the
Ceylonese account cannot be lightly dismissed.
Regarding the
parentage of the first Nanda, we have two distinct traditions. The Puranas
represent him as son of Mahanandin, the last king of the Saisunaga dynasty, by
a Sudra woman. Jaina writers, on the other hand, represent him as the son of a
courtesan by a barber. The Jaina tradition about the barber origin of the first
Nanda is strikingly supported by the testimony of Quintus Curtius. Referring to
the father of the predecessor of Chandragupta Maurya who must be identified
with the first Nanda, Curtius says that he was a barber who gained the
affections of the queen, murdered his sovereign, and then, under the pretence
of acting as guardian of the royal children, usurped the supreme authority. He
next put the young princes to death. The murdered sovereign seems to have been
Kakavarnin, whose sons were evidently the young princes who were done to death
by the ambitious barber.
The new king,
though of humble origin, was a vigorous ruler. Puranic tradition affirms that
he exterminated all Kshatriyas and became sole monarch, bringing all under his
undisputed sway. The ascription of a wide dominion to the Nanda king is
supported by Greek evidence which refers to the most powerful peoples who dwelt
beyond the Beas in the time of Alexander as being under one sovereign who had
his capital at Pataliputra. A Kalinga ,inscription of early date refers to
Nanda’s connection with an aqueduct in that country. This may be taken to imply
that King Nanda held ways also Kalinga, that is Southern Orissa and the
contiguous part of the Northern Circars.
The first Nanda
was succeeded by his eight sons, of whom the last was named Dhana- Nanda, the
Agrammes or Xandrames of classical writers. This monarch owned a vast treasure
and commanded a huge army of 20,000 cavalry, 200,000 infantry, 2,000 chariots
and no less than 3,000 elephants. Some writers raise the number of horsemen,
chariots and elephants to 80,000, 8,000, and 6,000 respectively. To amass the
treasure and maintain the huge force, the king had to resort to heavy taxation.
His conduct towards the people bespoke his low origin. It is therefore no
wonder that he was “detested and held cheap by his subjects”. The disaffected
element found a leader in Chandragupta who overthrew the Nanda dynasty, and
laid the foundation of the illustrious family of the Mauryas. If tradition is
to be believed, a Taxilian Brahmana named Kautilya or Chanakya played a leading
part in the dynastic revolution. The conqueror of the Nandas had also another
problem-the presence of foreign invaders in the northwestern provinces of his
country.
Persian and Macedonian Invasions
Gandhara ,the
territory round Peshawar and Rawalpindi, was, in the time of Bimbisara, under a
king named Pukkusati, who sent an embassy and a letter to the king of Magadha.
What
the object of the mission was we do not know, but about the middle of the sixth
century B.C. we find the hordes Cyrus (c. 558-530 B.C.), the founder of the
Achaemenian empire of Persia, knocking at the gates of India and destroying the
famous city of Kapisa near the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir rivers
north east of Kabul. The district west of the river Indus became tributary to
the Persians, and the name of Gandhara began to appear prominently among the
subject nations in the early inscriptions of Darius (522-486 B.C.), the most
illustrious among the successors of Cyrus. Darius followed up the earlier
successes of his house by sending a naval expedition to the Indus under the
command of Skylax. This expedition paved the way for the annexation of the
Indus valley as far as the deserts of Rajputana. It constituted the twentieth
and the most populous satrapy of the Persian empire. it paid a tribute
proportionately larger than all the rest-360 Euboic talents of gold dust,
equivalent to more than a million sterling. Xerxes, the son of Darius I, and
his successors seem to have maintained some control over the Indian provinces,
which furnished contingents to their army. Reference is made in certain
inscriptions of Xerxes to the suppression of rebellion in lands “where, before,
the Daivas were worshipped; then, by Ahuramazda’s will, of such temples of the
Daivas I (the king) sapped the foundations.” The Daiva-worshipping lands may
have included the Indian satrapies. But the hold of the later Achaemenians on
their eastern possesions gradually became weak, and towards the middle of the
fourth century B.C. the Indian borderland was parcelled out among various small
States, the rulers of which were practically independent.
The hill country
north of the Kabul river, drained by the Kunar and the Swat, was occupied
mainly by the Asvakas, a people whose name is derived from the Sanskrit Asva,
Iranian Aspa (horse). Somewhere in this mountain region stood also the city of
Nysa, alleged to have been founded by Greek colonists. The old territory of
Gandhara was divided into two parts by the Indus. To the west of the river lay
the kingdom of Pushkalavati in the modern district of Peshawar and to its east
was the realm of Takshasila (Taxila) in the present district of Rawalpindi.
Taxila was a prosperous kingdom governed by good laws. Its capital was a noble
city which occupied the site of the present Bhir Mound near Saraikala, twenty
miles north-west of Rawalpindi. It lay on the high road from Central Asia to
the interior of India, and the fame of its market-place spread to the distant
corners of the civilised world. Great as an emporium of commerce, the city was
greater still as a centre of learning. Crowds of eager scholars flocked to it
for instruction in the three Vedas and the eighteen branches of knowledge.
Tradition affirms that the Great Epic, the Mahabharata was first recited in
this city.
The mountain
territory just above the Taxila country was occupied by the kingdoms of Urasa,
(Hazara district) and Abhisara (Punch and Naoshera). To the south-east of
Taxila lay the twin kingdoms of the Purus or Pauravas, a people already famous
in the Vedic hymns. The territory of the prince mentioned by Greek historians
as the elder Poros, was situated between the Jhelum and the Chenab, while the
principality of his nephew, the younger Poros, stretched from the Chenab to the
Ravi. On the confines of the country of the Pauravas lay the territories of the
Glaukanikoi and Kathaioi and the principality of Saubhuti. The southern part of
the Jhang district with the contiguous portion of the lower valley of the Ravi
was occupied by the Sibis and the Malavas, with whom were associated the
Kshudrakas, while lower down the Chenab lived the Ambashthas. These tribes were
autonomous and some of them are expressly mentioned as having a democratic
government. Upper Sind was divided among a number of potentates of whom the
most important was Mousikanos, whose capital probably lay at or near Alor. In
the Indus delta stood the city of Pattala which, like Sparta, was governed by
two kings and a Senate of Elders.
AlexanderIn
336 B.C . the throne of Macedon, a powerful military State in the land of the
Yavanas in south-east Europe, was occupied by Alexander, a prince of remarkable
energy and ability. In 333 and 331 B.C. Alexander inflicted two severe defeats
on the great king of Persia, the last of the line of Darius and Xerxes, and
occupied his realm. In 330 B.C. the Persian king died, leaving his conqueror
the undisputed master of the Achaemenian empire. Three years later, in 327 B.C.
Alexander crossed the Hindukush and resolved to recover the Indian satrapies
that had once acknowledged the sway of his Persian predecessors. To secure his
communications, he garrisoned a number of strongholds near modern Kabul and
passed the winter of 327-326 B.C. in warfare with the fierce hill tribes of the
Kunar and Swat valleys.
He stormed the fortresses of Massaga
and Aornos and received the submission of the city of Nysa. His generals took
the city of Pushkalavati. Massaga probably lay to the north of the Malakand
Pass. Aornos has recently been identified with the height of Una between the
Swat and the Indus, while Nysa has been located on the lower spurs of the
three-peaked Koh-i-Mor between the Kunar and Swat valleys. Pushkalavati is
represented by the modern Charsadda near the junction of the Swat and Kabul
rivers, about seventeen miles north-east of Peshawar.
The
conqueror next forced his way through dense jungles to Ohind and crossed the
Indus by a bridge of boats (326 B.C.). In his operations, he received valuable
help from Ambhi, king of Taxila, who now received the invader in his own
capital with obsequious pomp. After a brief respite, Alexander resumed his
march and pushed on to the Hydaspes (Vitasta, modern Jhelum). According to one
theory, he followed the line of the modern Grand Trunk Road to the town of
Jhelum. According to another view, heAlexander and pauraven king descended
through the pass of Nandan to the right bank of the Hydaspes close to the
village of Haranpur. On his arrival, he found a huge army drawn up on the other
bank of the river to oppose his further progress. The formidable host was led
by the elder Paurava king, a man of gigantic and powerful build, who was
mortified at the pusillanimous conduct of his Taxilian neighbour, and resolved
to defend his hearth and home against the audacious invader from the west.
Alexander found it impossible to cross the stream, which was then in full
flood, in the face of a mighty array of warriors and elephants. He diverted the
attention of his enemy by demonstrations in different directions and then stole
a passage at a sharp bend of the river about seventeen miles above his camp,
under cover of a thickly wooded promontory and an island in mid-stream covered with
jungle. The place of crossing is located by some above the town of Jhelum and
by others at Jalalpur. A small force that had hurried to dispute the passage of
the invaders was easily routed, and Alexander advanced quickly to give battle
to the Indian king. The Paurava, too, marched forth to meet his adversary and
drew up his army in battle array. He had with him 30,000 foot, 4,000 horses,
300 chariots, and 200 elephants. He arranged his elephants in front of the
infantry and placed the cavalry on the wings with chariots in front of them.
The vast force looked like a city with elephants as bastions and men-at-arms as
the circumvallating wall. The field of battle cannot be definitely located.
Scholars who place Alexander’s camp at Jhelum think that the hostile forces met
in the Karri plain.
The
Indian king made the mistake of allowing the Macedonians to take the offensive
with their superior cavalry. The latter began by an attack on the Indian left
wing. The Indian charioteer and horseman could not withstand the onslaught of
the mounted archers in the Macedonian ranks, and the Indian infantry were
prevented by the slippery slush under foot from making an effective use of
their formidable bows. The elephants for a time spread havoc in the enemy’s
ranks, but many of the monsters were maddened by wounds and rushed on friends
and foes alike. The Paurava force suffered most and was soon scattered by the
veterans of Alexander. The Indian king, however, did not flee, but went on
fighting on a mighty elephant until he received a severe wound. He was then
brought to the presence of the conqueror, who asked him how he would like to be
treated. “Act like a king,” answered the valiant Paurava. The Macedonian
treated his gallant adversary generously and gave him back his kingdom. It was
no part of Alexander’s policy to alienate the sympathy of powerful local
princes if it could be helped, and he understood the value of brave and
chivalrous allies in a newly-acquired territory, far away from the seat of
empire, who could be trusted to uphold the authority of the supreme ruler and
serve as a check on one another.
The
invader next overran the petty principalities and tribal territories in the
vicinity of the realm of the great Paurava. He crossed the Akesines (Chenab)
and the Hydraotes (Ravi), stormed Sangala,the stronghold of the Kathaioi,
probably situated in the Gurudaspur district, and moved on to the Hyphasis
(Beas). He wished to press forward to the Ganges valley, but his war-worn
troops would not allow him to go farther. The king erected twelve towering
altars to mark the utmost limit of his march, and then with a heavy heart
retraced his steps to the Jhelum. He sent part of the troops down the river in
a flotilla of boats under the command of Nearchos. The rest fought their way
through the territory of free and warlike tribes inhabiting the lower valley of
the Ravi and the Chenab. Thousands of people, including women and children,
perished in the course of the struggle, and the inhabitants of one city,
preferring death to dishonour, threw themselves into the flame in the manner of
the Rajputs who practised Jauhar in later times.
The
conqueror himself received a dangerous wound while storming one of the citadels
of the powerful tribe of the Malavas. The subdued nations made presents of
chariots, bucklers, gems, draperies, lions, tigers, etc. Alexander next reduced
the principalities of Sind and sailed to the open sea (325 B.C.). A portion of
the Macedonian host had already been sent home through Afghanistan. Another
division, led by the king himself, trudged through the deserts of Baluchistan
and, after terrible sufferings, reached Babylon. The rest of the troops
returned by sea to the north of the Tigris under the command of Nearchos.
Alexander did not long survive his return to Babylon, where he died in 323
B.C.in36
Administrative arrangements made by Alexander
The Macedonian
king had no desire to renounce his new conquests. He wished to incorporate them
permanently into his extensive empire. He formed the districts to the west of
the Hydaspes into regular satrapies under Persian or Macedonian governors who
were assisted, in some cases, by Indian chiefs like Sasigupta of Aornos and
Ambhi of Taxila. Beyond the river he created a system of protected States under
vassal kings, among whom the great Paurava and the king of Abhisara were the
most eminent.
Macedonian
garrisons were stationed in Pushkalavati, Taxila, and other important strategic
centres. New cities were built, mostly on the great rivers, to establish the
authority of the conqueror firmly in the acquired territories and stimulate
trade navigation in the Land of the Five Rivers.
Effect of the Persian and Macedonian Invasions
The Macedonian
prefectures and garrisons were soon swept away by Chandragupta Maurya, and
within Alexander and chandragupta wara few years all vestige of foreign
domination disappeared from the Punjab and Sind. But the invasions of Darius
and Alexander had not been in vain. The Persian conquest had unveiled India
probably for the first time to the Western world and established contact
between this country and the peoples of the Levant. Indian spearmen and archers
fought under the Persian banner on European soil in the fifth century B.C. and
quickened the interest of the peoples of Hellas in this land of strange folks
and surpassing wealth. Persian and Greek officials found employment in the
Indus provinces and made their presence felt in various ways. The introduction
of new scripts-Aramaic, Kharoshthi and the alphabet styled Yavanani by Panini,
is probably to be traced to this source. Whether some important features of the
architecture of the Maurya period and certain phrases used in the Asokan edicts
are also to be attributed to their enterprise, is a highly debatable question.
The hold of the great king on the Indian frontier slackened considerably in the
fourth century B.C. The arduous campaigns of Alexander restored the fallen
fabric of imperialism and laid the foundation of a closer contact between India
and the Hellenic world.
The
Macedonian empire in the Indus valley no doubt perished within a short time.
But the Macedonian had welded the political atoms into one unit and thus paved
the way for the more permanent union under the Mauryas. The voyages, and
expeditions planned by Alexander widened the geographical horizon of his
contemporaries, and opened up new lines of communication and new routes for
trade and maritime enterprise. The colonies that the conqueror planted in the
Indian borderland do not appear to have been altogether wiped out by the Mauryas.
Yavana officials
continued to serve the great king of Magadha as they had served the great king
of Ecbatana as evidence. For the Madhya-desa or the upper Ganges valley, and
particularly its western part, the land of the Kurus and the Panchalas which
was the cradle and centre of Brahmanism, we have to look to the Brahmanical
Sutras and the early epic. The epic, no doubt, looks back to the heroic age
which is coeval with the later Vedic period, but the extant poems have a wider
geographical outlook than the later Vedic texts.
