The legendary Macedonian King Alexander III, famously known as Alexander the Great (who was educated by the titanic Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle and slept with the venerable Greek poet Homer’s monumental epic poem Iliad under his pillow), who brought to its knees the formidable Persian empire and who is universally regarded as one of the greatest military geniuses in human history, is a household name in India.
After the death of Spitamenes (the courtier turned rebel Zoroastrian warlord from Sogdiana who was the last belligerent Persian leader to challenge the ascending might of Alexander in battle) and his marriage to the ravishingly beautiful sixteen years old Roxana (meaning ‘little star’), the daughter of the powerful Bactrian chief Oxyartes, in 328 BC to cement relations with his new satrapies, Alexander turned his avaricious attention to India, the wondrous, fabled land of gold and spice.
He invited the chieftains of the former satrapy of Gandhara, in the north of what is now Pakistan, to come to him and unconditionally accept his hegemony. Ambhi, the ruler of Taxila, whose kingdom extended from the Indus to the Hydaspes (Jhelum), conceded, but the chieftains of some hill clans refused to submit to Alexander’s overtures. Ambhi pampered Alexander with lavish presents and placed himself and his forces at his disposal. Alexander not only returned Ambhi his title and the presents but in turn presented him with a treasure trove of ‘Persian robes, gold and silver ornaments, 30 horses and 1000 talents in gold’ In the winter of 327/326 BC, Alexander personally spearheaded a campaign against the recalcitrant clans and scored a decisive victory against them.
In 326 BC, Alexander crossed the Indus and faced Porus (Purushottam), the prodigious Indian king of the Hindu Paurava kingdom, which was located between the Jhelum and Chenab rivers in what is now the Punjab province of Pakistan, in the epic Battle of the Hydaspes. Porus was stupendous both as a man and as a king. He stood a majestic seven feet tall and was as daunting as a ruler and warrior. He fielded an army that was not only a match for the Greeks, but had an additional edge over the Greeks — war elephants! The battle marked the first historical encounter with elephants in battle, whose mammoth size and eerie trumpeting terrified the Greeks and their horses beyond imagination.
The Greek phalanx in lock shield formation advanced slowly but menacingly in a solid wall of pikes, incessantly firing lethally piercing lead-weighted darts that caused the elephants to run amok and stampede the Indian troops, trampling many of them to death under their gigantic feet. The Indians broke ranks and hastily took to their heels. Some 80 elephants were captured by Alexander, and many Indians were killed in the pursuit. The battle raged for eight hours, and the Greeks suffered enormous losses in men and material. Alexander finally captured Porus, who had been wounded in battle. The extraordinary bravery, martial acumen and princely disposition of Porus greatly impressed Alexander. Wounded in his shoulder, he was asked by Alexander how he wished to be treated. ‘Treat me, O Alexander, like a king’, Porus responded. Alexander was magnanimously chivalrous and treated Porus as one great king and warrior should treat another.
He allowed Porus to rule Hydaspes in his name as his vassal. He even subdued an independent province and granted it to Porus as a reward. Porus reciprocated by giving Alexander a few elephants, with instructions on how to use them in war, and a Tibetan Mastiff, the only dog in the world that could endure pain. He also gifted Alexander some brilliantly sparkling, rare diamonds — India was the only source of diamonds in the world till the 19th century! Porus also gave Alexander a stock of ‘Kattarvazha’ (Aloe Vela), an Ayurvedic magic healing herb from Kerala, to heal his wounds.
Significantly, in the Battle of the Hydaspes, Alexander’s massive Thessalian black stallion Bucephalus (meaning Ox Head), who bore a large white star on his brow, was severely wounded and eventually died. Alexander was grief-stricken and founded a city in India in his horse’s honour called Bucephalia, which is now located in Pakistan’s Mandi Bahauddin District and simply called Phalia. Bucephalus is buried in Jalalpur Sharif near Jhelum in Pakistan. To the east of Porus’ kingdom, near the Ganges River, were the Nanda Empire of Magadha and the Gangaridai Empire (of the modern-day Bengal region of the Indian sub-continent). Fearing the ordeal of facing large armies and exhausted by years of campaigning under the burning sun and torrential rains of India, Alexander’s army mutinied at the Hyphasis River (Beas), refusing to march farther east. This river thus marked the easternmost magnitude of Alexander’s campaigns.
They also violently opposed Alexander when he insisted on crossing the Ganges, the width of which, as they learned to their consternation, was thirty-two furlongs, its depth a hundred fathoms, while its banks on the further side were arrayed with multitudes of troops, horsemen and elephants. The kings of the Ganderites and Praesii were indeed lying in wait to meet them with eighty thousand horsemen, two hundred thousand footmen, eight thousand chariots and six thousand war elephants. Alexander tried to persuade his soldiers to march farther, but his general Coenus pleaded with him to return as the men ‘longed to again see their parents, their wives and children, their homeland’. Alexander eventually agreed and turned south, marching along the Indus. Along the way, Alexander conquered the Malhi and other Indian tribes and even sustained an injury during the conquest. After a long and arduous journey, Alexander finally reached Macedonia.
On or about 11th June, 323 BC, Alexander breathed his last and took leave of this world at the tender age of 32. His mortal remains were laid in a gold anthropoid sarcophagus that was filled with honey, which was in turn placed in a well-crafted gold casket. According to Claudius Aelianus, the ‘honey tongued’ Roman author and teacher of rhetoric, Alexander’s favourite seer, Aristander of Telmessos, foretold that the land where Alexander would be laid to rest ‘would be happy and unvanquishable forever’.
Whilst Alexander’s funeral cortege was on its way to Macedonia, Ptolemy I Soter (one of Alexander’s generals who became the ruler of Egypt) seized the casket and took it temporarily to Memphis in ancient Egypt. His successor, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, transferred it to Alexandria, where it remained until at least late Antiquity. Ptolemy IX Lathyros, one of Ptolemy’s final successors, replaced it with a glass one to convert the original gold to coinage. The recent discovery of an enormous tomb in Amphipolis in northern Greece, dating from Alexander’s time, has given rise to the speculation that it was meant to be the burial place of Alexander. Around AD 200, the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus permanently closed Alexander’s tomb to the public.
Today, virtually all traces of Alexander’s Indian campaigns have disappeared. His altars have vanished, and the names of the cities which he founded have been obliterated. But the heroic exploits of ‘Sikander’ (meaning ‘victorious’), as he is popularly known in India, continue to fire the imagination of Indians living across the length and breadth of this ancient land.
(The writer is an internationally reputed senior lawyer practising in the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts and Tribunals in India. Bose is also an avid debater, public speaker, writer, broadcaster, telecaster, artist, painter, sculptor, music critic and filmmaker)