In 327 BC C., Alexander the Great, at almost twenty-eight years old, had completed the feat planned by his father Philip: the conquest of the Persian Empire. He had starred in it, but no one forgot that it had been a campaign designed by his mother. Governing territories from the Balkans to Afghanistan did not fulfill the ambition of the young Macedonian king. He needed a project of his own to earn eternity.
After having defeated the most powerful empire in the world known to the Greeks, it might seem that there were no feats left worthy of the great Alexander. But there was a territory that could provide him with the longed-for glory: India. Since the stories of Herodotus, sprinkled with fantasy, those lands had captivated the imagination of the Greeks for their extraordinary people and animals.
The Hellenic world placed there stories of mythological characters such as the god Dionysus or Heracles himself. It was said that the kings of Macedonia descended from the hero who starred in the twelve labors. What better way to demonstrate his greatness, then, than to be equal to those divinities and titans?
Furthermore, continuing with Greek beliefs, conquering India also meant reaching the limits of the known world: Alexander would be the first to reach the great ocean that bathed those limits.
The troops agreed to follow their king, and not only because of his charisma. Ancient stories presented India as a territory full of riches, a real incentive for soldiers who, in recent years, had fought in harsh lands – such as Afghanistan – that had provided them with little loot.
Alexander’s campaign began in May 327 BC. C. The king entered with his army of fifty thousand men into the valley of the Indus River (ancient India, territory of present-day Pakistan). The reports from his spies predicted an easy advance thanks to the fact that the kingdoms of those lands were at odds with each other and would not ally against him.
In addition to his phalanxes, the conquistador had another equally or more powerful weapon: his fame as a conqueror. The Macedonian sovereign sent emissaries before his troops with offers of submission, and many leaders immediately accepted them, knowing that the man who had defeated the powerful Persians was approaching.
But not everything was attributable to Alejandro’s legendary aura. Omphis, king of Taxiles, one of the strongest states on the northern bank of the Indus, accepted the arrival of the Macedonian army because he thought it would help him in his war against Poros (Purushottama, in Hindi). This was sovereign of another nearby kingdom that extended on the other side of the Indus, between the Hydaspes and Acesines rivers (known today as Jhelum and Chenat, respectively).
To motivate Alexander and his soldiers in their fight against Poros, Omphis did not stop telling them about the riches that existed in the territories governed by his enemy, and showered the newcomers with attention and gifts. Furthermore, Poros had made it clear that he would not submit to Alexander, which the Macedonian interpreted as an affront to his authority and an example that he should not set.
Before leaving to meet Poros, Alexander secured his rear guard against other enclaves that had not submitted either. One of them was the fortress of Aornos (in the Swat River Valley, Pakistan), on a mountain from where important routes in the region were controlled. Greek myths already spoke of this high fortification as an impregnable place that not even Heracles himself had managed to conquer. Quite an incentive for the Macedonian sovereign.
Showing off his ingenuity, Alexander ordered his troops to erect wooden structures on the peaks near Aornos. From these new positions, Macedonian slingers and archers began to attack the bastion. Seeing their tactical advantage lost, the defenders of the fortress asked to negotiate surrender.
In reality, the petition for parliament was a ruse to escape. Thanks to some deserters, Alexander discovered the deception and launched a daring night raid commanded by himself. Taken completely by surprise, the Aornos garrison capitulated.
After Aornos, the Macedonians rested in Nysa, a city that was friendly and that Alexander identified with one of the towns founded by Dionysus, another god from whom the sovereign claimed to be descended. With renewed strength, it was time to cross the Indus, in May 326 BC. C. The Macedonians saw crocodiles and other species that made them believe that they were very close to the sources of the Nile.
Poros, aware of the march of Alexander the Great’s army, was waiting for him on the other side of the Indus with almost fifty thousand soldiers, about one hundred elephants (a figure that rises to two hundred, depending on the source) and a thousand chariots. Crossing the Indus in the face of these forces seemed like a suicidal action. To worsen the prospects, monsoon rains had begun, making the ground muddy and making any offensive maneuver difficult.
Alexander ordered to set up camp and gather supplies. Poros he believed that the Macedonians would wait until the end of the monsoon and relaxed surveillance over them. It was a trap by the invaders. Taking advantage of the night and a monsoon storm, ten thousand Macedonian infantry and five thousand cavalry crossed the river. To reinforce the deception, a significant contingent had remained in the camp.
The next morning, Poros discovered the enemy’s crossing and ordered his son, named after him, to attack with the war chariots. The muddy terrain meant that this first attack was easily rejected by Alexander’s soldiers, who already had experience countering this type of units, as they had demonstrated six years earlier in the battle of Gaugamela.
Poros did not give up and launched a second attack led by his elephants. It was the first time that a Western army faced these pachyderms, which Alexander had studied in Taxiles to prepare his men. The phalanxes of pikemen worked hard to contain them, but the veteran Macedonian cavalry refused to charge against them, since the horses were terrified of them.
In the end, Alejandro’s ingenuity prevailed again. To overcome the horses’ fear, he ordered the Macedonian horsemen to maneuver along the flanks, away from the elephants. Furthermore, the troops that had remained in the camp joined the combat under the command of the experienced Craterus – one of the best Macedonian generals. With morale broken, the Indian army ended up fleeing.
Unlike his men, Poros did not give in to panic and remained fighting on the back of his elephant. The Macedonians took many casualties trying to overthrow the enemy monarch. This staunch resistance impressed Alexander, who wanted to negotiate with such a brave rival and offer him fair treatment: to remain sovereign of his lands in the Punjab, if he agreed to be his vassal.
The victory at Hydaspes further increased Alexander’s aura of invincibility, which helped him to make several local rulers submit to him, while his troops recovered from the costly battle. At the same time, they discovered elements of India that were exotic to Western eyes, such as the fauna and, especially, some customs.
Through the story of Aristobulus of Cassandrea (recovered in turn by Strabo), the historian who accompanied Alexander on his campaigns, sati became known in the West: the ritual by which women were immolated on the funeral pyres where the remains rested. of their husbands.
After a few months of rest as guests of Poros, in November 326 BC. C., Alexander and his men set out again with the aim of reaching the great ocean and completing their feat.
As they advanced, the conqueror heard stories of powerful kingdoms in the vicinity of the Ganges, the other great river of India. Plutarch says that the kings of the Gandarites and the Presians awaited the Macedonians with an army of “eighty thousand cavalry and two hundred thousand infantry, plus eight thousand chariots and six thousand fighting elephants.” The Roman historian could refer to the empires of Gangadirai and Nanda.
As expected, this new challenge increased Alexander’s thirst for glory, but his army did not think the same: it began to show signs of fatigue from marching through lands that seemed to have no end and in a hostile climate. Many veterans wanted to return home after eight years of campaigning in Asia.
Alejandro perceived that spirits were flagging and resorted to oratory – another of his virtues, which had already worked for him in the past in similar situations. He tried to motivate the troops with statements such as: “Beautiful are the feats of those who strive and face dangers. “It is beautiful to live with courage and leave an imperishable fame when you die.” Of course, he also did not forget to remember the riches they could find.
But, this time, the harangues had no effect. The soldiers insisted on returning and, if that were not enough, the sacrifices were not conducive to the idea of ??continuing towards the Ganges. For the first time, Alexander had to give in and determined that the army would return home.
From there, in 325 BC. C., Alejandro and his men began the long return home. First, they tried to return by sea, believing they could reach Egypt easily. In the end, the fleet explored the Indian Ocean and the army crossed the deserts of Makran (present-day Pakistan) and Gedrosia (Iran) to reach Persia, a very complicated route, since it crossed hostile territories, such as that of the Malian tribe.
The campaign against them was very tough, and the Macedonian king, in another example of his courage, personally assaulted the walls of that enclave, which some historians have identified with the current city of Multan (Pakistan).
Seriously wounded in the lung by an arrow, many of his soldiers thought he was dead and launched a furious counterattack against the Malians that devastated Multan.
The Macedonian’s time had not yet come, but a very difficult road awaited him. His army suffered hunger and thirst while crossing Makran and Gedrosia. Having already forgotten his anger at not wanting to advance towards the Ganges, the king refused to drink water to share the same hardships as his men.
India was left behind, and the battered army was able to reach Babylon. Alexander soon recovered his dreams of conquering new lands: Arabia or, perhaps, advancing westward. But the great conqueror of Antiquity would no longer lead his troops again. He died in the Mesopotamian capital in 323 BC. C. He did not reach the edge of the world, but in India he culminated the long list of deeds that gave him immortal fame.