coll. - The Maurya Empire: The History and Legacy of Ancient India’s Greatest Empire

The geographic area known today as India is a modern concept that was created by the United Kingdom when the British partitioned south Asia along religious lines in 1947; the predominantly Hindu south became India, while the predominantly Muslim areas became Pakistan. For most of its history, India was divided along religious and ethnic lines with scores of kings and princes claiming authority over relatively small regions. Languages too were widely dispersed, with the north being home to more Indo-European-descended people and the south being home to the Dravidians (Thapar 2002, 13).

There were certainly clashes between these different groups, but for most of its early history, there was equilibrium on the subcontinent. Outside of the Aryan conquest in the middle of the second millennium BCE, not one of the many groups was able to gain ascendency over the others. This situation changed in the late fourth century BCE, when Alexander the Great led his army all the way to the banks of the Indus River. Alexander toppled kingdom after kingdom as he led his armies west on a campaign to conquer the known world, which brought him through the Middle East into Persia, and then finally into India in 326 BCE. Many of the Classical historians recorded the warrior-kings most important battles in India, as it turned out to be a seminal point in Hellenistic history; the Greeks were ultimately repulsed and forced to focus on promoting Hellenism in more familiar confines.

Andrew Dunns picture of an ancient bust of Alexander

The first century BCE Greek historian Diodorus Siculus gave detailed accounts concerning how Alexander was continually faced by the enigmatic Indian king Porus. Porus, known to the Indians as Puru, is believed by modern scholars to have been the king of the Jhelum region, which made him powerful, but he was still just one of many who claimed such a title in India at the time (Thapar 2002, 158). The Indians had a well-equipped army and proved to be a match for the Greeks: In this year Alexander repaired his army in the land of Taxiles and then marched his army against Porus, the king of the neighboring Indians. He had more than fifty thousand infantry, about three thousand cavalry, more than a thousand chariots of war, and one hundred and thirty elephants...When Alexander received word that this king was four hundred furlongs away, he decided to attack Porus before the arrival of his ally. As he approached the Indians, Porus learned of his advance and deployed his forces promptly. He stationed his cavalry upon both flanks, and arranged his elephants, arrayed so as to strike terror in an opponent, in a single line at equal intervals along his front... Then the elephants came into play, trained to make good use of their height and strength. Some of the Macedonians were trodden under foot, armour and all, by the beasts and died, their bones crushed. Others were caught up by the elephants trunks and, lifted on high, were dashed back down to the ground again, dying a fearful death. Many soldiers were pierced through the whole body. Nevertheless the Macedonians faced the frightening experience manfully. They used their long spears to good effect against the Indians stationed beside the elephants, and kept the battle even... Many were slain in their flight, but then Alexander, satisfied with his brilliant victory, ordered the trumpets to sound the recall. (Diodorus, Library of History , XVII, 87-89).

After defeating Porus, Alexander ordered his troops to move on and cross the Indus River, which the Greeks considered the traditional boundary of India. It was there that Alexanders troops threatened to mutiny and not move forward. According to the second century CE Greek historian Arrian, Alexander gave the following speech: You all wish to leave me. Go then! And when you reach home, tell them that Alexander, your King, who vanquished Persians and Medes and Bactrians and Sacae... who crossed the Caucasus beyond the Caspian Gates, and Oxus and Tanis and the Indus, which none but Dionysus had crossed before him. (Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander , VII, 11). Nonetheless, Alexander eventually relented and agreed to move his army back to Babylon.