The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin: Being Translations of such portions of the Works of these and other Classical Authors as describe Alexander's Campaigns in Afghanistan, the Panjâb, Sindh, Gedrosia and Karmania — John Shaqi
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin: Being Translations of such portions of the Works of these and other Classical Authors as describe Alexander's Campaigns in Afghanistan, the Panjâb, Sindh, Gedrosia and KarmaniaMcCrindle, John Watson
History
The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodoros, Plutarch and Justin: Being Translations of such portions of the Works of these and other Classical Authors as describe Alexander's Campaigns in Afghanistan, the Panjâb, Sindh, Gedrosia and Karmania
McCrindle, John Watson
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C.; India -- History -- To 324 B.C. -- Sources
Weighing from the Naval Station, the fleet reached Stoura,
about 100 stadia further down stream, and at the further
distance of 30 stadia came to another channel where the sea
was salt, at a place called Kaumana. A run of 20 stadia from
Kaumana brought it to Koreatis, where it anchored. After
weighing from this, a bar (ἕρμα) was encountered at the spot
where the Indus discharges into the sea, and through this,
where it was soft, a passage had to be cut at low water, for
a space of five stadia. On this part of the coast, which was
rugged, the waves dashed with great violence. The next place
of anchorage was at Krokala, a sandy island, which was reached
after a course of 150 stadia, that had followed the windings
of the coast. Near this dwelt the Arabies, who had their name
from the river Arabis, which separates their territory from
that of the Oreitai. On weighing from Krokala, a hill called
Eiros lay to the right, and to the left a low flat island,
which stretched along the face of the coast, and made the
intervening creek narrow. The ships having cleared this creek,
reached a commodious harbour to which Nearchos gave the name of
“Alexander’s Haven.” At the harbour’s mouth, two stadia off,
lay an island named Bibakta, which, acting as a barrier against
the sea, caused the existence of the harbour.
Our author thinks that some of the circumstances described in the above
passage supply irresistible evidence that it was through the Ghâro that
Nearchos sailed into the sea. If the obstruction at the mouth of the
river was caused in part by rock, it is certain, he says, that that mouth
cannot have been situated to the east of the Ghâro, for along the whole
sea-border of the Delta, to a depth of several miles, no rock, not even a
stone, is to be found. The description again of the coast adjoining the
bar as rugged or rocky (τραχεῖα) can apply with great propriety to the
plain west of the Ghâro, consisting, as it does, of a compact gravelly
soil, frequently broken by outcropping rock, while the description would
be utterly out of place if applied to the low mud-banks of the actual
Delta coast. And further, the statement that the fleet, after leaving the
river, ran a winding course, shows very pointedly that the Ghâro must
have been the mouth by which the fleet reached the sea, since, if it had
issued from any of the mouths east of the Ghâro, there would have been
no windings to follow, the coast of the Delta being singularly straight
and regular. The fleet probably entered the sea by the creek of the Ghâro
known as the Kudro, not far from the present mouth of which there is a
small port named the Wâghûdar, accessible to riverboats of light draught.
Sir A. Burnes, however, who visited the Delta in 1831, took the Pitî
channel to have been that by which Nearchos gained the sea. He had seen
in that channel what he took to be a rock, and concluded that it was the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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