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
From Pasnî Alexander marched for seven days along the coast till he
reached the well-known highway to Karmania. He could only leave the coast
near the Dasht river and strike into the valley of the Bahu, which would
lead him to Bampur, the capital of Gadrosia. This part of the march
probably occupied nearly a month. It has been doubted whether Bampur was,
in Alexander’s time, the capital of Gadrosia, rather than the place on
the edge of the Kirman desert, called indifferently Fahraj, Purag, and
Pura, where there are extensive ruins of a very ancient date. Colonel
Holdich, however, adduces arguments which suffice to set aside the claims
advanced in favour of Fahraj. Bampur is as old as Fahraj, and has in its
neighbourhood the site of a city still older, and now called Pura and
Purag. Besides, in order to reach Fahraj, Alexander must have passed
Bampur, since there is no other way consistent with Arrian’s account.
With regard to the route pursued by Krateros with the heavy transport
and invalids, our author points out that it was probably by the Mulla
(and not the Bolan) pass to Kelat and Quetta. Thence he must have taken
the Kandahar route to the Helmund, and followed that river down to the
fertile plains of lower Seistan, whence he crossed the Kirman desert by a
well-known modern caravan route and joined Alexander at or near Kirman.
Since the publication of his lecture, of which we have thus summarised
the contents, Colonel Holdich has contributed to the _Journal of the
Royal Geographical Society_ (January 1896), an article on “The Origin
of the Kafîr of the Hindu-Kush,” which contains some very interesting
notices regarding Alexander as he fought his way from the Hindu-Kush to
the banks of the Indus. The route by which the conqueror himself advanced
with one division of his army, while the other division, which was more
heavily armed, advanced by the Khaibar Pass, is thus described by our
author:—
“The recognised road to India from Central Asia was that which
passed through the plains of Kabul, by the Kabul river, into
Laghmân or Lamghân, and thence by the open Dasht-i-Gumbaz into
the lower Kunar. From the Kunar valley this road, even to the
time of Baber’s invasion of India (early in the sixteenth
century), crossed the comparatively low intervening range
into Bajour; thence to the valley of the Panj-Kora and Swat,
and out into India by the same passes with which we have now
(after nearly 400 years) found it convenient to enter the same
district.”
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