In
327 BCE Alexander the Great began his foray into Punjab. King Ambhi,
ruler of Taxila, surrendered the city to Alexander. Many people had
fled to a high fortress/rock called Aornos.
Aornos
was taken by Alexander by storm after a successful siege. Alexander
fought an epic battle against the Indian monarch Porus in the Battle of
Hydaspes (326). After victory, Alexander made an alliance with Porus
and appointed him as satrap of his own kingdom. Alexander continued on
to conquer all the headwaters of the Indus River.
East of Porus’ kingdom, near the Ganges River, was the powerful kingdom of Magadha, under the Nanda Dynasty.
According
to Plutarch, at the time of Alexander’s Battle of the Hydaspes River,
the size of the Magadha’s army further east numbered 200,000 infantry,
80,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots, and 6,000 war elephants, which was
discouraging for Alexander’s men and stayed their further progress into
India:
“ As for the Macedonians,
however, their struggle with Porus blunted their courage and stayed
their further advance into India. For having had all they could do to
repulse an enemy who mustered only twenty thousand infantry and two
thousand horse, they violently opposed Alexander when he insisted on
crossing the river Ganges also, the width of which, as they learned,
was •thirty-two furlongs, its depth •a hundred fathoms, while its banks
on the further side were covered with multitudes of men-at‑arms and
horsemen and elephants. For they were told that the kings of the
Ganderites and Praesii were awaiting them with eighty thousand
horsemen, two hundred thousand footmen, eight thousand chariots, and
six thousand fighting elephants. And there was no boasting in these
reports. For Androcottus, who reigned there not long afterwards, made a
present to Seleucus of five hundred elephants, and with an army of six
hundred thousand men overran and subdued all India. ”
–Plutarch, Parallel Lives, “Life of Alexander”
Exhausted
and frightened by the prospect of facing another giant Indian army at
the Ganges River, his army mutinied at the Hyphasis (modern Beas),
refusing to march further East. Alexander, after the meeting with his
officer Coenus, was convinced that it was better to return.
Alexander
was forced to turn south, conquering his way down the Indus to the
Indian Ocean. He sent much of his army to Carmania (modern southern
Iran) with his general Craterus, and commissioned a fleet to explore
the Persian Gulf shore under his admiral Nearchus, while he led the
rest of his forces back to Persia by the southern route through the
Gedrosia (modern Makran in southern Pakistan).
Alexander
left behind Greek forces which established themselves in the city of
Taxila, now in Pakistan. Several generals, such as Eudemus and Peithon
governed the newly established province until around 316 BCE. One of
them, Sophytes (305–294 BCE), was an independent Greek prince in the
Punjab.
