11-18-2004, 09:51 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I want to read book on Alexander and Porous. Any historically accurate title? <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Alexander's passage through North-Western India and his encounters with the various tribes that dwelled there is indeed a fascinating chapter in Indian history. Unfortunately there is a dearth of material in this regard. Needless to say, there are a plethora of "Euro-centric" books on Alexander, but typically from their point of view the India campaign is merely one of those "colorful episodes" involving elephants and chariots and oriental tribes with strange names who were subdued by the highly disciplined army of the conqueror. (Nonetheless, 2 definitive works
deserve mention -- that of Peter Green (Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B. C.: A Historical Biography) and A. B. Bosworth (Conquest and Empire : The Reign of Alexander the Great)
Fortunately, one book exists which provides a rare glimpse of Alexander's campaigns viewed thru the prism of India: <b>Age of the Nandas and Mauryas K.A.N. Sastri</b>
( http://www.mlbd.com/mnewreldisp.asp?Page=5&nxtPage=1 )
I think this is the only trustworthy source available which provides the Indian perspective. Edited by none other than the great historical doyen KA Nilakantha Sastri, it gives a detailed account of the great Conqueror's movements and maneuvers down the Jhelum and the various chieftains who stood in his path. The book in fact covers the entire period between 400 BC - 185 BC, especially the glory and might of the Imperial Mauryas under "devanam priya Rajan Asoka"
The task of retracing the Great Conqueror's passage is no easy one: for one thing, the names of the North Indian tribes, places, rivers, kings etc are all "hellenized", so it is hard today to reconstruct their Indian equivalents. Moreover, one of the earliest surviving accounts of Alexander comes down to from <b>Flavius Arrianus Xenophon</b> (92- 175?) (popularly known as Arrian) who was a Roman citizen. He wrote 2 definitive works: <b>Anabasis Alexandri</b> (or The
Campaigns of Alexander) and <b>Indica</b>, an account of the voyage by Alexander's fleet from India to the Persian Gulf under Nearchus. Arrian had the advantage of accessing sources which are now lost such as the contemporary works by Callisthenes (the nephew of Alexander's tutor Aristotle), Onescritus, Nearchus and Aristobulus, and Cleitarchus. Most important of all, Arrian had the biography of Alexander by Ptolemy, one of Alexander's leading generals. Despite all these accurate sources, when it comes to India, there is no subsititute for having a local perspective, which, alas, we will never have.
The best that one can get about this is from <b>Megasthenes</b>. Here are fragments of hisINDIKA
http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/docs/h...enes-Indika.htm
Megasthenes was Seleucus's ambassador in the Mauryan Court. So this is very much a first hand account of the Indian milieu c.300 BC!
This link might also make interesting reading: Arrian's Anabasis Alexandri: Book VIII (Indica)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/arr...VIII-India.html
Alexander's passage through North-Western India and his encounters with the various tribes that dwelled there is indeed a fascinating chapter in Indian history. Unfortunately there is a dearth of material in this regard. Needless to say, there are a plethora of "Euro-centric" books on Alexander, but typically from their point of view the India campaign is merely one of those "colorful episodes" involving elephants and chariots and oriental tribes with strange names who were subdued by the highly disciplined army of the conqueror. (Nonetheless, 2 definitive works
deserve mention -- that of Peter Green (Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B. C.: A Historical Biography) and A. B. Bosworth (Conquest and Empire : The Reign of Alexander the Great)
Fortunately, one book exists which provides a rare glimpse of Alexander's campaigns viewed thru the prism of India: <b>Age of the Nandas and Mauryas K.A.N. Sastri</b>
( http://www.mlbd.com/mnewreldisp.asp?Page=5&nxtPage=1 )
I think this is the only trustworthy source available which provides the Indian perspective. Edited by none other than the great historical doyen KA Nilakantha Sastri, it gives a detailed account of the great Conqueror's movements and maneuvers down the Jhelum and the various chieftains who stood in his path. The book in fact covers the entire period between 400 BC - 185 BC, especially the glory and might of the Imperial Mauryas under "devanam priya Rajan Asoka"
The task of retracing the Great Conqueror's passage is no easy one: for one thing, the names of the North Indian tribes, places, rivers, kings etc are all "hellenized", so it is hard today to reconstruct their Indian equivalents. Moreover, one of the earliest surviving accounts of Alexander comes down to from <b>Flavius Arrianus Xenophon</b> (92- 175?) (popularly known as Arrian) who was a Roman citizen. He wrote 2 definitive works: <b>Anabasis Alexandri</b> (or The
Campaigns of Alexander) and <b>Indica</b>, an account of the voyage by Alexander's fleet from India to the Persian Gulf under Nearchus. Arrian had the advantage of accessing sources which are now lost such as the contemporary works by Callisthenes (the nephew of Alexander's tutor Aristotle), Onescritus, Nearchus and Aristobulus, and Cleitarchus. Most important of all, Arrian had the biography of Alexander by Ptolemy, one of Alexander's leading generals. Despite all these accurate sources, when it comes to India, there is no subsititute for having a local perspective, which, alas, we will never have.
The best that one can get about this is from <b>Megasthenes</b>. Here are fragments of hisINDIKA
http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/docs/h...enes-Indika.htm
Megasthenes was Seleucus's ambassador in the Mauryan Court. So this is very much a first hand account of the Indian milieu c.300 BC!
This link might also make interesting reading: Arrian's Anabasis Alexandri: Book VIII (Indica)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/arr...VIII-India.html