INDIA
frontier troops were supplemented by a small force of elephants belonging
to the Indians who lived this side of the Indus.
frontier troops were supplemented by a small force of elephants belonging
to the Indians who lived this side of the Indus.
Cambridge History of India - v1
175, where
Hecataeus says that a tribe called the Opiai 'dwell by the Indus River, and there
is a royal fort. Thus far the Opiai extend, and beyond there is a as desert as far as the
Indians. ' If 'royal fort' means a fort of the Great King, as is likely, we have evidence
here for the presence of a Persian frontier garrison on the Indus.
3 See Chapter xv, cf. V. A. Smith, Early Hist. India, 3rd ed. pp. 88-104.
## p. 302 (#336) ############################################
302
[сн.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N. INDIA
9
never subject to King Darius. ' Herodotus also evidently considers the
sandy wastes in portions of the present Sind and Rājputāna, to the east
of the Indus, as the frontier in that direction ; for he says (III, 98) that
'the part of the Indian territory towards the rising sun is sand,' and he
adds immediately afterwards that 'the eastern part of India is a desert on
account of the sand. ' How far eastward the Persian dominion may have
extended in the Punjab cannot be exactly determined ; but it is significant
that Herodotus never refers to the Ganges valley), and not one of our sour-
ces makes any mention of the famous Indian kingdom of Magadha, which
was coming into prominence under the Buddhist rulers Bimbisāra and
Ajātaçatru during the reign of Darius and simultaneously with the Persian
conquests. On the whole, so far as the extent of the Persian control is
concerned, no better summary need be given than the cautious expression
of Vincent Smith, when he says : ‘Although the exact limits of the Indian
satrapy (under Darius) cannot be determined, we know that it was distinct
from Aria (Herāt), Arachosia (Kandahār), and Gandaria (North-western
Panjāb). It must have comprised, therefore, the course of the Indus from
Kālabagh to the sea, including the whole of Sind, and perhaps included a
considerable portion of the Panjāb east of the Indus? . '
At this point it may not be out of place to refer briefly to the
information that is afforded by the Inscriptions and by Herodotus regarding
the sway exercised by Darius over the peoples of the Indian borderland.
Of the twenty-three tributary provinces the names of which appear on the
Bahistān Rock (Bh. 1, 14-17) and are repeated with some slight variations
in the Platform and the Tomb Inscriptions (Dar. Pers. e. 10-18; NR. a.
22-30), three provinces, namely Bākhtrī (Bactria), Haraiva (Herāt), and
Z(a)ra(n)ka (Drangiāna, or a portion of Seistān) as noted above (pp. 293),
form a part of the present Afghānistān lying more remote from the Indian
frontier. The five that are directly connected with the region of the Indus
itself are, as partly indicated earlier in the chapter (ibid. ), Ga(n)dāra (the
region of the Kābul valley as far as Peshāwar)4; Thatagu (either the Ghilzai
territory to the south-west of Ghazni or the Hazāra country further to the
west and north-west), Hara(h)uvati (the district about Kandahār
1 He says, for instance (iv, 40) that ‘from India onward the country to the east
is desert, and no one can tell what it is like. '
2 On this point see V. A. Smith, Early Hist. India, 3rd ed. , p. 37.
3 Op. cit. , p. 38.
4 For Greek references to Gandāra consult Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, Real-Encyclo-
pädie, vii, 696-701, Stuttgart, 1912.
## p. 303 (#337) ############################################
xiv]
PEOPLES OF THE INDIAN FRONTIER
303
.
in the broadcast sense), Saka, and Makal. The term Saka may possibly
allude to Sakastāna (Seistān) and the dwellers around the region of the
Hāmūn Lake; but the distinction made in the Tomb Inscription of Darius
(N. R. a. 25-26) between the Sakā Haumavargā, answering to the Amyrgioi
Sakai of Herodotus (VII, 64) and the Sakā Tigrakhaudā, ‘wearing pointed
caps,' an attribute corresponding to the term Orthokorybantioi of Herodotus
(111, 92), may indicate a special division of the Çakas or Scythians, living
between the extreme northern sources of the Indus and the headwaters of
the Oxus". The district Maka is believed to be identified with Makrān,
once occupied by the Mykans of Herodotus (111, 93 ; vj1, 68) and now a
part of Baluchistan
Herodotus (111, 91-93) mentions in his list of peoples that were subject
to Darius - corresponding in a general way to the satrapies of the empire--
four or five more which may be identified as having occupied districts in
or near the present Afghānistān, in some cases adjoining the Indian frontier.
The Sattagydai and Gandarioi (cf. OP. Thatagu and Ga(11) dāra), for
example, have the Dadikai and the Aparytai linked with them in the same
enumeration. Of these latter tribes, the Dadikai may be identified with the
Dards of the Upper Indus valley, somewhere between the Chitrāl district
and Kashmir ; and the Aparytai are to be connected with the inhabitants
of the mountainous regions of the Hindu Kush, north of Kābul. The
Kaspioi, who, according to Herodotus (111, 93 cf. also vii, 67, 86) constituted
together with the Sakai the fifteenth division of the empire (and who are
to be distinguished from the Kaspioi of the eleventh division (n1, 92), by
the Caspian Sea), must likewise have been an easterly people, and they are
perhaps to be located in the wild tract of Kāfiristān, to the north of the
1 The slight variations in the lists of the three inscriptions, as regarding these
provinces, are as follows : (1) Bh. 1, 16. 17, Ga(n)dāra ; Saka, Gatagus, Hara (h) uvatis,
Maka ; (2) Dar. Pers, e. 17-18. jatagus, Hara(h)uvatis, Hi(n)dus, Ga(n)dāra, Sakā,
Maka ; (3) NR. a. 24-26, Hara(h)uvatis, gatagus, Ga(n)dāra, Hi(n)dus, Sakā Hauma-
vargā, Sakā Tigraxaudā.
2 For such a view see F. W. Thomas, J. R. A. S. 1906, pp. 181-216, 460-464;
but compare the observations by Sarre and Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, pp. 252-253.
3 For a general discussion of the Çaka question (with bibliographical references),
see Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 23. 24, 30, 36. 40 (with cuts) and 252-253, also
maps 1 and 2 at the end of the same volume. Consult likewise Marquart, Untersuch.
z. Gesch. v. Eran, ii, 86, 136, n. 5. It may also be noted that Polyaenus, Strategemata,
vii, 12, refers to an expedition of Darius against the Çakas, apparently north of the
region of Bactria, and mentions Amorges or Omarges (i. e. Haumavarga ? ) as one of the
Çaka kings.
4 So also Eduard Meyer, Persiu, in Encyclop. Brit. , 1lth ed. , XXI, 202 ; and
Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 28-29; refer likewise to J. J. Modi, The Country of
Mekran, its Past History, in East and West, May, 1904, pp. 1-12, Bombay.
E Cf. Marquart, Untersuch. z. Gesch. v. Eran, II, 175; Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit,
P. 31.
## p. 304 (#338) ############################################
304
[сн.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N. INDIA
>
:
Kābul River. The Thamanaioi, whom Herodotus (III, 93, 117) mentions
as forming a part of the fourteenth division of the tributary nations,
occupied a section of Afghánistān not easy to define precisely, but
presumably in the western or west-central region, as noted above (p. 293,
n. 4). The territory of Paktyike in the thirteenth division (Hdt. III, 93 ;
cf. III, 102 ; IV, 4+) and its people, the Paktyes (Hdt. VII, 67), are to be
located within the borders of the land now called Afghānistān; but whether
the name is to be regarded as a tribal designation of the Afghāns in general,
and as surviving in the term Pakhtu or Pashtu applied to their language,
is extremely doubtful? .
Finally, for the sake of completeness, it may be noted that India
appears as one of the limits of the Persian Empire under Darius in the
apocryphal Greek vision of the Book of Ezra known as I Esdras. The
passage (111, 1-2) runs as follows : ‘Now King Darius made a great feast
unto all his subjects, and unto all that were born in his house, and unto all
the princes of Media and of Persia, and to all the satraps and captains and
governors that were under him, from India, unto Ethiopia, in the hundred
twenty and seven provinces3. Inasmuch, however, as the apologue of the
Three Pages, in which this reference is embodied, seems to be subsequent
to the age of Alexander, we must regard the passage as merely a general
tradition concerning the extent of the Achaemenian Empire without in-
sisting upon the chronological allusion to Darius 14.
For the reign of Xerxes (486-465 B. c. ) the continuance of the
Persian domination in Northern India is proved by the presence of an Indian
contingent, consisting of both infantry and cavalry, among the troops from
subject nations drawn upon by that monarch to augment the vast army of
Asiatics which he marshalled to invade Greece. Herodotus (VII, 65)
describes the equipment of the Indian infantry as follows : The Indians,
clad in garments made of cotton, carried bows of cane and arrows of cane,
the latter tipped with iron ; and thus accoutred the Indians were marshalled
under the command of Pharnazathres, son of Artabates. ' It is worth
remarking, perhaps, that the commander of these forces, as shown by
his name, was a Persian. Regarding the Indian cavalry Herodotus (VII, 86)
says that they were “armed with the same equipment as in the case of the
1 So Marquart, op. cit. II, 140-142 ; but consult Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit.
p. 253. Thomas, J. R. A. S. 1906, p. 191, n. 1, suggests reading ka'tilo0! (cf. Capisa,
p. 297 above) for Kāorilo!
2 Consult Marquart op. cit. II, 171-180 ; Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 26-27 ;
Ed. Meyer, Persia, in Encyclop. Brit. , 11th ed. , XXI, 203 ; Dames, Afghānistan, in
Encyclop. of Islam, I, 149-150.
3 Cf. also the paraphrase in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities XI, 3, 2 (33), and the
passages from Either cited below, p. 304, n. 2.
4 See the note on this passage by S. A. Cook, in Apocryphu ană Pseude pigrzpha of
the Old Testament, ed. Charles, I, 29, Oxford, 1913.
## p. 305 (#339) ############################################
XIV]
EXTENT OF PERSIAN INFLUENCE
305
It may
infantry, but they brought riding-horses and chariots, the latter being
drawn by horses and wild asses? . '
be observed, moreover, that a number of the tribes who
inhabited the Indo-Irānian borderland in the time of Darius (see above,
pp. 292-3, 302-3) were represented in the host of Xerxes as well ; namely
the Bactrians, Sakai, Are)ioi, Gandarioi, Dadikai, Kaspioi, Sarangai,
Paktyes, occupying the Afghān region, and the Mykoi of Baluchistān
(Hdt. VII, 64-68). On the whole, therefore, we may conclude that the
eastern domain of the Persian Empire was much the same in its extent
under Xerxes in 480 B. C. as it had been in the reign of his great father? .
The period following the defeat of the Persian arms under Xerxes
by Greece marks the beginning of the decadence of the Achæmenian
Empire. For this reason it is easy to understand why there was no forward
movement on Persia's part in India, even though the Irānian sway in that
territory endured for a century and longer. Among other proofs of this
close and continued connexion may be mentioned the fact that Ctesias, who
was resident physician at the court about the beginning of the fourth century
B. C. , could hardly have written his Indica without the information he must
have received regarding India from envoys sent as tribute-bearers to the
Great King or from Persian officials who visited India on state business,
as well as from his intercourse with travellers and traders of the two
countries. If the work of Ctsias on India had been preserved in full, and
not merely in the epitome by Photius and in fragmentary citations by other
authors, we should be better informed to-day as to Persia's control over
Indian territory during the period under consideration
The fact, however, that this domination prevailed even to the end of
the Achæmenian sway in 330 B. c. is furthermore proved by the call
which Darius III, the last of the dynasty, was able to issue to Indian troops
when making his final stand at Arbela to resist the Greek invasion of Persia
by Alexander. According to Arrian (Anab. iii, 8. 3-6), some of the Indian
forces were grouped with their neighbours the Bactrians and with the
Sogdians under the command of the satrap of Bactria, whereas those who
were called ‘mountainous Indians' followed the satrap of Arachosia. The
Sakai appeared as independent allies under their leader Manakes. These
1 As a matter of curiosity it may be noted that Herodotus (vii, 187) says that an
immense number of Indian dogs followed the army of Xerxes in his Grecian invasion.
2 Later Jewish tradition has the same formulaic description for the empire of
Xerxes (Ahasuerus) as for that of Darius (cf. p. 304, above) ; thus in the Book of
Esther, I, 1 (cf. also VIII, 9), Xerxes is styled 'Ahasuerus which reigned from India
even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces'.
3 In this connexion compare M' Crindle, Ancient India as described by Ktesias,
pp. 3-4, London, 1882, noting certain details, for example, in $3-7.
4 The extant remains of the India are to be found in Ctesiae. . . Fragmenta, ed.
C. Müller, pp. 79. 105 (in his edition of Herodotus, Paris, 1844).
9
## p. 306 (#340) ############################################
306
(CH.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N.
INDIA
frontier troops were supplemented by a small force of elephants belonging
to the Indians who lived this side of the Indus. '
Emphasis may be laid anew on the fact that the sphere of Persian in-
fluence in these early times can hardly have reached beyond the realm of
the Indus and its affluents We may assume, accordingly, that when
Alexander reached the river Hyphasis, the ancient Vipāç and modern Beās,
and was then forced by his own generals and soldiers to start upon his
retreat, he had touched the extreme eastern limits of the Persian domain,
over which he had triumphed throughout! . The interesting articles by
Dr. D. B. Spooner in the Jour. R. A. S. for 1915 (pp. 63-89, 405-455), entitled
The Zcroastrian Period of Indian History, make the strongest possible plea
for a far wider extension of Persian influence upon India in the early
historic period. While scholars are fully agreed to allow for the general and
far-reaching theory of Persian influence, they have not found themselves
prepared to accept many of the hypotheses put forward in Dr. Spooner's
two articles, as the criticisms which succeeded their publication shows.
With the downfall of the Achæmenian rule before the onslaught
of the conqueror from Macedon ends the first chapter in the story of
the relations between India and Persia. It belongs elsewhere to indicate
those which existed under the successors of Alexander, under the Parthian
and Sassanian sovereigns, and down through Muhammadan times, until, in
the eighteenth century, a Persian invader like Nadir Shāh could carry
off the Peacock Throne of the Mughals and deck his crown with the
Koh-i-Nür.
ANCIENT PERSIAN COINS IN INDIA
Whatever were the actual limits of Persian power in India, it is certain
that within these limits the money of the Persian kings must have been
current. At the same time it is not easy to support the general statement by
definite facts. Properly authenticated records of finds áre virtually unknown.
Nor can over-much reliance be placed on deductions drawn from the
occurrence of individual specimens in collections that have been formed in
North-western India. Before the construction of the Russian railways
in Central Asia the waifs and strays of commerce, like gold and silver coins
from Bukhāra and Khorāsān, naturally drifted over the mountain-passes of
Afghānistān into the Punjab as the nearest profitable market. Once they had
arrived there, however, the dealers into whose hands they came were free to
assign to them the provenance that seemed most likely to enhance their
1 For the situation, see Chapter xv, pp. 333-4, and refer to the map.
2 V. A. Smith. J. R. A. S. 1915, pp. 800-802 ; Keith ibid. 1916, pp. 138. 143 ;
Thomas, ibid. pp. 362-366 ; Nimrod,' The Modern Review, Calcutta, 1916, pp. 372-376,
490-498, 597-600.
9
## p. 307 (#341) ############################################
XIV]
ANCIENT PERSIAN COINS IN INDIA
307
>
>
price, a circumstance that renders it difficult to appraise the value of
the scanty evidence available. For reasons that will presently appear, the
two precious metals can best be considered separately.
The standard gold coin of Ancient Persia was the daric, which
bore upon the obverse a figure of the Great King hastening through
his dominions, armed with bow and spear; and upon the reverse an irregular
oblong incuse. It weighed about 130 grains (8:42 grammes), and was in all
probability first minted by Darius Hystaspes, the monarch who was respon-
sible for adding the valley of the Indus to the empire. From its infancy,
therefore, the daric would have ready access to the country beyond
the Hindu Kush. At the same time there was an important economic reason
which would militate against its extensive circulation in these regions.
Gold was abundant there, so abundant that for many centuries its value
relatively to silver was extraordinarily low. There are grounds for believing
that during the period of the Persian dominion the ratio was no higher
than 1:8, as compared with the norm of 1 : 13:3 maintained by the
imperial mint. Such daries as made their way thither would thus consti-
tute an artificially inflated currency, and would tend to be exported again
on the earliest possible opportunity. There was no temptation to accumu-
late them, when they could be exchanged elsewhere for silver at so very
substantial a profit. The conclusion here suggested is fully borne out by the
actual phenomena. Persian gold has never been discovered in any quantity
in India ; the hoards of 'darics’ sometimes said to have been found in
the eighteenth century can be shown to have consisted of Gupta coins. Iso-
lated examples have, indeed, been picked up sporadically; the daric reprc-
duced on Pl. I, 1, is from the Cunningham Collection. But it is significant
that in no single instance do these bear countermarks or any other
indication that could possibly be interpreted as suggestive of a prolonged
Indian sojourn.
The corresponding silver coinage consisted of sigloi or shekels, twenty
of which were equivalent to a daric. They had a maximum weight of
86. 45 grains (5. 6 grammes), and had the same types as the gold (Pl. I, 2, 3).
Sigloi are frequently offered for sale by Indian dealers, and it is a reason-
able inference that they are fairly often disinterred from the soil of India
itself. That is precisely what might be expected from the working of
economic law. The relative cheapness of gold would act like a lodestone.
Silver coins from the west would flow into the country freely, and would
remain in active circulation. At one time confirmation seemed to be
provided by the surviving sigloi. Many of them - including, it should
be added, a very large proportion that are not directly of Indian pro-
venance-are distinguished by the presence of peculiar countermarks which
were thought to have their closest analogy on the square-shaped pieces of
.
## p. 308 (#342) ############################################
308
[CH, XIV
ANCIENT PERSIAN COINS IN INDIA
silver that constitute the oldest native coinage of India'. The punch-marks
on the native Indian coins (Pl. I, 4, 5) appear to have been affixed partly
by the local authority of the district in which the money was used, but
to a much larger extent by the merchants or money-changers through
whose hands it passed. The practice was plainly designed to obviate
the necessity for repeated weighing. As this advantage would be as
pronounced in the case of the sigloi as in the case of the indigenous issues,
it would not have been surprising to find that they had been subjected to
similar treatment. M. Babelon has, however, expressed the view that
the punch-marked sigloi should, as a rule, be associated with Lycia,
Pamphylia, Cilicia, and Cyprus. And it must be admitted that the results
of the most recent investigation? rather tend to bear out this opinion. The
resemblance to the Indian punch-marks remains noteworthy, but proof of
absolute identity is lacking
1 Rapson J. R. A. S. 1895, pp. 865 ff.
2 Hill, J. H. S. 1919, pp. 125 ff.
## p. 308 (#343) ############################################
## p. 308 (#344) ############################################
## p. 309 (#345) ############################################
CHAPTER XV
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
In the fourth century B. C. there is a sudden rift in the mists which
envelop the ancient history of India. The regions disclosed are the Kābul
Valley, the foothills through which the Five Rivers come down into the
plains of the Punjab, the plains themselves, and the lower course of the
Indus. The country, as we see it, is held partly by a number of independent
tribes, governed by their own headmen and owning the authority of no king.
But this primitive aristocratic type of community is holding its own with
difficulty against another type of government, the monarchic. In parts
of the country principalities have been formed under despotic rājas, and
between the different elements a struggle with varying vicissitudes is going
on. The rājas are fighting to extend their authority over the free tribes and
the free tribes are fighting to repel the rājas. The rājas are also fighting
amongst themselves, and mutual jealousies lead to politic alliances accord-
ing to the necessities of the moment; we divine in this little world a conflict
and shifting of antagonistic groups such as we can follow on a larger scale
in the history of Europe. It is into this world that the Western invader
plunges in 326 B. C.
About ten miles north-west from where Rāwalpindi now stands
stood, in the fourth century B. C. , the city of Takshaçilā (Taxila), long
eminent among the cities of India as a great seat of learning. In the year
327 it was the capital of a rāja, whose principality lay between the Indus
and its tributary the Jhelum (the ancient Vitastā, the Hydaspes of the
Greeks)'. Like Rāwalpindi to day, Takshaçilā guarded the chief gate of
India from the north-west: it was the first great Indian city at which
1 Although the courses of the great rivers of the Punjab have greatly changed in
historical times and are still changing, their names may be traced with certainty from
the Age of the Rigveda down to the present day. Those which are chiefly important
in the history of Alexander's Indian campaign are :
Ancient Indian
Greek Latin
Modern
Sindhu.
'Ivobs,
Indus.
Indus.
Kubhā.
Κωφην,
Cophen.
Kābul,
Suvāstu.
Σοαστος, Soastus.
Vitastā.
‘ydàrins, Hydaspes.
Jhelum.
Asikni, later Chandrabhāgā. ’Aksoivre, Acesines.
Chenāb.
Parushṇī, later Irāvati.
'yogantys, Hydrates
Rāvi.
Vipāç, later Vipācā.
"Ύφασις, Hyphasis.
Beās
Çutudri.
Zagados, Zaradrus, Hesydrus. Sutlej.
Swat,
309
## p. 310 (#346) ############################################
310
[CH.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
merchants who had come down the Kābul Valley and crossed the Indus
about Attock arrived, three days' journey beyond the river. Its ruler was
the first among the kings of the Punjab to hear any tidings which might
come down from the highlands of Afghānistān of events happening behind
those tremendous mountain walls. For many generations now the Punjab
must have had some knowledge of what went on in the dominions of the
King of Kings. For the Persian Empire founded two centuries before by
Cyrus had been a huger realm than had ever, so far as we know, existed in
the world under the hand of one man, and the power and glory of the
man who ruled it, the splendour of Ecbatana and Persepolis, must have
been carried by fame over the neighbouring lands.
The rājas of Takshaçilā must therefore have long lent an ear to the
rumbling of wars and rebellions which came across the western mountains.
They may indeed have known next to nothing of what went on at the
further extremities of the Persian Empire ; for the same realm which at its
utmost extension eastward touched the Indus reached at its other end the
Aegean and Black Seas ; and the great monarchic Empires of the east are
conglomerations too loosely organised for the troubles of one province to
be necessarily felt in the more distant ones. The Indian princes may there-
fore have been ignorant of the fact that the Persian king at the other end of
his realm had come into contact with a singular people settled in a
quantity of little republics over the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula,
along the coasts of Asia Minor, and in the intermediate islands, the people
whom the Persians called collectively Yavanas (Ionians). We do not know
whether it even produced any considerable shock on the banks of the Indus,
when a century and a half before 334 B. c. the Persian king had led his
armies to disaster in the land of the Yavanas, although those armies
included Indian tribesmen torn by Persi
torn by Persian officers from the frontier hills,
whose bones were destined to find their last resting-place on the field of
Plataea thousands of miles away. Of the long struggle which went on for
generations after that between the Yavana republics, especially the one
called Athens, and the western satraps of the Great King perhaps no
rumour was brought down the Kabul valley to Takshaçilā.
But in 334 B. C. and tbe following years the struggle between Persia
and the Yavanas took a turn which must have made talk even in the pala-
ces and bazaars of the Punjab. The Indian princes learnt that a Yavana king
had arisen in the utmost West strong enough to drive the Great King from
his throne. It may be that the western provinces, Asia Minor and Egypt,
were torn away in 331, 333 and 332 B. c. by the invader without yet bring.
ing the Indian princes to realise that so huge a fact in the world as the
Persian Empire was about to vanish. But there can have been no mistaking
the magnitude of the catastrophe, when Darius III was flying northward
for his life, when Alexander had occupied the central seats of government
## p. 311 (#347) ############################################
XV )
FROM KANDHAR TO KĀBUL
311
and set Persepolis on fire (330 B. C. ). If this man from the West was going
to claim the whole heritage of the Achaemenian kings, that would make him
the neighbour of the princes of India. It must have been a concern to
the rāja of Takshaçilā and his fellow-kings to learn in what direction the
victorious Yavana host would move next. And in fact the tidings came
before long that it was moving nearer. When the winter of 330 fell,
it was encamped in Seistān, and with the spring moved to the uplands
which to-day constitute the southern part of Afghānistān. Here the
awe-struck inhabitants, Pashtus probably, ancestors of the modern Afghāns
saw the European strangers set about a work which indicated a resolve
to make themselves at home for all time in these lands won by their
spear. They saw them begin to construct a city after the manner of the
Yavanas at a point commanding the roads; and when the rest of the
host had gone onward, there a body of Europeans remained, established
behind the fresh-built walls. If we may judge by analogies, some thousands
of the native people were induced by force or persuasion to settle side
by side with them in the new city. It was only one of the chain of cities
which marked the track of conquering Hellenism. Like many of the
others, this too was given the name of the conqueror. In the speech of
the Greeks it was known as Alexandria-among-the-Arachosians. To-day
we call it Kandahār.
A mountain barrier still separated the Yavana host at Kandahār
in the summer of 329 from the Kābul valley, that is to say, from the river
system of the Indus. And it would seem that, when the passes filled
with the first winter snows, the Yavanas had not yet crossed it. But the
army led by Alexander was one which defied ordinary obstacles. In
winter, under circumstances that made regular provisioning impossible, by
extraordinary endurance it pushed through the hills and descended into
the Kābul valley. The princes of the Punjab might feel that the outlandish
host stood indeed at the door.
But Alexander, having reached the Kābyl valley in the winter of
329-8, did not make an immediate advance upon India. Beyond the
mountain range which forms the northern side of the valley, the Hindu
Kush, lay the extreme provinces of the old Persian Empire towards the
north-east-Bactria (whose name still survives in the city of Balkh) and the
country now called Bukhāra. Not only were these provinces still unsubdued
but the Persian cause was upheld there by a prince of the old blood royal.
Alexander must beat down that opposition, before he could think of
invading India. He waited therefore for the rest of the winter in the
Kābul valley, till the spring should unblock the passes of the Hindu Kush.
And again here the inhabitants saw the Europeans make preparations
1 γπό “IIλειάδος δνσιν, Strabo, XV, C. 725. .
2 Diod. XVII, 82 ; Curt. VII, 3, 12.
1
## p. 312 (#348) ############################################
312
I ch.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
for permanent settlement. At the foot of the Hindu Kush, whence three
roads to Bactria radiatel, on the site probably of the still existing village
of Charikār, rose another Alexandria, Alexandria-under-the-Cauca. us. In
support of the Yavana colony to be left in this town, other little settlements
were established at points a day's journey off in what were henceforth to
be Greek towns ; Cartana, noted for the rectangular precision with which
its walls we traced out (modern Begrām, according to Cunningham) and
Cadrusi (Koratas ? ) are names given us. In this case we have an express
statement that 7000 of the people of the land were to be incorporated
as citizens of the new towns with those of Alexander's mercenaries who
cared to settle in this region 2800 miles away from their old home.
Another new city, or old city transformed with a new Greek :ame,
Nicaea, occupied apparently some site between Alexandria and the Kābul
rivers
As soon as the snow was melted enough to make the Khawak Pass
practicable, the Yavan ı arıny trailed up the Panjshir valley, leaving little
bodies of Europeans behind it to hold the Kābul valley under a Persian
satrap and a Macedonian episkopos. The main body of the army once
more contended with the hardships of a passage over the high ridges and
disappeared to the northwards. During the following twelve months (May
328 to May 327) such news of it as reached India showed that the Yavana
king still prevailed against all enemies. As far as the Syr Daria (Jazartes)
the peoples of Eastern Irān were broken before him. In the early spring of
327 he was again moving to the south.
The rāja of Takshaçilā must have realised at this juncture that
a momentous choice lay before him. It may be that the idea of a common
Indian nationality, in whose cause he and his brother kings might stand
together against the stranger, did not even occur to him : India was
too large and too disunited for the mind to embrace it as a unity. But he
might well tremble for his own power, if this new resistless deluge came
bursting into the land. On the other hand it might perhaps be turned to
his account. His policy was largely governed by his antagonism to the rival
1 Cunningham, Ancient Geography, p. 24.
2 Diod. XVII, 83 ; Curt. VII, 3, 23, according to the MSS, bas 'vii millibus seni.
orum Macedonum. ' Hedieke in the Teubner text amends this, perhaps too boldiy, as
VII millibus subactarum nationum.
Hecataeus says that a tribe called the Opiai 'dwell by the Indus River, and there
is a royal fort. Thus far the Opiai extend, and beyond there is a as desert as far as the
Indians. ' If 'royal fort' means a fort of the Great King, as is likely, we have evidence
here for the presence of a Persian frontier garrison on the Indus.
3 See Chapter xv, cf. V. A. Smith, Early Hist. India, 3rd ed. pp. 88-104.
## p. 302 (#336) ############################################
302
[сн.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N. INDIA
9
never subject to King Darius. ' Herodotus also evidently considers the
sandy wastes in portions of the present Sind and Rājputāna, to the east
of the Indus, as the frontier in that direction ; for he says (III, 98) that
'the part of the Indian territory towards the rising sun is sand,' and he
adds immediately afterwards that 'the eastern part of India is a desert on
account of the sand. ' How far eastward the Persian dominion may have
extended in the Punjab cannot be exactly determined ; but it is significant
that Herodotus never refers to the Ganges valley), and not one of our sour-
ces makes any mention of the famous Indian kingdom of Magadha, which
was coming into prominence under the Buddhist rulers Bimbisāra and
Ajātaçatru during the reign of Darius and simultaneously with the Persian
conquests. On the whole, so far as the extent of the Persian control is
concerned, no better summary need be given than the cautious expression
of Vincent Smith, when he says : ‘Although the exact limits of the Indian
satrapy (under Darius) cannot be determined, we know that it was distinct
from Aria (Herāt), Arachosia (Kandahār), and Gandaria (North-western
Panjāb). It must have comprised, therefore, the course of the Indus from
Kālabagh to the sea, including the whole of Sind, and perhaps included a
considerable portion of the Panjāb east of the Indus? . '
At this point it may not be out of place to refer briefly to the
information that is afforded by the Inscriptions and by Herodotus regarding
the sway exercised by Darius over the peoples of the Indian borderland.
Of the twenty-three tributary provinces the names of which appear on the
Bahistān Rock (Bh. 1, 14-17) and are repeated with some slight variations
in the Platform and the Tomb Inscriptions (Dar. Pers. e. 10-18; NR. a.
22-30), three provinces, namely Bākhtrī (Bactria), Haraiva (Herāt), and
Z(a)ra(n)ka (Drangiāna, or a portion of Seistān) as noted above (pp. 293),
form a part of the present Afghānistān lying more remote from the Indian
frontier. The five that are directly connected with the region of the Indus
itself are, as partly indicated earlier in the chapter (ibid. ), Ga(n)dāra (the
region of the Kābul valley as far as Peshāwar)4; Thatagu (either the Ghilzai
territory to the south-west of Ghazni or the Hazāra country further to the
west and north-west), Hara(h)uvati (the district about Kandahār
1 He says, for instance (iv, 40) that ‘from India onward the country to the east
is desert, and no one can tell what it is like. '
2 On this point see V. A. Smith, Early Hist. India, 3rd ed. , p. 37.
3 Op. cit. , p. 38.
4 For Greek references to Gandāra consult Pauly-Wissowa-Kroll, Real-Encyclo-
pädie, vii, 696-701, Stuttgart, 1912.
## p. 303 (#337) ############################################
xiv]
PEOPLES OF THE INDIAN FRONTIER
303
.
in the broadcast sense), Saka, and Makal. The term Saka may possibly
allude to Sakastāna (Seistān) and the dwellers around the region of the
Hāmūn Lake; but the distinction made in the Tomb Inscription of Darius
(N. R. a. 25-26) between the Sakā Haumavargā, answering to the Amyrgioi
Sakai of Herodotus (VII, 64) and the Sakā Tigrakhaudā, ‘wearing pointed
caps,' an attribute corresponding to the term Orthokorybantioi of Herodotus
(111, 92), may indicate a special division of the Çakas or Scythians, living
between the extreme northern sources of the Indus and the headwaters of
the Oxus". The district Maka is believed to be identified with Makrān,
once occupied by the Mykans of Herodotus (111, 93 ; vj1, 68) and now a
part of Baluchistan
Herodotus (111, 91-93) mentions in his list of peoples that were subject
to Darius - corresponding in a general way to the satrapies of the empire--
four or five more which may be identified as having occupied districts in
or near the present Afghānistān, in some cases adjoining the Indian frontier.
The Sattagydai and Gandarioi (cf. OP. Thatagu and Ga(11) dāra), for
example, have the Dadikai and the Aparytai linked with them in the same
enumeration. Of these latter tribes, the Dadikai may be identified with the
Dards of the Upper Indus valley, somewhere between the Chitrāl district
and Kashmir ; and the Aparytai are to be connected with the inhabitants
of the mountainous regions of the Hindu Kush, north of Kābul. The
Kaspioi, who, according to Herodotus (111, 93 cf. also vii, 67, 86) constituted
together with the Sakai the fifteenth division of the empire (and who are
to be distinguished from the Kaspioi of the eleventh division (n1, 92), by
the Caspian Sea), must likewise have been an easterly people, and they are
perhaps to be located in the wild tract of Kāfiristān, to the north of the
1 The slight variations in the lists of the three inscriptions, as regarding these
provinces, are as follows : (1) Bh. 1, 16. 17, Ga(n)dāra ; Saka, Gatagus, Hara (h) uvatis,
Maka ; (2) Dar. Pers, e. 17-18. jatagus, Hara(h)uvatis, Hi(n)dus, Ga(n)dāra, Sakā,
Maka ; (3) NR. a. 24-26, Hara(h)uvatis, gatagus, Ga(n)dāra, Hi(n)dus, Sakā Hauma-
vargā, Sakā Tigraxaudā.
2 For such a view see F. W. Thomas, J. R. A. S. 1906, pp. 181-216, 460-464;
but compare the observations by Sarre and Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, pp. 252-253.
3 For a general discussion of the Çaka question (with bibliographical references),
see Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 23. 24, 30, 36. 40 (with cuts) and 252-253, also
maps 1 and 2 at the end of the same volume. Consult likewise Marquart, Untersuch.
z. Gesch. v. Eran, ii, 86, 136, n. 5. It may also be noted that Polyaenus, Strategemata,
vii, 12, refers to an expedition of Darius against the Çakas, apparently north of the
region of Bactria, and mentions Amorges or Omarges (i. e. Haumavarga ? ) as one of the
Çaka kings.
4 So also Eduard Meyer, Persiu, in Encyclop. Brit. , 1lth ed. , XXI, 202 ; and
Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 28-29; refer likewise to J. J. Modi, The Country of
Mekran, its Past History, in East and West, May, 1904, pp. 1-12, Bombay.
E Cf. Marquart, Untersuch. z. Gesch. v. Eran, II, 175; Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit,
P. 31.
## p. 304 (#338) ############################################
304
[сн.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N. INDIA
>
:
Kābul River. The Thamanaioi, whom Herodotus (III, 93, 117) mentions
as forming a part of the fourteenth division of the tributary nations,
occupied a section of Afghánistān not easy to define precisely, but
presumably in the western or west-central region, as noted above (p. 293,
n. 4). The territory of Paktyike in the thirteenth division (Hdt. III, 93 ;
cf. III, 102 ; IV, 4+) and its people, the Paktyes (Hdt. VII, 67), are to be
located within the borders of the land now called Afghānistān; but whether
the name is to be regarded as a tribal designation of the Afghāns in general,
and as surviving in the term Pakhtu or Pashtu applied to their language,
is extremely doubtful? .
Finally, for the sake of completeness, it may be noted that India
appears as one of the limits of the Persian Empire under Darius in the
apocryphal Greek vision of the Book of Ezra known as I Esdras. The
passage (111, 1-2) runs as follows : ‘Now King Darius made a great feast
unto all his subjects, and unto all that were born in his house, and unto all
the princes of Media and of Persia, and to all the satraps and captains and
governors that were under him, from India, unto Ethiopia, in the hundred
twenty and seven provinces3. Inasmuch, however, as the apologue of the
Three Pages, in which this reference is embodied, seems to be subsequent
to the age of Alexander, we must regard the passage as merely a general
tradition concerning the extent of the Achaemenian Empire without in-
sisting upon the chronological allusion to Darius 14.
For the reign of Xerxes (486-465 B. c. ) the continuance of the
Persian domination in Northern India is proved by the presence of an Indian
contingent, consisting of both infantry and cavalry, among the troops from
subject nations drawn upon by that monarch to augment the vast army of
Asiatics which he marshalled to invade Greece. Herodotus (VII, 65)
describes the equipment of the Indian infantry as follows : The Indians,
clad in garments made of cotton, carried bows of cane and arrows of cane,
the latter tipped with iron ; and thus accoutred the Indians were marshalled
under the command of Pharnazathres, son of Artabates. ' It is worth
remarking, perhaps, that the commander of these forces, as shown by
his name, was a Persian. Regarding the Indian cavalry Herodotus (VII, 86)
says that they were “armed with the same equipment as in the case of the
1 So Marquart, op. cit. II, 140-142 ; but consult Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit.
p. 253. Thomas, J. R. A. S. 1906, p. 191, n. 1, suggests reading ka'tilo0! (cf. Capisa,
p. 297 above) for Kāorilo!
2 Consult Marquart op. cit. II, 171-180 ; Sarre and Herzfeld, op. cit. pp. 26-27 ;
Ed. Meyer, Persia, in Encyclop. Brit. , 11th ed. , XXI, 203 ; Dames, Afghānistan, in
Encyclop. of Islam, I, 149-150.
3 Cf. also the paraphrase in Josephus, Jewish Antiquities XI, 3, 2 (33), and the
passages from Either cited below, p. 304, n. 2.
4 See the note on this passage by S. A. Cook, in Apocryphu ană Pseude pigrzpha of
the Old Testament, ed. Charles, I, 29, Oxford, 1913.
## p. 305 (#339) ############################################
XIV]
EXTENT OF PERSIAN INFLUENCE
305
It may
infantry, but they brought riding-horses and chariots, the latter being
drawn by horses and wild asses? . '
be observed, moreover, that a number of the tribes who
inhabited the Indo-Irānian borderland in the time of Darius (see above,
pp. 292-3, 302-3) were represented in the host of Xerxes as well ; namely
the Bactrians, Sakai, Are)ioi, Gandarioi, Dadikai, Kaspioi, Sarangai,
Paktyes, occupying the Afghān region, and the Mykoi of Baluchistān
(Hdt. VII, 64-68). On the whole, therefore, we may conclude that the
eastern domain of the Persian Empire was much the same in its extent
under Xerxes in 480 B. C. as it had been in the reign of his great father? .
The period following the defeat of the Persian arms under Xerxes
by Greece marks the beginning of the decadence of the Achæmenian
Empire. For this reason it is easy to understand why there was no forward
movement on Persia's part in India, even though the Irānian sway in that
territory endured for a century and longer. Among other proofs of this
close and continued connexion may be mentioned the fact that Ctesias, who
was resident physician at the court about the beginning of the fourth century
B. C. , could hardly have written his Indica without the information he must
have received regarding India from envoys sent as tribute-bearers to the
Great King or from Persian officials who visited India on state business,
as well as from his intercourse with travellers and traders of the two
countries. If the work of Ctsias on India had been preserved in full, and
not merely in the epitome by Photius and in fragmentary citations by other
authors, we should be better informed to-day as to Persia's control over
Indian territory during the period under consideration
The fact, however, that this domination prevailed even to the end of
the Achæmenian sway in 330 B. c. is furthermore proved by the call
which Darius III, the last of the dynasty, was able to issue to Indian troops
when making his final stand at Arbela to resist the Greek invasion of Persia
by Alexander. According to Arrian (Anab. iii, 8. 3-6), some of the Indian
forces were grouped with their neighbours the Bactrians and with the
Sogdians under the command of the satrap of Bactria, whereas those who
were called ‘mountainous Indians' followed the satrap of Arachosia. The
Sakai appeared as independent allies under their leader Manakes. These
1 As a matter of curiosity it may be noted that Herodotus (vii, 187) says that an
immense number of Indian dogs followed the army of Xerxes in his Grecian invasion.
2 Later Jewish tradition has the same formulaic description for the empire of
Xerxes (Ahasuerus) as for that of Darius (cf. p. 304, above) ; thus in the Book of
Esther, I, 1 (cf. also VIII, 9), Xerxes is styled 'Ahasuerus which reigned from India
even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces'.
3 In this connexion compare M' Crindle, Ancient India as described by Ktesias,
pp. 3-4, London, 1882, noting certain details, for example, in $3-7.
4 The extant remains of the India are to be found in Ctesiae. . . Fragmenta, ed.
C. Müller, pp. 79. 105 (in his edition of Herodotus, Paris, 1844).
9
## p. 306 (#340) ############################################
306
(CH.
PERSIAN DOMINIONS IN N.
INDIA
frontier troops were supplemented by a small force of elephants belonging
to the Indians who lived this side of the Indus. '
Emphasis may be laid anew on the fact that the sphere of Persian in-
fluence in these early times can hardly have reached beyond the realm of
the Indus and its affluents We may assume, accordingly, that when
Alexander reached the river Hyphasis, the ancient Vipāç and modern Beās,
and was then forced by his own generals and soldiers to start upon his
retreat, he had touched the extreme eastern limits of the Persian domain,
over which he had triumphed throughout! . The interesting articles by
Dr. D. B. Spooner in the Jour. R. A. S. for 1915 (pp. 63-89, 405-455), entitled
The Zcroastrian Period of Indian History, make the strongest possible plea
for a far wider extension of Persian influence upon India in the early
historic period. While scholars are fully agreed to allow for the general and
far-reaching theory of Persian influence, they have not found themselves
prepared to accept many of the hypotheses put forward in Dr. Spooner's
two articles, as the criticisms which succeeded their publication shows.
With the downfall of the Achæmenian rule before the onslaught
of the conqueror from Macedon ends the first chapter in the story of
the relations between India and Persia. It belongs elsewhere to indicate
those which existed under the successors of Alexander, under the Parthian
and Sassanian sovereigns, and down through Muhammadan times, until, in
the eighteenth century, a Persian invader like Nadir Shāh could carry
off the Peacock Throne of the Mughals and deck his crown with the
Koh-i-Nür.
ANCIENT PERSIAN COINS IN INDIA
Whatever were the actual limits of Persian power in India, it is certain
that within these limits the money of the Persian kings must have been
current. At the same time it is not easy to support the general statement by
definite facts. Properly authenticated records of finds áre virtually unknown.
Nor can over-much reliance be placed on deductions drawn from the
occurrence of individual specimens in collections that have been formed in
North-western India. Before the construction of the Russian railways
in Central Asia the waifs and strays of commerce, like gold and silver coins
from Bukhāra and Khorāsān, naturally drifted over the mountain-passes of
Afghānistān into the Punjab as the nearest profitable market. Once they had
arrived there, however, the dealers into whose hands they came were free to
assign to them the provenance that seemed most likely to enhance their
1 For the situation, see Chapter xv, pp. 333-4, and refer to the map.
2 V. A. Smith. J. R. A. S. 1915, pp. 800-802 ; Keith ibid. 1916, pp. 138. 143 ;
Thomas, ibid. pp. 362-366 ; Nimrod,' The Modern Review, Calcutta, 1916, pp. 372-376,
490-498, 597-600.
9
## p. 307 (#341) ############################################
XIV]
ANCIENT PERSIAN COINS IN INDIA
307
>
>
price, a circumstance that renders it difficult to appraise the value of
the scanty evidence available. For reasons that will presently appear, the
two precious metals can best be considered separately.
The standard gold coin of Ancient Persia was the daric, which
bore upon the obverse a figure of the Great King hastening through
his dominions, armed with bow and spear; and upon the reverse an irregular
oblong incuse. It weighed about 130 grains (8:42 grammes), and was in all
probability first minted by Darius Hystaspes, the monarch who was respon-
sible for adding the valley of the Indus to the empire. From its infancy,
therefore, the daric would have ready access to the country beyond
the Hindu Kush. At the same time there was an important economic reason
which would militate against its extensive circulation in these regions.
Gold was abundant there, so abundant that for many centuries its value
relatively to silver was extraordinarily low. There are grounds for believing
that during the period of the Persian dominion the ratio was no higher
than 1:8, as compared with the norm of 1 : 13:3 maintained by the
imperial mint. Such daries as made their way thither would thus consti-
tute an artificially inflated currency, and would tend to be exported again
on the earliest possible opportunity. There was no temptation to accumu-
late them, when they could be exchanged elsewhere for silver at so very
substantial a profit. The conclusion here suggested is fully borne out by the
actual phenomena. Persian gold has never been discovered in any quantity
in India ; the hoards of 'darics’ sometimes said to have been found in
the eighteenth century can be shown to have consisted of Gupta coins. Iso-
lated examples have, indeed, been picked up sporadically; the daric reprc-
duced on Pl. I, 1, is from the Cunningham Collection. But it is significant
that in no single instance do these bear countermarks or any other
indication that could possibly be interpreted as suggestive of a prolonged
Indian sojourn.
The corresponding silver coinage consisted of sigloi or shekels, twenty
of which were equivalent to a daric. They had a maximum weight of
86. 45 grains (5. 6 grammes), and had the same types as the gold (Pl. I, 2, 3).
Sigloi are frequently offered for sale by Indian dealers, and it is a reason-
able inference that they are fairly often disinterred from the soil of India
itself. That is precisely what might be expected from the working of
economic law. The relative cheapness of gold would act like a lodestone.
Silver coins from the west would flow into the country freely, and would
remain in active circulation. At one time confirmation seemed to be
provided by the surviving sigloi. Many of them - including, it should
be added, a very large proportion that are not directly of Indian pro-
venance-are distinguished by the presence of peculiar countermarks which
were thought to have their closest analogy on the square-shaped pieces of
.
## p. 308 (#342) ############################################
308
[CH, XIV
ANCIENT PERSIAN COINS IN INDIA
silver that constitute the oldest native coinage of India'. The punch-marks
on the native Indian coins (Pl. I, 4, 5) appear to have been affixed partly
by the local authority of the district in which the money was used, but
to a much larger extent by the merchants or money-changers through
whose hands it passed. The practice was plainly designed to obviate
the necessity for repeated weighing. As this advantage would be as
pronounced in the case of the sigloi as in the case of the indigenous issues,
it would not have been surprising to find that they had been subjected to
similar treatment. M. Babelon has, however, expressed the view that
the punch-marked sigloi should, as a rule, be associated with Lycia,
Pamphylia, Cilicia, and Cyprus. And it must be admitted that the results
of the most recent investigation? rather tend to bear out this opinion. The
resemblance to the Indian punch-marks remains noteworthy, but proof of
absolute identity is lacking
1 Rapson J. R. A. S. 1895, pp. 865 ff.
2 Hill, J. H. S. 1919, pp. 125 ff.
## p. 308 (#343) ############################################
## p. 308 (#344) ############################################
## p. 309 (#345) ############################################
CHAPTER XV
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
In the fourth century B. C. there is a sudden rift in the mists which
envelop the ancient history of India. The regions disclosed are the Kābul
Valley, the foothills through which the Five Rivers come down into the
plains of the Punjab, the plains themselves, and the lower course of the
Indus. The country, as we see it, is held partly by a number of independent
tribes, governed by their own headmen and owning the authority of no king.
But this primitive aristocratic type of community is holding its own with
difficulty against another type of government, the monarchic. In parts
of the country principalities have been formed under despotic rājas, and
between the different elements a struggle with varying vicissitudes is going
on. The rājas are fighting to extend their authority over the free tribes and
the free tribes are fighting to repel the rājas. The rājas are also fighting
amongst themselves, and mutual jealousies lead to politic alliances accord-
ing to the necessities of the moment; we divine in this little world a conflict
and shifting of antagonistic groups such as we can follow on a larger scale
in the history of Europe. It is into this world that the Western invader
plunges in 326 B. C.
About ten miles north-west from where Rāwalpindi now stands
stood, in the fourth century B. C. , the city of Takshaçilā (Taxila), long
eminent among the cities of India as a great seat of learning. In the year
327 it was the capital of a rāja, whose principality lay between the Indus
and its tributary the Jhelum (the ancient Vitastā, the Hydaspes of the
Greeks)'. Like Rāwalpindi to day, Takshaçilā guarded the chief gate of
India from the north-west: it was the first great Indian city at which
1 Although the courses of the great rivers of the Punjab have greatly changed in
historical times and are still changing, their names may be traced with certainty from
the Age of the Rigveda down to the present day. Those which are chiefly important
in the history of Alexander's Indian campaign are :
Ancient Indian
Greek Latin
Modern
Sindhu.
'Ivobs,
Indus.
Indus.
Kubhā.
Κωφην,
Cophen.
Kābul,
Suvāstu.
Σοαστος, Soastus.
Vitastā.
‘ydàrins, Hydaspes.
Jhelum.
Asikni, later Chandrabhāgā. ’Aksoivre, Acesines.
Chenāb.
Parushṇī, later Irāvati.
'yogantys, Hydrates
Rāvi.
Vipāç, later Vipācā.
"Ύφασις, Hyphasis.
Beās
Çutudri.
Zagados, Zaradrus, Hesydrus. Sutlej.
Swat,
309
## p. 310 (#346) ############################################
310
[CH.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
merchants who had come down the Kābul Valley and crossed the Indus
about Attock arrived, three days' journey beyond the river. Its ruler was
the first among the kings of the Punjab to hear any tidings which might
come down from the highlands of Afghānistān of events happening behind
those tremendous mountain walls. For many generations now the Punjab
must have had some knowledge of what went on in the dominions of the
King of Kings. For the Persian Empire founded two centuries before by
Cyrus had been a huger realm than had ever, so far as we know, existed in
the world under the hand of one man, and the power and glory of the
man who ruled it, the splendour of Ecbatana and Persepolis, must have
been carried by fame over the neighbouring lands.
The rājas of Takshaçilā must therefore have long lent an ear to the
rumbling of wars and rebellions which came across the western mountains.
They may indeed have known next to nothing of what went on at the
further extremities of the Persian Empire ; for the same realm which at its
utmost extension eastward touched the Indus reached at its other end the
Aegean and Black Seas ; and the great monarchic Empires of the east are
conglomerations too loosely organised for the troubles of one province to
be necessarily felt in the more distant ones. The Indian princes may there-
fore have been ignorant of the fact that the Persian king at the other end of
his realm had come into contact with a singular people settled in a
quantity of little republics over the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula,
along the coasts of Asia Minor, and in the intermediate islands, the people
whom the Persians called collectively Yavanas (Ionians). We do not know
whether it even produced any considerable shock on the banks of the Indus,
when a century and a half before 334 B. c. the Persian king had led his
armies to disaster in the land of the Yavanas, although those armies
included Indian tribesmen torn by Persi
torn by Persian officers from the frontier hills,
whose bones were destined to find their last resting-place on the field of
Plataea thousands of miles away. Of the long struggle which went on for
generations after that between the Yavana republics, especially the one
called Athens, and the western satraps of the Great King perhaps no
rumour was brought down the Kabul valley to Takshaçilā.
But in 334 B. C. and tbe following years the struggle between Persia
and the Yavanas took a turn which must have made talk even in the pala-
ces and bazaars of the Punjab. The Indian princes learnt that a Yavana king
had arisen in the utmost West strong enough to drive the Great King from
his throne. It may be that the western provinces, Asia Minor and Egypt,
were torn away in 331, 333 and 332 B. c. by the invader without yet bring.
ing the Indian princes to realise that so huge a fact in the world as the
Persian Empire was about to vanish. But there can have been no mistaking
the magnitude of the catastrophe, when Darius III was flying northward
for his life, when Alexander had occupied the central seats of government
## p. 311 (#347) ############################################
XV )
FROM KANDHAR TO KĀBUL
311
and set Persepolis on fire (330 B. C. ). If this man from the West was going
to claim the whole heritage of the Achaemenian kings, that would make him
the neighbour of the princes of India. It must have been a concern to
the rāja of Takshaçilā and his fellow-kings to learn in what direction the
victorious Yavana host would move next. And in fact the tidings came
before long that it was moving nearer. When the winter of 330 fell,
it was encamped in Seistān, and with the spring moved to the uplands
which to-day constitute the southern part of Afghānistān. Here the
awe-struck inhabitants, Pashtus probably, ancestors of the modern Afghāns
saw the European strangers set about a work which indicated a resolve
to make themselves at home for all time in these lands won by their
spear. They saw them begin to construct a city after the manner of the
Yavanas at a point commanding the roads; and when the rest of the
host had gone onward, there a body of Europeans remained, established
behind the fresh-built walls. If we may judge by analogies, some thousands
of the native people were induced by force or persuasion to settle side
by side with them in the new city. It was only one of the chain of cities
which marked the track of conquering Hellenism. Like many of the
others, this too was given the name of the conqueror. In the speech of
the Greeks it was known as Alexandria-among-the-Arachosians. To-day
we call it Kandahār.
A mountain barrier still separated the Yavana host at Kandahār
in the summer of 329 from the Kābul valley, that is to say, from the river
system of the Indus. And it would seem that, when the passes filled
with the first winter snows, the Yavanas had not yet crossed it. But the
army led by Alexander was one which defied ordinary obstacles. In
winter, under circumstances that made regular provisioning impossible, by
extraordinary endurance it pushed through the hills and descended into
the Kābul valley. The princes of the Punjab might feel that the outlandish
host stood indeed at the door.
But Alexander, having reached the Kābyl valley in the winter of
329-8, did not make an immediate advance upon India. Beyond the
mountain range which forms the northern side of the valley, the Hindu
Kush, lay the extreme provinces of the old Persian Empire towards the
north-east-Bactria (whose name still survives in the city of Balkh) and the
country now called Bukhāra. Not only were these provinces still unsubdued
but the Persian cause was upheld there by a prince of the old blood royal.
Alexander must beat down that opposition, before he could think of
invading India. He waited therefore for the rest of the winter in the
Kābul valley, till the spring should unblock the passes of the Hindu Kush.
And again here the inhabitants saw the Europeans make preparations
1 γπό “IIλειάδος δνσιν, Strabo, XV, C. 725. .
2 Diod. XVII, 82 ; Curt. VII, 3, 12.
1
## p. 312 (#348) ############################################
312
I ch.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
for permanent settlement. At the foot of the Hindu Kush, whence three
roads to Bactria radiatel, on the site probably of the still existing village
of Charikār, rose another Alexandria, Alexandria-under-the-Cauca. us. In
support of the Yavana colony to be left in this town, other little settlements
were established at points a day's journey off in what were henceforth to
be Greek towns ; Cartana, noted for the rectangular precision with which
its walls we traced out (modern Begrām, according to Cunningham) and
Cadrusi (Koratas ? ) are names given us. In this case we have an express
statement that 7000 of the people of the land were to be incorporated
as citizens of the new towns with those of Alexander's mercenaries who
cared to settle in this region 2800 miles away from their old home.
Another new city, or old city transformed with a new Greek :ame,
Nicaea, occupied apparently some site between Alexandria and the Kābul
rivers
As soon as the snow was melted enough to make the Khawak Pass
practicable, the Yavan ı arıny trailed up the Panjshir valley, leaving little
bodies of Europeans behind it to hold the Kābul valley under a Persian
satrap and a Macedonian episkopos. The main body of the army once
more contended with the hardships of a passage over the high ridges and
disappeared to the northwards. During the following twelve months (May
328 to May 327) such news of it as reached India showed that the Yavana
king still prevailed against all enemies. As far as the Syr Daria (Jazartes)
the peoples of Eastern Irān were broken before him. In the early spring of
327 he was again moving to the south.
The rāja of Takshaçilā must have realised at this juncture that
a momentous choice lay before him. It may be that the idea of a common
Indian nationality, in whose cause he and his brother kings might stand
together against the stranger, did not even occur to him : India was
too large and too disunited for the mind to embrace it as a unity. But he
might well tremble for his own power, if this new resistless deluge came
bursting into the land. On the other hand it might perhaps be turned to
his account. His policy was largely governed by his antagonism to the rival
1 Cunningham, Ancient Geography, p. 24.
2 Diod. XVII, 83 ; Curt. VII, 3, 23, according to the MSS, bas 'vii millibus seni.
orum Macedonum. ' Hedieke in the Teubner text amends this, perhaps too boldiy, as
VII millibus subactarum nationum.
