Alexander and India

Originally posted by The Chargemaster Could Alexander have conquered the rest of India if his troops had shared his desire for conquest and curiosity? With his reduced army and in defiance of the big casualities?! No way.

Edited by Hellios - 11-Oct-2006 at 16:49

Ok, but I do suggest you dont look pay close attention to the recent topics in the South Asia forum. I havnt been on much and in that time its because a battleground for pointless chats. Start from the back of the forum if you plan on reading it.

Back to your original question, I agree with Vivek's post above about climate change. Are his troops experienced in fighting in tropical jungles, mountains and the other terrain?

Actually I have a link for you that I bookmarked. In the discussion the discuss whether or not it could be done if Alexander waited a few years. Here it is

http://heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=10,5636,,all

The post was begun by Ghorkali, who used to help run the South Asia forum

I don't think he could have conquered all of India with the army that he had at that time. There are a few reasons why I think so...

1. Alexander lost a substantial amount of phalangites at the battle of Hydapses river which composed some of his best and most experienced men in his army. Moreover his army was tired at best and had no desire to fight any longer.

2. Porus was just a local king at the time and still was capable of mustering a strong opposing force that hurt Alexander's campaign more than any of his previous battles againts Persia. The Nandas a kingdom in eastern India alone could muster as much as 5000 elephants, imagine if Alexander fought all the rest.


3. The climate of India would make it very difficult for a foreign army to be able to conquer it. Heavly forested, muddy, hot and humid it would be a nightmare for heavily armored phalangites and companions to progress far into this territory.

Now if Alexander goes back to Babylon, manages to resupply his army with new soldiers from Macedon and the Greek cities, convinces the conquered Persians to join him but most importantly stays alive himself then the situation could be different. If he decides to go for India instead of Italy that is...

Originally posted by vulkan02 Now if Alexander goes back to Babylon, manages to resupply his army with new soldiers from Macedon and the Greek cities, convinces the conquered Persians to join him but most importantly stays alive himself then the situation could be different. If he decides to go for India instead of Italy that is...

Alexander left a long lasting impact on India. Emperor Chandragupta Maurya who defeated Seucas Nicator after Alex's death got Selucas's beautiful daughter in marriage as one of the agreements in compromise. The other being that Selucas will leave the all Indian territories forever & rule persia & him being gifted 500 war elephants by Chandragupta to help him fight the rebels in his empire.

What is important is that Chandragupta started a clan that had some of the best emperors modern india has had so far. Including the famed Ashoka the great, who contributed to spreading Buddhism all over the world.

This lineage was half greek, half indian as they had been born to Greek mother (Selucas's daughter) & Indian father (Chandragupta). this Greek part in the lineage possibly led to a lot of  Greek influence in that part of cultural history.

Chandragupta maurya's personal bodyguards were composed of Greek  Women  loyal to the daughter of Selucas specially trained as an elite corps by Chanakya. This was done by Chandragupta's Godfather Chanakya to avoid any clash of interests as Greeks would not have any affiliation with any other indian king who opposed Chandragupta.




Edited by Vivek Sharma - 12-Oct-2006 at 04:18

Originally posted by Vivek Sharma Chandragupta maurya's personal bodyguards were composed of Greek Women loyal to the daughter of Selucas specially trained as an elite corps by Chanakya.

Originally posted by Vivek Sharma IFs & Buts will never end. that comes under the category of amusement. What if while he went back, the persians, the egyptians etc..... came together with the indians who had already defeated him once to conquer & divided greece with china leading the war ?   Such jokes can go forever.

Wasn't the original question of this thread pertaining to the "ifs and buts"?


Edited by vulkan02 - 12-Oct-2006 at 12:09

The objective of Chandragupta Mauraya attacking Selucas was to send him outside India & add the Indian territories to the mauryan empire, in whichhe was fully successfull.

The treaty signed between them was designed by the founder of this mauryan empire Vishnugupta Bhatt. It involved Selucas Nicator giving his daughter in marriage to Chandragupta Maurya (Vishnugupta insisted on a marriage alliance as this was the best way of securing the western & northers frontiers of the mauryan empire. His philosophy was that he didn't want his army to be tied up with guarding this vast border as he had more important things to do back home. what better way to guard your frontier than have your queen's empire on the other side !!!)

As a gesture of friendship between the two empires (Greek & Indian) now related by marriage, indians offered 500 war elephants to Selucas to help him fight the rebellions in his provinces. This was done as Vishnugupta Bhatta realised that a strong & stable Greek empire was in the best interests of both India & Greece, as he himself had a lot of work to be done in his kingdom & didn't want to run the risk of having numerous small unstable kingdoms on his borders.



 

Yes Hellios, Further Selucas's daughter brought with herself her friends & maid servants whom Vishnugupta trained to be fierce warriors & turned them into an elite personal bodyguard division of Chandragupta Maurya in the royal palace.

Just so you know, they are not the Gupta's. The Gupta empire was another empire in India a few hundred years later. I plan on writting an article on it shortly.