Q: Why Alexander did not invade India?
Please Note: italic text in parentheses is my explanation of bold terms
As per Diodorus (~50 B.C.)
"Alexander had obtained from Phegeus (a tribe from modern region of Punjab; probably modern Bhangu tribe) a description of the country beyond the Indus: First came a desert (obviously, Great Indian Desert) which it would take twelve days to traverse; beyond this was the river called the Ganges (if we came from Indus side and crosses Great Indian Desert, first comes River Jumna, then River Ganges; then note this description to Alexander was given by a Punjabi tribe and in many Punjabi texts upto the modern times Ganga and Jumna were mentioned always together as Gang-Jaman; so this tribe is reffering to Ganga or Ganga-Jumna is not clear) which had a width of thirty stadia (3.5 miles, rough idea given by Punjabi tribe as this measurement is equal to 1 kos an Indian unit of length), and a greater depth than any other Indian river; beyond this again were situated the dominions of the nation of the Prasioi (Greek form of Indian word "Prachi", i.e. one from the East, even today people of Punjab refer to people from the Province of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as "poorbias" i.e. Easterners) and the Gangaridai (probably Greek form of Indian word "Gangadri", Gangadri is a place where River Ganges descends into the plains), whose king, Xandrammes (probably Greek form of Indian word Chandrama), had an army of 20,000 horse 200,000 infantry, 2,000 chariots and 4,000 elephants trained and equipped for war.
"Now this Ganges river flows from north to south" (
in western Uttar Pradesh it flows from north to south, however in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar it flows from west to east)
As per Quintus (~ 50 A.D.)
"Next came the Ganges, the largest river in all India, the farther bank of which was inhabited by two nations, the Gangaridae and the Prasii, whose king Agrammes (probably Greek form of Indian name Agrani; Agrani means Chief or Leader in Indian Language) kept in field for guarding the approaches to his country 20,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry, besides 2,000 four-horsed chariots, and, a troop of elephants which he said ran up to the number of 3,000"
As per Plutarch (~ 100 A.D.)
""The Battle with Porus depressed the spirits of the Greeks, and made them very unwilling to advance farther into India...For the kings of the Gandaritai and the Prasiai were reported to be waiting for Alexander with an army of 80,000 horse, 200,000 foot, 8,000 war-chariots, and 6,000 fighting elephants."
As per Megasthenes (~ 300 B.C.; was in Alexander's army under Commander Sibyrtius)
"Thus Alexander the Macedonian, after conquering all Asia, did not make war upon the Gangaridai, as he did on all others; for when he had arrived with all his troops at the river Ganges, he abandoned as hopeless an invasion of the Gangaridai and India when he learned that they possessed four thousand elephants well trained and equipped for war"
POINTS TO BE NOTED:
1.) Alexander was afraid of Magadhan Empire (Nandas), is not mentioned anywhere ? Rather all resouces refer to Kingdom of Gangaridai, and as discussed above it seems to be lying in western Uttar Pradesh, most probably Kingdom of Kurus and Panchals.
2.) Magadhan King Dhanananda was not mentioned anywhere, rather they are talking about some Xandrammes or Agrammes ?
Edited by oxydracae - 26-Feb-2012 at 10:48