Battle of the Hydaspes

Battle of the Hydaspes, (326 bce), the last great battle fought by Alexander the Great during his Asian campaign. Alexander’s army defeated the forces of the Indian king Porus (Paurava) in what is now northeastern Pakistan. Alexander’s superior tactics, including crossing a river in pouring rain to flank his enemy, led to his victory. Porus was spared and made a satrap of Alexander’s empire.

The Battle of the Hydaspes effectively marked Alexander’s farthest advance on the Indian subcontinent. Faced with larger kingdoms to the east and tired from years of war, his army subsequently mutinied and forced him to turn back toward Macedonia. During the return march, Alexander died in Babylon in 323 bce, and his empire was subsequently divided among his generals.

Alexander’s Persian campaign and the march to India

Alexander became king of Macedonia and Greece in 336 bce at the age of 20. He brought most of the Aegean under his rule, and by 331 bce he had conquered the Persian empire, plundering its capital city Persepolis. By 328 bce he had passed through and acquired significant portions of Central Asia, and in 327 bce his army crossed the Hindu Kush mountains into the Indian subcontinent. Most local chieftains, intimidated by the might of the Macedonian army, became allies and paid tribute. One of those chieftains was Ambhi (Omphis, in Greek writings), the ruler of Taxila, who sought Alexander’s protection against his powerful neighbor Porus. Alexander’s army crossed the Indus River and eventually made their way to the Hydaspes, the western border of Porus’s kingdom.

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Porus (Paurava) ruled the region between the Hydaspes (Jhelum) and Acesines (Chenab) rivers, in modern northeastern Pakistan. Little is known about Porus save from Greek sources, but he is believed to have been the king of the Purus, a tribe from ancient Vedic Hindu times. Porus had declined Alexander’s offer to pay tribute and avoid war, instead choosing to meet him on the battlefield.

Alexander’s last battle

The setting for the battle was the Hydaspes (Jhelum), one of the five rivers of the Punjab region. The Sanskrit name for the river was Vitasta, which meant “widespread.” The river grew even wider in the monsoon season because of rain and melting snows. The two armies camped on opposing banks of the Hydaspes. Alexander’s army is believed to have been about 40,000 strong, though some sources say it was smaller. Porus’s army, on the other hand, is believed to have had 30,000 troops (some sources say 50,000) with chariots and elephants, the last unfamiliar to the invading Macedonians.

Porus, having camped in a strong position on the eastern bank, chose to wait for Alexander to cross the river and run into his fresh troops, who he hoped would then mow the Macedonians down. Alexander, however, drew upon his tactical brilliance to circumvent this challenge. He made a public show of troop movements to make it appear that he intended to wait until the river subsided before he crossed it. Knowing Porus had spies in his camp, he let it be known that the army was to stay put. Alexander sent scouts out to look for places to cross the river every night, and Porus, initially suspicious, eventually decided to not follow the scouts.

Eighteen miles up the river, Alexander’s troops found a suitable place to ford the river. The sound of their movements was also muffled by a storm that hit that night. When dawn broke, they discovered they had come to an island in the river, not the opposite side, but then waded across quickly.

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As soon as Porus realized that Alexander’s army had completed the crossing, he sent his son with a contingent to attempt to drive the Macedonians back into the river. Alexander defeated this small force, and Porus’s son was killed. Alexander had told a portion of his troops to remain in camp and to cross the river only when they saw Porus moving to attack. They immediately crossed the river without being sighted by the distracted defensive forces, and the Macedonians thus gained the ability to attack Porus’s army on two sides. The main challenge that Alexander’s army faced was from the war elephants, which were clustered in the center of Porus’s forces. Alexander dealt with this by concentrating his attacks on the flanks. When the Macedonians were forced to engage the elephants, the Macedonian sarissa (a pike 13 to 21 feet [4 to 6.5 meters] long) proved effective at repelling them.

Caught on two fronts and unable to use their chariots properly because of the muddy terrain, Porus’s army was soon defeated. Twelve thousand Indian soldiers and eighty elephants are estimated to have been lost that day, with about one thousand losses on the Macedonian side.

Aftermath

Porus was captured and brought before Alexander. Porus reportedly refused to pay tribute even in defeat, remarking that it was a king’s duty to defend his land and asking to be treated as a king. Alexander was impressed by his bearing and let him live, making Porus a satrap of his empire and giving him additional territories. He continued in this role until his assassination at the hands of Eudemus, one of Alexander’s generals, a few years later. Alexander founded two cities on the Hydaspes: Alexandria Nicaea (to celebrate his victory) and Bucephala (named after his horse Bucephalus, which died there).

The battle was the last major engagement for Alexander’s army. They would go on to cross the Jhelum and the Chenab and reach the Beas River, beyond which was the vast Nanda empire of North India. After years of war away from their homeland, and dissuaded by the broad Beas, Alexander’s troops demanded to go back home. They thus retreated back to the Indus and then followed it south to its mouth at the Arabian Sea, before sailing back home. En route, at Babylon, Alexander died in 323 bce, which led to civil war and the division of his empire among his generals.

Alexander’s invasion is believed by some historians to have led Chandragupta Maurya to reach the conclusion that India needed a powerful monarchy, and he subsequently established the Mauryan dynasty.