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Monday, July 1, 2013

Re: Re: Re: [MTC Global] : FW: Alexander’s failed invasion of India

Dear Sir, A very pertinent observation. BajiRao-I was an exceptional leader. It said of him, that he never lost a single military battle in his entire career. He believed in fast moving Cavalry and the element of surprise. An exceptional military strategist, he expanded the Maratha Empire, developed trusted lieutenants, and forged alliances.
It is sad that students of today hardly know of him except for his love affair with Mastani.
His legacy is all but forgotten and the British saw to it that even the remnants of the monument of Shanivarwada was completely burnt down.
This is the tragedy of the history of this glorious chapter in Indian History.
Best Rgards,
K.Paranjpe

On Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:14:07 +0530 wrote
>Hi All,
1. We have never documented any historical events,except during Peshwa (by Nana Phadnis).
2. Our Bajirao Peshve holds a record of 32 victories out of 32 victories. Hence you will find most of Heads of Armed Forces visit Pune to see his past war records (they are intact held by Nana Phadnis).


3. Lastly, we tend to doubt anything that is written by our own new author (about Historical facts) and disturb social fabric.

Thanks and Regards,

Pradeep Joshi


On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 4:21 AM, Prabhakar Waghodekar wrote:


Dear All,



I had my primary and Secondary education in Marathi medium. I surely remember in

the History book of India during 6th to 9th std. (we had SSC as std 11)during

1951-57 or so, my teacher taught me the same thing (as naratted by Martial)about

Alexander and Porus, Porus was not defeated and the Alexander's forces were taken

aback to see the power of a small state in India, frightened and opted for

mutiny. Alexander had to return. As I recollect the hand of a foreign princess

was given to an Indian Prince to have warm relations.



Indians still possess the same genes. The glaring example is: Hitler was stopped

by Indian troops and no other troops could deter him. Shivaji is a very glaring

example, the only one of its kind in world that Shivaji never faced a defeat

though he sometimes treated back just to win thereafter. Nepolean and Alexander

were defeated and Napoleon had a bad end. But we hardly read and realize our

great personalties, if somebody from west praises an Indian, then we wake up and

say we are proud of him/her, thank you! Our job is over!!



The masses have come to this pass because of the leadership, save a very few like

Lal, Bal and Pal, has been self-centered, who deep rooted in the minds of masses

such things as casteism, religious differences, master-slave relationship, power

by hereditory, no dignity for labor, higher and lower classification of man and

work, etc.



Most of our leaders are brought up/educated/trained in UK/US, placing them far

away from the soil of this land.



Regards.



Yours,



______________________________________________________



On Sun, 30 Jun 2013 11:50:04 +0530 wrote

>

Dear Professor Oberoi:�Thank you for enlightening us.�Shall be obliged if you

could please let me know about the source of this information, e.g. name of the

book, publisher, etc.

�It shows that we Indians had some character then and did not surrender meekly.

Wonder how its stock has depleted and where it has vanished over the next 2000

years. I am sure we still have some left in our genes and can rise again in the

world but entirely for human good and not to show any power or position. I cannot

help recalling Mahatma Gandhi on this.

�Kind

regards.������������������������ï

¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ Satya Prakash Agarwal

On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 3:37 PM, Satish Oberoi wrote:





It is strange that Indian historians never considered it fit to carry out prper

research and place historical facts in correct perspective, Or is it they had a

mandate to show Indian rulers in poor light.

The description of movement of Alexander after battle with Porus fits well in

actual movements of Alexander.



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Marshal Zhukov on Alexander�s failed India invasion

May 27, 2013�Rakesh Krishnan Sinha





Alexander�s invasion of India is regarded as a huge Western victory against the

disorganised East. But according to Marshal Gregory Zhukov, the largely

Macedonian army suffered a fate worse than Napoleon in Russia.











Handing victory in India to Alexander is like describing Hitler as the conqueror

of Russia because the Germans advanced up to Stalingrad.

Source: wikipedia.org





�

In 326 BCE a formidable European army invaded India. Led by Alexander of Macedon

it comprised battle hardened Macedonian soldiers, Greek cavalry, Balkan fighters

and Persians allies. The total number of fighting men numbered more than 41,000.





Their most memorable clash was at the Battle of Hydaspes (Jhelum) against the

army of Porus, the ruler of the Paurava kingdom of western Punjab. For more than

25 centuries it was believed that Alexander�s forces defeated the Indians.

Greek and Roman accounts say the Indians were bested by the superior courage and

stature of the Macedonians.





Two millennia later, British historians latched on to the Alexander legend and

described the campaign as the triumph of the organised West against the chaotic

East. Although Alexander defeated only a few minor kingdoms in India�s

northwest, in the view of many gleeful colonial writers the conquest of India was

complete.





In reality much of the country was not even known to the Greeks. So handing

victory to Alexander is like describing Hitler as the conqueror of Russia because

the Germans advanced up to Stalingrad.





Zhukov�s view of Alexander











Statue of Alexander in Istanbul Archaeology Museum. Source: wikipedia.org





In 1957, while addressing the cadets of the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun,

Zhukov said Alexander�s actions after the Battle of Hydaspes suggest he had

suffered an outright defeat. In Zhukov�s view, Alexander had suffered a greater

setback in India than Napoleon in Russia. Napoleon had invaded Russia with

600,000 troops; of these only 30,000 survived, and of that number fewer than

1,000 were ever able to return to duty.





So if Zhukov was comparing Alexander�s campaign in India to Napoleon�s

disaster, the Macedonians and Greeks must have retreated in an equally

ignominious fashion. Zhukov would know a fleeing force if he saw one; he had

chased the German Army over 2000 km from Stalingrad to Berlin.





No easy victories

Alexander�s troubles began as soon as he crossed the Indian border. He first

faced resistance in the Kunar, Swat, Buner and Peshawar valleys where the

Aspasioi and Assakenoi, known in Hindu texts as Ashvayana and Ashvakayana,

stopped his advance. Although small by Indian standards they did not submit

before Alexander�s killing machine.





The Assakenoi offered stubborn resistance from their mountain strongholds of

Massaga, Bazira and Ora. The bloody fighting at Massaga was a prelude to what

awaited Alexander in India. On the first day after bitter fighting the

Macedonians and Greeks were forced to retreat with heavy losses. Alexander

himself was seriously wounded in the ankle. On the fourth day the king of Massaga

was killed but the city refused to surrender. The command of the army went to his

old mother, which brought the entire women of the area into the fighting.





Realising that his plans to storm India were going down at its very gates,

Alexander called for a truce. The Assakenoi agreed; the old queen was too

trusting. That night when the citizens of Massaga had gone off to sleep after

their celebrations, Alexander�s troops entered the city and massacred the

entire citizenry. A similar slaughter then followed at Ora.





However, the fierce resistance put up by the Indian defenders had reduced the

strength and perhaps the confidence of the until then all-conquering Macedonian

army.





Faceoff at the river

In his entire conquering career Alexander�s hardest encounter was the Battle of

Hydaspes, in which he faced king Porus of Paurava, a small but prosperous Indian

kingdom on the river Jhelum. Porus is described in Greek accounts as standing

seven feet tall.





In May 326 BCE, the European and Paurava armies faced each other across the banks

of the Jhelum. By all accounts it was an awe-inspiring spectacle. The 34,000

Macedonian infantry and 7000 Greek cavalry were bolstered by the Indian king

Ambhi, who was Porus�s rival. Ambhi was the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom

of Taxila and had offered to help Alexander on condition he would be given

Porus�s kingdom.







Alexander meets Porus. Source: wikipedia.org





Facing this tumultuous force led by the genius of Alexander was the Paurava army

of 20,000 infantry, 2000 cavalry and 200 war elephants. Being a comparatively

small kingdom by Indian standards, Paurava couldn�t have maintained such a

large standing army, so it�s likely many of its defenders were hastily armed

civilians. Also, the Greeks habitually exaggerated enemy strength.





According to Greek sources, for several days the armies eyeballed each other

across the river. The Greek-Macedonian force after having lost several thousand

soldiers fighting the Indian mountain cities, were terrified at the prospect of

fighting the fierce Paurava army. They had heard about the havoc Indian war

elephants created among enemy ranks. The modern equivalent of battle tanks, the

elephants also scared the wits out of the horses in the Greek cavalry.





Another terrible weapon in the Indians' armoury was the two-meter bow. As tall as

a man it could launch massive arrows able to transfix more than one enemy

soldier.





Indians strike

The battle was savagely fought. As the volleys of heavy arrows from the long

Indian bows scythed into the enemy�s formations, the first wave of war

elephants waded into the Macedonian phalanx that was bristling with 17-feet long

sarissas. Some of the animals got impaled in the process. Then a second wave of

these mighty beasts rushed into the gap created by the first, either trampling

the Macedonian soldiers or grabbing themwith their trunks and presenting them up

for the mounted Indian soldiers to cut or spear them. It was a nightmarish

scenario for the invaders. As the terrified Macedonians pushed back, the Indian

infantry charged into the gap.





In the first charge, by the Indians, Porus�s brother Amar killed Alexander�s

favourite horse Bucephalus, forcing Alexander to dismount. This was a big deal.

In battles outside India the elite Macedonian bodyguards had not allowed a single

enemy soldier to deliver so much as a scratch on their king's body, let alone

slay his mount. Yet in this battle Indian troops not only broke into

Alexander�s inner cordon, they also killed Nicaea, one of his leading

commanders.





According to the Roman historian Marcus Justinus, Porus challenged Alexander, who

charged him on horseback. In the ensuing duel, Alexander fell off his horse and

was at the mercy of the Indian king�s spear. But Porus dithered for a second

and Alexander�s bodyguards rushed in to save their king.





Plutarch, the Greek historian and biographer, says there seems to have been

nothing wrong with Indian morale. Despite initial setbacks, when their vaunted

chariots got stuck in the mud, Porus�s army �rallied and kept resisting the

Macedonians with unsurpassable bravery�.





Macedonians: Shaken, not stirred

Although the Greeks claim victory, the fanatical resistance put up by the Indian

soldiers and ordinary people everywhere had shaken the nerves of Alexander's army

to the core. They refused to move further east. Nothing Alexander could say or do

would spur his men to continue eastward. The army was close to mutiny.





The Greek historian says after the battle with the Pauravas, the badly bruised

and rattled Macedonians panicked when they received information further from

Punjab lay places �where the inhabitants were skilled in agriculture, where

there were elephants in yet greater abundance and men were superior in stature

and courage�.Says Plutarch: �The combat with Porus took the edge off the

Macedonians� courage, and stayed their further progress into India. For having

found it hard enough to defeat an enemy who brought but 20,000 foot and 2000

horse into the field, they thought they had reason to oppose Alexander's design

of leading them on to pass the Ganges, on the further side of which was covered

with multitudes of enemies.�





Indeed, on the other side of the Ganges was the mighty kingdom of Magadh, ruled

by the wily Nandas, who commanded one of the most powerful and largest standing

armies in the world. According to Plutarch, the courage of the Macedonians

evaporated when they came to know the Nandas �were awaiting them with 200,000

infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 8000 war chariots and 6000 fighting elephants�.

Undoubtedly, Alexander�s army would have walked into a slaughterhouse.





Hundreds of kilometres from the Indian heartland, Alexander ordered a retreat to

great jubilation among his soldiers.

Partisans counterattack

The celebrations were premature. On its way south towards the sea, Alexander's

army was constantly harried by Indian partisans, republics and kingdoms.





In a campaign at Sangala in Punjab, the Indian attack was so ferocious it

completely destroyed the Greek cavalry, forcing Alexander to attack on foot. In

the next battle, against the Malavs of Multan, he was felled by an Indian warrior

whose arrow pierced the Macedonian�s breastplate and ribs.





Says Military History magazine: �Although there was more fighting,

Alexander�s wound put an end to any more personal exploits. Lung tissue never

fully recovers, and the thick scarring in its place made every breath cut like a

knife.�





Alexander never recovered and died in Babylon (modern Iraq) at the age of 33.



















--

Ranjit Grewal



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Regards,



Dr P H Waghodekar

Advisor (HR), IBS & PME (PG)

Marathwada Institute of Technology,

Aurangabad: 431028 (Maharashtra) INDIA.

(O) 02402375113 (M) 7276661925

E-Mail: waghodekar@rediffmail.com

Website: www.mit.asia



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K.D.Paranjpe
Mumbai


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