Alexander by Guy Maclean Rogers

Author:Guy Maclean Rogers [Rogers, Guy Maclean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

The Mutiny at the Hyphasis River

THE MARCH TO THE HYPHASIS RIVER

After respects had been paid to those who had fallen at the Hydaspes, Alexander performed

customary sacrifices of thanksgiving to the gods for the victory. A contest of athletic and cavalry

games also was held on the bank, at the spot where Alexander first had crossed the river with the

turning force. Such games were celebrated throughout the campaigns when bonding mechanisms or

reaffirmations of solidarity were deemed necessary—especially, it should be noted, after Alexander

and his soldiers had witnessed the deaths of many of their friends.

Alexander also used commemorative objects to keep morale high and to promote his own version

of events. Later, his mint in Babylon issued a series of coins marking his great victory over the

Indians, including one that showed an elephant on the reverse and an Indian archer on the obverse,

and a much larger coin that featured Alexander himself on horseback with a pike in his hand attacking

two Indians riding an elephant.

While the king advanced against the Indians across the border of Porus’ kingdom to the northeast

(in what is now Kashmir), he left Craterus, with part of the army, to build and fortify his new cities.

He clearly intended to continue the march eastward until the conquest of India was complete, just

as Alexander already had revealed to Pharasmanes in the summer of 328. The advance, however,

soon turned into a journey, if not quite into the heart of darkness, then certainly close enough to it to

persuade the majority of the Macedonians to refuse to go any farther before the end of the summer of

326.

The name of the tribe of Indians Alexander first encountered on the march was the Glauganicae or

Glausae. The thirty-seven towns of these Indians that Alexander captured were handed over to Porus,

who thereby was immediately paid off for his new alliance with Alexander. Taxiles, having been

reconciled with Porus and supplanted by him in Alexander’s esteem, was then sent home.

From the timber of nearby mountains Alexander then had built a large number of ships, which he

meant to use later to sail down the Indus after the conquest of India. In this region Alexander and his

men also encountered a large number of snakes; some were twenty-four feet long. Others were small

and multicolored. Many were venomous, and until the locals showed the Macedonians a root that

could be used to treat their deadly bites, the Macedonians slept uneasily at night in hammocks slung

from trees.

The Macedonians also marveled at the wide variety of monkeys found in the region. Among these

were the famous monkeys who had taught the Indians how to entrap them. Because of their strength

and cleverness these monkeys could not be captured simply by force, but had to be tricked. The Indian

hunters, making sure that they were within the sight of the monkeys, would smear their own eyes with

honey, fasten sandals upon their ankles, and hang mirrors on their own necks. The hunters then

departed, having attached fastening to the sandals they left behind, having substituted birdlime for

honey, and having attached slip nooses to mirrors. When

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