Soldier, Priest, and God by F S Naiden

Author:F S Naiden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

Anonymous color drawing of the western bank of the Beas River, 1848.

Illustrated London News.

in early fall, the army marched back to the place on the Jhelum where they had fought Puru some months before. Two thousand teakwood boats were waiting there. So were new leather corselets and cherrywood pikes brought from Europe via the Khyber Pass. The men burned their old corselets and prepared the flotilla while Alexander made travel plans with his councilors and gave Puru charge of the Indian frontier. He had founded a city at the site earlier, but now he named it after Bucephalas, who had lately died, a victim of one wound too many. Coenus died of illness, and received the most elaborate funeral since Erigyius. Even Alexander’s favorite dog had recently died—and got a city named after him, too. The sick and wounded were numerous enough to form garrisons for these cities.49

The king and council were embarking on a risky plan—descending the Indus to the Gulf of Arabia. They knew this downriver voyage would take months, but they could not know how many. Bad weather might delay them indefinitely. The trickle of mail and supplies through the Khyber Pass would no longer reach them, and Alexander’s orders to his subordinates would no longer get through. Men such as Antipater, Antigonus, and Harpalus, used to hearing from him after several weeks or months, might not hear from him again for up to a year. The descent of the Indus would test not only the army but the strained ties of companionship.

To save time and lives, they might have gone back the way they came. The council knew that Alexander would reject this plan with all his native vehemence, exacerbated by resentment at having to turn back. No one even proposed it. Instead the councilors let Alexander approach them individually and borrow money to build the ships.50

That October, amidst further rains, Alexander propitiated the river in the name of Amon and Heracles and the army set sail. Craterus took infantry and cavalry down the western bank, and Hephaestion took more troops plus baggage and 200 elephants down the eastern bank. The fleet of 1,800 vessels, led by Alexander, traveled just behind. Crowds of curious villagers gathered along the banks or poured down from neighboring hills, and Craterus and Hephaestion had to police them. Alexander waved from on deck, and river dolphins bobbed beside the royal barge.51

The voyage soon turned rough. At the confluence of the Jhelum and the Chenab, in central Punjab, a whirlpool destroyed two ships. Lookouts called warnings to helmsmen, drums beat the pace for the rowers, sawyers broke up against the hulls of the ships, and rescue teams on shore hollered back and forth as boats went aground. Tributaries flowed into the river and threw up waves and spume.52

Every day they put in for rest, food, and forage. Whenever they failed to secure cooperation from the locals, Alexander ordered his troops to seize villages and supplies.

The troops complained. They had thought fighting would come to an end once they turned back at the Beas River.

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