Indian Antiquary Vol 58

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 295

MARCH, 1929)
ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGN ON THE N.-W. FRONTIER
this enterprise meant, in theory at least, but a reassertion of the sovereignty of that Persian Empire to which he claimed succession and which down to the last Achæmenidian 'King of Kings' had its satrapies right up to the Indus. At Nikaia, a place not yet exactly determin. od, in the upper valley of the Kabul river he divided his army. One large force was to move to the tract of Peukelaotis (Sanskrit Pushlcaldvati, safely located near Charsadda, north-east of Peshawar) and to effect the submission of the country as far as the Indus. The other corps was led by Alexander himself into the hill country to the north of the Kabul river, obviously with a view to securing the flank of his main line of communication along it.
The details of the route followed on Alexander's operations against various towns by "the river called Khoes" and against the tribe of the Aspasioi cannot be determined. But it may be considered as certain that they took him for a considerable distance up the large and populous valley of the Kûnar river.4 Geographical facts make it equally clear that the scene of subsequent operations, when he had crossed the mountains and moved east, was the present Bajaur. This is rendered quite certain by the mention of the river Guralos, which had to be passed by the Macedonians before Alexander could lead them into the country of the Assakênoi; for the identity of the Guraios with the Panjkóra, coming from the mountains of Dir and flowing east of Bajaur before it joins the Swat river, is well established. No definite attempt can be made to identify the localities mentioned west of the Guraics, as long as Bajaus remains inaccessible *0% research.
With the passage of the Guraios or Panjkôra we are brought close to the territory which directly concerns us here ; for it has long ago been recognised that the country of the powerful nation of the Assakênoi, the invasion of which was begun after crossing the river, could be no other than Swat. The numerical strength of the nation and the size of the territory held by it are sufficiently indicated by the numbers recorded by Arrian for the army ("2,000 cavalry and more than 30,000 infantry, besides 30 elephants ") which had gathered to oppose Alexander's advance. Yet we are told that when the barbarians saw Alexander approaching they did not dare to encounter him in the open, and dispersed to their several cities in order to defend them.
From this and the account of the several sieges which followed the inference seems justi. fied that the Aggakênoi, though a brave race, could not have been addicted to those fierce and very effective methods of fighting which make the present hill tribes along the barren parts of the North-West Frontier so formidable opponents on their own ground. From the superior type of the abundant structural remains still extant in Swat from early Buddhist times, and from what we know through the Chinese pilgrims' account of the character of its inhabitants at a later period, it may, in fact, be safely concluded that the material civilization and cul. ture prevailing in that region in Alexander's time and for centuries after was far higher than those to be met with there now, or among the semi-barbarous Pathân tribes holding the bar. ren hills from the Mobmand country down to Waziristan. Nor should it be forgotten that the possession of lands so fertile as those of Swat, combined with the enfeebling effect of the rice cultivation preponderant in its valleys, tends to have a debilitating influence on the inhabitants. This is apparent even from the present Pathân population, and must have asserted itself also in the case of its earlier oocupants.
As regards the ethnography of the region through which Alexander's hill campaign took him, two points may conveniently be noted here. That the invaders classed the inhabitants
See my remarks on the importance of the Kaner valley and the indications pointing to its having been the scene of those operations, in 'Serindia,' 1, p. 3.
6 Cf. Arrian, Ana basis,' IV. xxiv.
• See Serindia,'1,p. 2, note 2. The difficulty of the passago across the Guraios which Arrian, IV, XXV., specially comments upon, is illustrated by the experience of the British forces when operating against Bajaus from the Swát side and across the Panjkora in 1905 and 1907,
7 Cf. Arrian, 'Anabasis,' IV. xxv.