The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.102

v1.c25.102

The principality of the Paurava was now in the hands of Alexander to order as seemed good to him. The Paurava was re-instated in his former dignity. He was only required to regard himself as the member of a world-realm under Alexander. In all groupings of mankind,—in the family, the nation, the empire—the constituent units have to sacrifice something of their independence in order to share in the greatness and strength of the group. And in such a realm as Alexander now conceived, a realm including already so many races and nations, in which European and Asiatic should stand on one footing, it might well seem to a proud Indian prince that he and his people could accept their place without shame. He entered it as the peer of the Macedonian chiefs, who might claim to be the conquerors, and of the princes and nobles of Irān, who had given their allegiance to the new King of Kings. That his new position meant amity with the rāja of Takshaçilā was probably the thing which the Paurava found most bitter. But that Alexander sweetened, so far as he could, by giving him a great enlargement of dominion towards the east.