The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.41

v1.c25.41

The town with which this incident is connected the Greeks call Massaga. We know only that it was situated east of the Guraeus river and apparently not far from the stream. The resistance which the easternmost branch of the hill-people, those called by the Greeks Assakēnoi, offered to the invader seems to have been concentrated at this place. All these tribes, as far as the Indus, recognised as overlord a chief whom the Greeks call Assakēnos. His organisation for defence included an alliance with the king of the Abhisāra country beyond the Indus, who sent contingents to his support². Assakēnos had himself taken command at Massaga, and fell there, struck by a missile from one of the European siege-machines³. His mother and daughter were left in the enemies’ hands⁴; but it was not among Alexander’s faults to fail in chivalry to the women whom war put at his mercy⁵.