The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.56.2

v1.c25.56.2

The hills were deserted before them, and Alexander pushed on as far as a town which the Greek books call Dyrta. It was found empty of inhabitants. Alexander learnt that the fugitive prince was dead by the evidence of his severed head, brought by some hillmen one day into camp. He had fallen a victim to some hostile tribe or to his own followers. Two bodies of light troops were detached to scour the hills yet further, and Alexander himself turned back with the rest of his division to the Indus. Some natives of the region were caught by the Macedonians on their way. They reported that the fugitives from Aornus and the people of the hills had escaped into the country of Abhisāra, whose rāja was watching the progress of the Yavanas with a doubtful mind. As for the elephants, they had turned them loose in the country bordering the Indus, more swampy in those days than it is now¹. An elephant hunt accordingly followed; Alexander had already, with his quick interest in new things and his Macedonian sporting propensities, collected about him Indians whose special business was elephant-hunting, and by their means the scattered herd was driven in, and attached to the Macedonian army². The point at which Alexander’s division struck the Indus on its descent from the hills was some way above the point where Hephaestion and Perdiccas had by this time constructed the bridge.