The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.73

v1.c25.73

It was probably some wind of these intrigues which accelerated Alexander's attack². The Paurava, for his part, had sent the Yavana conqueror an open defiance. To the envoys who summoned him to meet Alexander at Takshaçilā he had answered that he would meet Alexander on his own frontiers, in arms³. He soon learnt that in spite of the heats of summer which now lay on the land, in spite of the near approach of the rains, the European army had broken up from Takshaçilā and was in full march for the passage of the Hydaspes. Alexander had left a Macedonian garrison in Takshaçilā, and a Macedonian satrap, Philip the son of Machatas, in the realm of Āmbhi¹. Probably somewhere near the place where is now the town of Jhelum² the army of the Paurava gathered on the banks of the Hydaspes in the spring of 326. Its numbers are variously given³. They were perhaps not very far, more or less, from those of Alexander's army, though all our accounts agree in one point—that Alexander had a numerical superiority in cavalry.