The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c25.79

v1.c25.79

The first body of Yavanas to appear on the river was, one gathers, the advance guard sent on by Alexander, bringing in sections the boats which had been used on the Indus. These were fitted together again on the Hydaspes, and a little fleet could soon be descried in moorings across the river. The king with the main army was on the road. The Paurava seems to have thrown one body of troops into the country opposite under his nephew ‘Spitaces,’ to contest Alexander's advance in some narrow place of the hills⁴, through which the road from Takshaçilā runs. It was, of course, a mere preliminary skirmish, and a manœuvre of the Macedonian horse threw back the Indians in some confusion⁵. Presently the great host of the Yavanas was seen drawn up on the other side. The eyes watching from the left bank could make out the royal tent and the uniform of the body-guards and even the figure of the marvellous man himself moving to and fro among his captains. They could see too a body of 5000 Indians, their countrymen, sent by Āmbhi to fight by the side of the Macedonians. Nothing divided the Indian army from the conquerors of the world but the breadth of the Hydaspes. That however was a serious obstacle. The river at this season⁶ was rising as the snows began to melt in the Himālayas. Along the left bank the Paurava kept a sharp watch on all possible landing-places. His elephants especially would deter the Europeans, by their terror as well as by their solid bulk, from landing. To land in the face of such opposition might well seem an impossibility, even for Yavanas. But for the Paurava it meant the necessity of unremitting vigilance; it meant the continuous minute scrutiny of every movement on the opposite bank. He was now to show whether he had the general's genius for divining the purposes of the enemy from chance indications.