Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s2.t1.17

c9.s2.t1.17

Indian contingents fought side by side with the Persians against the Hellenic host at Guagamela. Arrian refers to three distinct groups of Indians who responded to the trumpet call of Darius III Codomanus (335-330 B. C.). The Indians who were neighbours of the Bactrians (of the Balkh region), possibly the inhabitants of Kāpiśi-Gandhāra, were arrayed with the Bactrians themselves and the Sogdianians (of the Samarkand territory) under the command of Bessus, the satrap of Bactria. A second group of Indians styled the "Indian hillmen" or "mountaineer Indians", possibly the Sattagydians or people of the principality of Sambos in Sind, were placed with the Arachosians (of the Kandahar area) under Bersaentes, Satrap of Arachosia. Besides these, we have pointed reference to a third group, viz. Indians on *this* side of the Indus, apparently those of the twentieth satrapy, who came to the help of the Persian king with a comparatively small force of fifteen elephants.