Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s2.t2.17

c9.s2.t2.17

Below the confluence of these rivers, on the confines of a waterless tract and along the Ravi and the Chenab lived the people called Malloi. Their name, as is well known, represents the Sanskrit Mālava. Closely connected with them in Sanskrit and Greek literature were the Oxydrakai or Oxydracae (variously called Sydracae, Sudracae, Syrakousai) or the Kshudrakas. Strabo informs us that they were regarded as the descendants of Dionysus, judging from the vine of their country and their bacchanalian procession. Pāṇini refers to the Mālavas as living by the profession of arms. Arrian includes them among self-governing Indians and says that they were the most numerous and the most warlike of the Indians in these parts. The evidence of Strabo seems to suggest that the Kshudrakas were ruled by petty kings (*basileus*), comparable to the *Rājās* among the Lichchhavis and the Mallas of Eastern India. Arrian in one passage refers to the mayors of the cities and rulers of districts (*nomarchai*) among them, who were entrusted with full power to negotiate with foreign potentates. Before the invasion of Alexander the Mālavas and the Kshudrakas were often at war with one another. But at the approach of the common enemy they decided to join forces. According to Curtius the combined army numbered 90,000 foot, 10,000 cavalry and 900 war chariots and they placed at their head a brave warrior of the nation of the Kshudrakas. A somewhat different account is given by Diodorus who says that the two nations at first mustered a force of 80,000 foot, 10,000 horse and 700 chariots and cemented their alliance by intermarriages, each nation taking and giving in exchange 10,000 of their young women for wives; but subsequently a dispute arose among them regarding leadership and they drew off into adjoining towns. Arrian's narrative seems to imply that Alexander reached the territory of the Mālavas before any help could come to them from their neighbours.