The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c12.64

c12.64

Having stayed in his comfortable quarters at Taxila for sufficient time to rest his army (Diodorus, xvii, 87), Alexander led his forces, now strengthened by the Taxilan contingent and a small number of elephants, eastward to meet Pōros, who was known to be awaiting him on the farther bank of the Hydaspes (Jihlam) river. The march from Taxila to Jihlam on the Hydaspes, in a south-easterly direction, a distance of about 100 or 110 miles, according to the route followed, brought the army over difficult ground and probably occupied a fortnight.¹ The hot season was at its height, but to Alexander all seasons were equally fit for campaigning, and he led his soldiers on and on from conquest to conquest, regardless of the snows of the mountains and the scorching heat of the plains. He arrived at Jihlam early in May, and found the river already flooded by the melting of the snow in the hills. The boats which had served for the passage of the Indus, having been cut into sections and transported on wagons to be rebuilt on the banks of the Hydaspes, were again utilized for the crossing of that river (Arrian, v, 8).