The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c16.23

c16.23

¹ Arrian, *Anab.* vi, 5 ; Curtius, ix, 4 ; Diodorus, xvii, 96. The Agalassoi are distinguished by Diodorus only, who says that Alexander fired the town. The account in the text follows Curtius in respect of the voluntary immolation of the townspeople, an incident quite in keeping with Hindu character, and often repeated in later times. The Siboi were probably the ancestors of some of the half-wild tribes of pastoral Jāts, who now inhabit the same region. For discussion of the topography, see my paper, 'The Position of the Autonomous Tribes of the Panjāb conquered by Alexander the Great', in *J.R.A.S.*, Oct. 1903. These tribes are mentioned together in early Sanskrit literature. Weber pointed out that Āpiśali, one of the teachers cited by Pāṇini, speaks of the formation of the compound 'Kshaudraka-Mālavā (*scil. senā*)', 'the army of the Kshudrakas and Mālavās' (*J. A. S. B.*, pt. i, vol. lxi, 1892, p. 60). The *Mahābhārata* couples them as forming part of the Kaurava host in the Great War (Pargiter, in *J. R. A. S.*, 1908, p. 329, citing, *Mbh.*, vi, 2106, 2584, 2646, 3852, 3853, 4808, 5484, 5648 ; vii, 183 ; and viii, 137).