The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c26.s1.86

c26.s1.86

When the European historian, with his mind steeped in the conviction of the immeasurable debt owed to Hellas by modern civilization, stands by the side of the grave of Greek rule in India, it is inevitable that he should ask what was the result of the contact between Greece and India. Was Alexander to Indian eyes nothing more than the cavalry leader before whose onset the greatest armies were scattered like chaff, or was he recognized, consciously or unconsciously, as the pioneer of western civilization and the parent of model institutions? Did the long-continued government of Greek rulers in the Panjāb vanish before the assault of rude barbarians without leaving a trace of its existence save coins, or did it impress an Hellenic stamp upon the ancient fabric of Indian polity?