The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s1.t11.10

c5.s1.t11.10

Mr. Loewenthal’s objection, based on the opinion of a high military authority, that the Mahában hill “commands nothing,” only shows how readily even a very learned man will accept an utterly false argument when it tells in his own favour. General Abbott has noticed this subject in his reply to Mr. Loewenthal; but some months previous to the publication of his reply, I had already given a similar refutation to this objection, both in conversation with different friends and in writing to Mr. Loewenthal himself. It is objected that Mahában “commands nothing;” I reply that it commands the very thing that the people of an invaded country wanted, it commands safety for those who seek its shelter. It is said to be “so much out of the way” that none would have sought it as a place of refuge, and that Alexander would not have wasted time in its reduction, as it did not impede his passage to the Indus.* This objection supposes that Alexander’s chief object was the passage of the Indus, whereas it is clear, both from his previous and subsequent career, that his invariable plan was never to leave an enemy behind him. For this he had given up the pursuit of Bessus, to conquer Aria, Drangiana, and Arachosia; for this he had spent two years in Sogdiana and Bactriana, until the death of Spitamenes left no enemy remaining; for this he now turned aside from the passage of the Indus to subdue the people who had refused their submission by taking refuge in Aornos; and for this he afterwards recrossed the Hydraotes to attack Sangala, an isolated rock, which commanded nothing but the jangal around it.