The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.t3.1

c5.s4.t3.1

The scene of Alexander’s battle with Porus has long engaged the attention, and exercised the ingenuity, of the learned. The judicious Elphinstone* placed it opposite to Jalâlpur; but Burnes† concluded that it must have been near Jhelam, because that place is on the great road from Tartary, which appears to have been followed by Alexander. In 1836 the subject was discussed by General Court,‡ whose early military training, and unequalled opportunities for observation during a long residence in the Panjâb, gave him the best possible means of forming a sound opinion. General Court fixed the site of Alexander’s camp at Jhelam, his passage of the river at Khilipatam, 3 kos, or 6 miles, above Jhelam, the scene of his battle with Porus at Pattikoti on the Jaba Nadi, 8 miles to the east of Jhelam, and the position of Nikæa at Vessa, or Bhesa, which is 3 miles to the south-east of Pathi or Patti-koti. The late Lord Hardinge took great interest in the subject, and twice conversed with me about it in 1846 and 1847. His opinion agreed with mine that the camp of Alexander was most probably near Jalâlpur. In the following year, General Abbott* published an elaborate disquisition on the battle-field of Alexander and Porus, in which he placed the camp of the former at Jhelam, and of the latter on the opposite bank near Norangabad. The passage of the river he fixed at Bhuna, about 10 miles above Jhelam, and the field of battle near Pakrâl, about 3 miles to the north of Sukchenpur. In this state the question remained until the end of 1863, when my tour through the Panjâb gave me an opportunity of examining at leisure the banks of the Hydaspes from Jalâlpur to Jhelam.