War in Ancient India c10.60

c10.60

About 517 B.C. according to Herodotus, Darius launched a maritime expedition under Skylax of Caryanda to the Indus Delta, and during Alexander's time, again, we read of the people of the Punjab fitting out a fleet. We have the testimony of Arrian to show that the Xathroi (Kṣatri), one of the Punjab tribes, supplied Alexander during his return voyage with thirty-oared galleys and transport vessels which were all built by them.³⁷ Writing on the house of Euthydemos, Prof. Rapson remarks: “The Bactrian and Indian coins of Antiochus with their types of ‘Poseidon’ and ‘Victory’ must refer to a naval triumph; and it is difficult to explain the allusion except on the supposition that this king had won a victory on one of the great Indian rivers—the Indus or the Jhelum.”³⁸ From this period down to the invasion of the Muhammadans to India the people of the Indus region showed their nautical skill in piracy, so that the Persians built no city worth the name on their sea-coast.³⁹