Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c16.20

c16.20

§ 65. During this retreat Alexander came across a number of republics. In fact, all the States he met on his way back, down the Indus and up to the Indian frontier in Baluchistan, were republican. The most powerful amongst them were the Kshudrakas and the Mālavas. They are spelt by the Greeks as Oxydrakai and Malloi respectively They were on the Hydaspes, by which the Greeks apparently mean the passage of the Jhelum after its unity with the Chenab. The two states formed one league.¹ Arrian (VI. 4) says that they were the most numerous and warlike of the Indian 'nations' in those parts. "Alexander "first reached the nation called the Malloi." Near the Malloi there were their republican friends called the Siboi,² whom the Jātakas and Patañjali know as the Sivis and the Śaibyas.³ The Malloi are called a race of independent Indians (Arrian, VI 6); their cities were along the Chenab and their capital was near the Ravi. It was in the siege of the capital or one of the cities of the Malloi that Alexander nearly lost his life. Owing to the unity of the league, the Greek writers could not decide whether Alexander's narrow escape relates to the city of the Malloi or to that of the Oxydrakai. The strength of the army as given by Curtius, was 1,00,000. "*The Macedonians lost their heart at the prospect of meeting this army.*" "*When the Macedonians found that they had still on hand a fresh war in which the most warlike nations in all India would be their antagonists, they were struck with an unexpected terror, and began again to upbraid the king in the language of sedition.*"¹ These Indians were regarded by the soldiers as "*fierce nations*" who would not let them proceed without drawing their blood. The fear of the Macedonians was well justified and is attested by the account of the personal calamity of Alexander and the lamentations which followed (IIA, pp. 241-2).