First I want to thank everybody for their contribution. Secondly rather surprised that we have not had any
Gangas jumping in and trying to claim it was they who fought Aexander's army to it's knees. Just want to clarify that I am using the term "
coterminous Pakistan". Coterminous means having the same space or boundaries in time. In other words the land and geography that is today Pakistan. Or the Indus River region.
coterminous
kəʊˈtəːmɪnəs/
adjective
adjective: coterminous
having the same boundaries or extent in space, time, or meaning.
Thirdly, we must understand that Greece was the unrivalled superpower of it's time. It had just defeated the mighty Persian Empire and nothing stood in way of Alexander to be "conquerer of the known world". He and his army then rolled into coterminous Pakistan. Divided we we were. Indeed probably split like the district map I posted above. Just like today we had some traitors. But we also had heroes.
It must have been a strange sight. The mighty Greek army with Alexander now behaving like he was god marched through our lands. I can imagine our people leaving their farms and heading to fight the world conquerer from afar. Porus whose kingdom is only slightly larger than modern day Jhelum District fought Alexander and his Greeks on the banks of Jhelum River in what history records as Battle of Hydaspes 326BCE. Any of you members from Jhelum district should feel proud. The battle is still studied in military academies across the world. Porus fought bravely but was defeated but the battle is recorded as very difficult by greek historians.
Along the entire coterminous Pakistan the Greeks found our ancestors - from tiny kingdoms to just tribes fighting them at every turn. The Greeks often through frustration and what was common in those days massacred the defeated. This is what happened in Multan or what was then known as Mali. The Mallians after having almost killed Alexander were killed indiscrimnately. However by the time the Greeks left our land we would forever be recorded as a difficult, divided but defiant fighters. Coterminous Pakistan would become a Greek Satrap in a huge empire stretching from Europe to Pakistan.
I ask Pakistani members to look at this map and see if they can place their location on the route Alexander took and or the Porus Kingdom marked green proximating to modern Jhelum District and regions adjacent. I encourage any personal accounts, stories or anything that you can add to this thread - in partcular from districts that lay on Alexander armies route.
I think it is high time Pakistan built statues to Porus and other fighters including our enemy Alexander. Over 2000 years we should not bear any bad blood with the Greeks but recognize the warriors that once made world history on our soil. Not many people can say they took on the superpower of it';s time with gusto like we did.
Next time you drive over the Jhelum River take few seconds to reflect on the momentous battle that took place so many centuries ago on it's banks.
And I am glad Pakistan Army Museum has embraced the Battle of Hydaspes and Porus in it's collection. A fitting inheritor of the valour shown by Porus over 2000 years ago.
