1 G2 WISTORY OF THE PANJAD.
2 and the rock resounded with the acclamations of the victors. Alexander
3 on taking possession of this celebrated rock, offered magnificent sacrifices
4 and erected on it altars to Minerva and Victory.
5 Turning then to the north-east, Alexander marched to Pucela, or Peuce-
6 Reductionof Pakhli, Jaotis, the capital of the district now known as Pakhli. His generals, before
7 The ancient city of
8 Nysa,
9 Af inder woiited
10 me by a deputation
11 af cldur,
12 The ht» rty of the
13 Crysians restored.
14 Salenission of
15 Doxat +, the Indiin
16 Lee
17 his arrival, had been occupied for thirty days, in endeavouring to reduce the
18 place but, on the approach of the king, the Indians submitted and hastened
19 to pay homage to the conqueror, who restored the territory to them.
20 Being anxious to glean some knowledge of the customs of the Indian
21 tribes, Alexander despatched Nearchus and Antiochus, at the head of large -
22 detachments of troops, to collect information about the country and to
23 seize some of the natives to help the Greeks in their march into the
24 interior, Troops were, in the meanwhile, sent in the direction of the
25 Indus, to level aroad for the passage of the army. After these preparations,
26 Alexander entered that part of the country of the Assaceni, in the Western
27 Panjab, beyond the Indus, where the ancient city of Nysa, known in Sans-
28 krit as Naishada, sacred to Dionysius, or Bacchus, was situated. As soon as
29 the Nysians were apprised of his arrival, they sent a deputation consisting
30 of their chief, named Akonphus, and thirty elders, to solicit his protection.
31 The deputies expressed their earnest belief that the king would extend his
32 protection to them, out of respect to the memory of Dionysius, who had
33 founded that city, as 2 monument of his victories and as an asylum for those
34 veterans in his army, who were prevented by age or infirmity from returning
35 to their home and had settled there. The surrounding country was called
36 Nysa, and the town Nysa was founded after the name of the conqueror's
37 nurse. The delegates further informed Alexander that to the neighbouring
38 mountain Dionysius had given the name of Meros, from the cirenmstance
39 of his having been fabulously born from the thigh of Jupiter. Alexander,
40 pleased with the address of the deputies, acceded to their request and
41 confirmed to them their liberties, provided they furnished him with a con-
42 tingent of three hundred horsemen and furnished a hundred of their best
43 citizens as hostages. At the last demand Akonphus smiled, and Alexander
44 enquiring of him the reason, he replied: “ We could have wel) afforded
45 to part with that number, nay double that number, of bad men in Nysa, but
46 how can any city be governed which is deprived of one hundred of its best
47 citizens ?” The answer pleased the king, and the condition regarding the
48 furnishing of hostages was dispensed with. °
49 The country between the Indus and the Hydaspes (Jhelum) was governed
50 by a powerful Indian prince named Taxiles, of that ancient Turanian race
51 which, at that time, inhabited the Rdwalpindi District.
52 Cophenus (the Kabul river), Alexander despatched a herald to Taxiles and
53 other Indian princes west of the Indus, calling on them to meet him on their
54 respective frontiers, as he approached their territories, and tender their sub-
55 mission to him. In obedience to this command, Taxiles, having crossed the
56 Indus, paid homage to Alexander, presenting him with two hundred talents
57 2 silver, Pipe thousand oxen, above ten thousand sheep and thirty ele-
58 ne, a sipplying him with a reinforcement of seven hundred Indian
59 ie Lea a x : so aes himself personally serviceable to him in the prosecution
60 neieiak Pak a regarding India. Pintarch has given an interesting
61 subotanee of the pie manane oe the two kings, and the following is the
62 Indian king of his contemporse cei A at, occasion is there,” asked the
63 and me, if Sou a HS rake emporary from the far west, “for war between you
64 of life, the only things thot reasonatle mes wie ees other Beoessaries
65 3 g asonable men will take up arms for? As to.
66 On reaching the
67 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh J i eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com