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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

any deep ravine, as Curtius's account mentions. In accordance with this location
Mr. Vincent Smith was prepared to look for the battle-field on the comparatively
narrow stretch of riverine flat which to the east of the river intervenes between
its left bank and the much broken ground at the foot of the Pabbi range of hills.
But a mere glance at a detailed map would suffice to raise grave doubts as to
how this narrow stretch of practicable ground could afford space for so extensive
a line of battle as Arrian describes.

Before Mr. Vincent Smith took up the question at Oxford, with quasi-legal
acumen but without adequate study of the ground, General Cunningham's
theory, put forth in his Archaeological Survey Report of 1863–64, held the
field.²⁴ He placed Alexander's camp at Jalālpur, a small town on the right
bank of the river about 30 miles below Jhēlum. There, as the map shows,
the river leaves the foot of a rugged projecting spur of the Salt Range, washed
by it for a distance of about 8 miles higher up, and finally emerges into the
open alluvial plain.

It was at the village of Dilāwar, at the upper end of the river's course along
the spur just mentioned, that General Cunningham sought the place which
Alexander had selected for his crossing. But the distance between Jalālpur and
Dilāwar is only 8 miles, and hence would not agree with the 150 stadia, or 17½
miles, which Arrian definitely mentions as the distance between Alexander's
camp and the place of his crossing. In order to meet this difficulty about his
assumed locations, General Cunningham felt obliged to make Alexander's
troops perform an arduous night march by a very devious route. This he
supposed to have taken them from Jalālpur up a narrow winding ravine, and
then across its head by a difficult track into another winding ravine, and thus
finally down to Dilāwar (see Skeleton Map 1). On this route the desired dis-
tance of some 17 miles would indeed be arrived at. But how a large force could
be taken over this distance, across such difficult ground, in the course of a single
stormy night, remained unexplained.

The Nestor of Indian Archaeology had taken pains to study the ground and
had endeavoured to strengthen his theory by arguments drawn from such scanty
topographical indications as classical authors apart from Arrian and Curtius
afford regarding Alexander's operations. Thus he rightly pointed out that the
southerly direction indicated by Strabo²⁵ for Alexander's march from Taxila as
far as the Hydaspes distinctly points to a route having been followed that lay to
the west of one leading to Jhēlum town, like the present Grand Trunk Road.
He also recognized that the distance of 120 Roman miles, or 110 English miles,
from Taxila to the Hydaspes, as recorded by Pliny from the measurements of