National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

right light, and others which appear to have been reconstructed on grounds far
too conjectural. Still less need an opinion be expressed here to what extent the
fresh views advanced as to the ultimate decision of the battle and its immediate
results may claim acceptance.

From the point of view of ancient topography the essential fact is that what-
ever interpretation we put upon the disposition of Poros's army before and
during the battle, its location in the confined space about Sarai Naurangābād
opposite to Jhēlum town, as assumed by Professor Breloer, is incompatible with
the natural features of the ground. I have already had occasion to point out that
the wide torrent beds of the Sukētar, Bandar Kas, and Jabba Nālas are quite
impassable whether on horseback or foot after rain, and remain so during the
whole 'hot weather' season. However great our opinion must be of the march-
ing capacity of Alexander's war-hardened veterans, it is impossible to assume
that after the difficult crossing made only at dawn, and the delay caused by the
fording of the unexpected deep channel, his troops could have been brought
across such forbidding obstacles as are presented by the extremely broken
ground at the foot of the hills eastwards, or made the great detours needed to
avoid them, in time to fight a long protracted battle on the same day. Equally
conclusive is what both Ptolemy and Aristoboulos record of Alexander's force
having been met soon after that channel had been forded by a considerable
detachment of Indian horse and chariots sent by Poros on having received the
first news of the crossing of the river.³² It is obvious that, however rapidly the
crossing had been reported to Poros by his mounted scouts, no cavalry, still less
chariots, detached by him could have covered such ground in time to meet Alex-
ander's force where Professor Breloer would locate the encounter, about 14
miles from Naurangābād.³³

To these, to my mind conclusive, topographical objections there can be added
others of a similar nature. Taking the assumed starting-point for the crossing
at the mouth of the Pothawāla Kas, it must be pointed out in the first place that
neither of the two small islets to be found there, scarcely 2 furlongs long each,
could furnish an effective screen for the passage, such as Arrian's description and
Curtius's distinct reference to 'an island greater than the rest',³⁴ plainly indicate.
Then it deserves to be carefully noted that any such extensive preparations as
the building of many rafts and boats, &c., could be easily observed from the
dominating height occupied by the present fort of Mangla, fully 200 feet above
the river and only 2½ miles away on the opposite side. It commands a complete