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

behind it, rising to heights above 1,300 feet and cleft by innumerable ravines,
would offer, even after the bridge-head had been taken, we may realize that the
road crossing the river at Jhēlum, convenient for traffic towards the plain of the
Panjāb in peace-time, would not be the best line to follow for an invader from
the north-west as long as armed resistance were to be met on the left bank.

We are justified in believing that Alexander was in possession of all the local
information available through the ruler of Taxila, his ally and the immediate
neighbour of Poros. He would thus be in a position to decide upon the choice
of a route for his advance which was less likely to favour his opponent in the
defence of the river crossing. We shall see that there is such a route leading to
the Hydaspes much farther down which was repeatedly used by another great
invader of India, and the earliest after Alexander of whose advance to the river
we have definite historical knowledge. The choice of a route farther south was
all the more advisable for Alexander, as it was bound to draw Poros farther
away from the territory of Abisares, the ruler of the outer hills, for whose armed
assistance he was hoping.³⁵

Before turning to the ground lower down the river in search of the true scene
of Alexander's great exploit, I may add a few words regarding the route leading
from Taxila via Rawalpindi to Jhēlum. It is the shortest in the direction of such
old centres as Siālkōt and Lahore, and its use is attested from medieval times
onwards. But before the Grand Trunk Road was constructed it was by no means
the easiest route. Of this I had occasion to convince myself on a long excursion
which I made from Jhēlum on November 23rd along the old line of the route. It
leads up the narrow winding defile (Fig. 1) in which the Kahān river has cut its
way through the eastern branch of the Salt Range past the great fortress of Rohtās,
which the Emperor Shēr Shāh constructed in A.D. 1542–3 in order to guard this
difficult exit into the riverine plain against the warlike Ghakkar tribe holding the
north-eastern portion of the Salt Range. Thence the old shābī road, marked by
ruined Mughal sarais and other remains,³⁶ could be traced over much broken
ground to the Bakrāla pass leading across the western branch of the Salt Range.
The gorges on either side of the pass, and even more perhaps the extensive net-
work of deep cut ravines furrowing the plateau to the north, must have offered
serious impediments to traffic before the Grand Trunk Road was alined here.