国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

and antiquarian information as the detailed maps produced in recent years by the
Survey of India, and the local observations recorded by British administrators in
District Gazetteers have placed at the disposal of the critical student.

Prolonged experience elsewhere had convinced me that, even with the help
thus afforded, careful examination on the ground would be needed for a definite
conclusion. But though desired for many years past, the freedom requisite for
such an investigation had not offered before. As to the great interest attaching
to this question of historical topography there could be no doubt. The scene of
what was probably the most hazardous among the many amazing exploits of
Alexander's campaigns could claim more than romantic glamour if correctly
located. For as that great strategist and student of geography Hellmuth von
Moltke has justly observed: 'The locality is the surviving portion of reality of
an event that has long ago passed by. . . . It often restores to clearness the
picture which history has preserved in half-effaced outlines.'²

Alexander's passage of the Jhēlum when swollen in flood and his subsequent
decisive victory on the other bank over the formidable Indian army which op-
posed him, form the most remarkable of the military feats achieved by the great
Macedonian captain, taking 'rank among the most brilliant operations of ancient
warcraft'.³ They represent an event of outstanding and lasting historical impor-
tance. It is true, Alexander's victorious advance into the Panjāb did not result in
permanent conquest. But it was the first among the numerous successful in-
vasions of India from the north-west frontier which history records, and by
reason of the cultural influences for which it opened the door, it marks an epoch
in the past of India.

Before I indicate the views previously held as to the scene of this memorable
event and then set forth the result of my own local investigations, it is necessary
to refer briefly to the immediately preceding stages of Alexander's campaign,
and next to consider what the extant records tell us about the passage of the
river and the battle that followed. In our examination of the records attention
may be confined chiefly to those data which help to locate the scene.⁴ They are
mainly to be gathered from Arrian's Anabasis. His account, derived mostly from
the contemporary records of Ptolemy and Aristoboulos, is the fullest and the
most reliable.

Alexander, after crossing the Indus at the close of his expedition against
Aornos, had been hospitably received at Taxila, whose ruler had tendered his
submission while the Macedonian forces still stood in the Peshawar valley.