The Watch Begins Here- “Jo Jeeta Wahi Porus”

In 326 BC there is no BSF to secure Indian borders from the foreign invaders.
‘’Chain down the elephants’’ shouting the soldiers. ‘’Tie the horses with chariots’’ shouting another soldier. It seems that there is preparation of war is going on.

In the court of Porus the high level meeting is going on. ‘’How is preparation of our armed forces?”, asked Porus. “We are ready Maharaj ,our soldiers have been reached here from all over the empire. Cavalry and chariots are mounted up and warrior elephants are ready” ,replied Commander. ‘’What is the status of Alexander ?’’ Porus asked. ‘’Ambhi has now allied with them. Their combined forces is marching toward us , they will reach here by the evening’’, replied Commander. ‘’Our empire is at the border of India. From centuries we haveprotected the borders of motherland Bharat Mata’’, Porus said. “March with our forces to the bank of Jhelum where we will not let Alexander to cross the river ”, orders Porus.

Army of Porus reached on the banks of Jhelum. Porus is sitting on the elephant and his army is ready for action. Porus is roaringin front of soldiers,“God has given us the border because he wants to give a chance to serve motherland. It is god who wants us to watch the borders and protect it. Until there is pulse in our heart we will stop the enemy. Alexander should not cross the river , If they have to enter in India they have to go through our dead bodies. Let save our Bharat from these Yavans(Foreigners). The watch begins here”. “Jai Maa Bharati! Jai Maa Bharati” sloganeering everyone.

The army of Alexander is moving towards Indian borders. This army contains Macedonian ,European, Asian and also some Indian soldiers. An Indian king Ambhi is also their ally. Alexander have ambition ‘to defeat the whole world and become the king’ ,but India is the largest obstacle between his dream.

Alexander and his commander Seleucus have sit on the horse and are discussing.‘’If we won India then rest of the world is easy to win”, Alexander said to Seleucus . ‘’Yes , your grace If we know once how to tackle down their elephants then rest is ours’’ replied Seleucus. ‘’My Lord , this Indian king Porus is challenging us ,he have elephant warriors which we have never seen nor fought with.’’ said Seleucus. ‘’See our army ,we will defeat Porus easily ‘’ said Aexander with smile on his face.

The point to be noted here is that Alexander and Porus Both have about the same army . Although Porus have little bit less soldiers compared to Alexander but the trained war elephants of Porus are fulfilling this gap. In Alexander’s army there were40,000 infantry , 7000 cavalry and Asiatic contingents . While Porus army contained 30,000infantry, 3000 cavalry, 140 war elephants, 1000 chariots :Source Wikipedia.

The biggest problem with Indian rulers, Indians was that we were never clever we always used doctrinairian .

Like the Indian kings set the rules that:
·We will never attack on unarmed or weaponless .
·Not attack in the night on any kingdom.
·Never attack on women and child .
·Never break promise.
·Never attack on the guest king.
While the foreign invaders always took the advantage. The foreigners always misunderstood our tolerance as our weakness. Alexander was also one of them.

A cruel ruler of Macedonia thought that since he was so successful, it must mean that he was the son of Zeus. He even declared that he should receive the honors of a god. Alexander was so full of himself he thought he wasn’t just better than the mythical war heroes, such as Achilles, who motivated him but that he was the infallible son of a god.

Alexander destroyed Persepolis after Persian ruler Xerxes burned the Acropolis. A brash personality and short temper killed many kings and prisoners of war .He burned many cities because of craziness , killed childrens , women .His army used to loaf every village and loot them which falls in their way.

With his fad he was marching towards India and reached to the bank of Jhelum. On the other side of the river, Army of Porus was waiting. Like other foreign invaders he had also no guts to fight from front. He used the darkness of night to attack on Porus. A fierce battle has began named as battle of Hydaspes. But what was the outcome of this war ?

There are two theories have been put by the historians .The first one is a popular fancy story that we all know is Alexander, after defeating Porus , impressed by him makes him king again and released him.

But what after that, what made Alexander to not enter in India even after victory? Why Alexander leaved his fad even he was young his age wasabout 30 years only .Was he afraid of king of Magadha(Bihar) who was 10 times powerful than Alexander? And how suddenly the Alexander’s heart changed that used to behead every defeated king is now returning the kingdom to the Porus.

See the irony of foreign historians here on one hand they give the fancy story about Alexander and on other hand they said that after this war he was sick and injured also so he quitted his campaign. But what made him injured ?

The Indian historians (some foreigners also) given another theory that inthe battle of Hydaspes the war was inconclusive. In this war the Alexander was injured so much that he was near the death. The battle with Porus made him internally weak , stricken and sickthat he wished to go Macedonia again. A desolator of birthplace of lakhs desired to die in his native land.

In history there are many points where controversy occurs. In such situations the country has to choose one of the theory and include in the syllabus of the students .It is our unfortunate that the first PM Nehru went with foreign theorists. Don’t worry now there is nationalist Modi government .Many ministers and party leaders have been indicated that the Nehruvian history will be changed and Modi government will go with Indian historians.

Apart from these controversies I leave you to decide yourself but the following questions will always arise.

·Defeat of Raja Porus would have encouraged Alexander to further enter in the Eastern parts of Ancient India.

·Suddenly end of the victory campaign.
·Alexander is known for cruelty with defeated kings while in this battle reverse was happening.
·Ambhi was ready to fight alongside Alexander because he was promised that he will be given the kingdom of Porus.

·Alexander monitored the movement of Raja Porus for atleast 3 months. This indicates that was kind of hesitation from his end.

·It is believed that battle was fought on May 321 B.C. The early spell of monsoon starts in the month of May in Punjab and rest parts of India-Pakistan. These conditions are not ideal for combat. While the Porus knew his land .