Battle Report: Battle of Hydaspes (326 B.C.E)
One of the final battles in Alexander’s great campaign to conquer “Ancient Asia”, which at the time included Persia, Bactria, and Western India. Most of which was new to the Greek world of Alexander at the time, the battle itself took place on the banks of the Jhelum River in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. This being the deepest into Asia than any European had been, everything that Alexander’s Army saw was a culture shock to them.Following his conquering of Persia, Alexander wanted to probe the remaining kingdoms of western India to test their strength for a follow-up campaign. King Porus of Paurava blocked Alexander’s advance at Hydaspes (now Jhelum) using a ford as the separation point between both armies. Numerically the armies held similar sizes, but Alexander fielded more cavalry and Porus 200 war elephants (the size never seen by Greeks).
To defeat this blockage, Alexander separated his forces into two groups. The first he left a smaller force at the initial ford with Craterus (one of his more capable generals) and taking the second larger force personally to a ford 17 miles away. After seeing that the larger force had crossed the river; Porus set his army for attack with cavalry on the flanks, infantry in the center, and elephants in the front. Alexander set his heavy infantry into phalanx at the center, both flanks with cavalry (him leading the right and sending Coenus on a wide left flank behind a hill).
The charge of the elephants almost broke the Macedonian Phalanx but was able to hold till the Indian Infantry came to assault their lines. Alexander attacked the right flank but failed to find an exploitable gap with his calvary causing him to have a pitched battle, something he was not used to against Persia. When Coenus returned to the battlefield at the rear of the Indian formation, Alexander’s army was able to defeat the Indian cavalry and encircle the infantry. Porus seeing no other option reformed his infantry into a defensive block and offered to surrender if granted terms.
Alexander allowed Porus to remain king of Paurava but imposed a steep tribute against the Satrapy. The battle itself lead to Alexander’s generals questioning his reasoning for such campaigning after such an “unnecessary” battle. They would be on the verge of mutiny till Alexander agreed to return to Greece. On his return though, many believe he was poisoned without an heir, leading to his empire being divided by his generals into several smaller kingdoms/empires.
