THE CALL OF THE FORE-FATHERS

The Conquest of the Territory Occupied Today by Pakistan and India

327-326 BC

At 29 years old, when other young men are not decided about what they could turn their hand to, Alexander regarded himself as a "god". He had conquered almost the whole world - or what was then considered the whole world. He wanted everything, so in the spring of the year 327 BC, he could be seen on the mountainous slopes of Hindu-Kush, somewhere between Pakistan and the Nuristan Afghanistan. He was bursting with energy, driven by a demonical urge to govern the world. As Aristotle had taught him, he wanted to reach these mountains' top and see from high up there where the world ended. What did he feel when he realized that his prominent professor had made a wrong calculation? Probably in that moment his thirst for knowledge and less his desire to conquer the world urged him; or maybe this was nothing but a call of fore-fathers who less than 2000 years before him, the Carpatho-Danubians, the Vedic people, the Arryans or whatever you may wish to call them (or us), were penetrating India along the superior waterway of the river Indus, after the slaughter of Harrapa.

The Carpatho-Danubian-Arryans conquered India both from a military and spiritual point of view. Alexander did not know much about India. It seems his "secret service" - consisting mainly of Greek merchants - had not reached this area. His knowledge was confined to the northwestern border of Punjab. Young Alexander is alleged to have been abusive, and to have enjoyed drinking; there is one thing though nobody can dispute: his seriousness and meticulosity in managing his invasions.

He was as thorough this time: after studying attentively all the information he had received about India, he split his army into two: the main body of the army which was under the command of his "beloved" friend Hefaistos, and a small part of which he himself was in charge and whose assignment was to take over India.

They headed together and went as far as Kabul and from there to Bactra (Balkh).

They would return to Kabul and from there their paths diverged: he would lead his army south of the river Kabul, towards Taxila, whose king sided with the Macedonians; not the same thing was done by another king who reigned over the western side of the river Indus, who was defeated at Charsadda by Hefaistion and then killed. Alexander directed his small troops to the north, towards Hefaistion, crossing the valley Kunar and reaching as far as Pir Sar (Dornos) to the foot of these mountains (a territory stretching between the east of today's Afghanistan and the north-western border of Pakistan).

What goaded the learned Macedonian king to these territories more than 2300 ago? Possibly the call of the fore-fathers?

Somewhere down the Kunar Valley, between today's Afghanistan and Pakistan, an extraordinary incident happened: the population of the small town Nysa called upon the Macedonian army for protection and recognized them as descendants of the Thracian god Bachus, later taken over by the Greeks and the Romans (Bachus is considered the god of drunkenness, wine and ecstasy, this being induced by mixing the wine with what is now called Virginia creeper), intoxication that could cause unpredictable behavior to those who indulged in such "drugs." It is pretty hard to prove that Alexander and his Macedonians were alcoholics, but then so is to contest it. People then had few things that they could do for amusement; moreover, the Macedonians and the Greek mercenaries who were accompanying Alexander were credulous, superstitious, religious, and possessed by demons or by gods. Actually, after 2300 years, people are more or less the same; even when they launch rockets to other planets, fly to the Moon, or simply to outer space, they go on being superstitious or believe in supernatural creatures whom they worship with reverence. The story about those "ancestors" did nothing but confirm Alexander's right to be there and increase his interest in conquering that territory. We should keep in mind that Alexander was a remarkably learned man. After crossing the valley of his ancestors, Alexander would reach Massaga, in the valley of the river Swat, where he came up against the local people's opposition and could nothing but kill the leader of the enemy forces. The local queen, a beautiful woman, opened the fortress' gates before him. More than that, she unlocked her heart to him and is said to have given him a child.

Alexander promised to set free the Indian soldiers who had fought against him, but slaughtered them during the night, as he did not need hostile troops at his back. His actions often resemble the moves of a modern chess player.

Alexander continued his campaign towards the center of India, accompanied by 80,000 soldiers, animals and cannons, elephants, scientists, botanists, historians and topographers. He crossed rivers, streams, valleys, hills, mountains, deserts and seas in order to see his dream (or rather his destiny) come true. He encountered the Ramantes Rajah Porus, emperor of India, who braved Alexander with an army consisting of 30,000 soldiers and 2,000 horsemen who were attended by a "regiment of ancient cannons" - 300 elephants. Thus, on approximately 21st of May of the year 237 BC, on a sunny weather, on the river Jhelum (Hydaspes), swollen with the melted snow and the Himalayan glaciers, Alexander built a floating bridge, surprising Porus' son, who thought that 2,000 people and 50 chariots would strike terror into the Macedonians. Obviously, he was wrong, and soon after, he was killed. One could not play with a Macedonian. It was as simple as that. The Ramantes Porus, probably a descendant of the Carpatho-Danubians, 1,80 m tall - a real giant in those days - was to oppose the Macedonian. In the beginning, the elephants' "division" played havoc among the Macedonians and their phalanxes. Yet,this did not last long, because the elephants' eyes were the main targets of the Macedonian spears, and their trunks were cut off by the Macedonian swords. Historian Arrian compared those elephants to ships overturned at sea. The same historian mentions that the casualties in Porus' camp amounted to 20,000; on the other hand, Diodorus speaks about 12,000 dead people, 9,000 prisoners, and 80 killed elephants. After the slaughter of Harrapa, by the Carpatho-Danubian-Vedic people in 2,000 BC, these penetrated the valley of the Indus. Now, after 1700 years (327 BC), the valley witnessed another massacre; Porus escaped with his life. He met Alexander and had an interpreter ask him "to treat him like a king".

Alexander complied with him and, more than that, extended Porus' empire by adding to it the territories conquered from its enemies. The Macedonian considered it wiser to have a friend rather than an enemy.

A coin made in those years in Babylon represents Alexander riding Bucefal and attacking Porus who seeks protection behind an elephant. On the other side of the coin we can see the portrait of Alexander who, like Gebeleizis, the supreme god of the Thraco-Dacians, holds in his right hand a flash of lightning and leans on a spear. The Jhelum battle, although won, would grieve the 29-year old Alexander, as he would lose Bucefal, his dear horse, in the fight. Some legends hold that it was wounded and died, others that it died of old age. Bucefal had been his faithful companion for 20 years. A monument was erected in memory of all war-horses, and especially of his loyal Bucefal. The place of the monument was found at Jalapur. Much later, the Buddhist Chinese would call it "the town of the famous horse."

After a month of rest on the banks of the river Jhelum, during which musical performances and athletic competitions were organized, Alexander re-assembled his army and drove it even farther, to "the heart of India."

Later, Magellan and Christopher Columbus would set out and cross the seas in order to reach the water's ends. Similarly now, Alexander planned to do the same thing by land, and wanted reach his goal and see where the earth ended. His botanists were enthusiastic about the newly discovered flora, and about the cotton that could be used to make clothes. The monsoon was studied by Theophasus, whose lost research work was re-discovered, translated into the Persian language, and placed in a library in the north of India. Alexander pushed his army first to the east as far as the river Beas (Hyfastis), the farthest point known at the time, according to historian Arrian. Alexander had heard that beyond that river there lay a kingdom crossed by the Ganges, with the capital at Patna, city that rivaled Babylon, whose population amounted to 4000,000 people and which had 5564 defense cannons and 60 gates. What could quench Alexander's thirst for adventure and his urge to conquer that empire? Who could have stopped him? However, his army was exhausted by the rains during the monsoon season, and many of the soldiers had fallen ill with malaria (it seems the Indians showed the uses of quinine to the Macedonians) and with dysentery; his troops were scared and thinned out by the venomous snakes; the soldiers were tired and soaked to the skin, and no longer dreamed of adventure and riches, as they had 7 years before, when they were crossing the Dardanneles.

Coenus, one of his most devoted phalanx commanders, informed him that their Army had turned to a mere shadow of what it once had been: "some have died in the battle, others are invalids, many have been left behind in different Asian places, but most of them have been taken ill with all sorts of diseases. The few survivors want to see whether their parents are still alive, return to their wives, children, and native places." This annoyed Alexander who told them that he intended to go on, anyway, with those who volunteered to do so; the others were free to go home, to Macedonia, only he asked them to tell the Macedonian population once they got home that they had turned their back on their king and left him alone among the enemy forces. Not even these appeals could convince his soldiers. They all returned to Jalapur. The soldiers did not go further, to the east. Alexander tried to bring them "home", heading for the south of Italy. They crossed new territories and explored new places. In the meantime, Coenus died. Roxana, Alexander's wife, offered him a son who unfortunately died the following autumn. Alexander managed a naval force consisting of 2,000 battle ships, which he himself took over, intending to reach the Indian Ocean. His friend Hefaistion, led the 200-elephant "regiment", and followed him along the river Indus. Alexander's foot soldiers and horsemen were led by Craterus and marched along the banks of the river. This must have been a fantastic sight. Alexander mobilized his troops and started the crusade against the Persian Empire. Unfortunately, this turned into a manhunt, as the Asian citizens became the targets. The Macedonian soldiers would chase, punish, and destroy whoever and whatever stood in their way.

Any form of opposition got a violent reception from the Macedonians. The citizens of the town Multan set themselves against the Macedonian troops.

The soldiers, tired and sick, no longer felt the urge to conquer the town. Alexander himself climbed on one of the rope ladders, which unfortunately broke. Boiling with rage, the young Macedonian simply forgot what position he had, and held on to the enemy wall, jumping inside together with other three soldiers. The fortress' defenders, young and old, fell upon the Macedonians; an arrow

pierced Alexander's chest on the right side. Achilles' shield that he had taken from Troy and his three companions protected him from the fury of the defenders. The Macedonian soldiers who were on the other side of the wall soon understood the disastrous situation andfought wildly, slaughtering the enemy forces to a man. They thought Alexander was dead; after the latter was brought into the camp, his doctors were indeed at a loss as to what to do: to try to take out the arrow or leave it there in his chest.

Alexander came to, opened his eyes and asked them to do it. It was doctor Critobulos who did it. As he pulled out the arrow, blood and air gushed out of the wound that "the Macedonian God" had in his right lung. However, his iron constitution and his youth won. Alexander survived. Yet, the local people from Multan and Uchcr areas hold that in fact "Alexander died then and there and that he was buried somewhere in the neighborhood. His commanders are said to have intended to do their best to raise the spirits of the troops and declared that Alexander was still alive." Truth is, Alexander continued his "crusade" on the water for 9 more months.

In the meantime, he came into contact with the Vedic philosophy, which had been practiced in India for more than 2000 years after being brought there by the Carpatho-Danubians. Alexander was intrigued by the skeptical, rational, and materialist Vedic philosophy, and by its resemblance to the philosophy existing in the then Greece (see "To the Ends of the Earth", by Michael Wood, page 204).

Speaking of the natural laws of the Universe, it is difficult for us to tell whether he knew that those Vedic philosophy, as well as the Greek one, drew on the Carpatho-Danubian space. Both the Indians and the Greeks derived from the same civilization and both built their philosophies on the Pelasgian, Arryan, Carpatho-Danubian system of thinking; in other words, on the basis of our own ancestors'. Along the river Indus Alexander's troops ran into those of the Indian king Musicanus who posed as a friend of Alexander's at first only to attack him later on.

The Indian king was crucified; over 80,000 Indian soldiers were killed by the Macedonian troops. In the summer of the year 326 BC, Alexander reached Patala (Hyderabad), guided by Admiral Nearchus' notes. Historian Arrian published a separate book entitled "India". After reaching this terminal point, Alexander decided to go back home.