Battle of Hydaspes

Alexander the Greats victory over the Indian raja Porus gave him control of the Punjab.

Date: Spring, 326 b. c.e.

Category: Wars and battles

Locale: Hydaspes (Jhelum) River, Punjab region of present northeast Pakistan and northwest India

Summary While staying at Taxila, Alexander the Great discovered that Porus, who reigned over Pauravas, east of the Hydaspes (hi-DAS-peez), did not intend to submit to him, so he marched against him.

Both armies faced each other on opposite sides of the fast-flowing river. Porus’s large corps of eighty-five elephants was a major problem for Alexander’s cavalry. Alexander tricked Porus several times into thinking he was attempting to cross the river until the Indian ruler relaxed his guard. Leaving his marshal Craterus with the army in the main camp, Alexander decided on a surprise dawn attack about 17 miles (27 kilometers) upstream, which was detected. Alexander’s force reached what it thought was the opposite bank, but it was a small island. They struggled in chin-high water to the opposite bank proper, where they managed to defeat an Indian force before Porus arrived, with his elephants before him. Alexander deployed his cavalry against Porus’s wings, while his infantry wounded the elephants so as to trample the Indians underfoot, and Craterus crossed the river with the main army. The Indian army was routed; Alexander rewarded Porus’s gallantry by restoring the region to his rule.

Significance The battle was the high point of Alexander’s Indian campaign; his continued march to the Hyphasis (Beas) River led to a mutiny.

The defeat of Porus at the Battle of Hydaspes. (F. R. Niglutsch)

Further Reading

Bosworth, A. B. Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great.

Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Dodge, Theodore Ayrault. Alexander. London: Greenhill Books, 1993. Lonsdale, David J. Alexander the Great, Killer of Men: History’s Greatest Conqueror and the Macedonian Art of War. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004.

Roy, Kaushik. From Hydaspes to Kargil: A History of Warfare in India from 326 B. C. to A. D. 1999. New Delhi: Manohar, 2004.

Ian Worthington

See also: Alexander the Great; Alexander the Great’s Empire; Macedonia.