Alexander, the son of
King Philipi was the King of Macedonia. He was an ambitious ruler who wanted to conquer the whole world. In the course of time, he diverted his attention towards India and
invaded it in 326 B.C. He did not make his empire in India but simply invaded it and went away mainly because of Porus’s bravery and also did not want to do so. Similar to Alexander’s invasions were the invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni and Timur Langh. Mahmud of Ghazni was the son of Subuktgin, who was a Turkish ruler. He invaded India 17 times but did not form an empire here. He was a greedy king who came to loot India of its riches. Timur Langh also came to India, invaded it and went away.
There were both indirect and direct
effects of Alexander’s
invasion on India. Indirectly, the military and
political powers of India became very strong. 1stly, the Nandas were so strong and brave that the Persians could not fight with them. Under the political setup, King Chandra Gupta Maurya came into power in the northern part of India, mainly Punjab and Sind. But he the invasion also had some permanent effects. By the invasion, the Persian conquest exposed India probably for the 1st time to the Western world and established contacts between the two countries. Indian spears men fought under the Persian banner on the European soil and quickened the interest of the people of Hellas in this strange land and surpassed all the wealth.
The Macedonian empire slowly perished bit had wielded the political atoms into a single unit and thus paved way for a more permanent union under the Mauryas. The introduction of
new scripts like Kharoshthi, etc was one of the results of the Persian and Greek officials getting together in the Indus Valley province. Some important features of Mauryan architecture and curtain phrases used in the Ashokan edicts find their creation from this enterprising combination, itself. If Greeks in later ages learnt lessons in philosophy and religion from Indian Buddhists and Bhagavatas, the Indian imitated the Greek coinage, honored Greek astronomers and appreciated Hellenistic art. This was because Alexander adopted, ‘to set little bits of Hellans down’, in the wilds of Central and Western Asia and on the Banks of Indus and Akesines. The voyages planned by Alexander widened the geographical horizon and opened new lines of communication and new routes of trade and maritime enterprise.
Alexander’s invasion helped in the reconstruction of history. The Puranas, Buddhists and the Jain literature dates are confusing. The date of invasion as 326 B.C. helped the historians to calculate dates of various events. The above were the striking effects of Alexander’s invasion on India in 326 B.C.
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