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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowie. And you know

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Speaker 1: how much we love talking about things like queens and

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Speaker 1: writers and the mysteries of history. But you can't have

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Speaker 1: history without some battles. And we were saying in our

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Speaker 1: own history classes, it's funny, but the curriculum didn't strongly

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Speaker 1: emphasized battles. I even took a class on the Revolutionary War,

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Speaker 1: and it was much more focused on the events leading

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Speaker 1: up to the war than the actual battles. I have

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Speaker 1: one exception, but that's because I grew up for a

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Speaker 1: time in Manassas, Virginia, and I feel like all we

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Speaker 1: ever talked about were the battles of Manassas. But this

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Speaker 1: battle was when we hadn't even heard of until we

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Speaker 1: started researching, and that is the battle between King Porus

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Speaker 1: and Alexander the Great, the Battle of the Hydaskis. So

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Speaker 1: who is King Porus? You might not have heard of him.

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Speaker 1: He's also known as Raja Parava, but we're going to

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Speaker 1: go with the Greek names throughout this podcast because most

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Speaker 1: of the information we have about this battle was written

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Speaker 1: by a Greek historian named arian So. King Poris was

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Speaker 1: a great ruler in the Punjab region, specifically the region

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Speaker 1: between the Hydaspes which today is Jalen and the Assassainse

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Speaker 1: today chinab Rivers, and the capital may have been Lahore,

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Speaker 1: which today is in Pakistan. So King Poris fought Alexander

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Speaker 1: the Great in the Battle of the Hydaspes, which was

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Speaker 1: the fourth and last battle fought by Alexander during his

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Speaker 1: campaign of Asian conquest. And Poris is outmatched in this

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Speaker 1: battle by Alexander's cavalry, archers and maneuvering, but his skill

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Speaker 1: and bravery so impress Alexander that even though he loses

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Speaker 1: the battle, the final outcome is a little bit more unexpected.

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Speaker 1: And it's also a turning point for Alexander. This battle

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Speaker 1: is after his conquest of the Persian Empire and for

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Speaker 1: the army starts heading home from Macedonia, so it's the

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Speaker 1: end of that onward press to reach the ends of

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Speaker 1: the world in the outer Sea, and it's a real

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Speaker 1: um final point for Alexander because Alexander has been on

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Speaker 1: a conquest role for a while now, He's torn through Syria, Egypt, Babylonia,

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Speaker 1: and Persia and thinks he's pretty much invincible. Yeah, he

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Speaker 1: started wearing Persian royal clothes, and he likes the Persian

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Speaker 1: custom of prostration um, which is not okay with the

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Speaker 1: Greeks and Macedonians. They think that's for a god only,

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Speaker 1: not for their ruler. And he's literally gotten away with murder.

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Speaker 1: He killed a trusted commander in a drunken brawl and

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Speaker 1: got away with it by having him charged with postumus treason,

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Speaker 1: so convenient. Yeah, Alexander is really on a roll going

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Speaker 1: into into this time, and he's only about twenty nine

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Speaker 1: years old, and it's with this mindset that he ventures

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Speaker 1: into the unknown India. In the early summer of three

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Speaker 1: seven BC, Alexander leaves Bactria, which today is Afghanistan, to

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Speaker 1: Jikistan and Uzbekistan with a reinforced army under a reorganized command,

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Speaker 1: and he's heading to India and he's cut down the

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Speaker 1: army he led through Persia because India is a different

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Speaker 1: climate in terrain, and his first order of business is

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Speaker 1: to burn all the extra Persian booty that has been

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Speaker 1: slowing them down. And the second is to dismiss a

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Speaker 1: lot of his soldiers and add several thousand Persian cavalrymen,

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Speaker 1: who it turns out Persian cavalrymen are really good when

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Speaker 1: you're fighting elephants. So they recrossed the Hindu Kush and

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Speaker 1: by spring of three twenty six they've crossed the Indus

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Speaker 1: River and entered Taxila, which is in the Punjab region,

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Speaker 1: and Alexander and his troops are welcomed there. The ruler

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Speaker 1: Taxiles even gives him elephants and troops and decides to

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Speaker 1: accompany him into battle. Yeah, but he finds out that

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Speaker 1: not all of the rulers in the Punjab region are

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Speaker 1: going to be so friendly. And he gets when that

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Speaker 1: Porous who is Texila's enemy, is on the other side

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Speaker 1: of the Hydaspes River, preventing him from passing or fighting

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Speaker 1: him if he does try to pass. And this is

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Speaker 1: kind of a big deal because the Hydaspes runs really

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Speaker 1: heavily in the late spring, which is this is around

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Speaker 1: May at this point, and that's because all of the

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Speaker 1: heavy rains from the monsoons and the melting snow from

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Speaker 1: the mountains really fills it up. During the winter, it's

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Speaker 1: fordable in lots of places, but during the summer you

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Speaker 1: would have to if you're being blocked at one of

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Speaker 1: the places where you can get across, that's too bad. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So there's going to be a fight at the river.

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Speaker 1: It's going down and they'll need to cross by boat.

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Speaker 1: So Alexander sends some of his men back to the

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Speaker 1: Indus to pick up their boats, disassemble them, carry them

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Speaker 1: across land, and bring them back to the hydaspes where

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Speaker 1: they can be reassembled, because that's the only way they

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Speaker 1: can get across. Alexander's army and camps on the banks

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Speaker 1: of the high gasps and porous lines his men and

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Speaker 1: a large line of elephants up on the other side.

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Speaker 1: So you have to picture these two armies on opposite

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Speaker 1: sides of a bank, staring each other down, and think

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Speaker 1: of some of Alexander's men. They've probably never seen elephants

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Speaker 1: at all before, which I imagine would be somewhat intimidating.

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Speaker 1: So Porus is watching the passage, but he's also sending

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Speaker 1: out guards to other spots on the river that could

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Speaker 1: be forded, and Alexander is doing pretty much the same thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So Alexander has two main tactics, right from the start,

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Speaker 1: and one is to create a sense of permanency. He

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Speaker 1: tries to make it obvious to Poris that they're in

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Speaker 1: this for the long haul. They set up a very

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Speaker 1: permanent looking camp, and he's hoping Porus will just think

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Speaker 1: that he's not going to fight him at all. He's

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Speaker 1: gonna wait there through all the summer, through all the fall,

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Speaker 1: and finally crossing the winter when the river is low

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Speaker 1: and Porus couldn't stop him. He even sends out reports

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Speaker 1: about this um and he's also trying to confu fuse Porus,

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Speaker 1: sending his army in lots of different directions and um.

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Speaker 1: They're getting a good sense for the land while they're

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Speaker 1: doing this. But Alexander's real motive here is to stage

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Speaker 1: an ambush. He's not going to wait until the winter,

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Speaker 1: and he knows that he can't cross directly towards Porus's

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Speaker 1: army because the men would be assaulted coming out of

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Speaker 1: the water. Poruss guys are right on the other side,

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Speaker 1: and also with the elephants there, they might frighten Alexander's horses,

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Speaker 1: so they would be they wouldn't even get out of

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Speaker 1: the water. They'd be afraid to climb the banks, so

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Speaker 1: he's going to have to find a way to cross unopposed,

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Speaker 1: which means it's going to have to be done in secret.

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Speaker 1: So what he does is pretty tricky. He trains Porous

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Speaker 1: to ignore noises at night that sound like preparation for battle,

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Speaker 1: so his men start to leave the cavalry across the

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Speaker 1: bank at various points. They make a lot of clatter.

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Speaker 1: They're doing battle cries, and Porous at first thinks they're

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Speaker 1: attempting across and follows them every single time. But after

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Speaker 1: several nights this he realizes the noise doesn't mean anything

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Speaker 1: and stops paying attention. And Alexander by this point has

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Speaker 1: found a projecting point where the river makes a bend

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Speaker 1: and near it as a wooden island, and he realizes

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Speaker 1: that this is his spot. This is where he's going

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Speaker 1: to cross, because if he can get to the island undercover,

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Speaker 1: he's almost to the other bank. It gives him a

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Speaker 1: headstart and it gives him that secrecy, which is crucial

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Speaker 1: to his ambush. So he's going to be commanding a

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Speaker 1: fast light group of men who will lead the assault

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Speaker 1: at the island crossing, and their advantage is going to

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Speaker 1: have to be speed and surprise, but he leaves a

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Speaker 1: large part of his army at his camp directly across

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Speaker 1: from Porus, and he tells his main guy, his name

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Speaker 1: is Crater, is not to cross the river before Porus

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Speaker 1: moves off with his forces, the key point being there

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Speaker 1: that he would take the elephants with him, so Craters

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Speaker 1: don't cross the river until the elephants are gone, because

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Speaker 1: otherwise those horses are not going to get off, and

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Speaker 1: this also prevents Porus's suspicions from being raised. But with

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Speaker 1: the main part of Alexander's army directly across from him,

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Speaker 1: he's not going to realize that a sneaky, smaller group

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Speaker 1: is is missing. Um. Alexander also posts sentries along the

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Speaker 1: bank and they're noisy like every night, and he posts

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Speaker 1: smaller groups between the main camp and the island staggered,

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Speaker 1: giving them instructions to cross and detachment so as his

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Speaker 1: first island group goes, they can gradually follow to accompany

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Speaker 1: himself and some other forces. Alexander picks an elite bodyguard

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Speaker 1: called the Companions, and he leads a secret march far

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Speaker 1: away from the banks of the Hydaspes toward the island

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Speaker 1: and the point so Poris can't see what he's doing.

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Speaker 1: And that night there's a huge thunderstorm, so all the

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Speaker 1: noise from the rain and the thunder drowns out the

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Speaker 1: the noise of battle preparation, which Porus is actually used

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Speaker 1: to and ways, but they're they're further protected by the noise,

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Speaker 1: and Alexander's boats and oars are already there waiting for

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Speaker 1: him at the point. They've been disassembled and brought ahead

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Speaker 1: and hidden in the bush. So Alexander and his men

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Speaker 1: make the cross. They go from the point to the island,

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Speaker 1: and they're almost to the opposite bank before Porus's sentries

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Speaker 1: see them and give word. But there's a little hitch

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Speaker 1: in this plan, which is that Alexander has actually landed

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Speaker 1: on a big island and not the mainland, so they

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Speaker 1: have some fording to do, but they quickly overcome a

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Speaker 1: small obstacle and make it to the mainland. All right.

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Speaker 1: So we've got Alexander's light fast army, and their whole

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Speaker 1: goal being there is to surprise Porous, to draw him

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Speaker 1: in and then force him into retreat. But there's some

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Speaker 1: action almost as soon as they ford the smaller river,

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Speaker 1: and as Porus's men arrive, Alexander engages them a lot

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Speaker 1: of porus as men are on chariots which don't operate

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Speaker 1: very well in the mud from the rain the night before,

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Speaker 1: and and just because they're on a river bank, and

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Speaker 1: the son of Porous falls in this in this struggle.

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Speaker 1: But some of the Indian horsemen escape from this little

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Speaker 1: skirmish and tell Poris that Alexander has crossed the river

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Speaker 1: himself with the strongest part of his army, and also

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Speaker 1: that his own son is dead. And Poris can't decide

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Speaker 1: what to do because he's hearing this noise that Alexander

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Speaker 1: and a strong part of his army are already here,

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Speaker 1: which is unexpected that Alexander would be with this smaller group, right,

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Speaker 1: and then he's looking at the larger group right across

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Speaker 1: the river led by Craters on the other side. So

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Speaker 1: where is he supposed to go? And Poris finally decides

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Speaker 1: to march himself against Alexander. They'll go king to king,

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Speaker 1: but he leaves a few elephants with a small army

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Speaker 1: by the bank to frighten Craters from coming over and crossing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so Poris takes all his cavalry, all his chariots, two

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Speaker 1: hundred elephants and thirty thousand infantry men, and he arranges

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Speaker 1: his forces by lining the elephants up in front, because

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Speaker 1: hopefully no one is going to try to push through

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Speaker 1: a line of elephants, right, but just in case they do,

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Speaker 1: they're packed with infantry men immediately behind them, and then

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Speaker 1: in small groups that can jut out between the spaces

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Speaker 1: and the elephants, so that if you were bold enough

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Speaker 1: to try to sneak through two elephants, you're met with

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Speaker 1: infantry men's shoulders shoulder. And Alexander, in the meantime, decides

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Speaker 1: to let his own infantry rest, and he also decides

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Speaker 1: that he's not going to advance against the center of

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Speaker 1: this scary line of elephants, because clearly that's just the

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Speaker 1: strongest point and not the best way of going about it.

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Speaker 1: So he takes his bigger cavalry and goes and marches

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Speaker 1: against the left wing of Porus. And meanwhile he sent

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Speaker 1: his general Senus with the rest of the cavalry to

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Speaker 1: march against Porus's right flank, and they create a sense

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Speaker 1: of disorder among the Indian forces and shower them with arrows,

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Speaker 1: and seeing Us even manages to work his way behind

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Speaker 1: Poris as men, and suddenly Poris's cavalry is faced with

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Speaker 1: two fronts and they have to turn and face Alexander

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Speaker 1: on one side and seeing us on the other. And

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Speaker 1: while they're swiveling, you can just imagine what disorder it

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Speaker 1: would be if suddenly you have you're being attacked from

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Speaker 1: two sides. But as they're swiveling, Alexander just plunges at

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Speaker 1: them and there is mass chaos as Alexander's phalanx attacks

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Speaker 1: the elephants and the writers so imagine this whole herd

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Speaker 1: jackle everyone and javelins can't forget the devil and not

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Speaker 1: just an Olympic event. So eventually the elephants get hedged

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Speaker 1: in and cooped up and they're trampling on everyone. Um.

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Speaker 1: But the difference here, the Macedonians are in sort of

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Speaker 1: a more open space and they're able to dodge the

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Speaker 1: point are riderless and there some of them are even

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Speaker 1: injured themselves, and they're frightened and they're out of control.

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Speaker 1: But the Macedonians are better able to dodge them. And

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Speaker 1: also they're the ones who are trying to injure the elephants,

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Speaker 1: while the Indians, obviously not trying to hurt their own elephants,

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Speaker 1: are trying to shelter among them and get protection from them.

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Speaker 1: They're really just getting tramped on. But eventually the elephants

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Speaker 1: get tired and again many of them are injured and

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Speaker 1: they start to retreat, which is the point where Alexander

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Speaker 1: signals his men to bunch together and advance. So in

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Speaker 1: the meantime, while all this is going on, we have

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Speaker 1: Craters back on the opposite bank at the main camp,

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Speaker 1: and he sees Alexander's winning, it's time to advance. His

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Speaker 1: men are fresh, and they enact much slaughter on Paurus.

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Speaker 1: Twenty thousand Indian infantrymen are killed, three thousand cavalrymen, two

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Speaker 1: sons of Porous die, all of the elephants are killed

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Speaker 1: or captured. So we are talking a bloody battle here. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Alexander's losses are fairly high. Some people put it around

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Speaker 1: a thousand of three D is the low, but that's

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Speaker 1: fairly unlikely. Uh that's a lot for a victor, right,

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Speaker 1: you would think that, especially with the element of surprise

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Speaker 1: that he would just be able to keep from losing

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Speaker 1: many men, but that's not how it panned out. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the elephants actually do inflict a fair amount of damage,

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Speaker 1: but so Poris is presiding over all this, and he

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Speaker 1: sees that it's over, he's lost, but he doesn't flee

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Speaker 1: the battlefield. He keeps on fighting as long as their

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Speaker 1: other men on the field, and at last he's wounded

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Speaker 1: in his right shoulder, which is the only part of

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Speaker 1: his body that was left unprotected by his armor, and

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Speaker 1: at that point he turns his elephant around and begins

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Speaker 1: to retire from the field. And Alexander has been so

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Speaker 1: impressed by Poris at this point that he wants to

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Speaker 1: save his life, so he sends tax Sillies after him

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Speaker 1: to give him a message. But Poris has been enemies

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Speaker 1: with tax Sillies for forever, so it's Textili's walks up.

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Speaker 1: Boris is about to jab him with a javelin, so

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Speaker 1: tex Sili's scoots away just in time, just dodges it,

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Speaker 1: and Alexander decides to send someone else, someone who's said

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Speaker 1: he has ate an old friendly friendly with Boris, and

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Speaker 1: by this point Boris um is dismounted from his elephant.

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Speaker 1: He's taking a drink of water, and he agrees, okay,

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Speaker 1: take me to Alexander. So Alexander hears that Poris is

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Speaker 1: on his way and he goes to the front line

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Speaker 1: with the companions. Alexander is admiring of Poris, and not

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Speaker 1: just because of his bravery, but because of his physical presence.

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Speaker 1: He's described as being five cubits tall, and there's some

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Speaker 1: discrepancy on that. If you go by certain measurements of

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Speaker 1: what a cubit is, that's like more than seven feet tall,

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Speaker 1: so it's unlikely, I think, um. But another measurement puts

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Speaker 1: it more at about six feet, which is still quite

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Speaker 1: tall compared to the diminutive Alexander, which I didn't know

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Speaker 1: until you told me actually. But Alexander is surprised by

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Speaker 1: how brave Porus looks in the face of defeat, because

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Speaker 1: not all of his conquests have gone this way. Some

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Speaker 1: rulers have simply turned around and fled, like Darius the Third.

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Speaker 1: Pretty bad reputation for that. So Alexander asks Poris what

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Speaker 1: kind of treatment he would like to receive, and Porus says,

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Speaker 1: treat me, Oh, Alexander like a king, and Alexander responds,

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Speaker 1: for my own sake, thou shalt be thus treated. But

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Speaker 1: for thy own sake, do thou demand what is pleasing

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Speaker 1: to me? And Porus says back, everything is included in

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Speaker 1: that request, And we talked a little bit about what

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Speaker 1: that might mean, and we were thinking it's um, everything

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Speaker 1: that Porus would want, whether that is power or respect

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Speaker 1: or money, is all wrapped up in this idea. Yeah. Um.

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Speaker 1: Alexander really likes this response so much so that he

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Speaker 1: gives Porus rule over his own people um as a

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Speaker 1: as a supporter of Alexander obviously um, and even gives

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Speaker 1: him more territory to rule other conquered territories. So after

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Speaker 1: the battle, Porus holds the position of a ruler, but

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Speaker 1: he subordinate to Alexander, and he's assassinated after Alexander's death

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Speaker 1: by Eudemus, one of Alexander's generals. So we're gonna catch

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Speaker 1: up to with what Alexander does immediately after this great

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Speaker 1: Battle of the Hydaspes. He founds two cities there. One

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Speaker 1: is Alexandria Nicia, which means victory, and the other was Bucephala,

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Speaker 1: which was named for his horse Bucephalus who died there,

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Speaker 1: and Um this horse was very dear to Alexander. He

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Speaker 1: had ridden on it in all his battles, and um

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Speaker 1: was very devoted, put out a ransom for it once

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Speaker 1: when it was stolen, and um it finally falls at

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Speaker 1: the Battle of Hydaspes. After this battle, Alexander there is

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Speaker 1: very anxious to press on, but his army mutinies. They're

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Speaker 1: tired of dealing with the tropical rain. They're extremely tired.

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Speaker 1: The battle was really hard, and they are adamant about

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Speaker 1: going home, and Alexander says, Okay, we'll go back, but

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Speaker 1: not before we erect twelve altars to the twelve Olympians

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Speaker 1: and also build a fleet of eight hundred to one

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Speaker 1: thousand ships, which I don't think I, as a member

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Speaker 1: of a mutinying army, would take as a condition. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but on the other hand, you probably do want to

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Speaker 1: stick with Alexander on his side. So they leave Porous

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Speaker 1: and they proceed down the river into the Indus, and

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Speaker 1: it's a really this is a hard trip home. You

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Speaker 1: would maybe expect that they'd go back the way they came,

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Speaker 1: where they had already conquered everything. You would be wrong, Um,

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Speaker 1: it's a tough march, and they kill a lot of people.

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Speaker 1: They have a lot of skirmishes, Alexander's seriously hurt, and

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Speaker 1: even during the trip they take a few breaks, though

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Speaker 1: Alexander's seeks Indian philosophers and debates them on philosophical matters,

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Speaker 1: which sounds like a bizarre story until you consider that

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Speaker 1: Alexander's tutor was Aristotle, So maybe not. That's strange after all,

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Speaker 1: And they had to deal with their own disasters. On

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Speaker 1: the way out of India. They were still dealing with

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Speaker 1: monsoons and hiking through the deserts. Again, it was really tough,

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Speaker 1: but they reached the mouth of the Indus in July

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Speaker 1: and turned westward from home. So why is the story

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Speaker 1: of a defeat, however honorable and noble. It is such

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Speaker 1: an important part of this history. One reason is Alexander

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Speaker 1: has gone up against a lot of rulers who didn't

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Speaker 1: behave so honorably, who were, you know, understandably frightened of Alexander.

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Speaker 1: So Poris's record there really stands out. But another is

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Speaker 1: that it is such a turning point for Alexander and

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Speaker 1: for his campaign of conquest across not only Asia, but

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Speaker 1: his entire campaign. It's the point where they decided to

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Speaker 1: go back, and a lot of that does have to

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Speaker 1: do with, as you mentioned earlier, the tropical rain. And

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Speaker 1: the man are just tired by this point and they

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Speaker 1: want to go home. But Porus and his army have

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Speaker 1: given them a good fight. It hasn't been easy winning

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Speaker 1: Battle of the Hydaspes, and they don't want any more

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Speaker 1: of that. They're ready to stop fighting, even though they

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Speaker 1: had these skirmishes on the Indus, and go back to Macedonia.

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Speaker 1: Alexander himself doesn't live long past this battle, and historians

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Speaker 1: have long wondered what would have happened if he hadn't

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Speaker 1: died at such a young age, and how much further

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Speaker 1: he would have gone. So I think that about wraps

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Speaker 1: it up for Alexander the Great and King Porus or

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Speaker 1: Rajah poor rava um. But onto listener mail and our

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Speaker 1: podcast on the Birth of Frankenstein. Sarah and I had

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Speaker 1: made a joke about Vermicelli and oh, isn't that a noodle?

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Speaker 1: But a lot of people didn't seem to understand it.

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Speaker 1: That was a joke. So I promise we know that

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Speaker 1: Mary Shelley wasn't just talking about posta noodles coming to life.

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Speaker 1: We got one email from Anita and Fort Myers who

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Speaker 1: was talking a little bit more about those experiments with

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Speaker 1: spontaneous generation and saying that you know, scientists would try to, say,

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Speaker 1: put a piece of meat under the glass, looking to

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Speaker 1: see if the meat would generate more of itself, but

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Speaker 1: because they didn't understand things about, say handwashing, they would

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Speaker 1: touch the food with their dirty hands and maybe transfer

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Speaker 1: fly larva to it, and then maggots would come and

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Speaker 1: then they'd say, hey, look, spontaneous generation. So thank you

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Speaker 1: for that Anita insight into science in the old days.

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Speaker 1: And we got another email from David of Fresno who

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Speaker 1: said that first of all, he lived for our podcasts

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Speaker 1: um which we did enjoy, and we entertained him on

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Speaker 1: the treadmill apparently, and he also talked a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about those experiments, talking about the work of Luigi

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Speaker 1: Galvani and Volta. Galvani for example, had quote unquote animated

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Speaker 1: a dead frogs legs with an electric jolt, which led

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Speaker 1: some people to think that electricity was in fact the

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Speaker 1: force of life that gives us all life. Well, if

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Speaker 1: you have something to share with us about King, Poris Alexander,

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Speaker 1: or any of the podcasts. You can email us at

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Speaker 1: History Podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more

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Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com and be sure to check out the

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Speaker 1: stuff you missed in the History Class blog on the

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