Alexander the Great and the Invasion of India
We often hear tales of Alexander the Great, or Sikandar E Azam, as he is called in the subcontinent, who invaded India and defeated Raja Porus at the Jhelum River. According to this version of history, the Macedonians must have gotten tired of the Lahori smog and returned to their homes. The real history, however, begs to differ.
Chanakya: The Prophesied Master of a King
Around 300 BCE, a young boy belonging to a Brahmin family was pursuing an education at Takshilla University (modern-day Taxila, Pakistan). This boy had been prophesied by religious predictors to be a Master of a King. He was viewed as a supremely talented individual, albeit with severe anger issues. Legend notes an event where he dug out an entire plant species from the nearby area after getting injured by that plant during a forest walk. This child was named Chanakya, a name that history would come to know as one of the earliest philosophers and statesmen. He would go on to write many books, one of which was the Arthashastra; a complete guide on how to run a nation.
Chanakya Witnesses Alexander’s Invasion of Taxila
Coming back to the topic, Chanakya was studying in Taxila when he saw Alexander’s armies invade his city, standing witness to the king of his region bowing down to the Greeks.
Following the invasion of Taxila, the invasion of Jhelum—the land of Raja Porus—inspired Chanakya, as he admired the valor of the Punjabi king who fought against one of the fiercest armies on the planet. Historians report that Chanakya believed that no foreign power would be able to invade India had the region been united as an empire, ruled by its native kings.
On the other hand, though Raja Porus lost his empire to Alexander, he put up enough of a fight to weaken the Greek army so much that the jewels of India remained all but a fantasy for its soldiers as they returned to Macedonia empty-handed.
Chanakya’s Dream of a United India
As Chanakya grew, so did his dreams. He started dreaming of a united Indian empire ruled by indigenous leaders. During his travels across India, he came across a powerful local empire. Historical accounts record that the king of the empire disrespected Chanakya; some claim that this was due to his bold remarks about the unfair ruler, while others attribute it to his physical appearance. The humiliation endowed by this event enraged Chanakya so much that he opened his hair band, vowing to tie them back when he defeated this king.
The Young Boy Who Impressed Chanakya
In the pursuit of this resolve, he adopted the prince of the state with the intention of training him for the role of a king who would promote his own ideology. As this training progressed, Chanakya and the prince came across a boy engaging in child’s play, who was posing as a king as the other children pretended to be his ministers. At such a young age, the boy seemed to imply generous and fair ruling strategies, a move that thoroughly impressed Chanakya, the kingmaker. He, thus, decided to take this boy under his wing alongside the prince.
A Test of Loyalty: The Necklace and the Prince’s Fate
Some time later, Chanakya decided to put his training to the test. He instructed the prince to fetch a necklace from the young boy’s neck while he was asleep. The prince tried, yet failed at accomplishing this task. Disappointed by his progress, Chanakya gave the same order to the young boy a few days later. The boy slaughtered the prince, chopped his head off, and brought the head alongside the necklace attached to it to his master. This young boy went on to be known as Chandragupta—the founder of the ever-famous Mauryan Empire.
The Turning Point: A Lesson from a Mother’s Words
Together, Chanakya and Chandragupta raised an army of soldiers and attacked the empire, leading to a miserable defeat. Some time later, while wandering the streets, they overheard a mother reprimanding her son, who had burnt his hand by touching the middle part of hot bread, with the following words:
“Do not be like Chanakya who raided the capital without conquering the borders.”
This simple incident made their mistake quite clear to the two warriors. They redesigned their strategy and attacked the borders of the empire, ultimately taking control of it. Chanakya killed the king, stood in the middle of a crowd in the capital, and retied his hair after fulfilling the promise that he had made to himself years ago.
Chanakya’s Legacy: Statesmanship and Philosophy
Many people would think that this is a tale of revenge, though the truth could not be more different. Chanakya was one of the pioneering philosophers of history, who wrote multiple books about philosophy and statecraft. Moreover, the Mauryan Empire that he built alongside Chandragupta Maurya is one of the finest examples of statesmanship and the management of nations. He reclaimed the land conquered by the Greeks and put it under native control. Furthermore, his book, the Arthashastra, is acknowledged as a detailed guide on how to run a state to this day, which contains lessons that the rest of human civilization learned after much bloodshed. This is another page of history that took place a few kilometers away from present-day Lahore, which is now sunk deeply in a colonial complex and insecurities, ignoring the modern way of living that was practiced by the natives thousands of years ago.