Chanakya: Part VI

The Greek Invader

By then, significant events in the history of Bharat were taking place under the very eyes of Chanakya and Chandragupta.

 

A young prince came from Greece with a big army. He had already conquered many realms. He was Alexander.

 

Even as Chanakya and Chandragupta were looking on, the soil of Bharat was going under foreign yoke. The people of Bharat did fight bravely. It looks as if even women took part in the fight. But not being united, they were defeated.

 

In Chanakya's eyes, foreign rule was poison. It was his belief that alien rulers would exploit, loot and impoverishes the country.

 

It is said that Chandragupta metAlexander. As he talked boldly and defiantlyAlexander was enraged and ordered his arrest. But Chandragupta somehow escaped.

 

Chandragupta's education was over, and Chanakya thought that their first task should, be to drive out the Greeks.

 

Troops Are Amassed

Details are not available as to how exactly Chanakya and Chandragupta fought against the Greeks. Chandragupta was not a king, nor had he any position. It would by no means be easy for such an one to gather a big army. But even this seemingly impossible work was made possible because of Chanakya's expertise. Both of them toured in different areas. They gathered soldiers mainly from the mercenary communities.

 

Chanakya felt that this was not enough. He befriended a king by name Parvataka, or Parvetesha of the Himalayan region and secured his help for Chandragupta. Thus Chandragupta could get the support of the strong Himalayan soldiers.

 

Alexander had settled some Greeks wherever he went. But they did not wish to stay there and wanted to return to Greece. Alexander had divided the realms he conquered in India into some regions and had appointed 'Satrraps' to rule them. Some of them were Greeks and some were Indians. The Greeks always lived in the fear of mutinies and murders. As soon as Alexander left a Satrap in charge of a province, there would be rebellion and sometimes the Satraps would be murdered. Philip, who was very able and experienced, was thus killed. Alexander who was at a distant place could not do anything. Satraps who were Indians were burning with frustration. They were only waiting for the proper time to rebel and become free. After Alexander went out of India and died suddenly in distant Babylon in 323 B.C., all his Satraps declared themselves independent.

 

Freedom from the Greeks

By now Chanakya had made the rustic boy playing the role of kings in boyish games into a great leader educated at Takshashila. He had made him a military commander too.

 

The source of strength for Chandragupta and his army was the power of mind and the towering personality of Chanakya. In that war of independence for Northern India, Chandragupta was the physical instrument, while its thinking brain was Chanakya.

 

In the primary task of elimination the Satraps, one Satrap by name Nicossar was killed even when Alexander was alive, and another, Philip, was killed after his death. After Alexander's death in Babylon, all his Satraps were either killed or dislodged, one by one. Alexander's lieutenants divided his empire among themselves in 321 B.C. No realm east of the Indus - the river Sindhu -wasmentioned in that settlement. It meant that the Greeks themselves had accepted that this region had gone out of their rule.