ALEXANDER AND ORONTOBATES

[Dr. Pal]

Dear Nick,What happened at Granicus? Peter Green maintains that Alexander was at first defeated and then came back next day and won. Bosworth, on the other hand writes that after Granicus Darius-III started distancing himself from Orontobates and relying more on Memnon. I have indicated that Orontobates was the same as Andragorus and Sasigupta. That Tiridates of Persepolis was also Chandragupta can be inferred from a careful study of the coins of Diodotus-I, his grandson. Diodorus also gives the name of Tiridates as the ruler of Gedrosia where we find Alexander chasing Moeris.Justin tells an unusual story that once while Sandrocottos was fleeing, he became tired and laid down to rest, when a lion of great size came near him but instead of doing any harm it gently licked off his perspiration with its tongue and went away. This may be a hint at Alexander who always carried a golden lion.With best regards,Dr. Pal

[nick]

Dear dr. Pal -I am truly amazed by all your postings, revealing a wealth of information and interpretations.However, I am afraid that Europeans like me - who are quite unfamiliar with the Alexander-tradition of India - have some serious difficulties relating to your facts & suggestions. But that has nothing to do with you at all! It is just that the Indian version of the Alexander legend is virually unknown in the West.I think Susan already mentioned that the Indian Alexander corpus is a source of complementary information about Alexander's time that has hardly been explored. While I notice (e.g. on Amazon.com) that new Alexander-books are published on a monthly basis or so, they all seem to approach the subject from the well known sources - differing only in (minor) details.I would say it is about time some serious scholar - Indian or from the West - needs to tackle the Indian histories now. What I would like to see is a "Sikander e-Azam - The Indian Alexander" publication with the collection of all ancient or medieval Indian texts (the originals in translation preferably) pointing towards Alexander.Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.Best regards -
Nick

[susan]

Nick, Dr Pal, I'd agree with this - there is a wealth of information there, but it's not easily accessible to Western-educated scholars.Looking at the central Asian and Indian histories written in English, I am still surprised at how many interesting items there are that I don't see in Western histories - for instance a coin that may have the likeness of Oxyartes, or family connections of the Achaemenids. I don't know why everyone continues trying to thrash new meaning out of Arrian etc. when there's such potentially interesting stuff waiting to be explored.So, anyone with a grounding in Sanskrit, eastern literature, and a love of the Alexander story - here's a lifetime's work for you !RegardsSusan