BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (army revolts) 26

[codenamerishi]

I am an indian and we respect alexander and he was surely a great ruler. We have a saying " jo jeeta vahi sikander " --> The person who triumphs'd be alexander.

however some radical indians make ppl believe he didn't won any thing in india not even Battle of Hydapes, and some radical Greeks make people believe that he won most if not all of india. but both these statements are utterly false.

[boyzmayank3]

HAHAHA SUCH A BULLSHIT.... HE WAS FUCKING SCARED OF CHANDRAGUPT MURYA.... WHITES JUST KNOW HOW TO PRAYES THEM SELFS.. ...

[menacingshadows]

@boyzmayank3 Chandragupta Maurya was a small child at the time. In fact as a boy, he was inspired by Alexander.

[instirahul]

This documentary seems like typical Euro centric history to increase the myth of Alexander the"Great" (?!) ,here's the fact ,the guy comes with thousands of troops,technicians,artists,Eng­ineers etc with one aim of conquering India a land unknown to them,face Porus and his Charging Elephants for the first time,supposedly defeats him and then all of a sudden returns the land and returns back ?!!! Logic doesnt seem very plausible to me!!

[cillantro]

@instirahul Yes I know that thing sounds childish.Alexander was demotivated once his little tryst with Puru was over.He realised the Kindgdoms got fiercer and Puru was just an example of things to come.So he quietly signed a treaty and did'nt progress any further.Small land concessions in the north west and thats it.Ofcourse this seems to challenge his superman "great" status...so historians will spin stories to forcefeed us their assumptions. 

[rocoreb]

@instirahul I concede that there is truth to the statement that westerners do present the campaign in a Euro-centric light. However, in my humble opinion, you should also accept that your statement about Alex facing charging elephants for the first time is totally unhistorical, as he had already defeated Xerxes and his war elephants at the battle of Gavgamila. So it was definitely not a first for him, raising the plausibility level of what conventional history teaches us. cheers

[rocoreb]

A simple question that comes to mind is were there no historians on the other side to present a different version of this? the Indian version for example?

[cillantro]

@rocoreb Entire Indian libraries were burnt to the ground by the invading barbarians right from the Ghori,Ghazni to Timur...so unfortunately we will never know the answer to your question,an Indian side of it.

[ImmortalKshatriya]

lol this program is propaganda to push the myth of alexander and why he turned back, if it were more then that people wouldnt try to push so much conjecture and drawing conclusions based on little to no historic facts. Suddenly a movie is the historical source we are using here... Alexander possible lost to Porus, theres no proof that he won.

[indianspartacus]

There was a Magadh King Raja Nanda in Patna (Patliputra), he was more powerful than Porus, it wasn't easy to conquer him and he was waiting for him.

[siddsalterego]

The Myth that Alexander is. Alexander was a petty warrior by the standards of GUPTA empire and Chandragupta Maurya. Here is the real story:

But why did the keen observers of Indian politics miss out the invasion of Alexander? All these suggest that Alexander’s campaign failed to acquire any significance in the political context of India.

[GBart]

I would not put conquering China past Alexander. He could have done it.

[KarthikSoun]

This is the western version that i can never take as an Indian. After all the greek writers need to show a fitting end to Alexander as a winner and not an failed end!

"As for the Macedonians, however, their struggle with Porus blunted their courage and stayed their further advance into India.For they were told that the kings of the Ganderites and Praesii were awaiting them with eighty thousand horsemen, two hundred thousand footmen, eight thousand chariots, and six thousand war elephants."

[navijatt]

macedonians had no chance if they went further against thousands of elephants...porus was just a small king and he got the macedonian soldeirs afraid to go on

[sahajad]

Aristotle is responsible for misguiding Alexander with false information that the world was small.

So he sent Alexander on a wild goose chase !

[garyU6969]

Alexanders the great is remebered throught time, your are not., thx aristotle.

[acerb45666555]

5:11.....Turning back. .....i bet lots of the troops just settled right there on the spot! who would want to walk back to Macedonia all that way?? no doubt many of the people in the region have Macedonian blood lines.

[Thessalonik1]

great vid !

[koreandooly]

who knows what could of happened if Alexander keep going further into the East of India. However, just like Uae said, his troops (veterans) were getting sick of fighting and they did not want to keep fighting those giant war-fighting elephants.

[uaedubmom]

Alexander was no match for the mighty Magadha Army. Even the ambassador to Maurya King Chandragupta has written in his "Indica" that Greeks could not handle the Elephant warfare of Indians. This is repaeated in every single Greek memoir. Greeks were terrified after hearing that the army to the east of Ganges had more than 4000 elephants! It was not merely disease or malaria.....it was the fear that forced them to revolt against Alexander.

[Thessalonik1]

please, all it would take is camping outside his empires boundaries, waiting for reinforcements not only from greece, but from porus kingdom which he succeeded, and loyal persian cavalry + infrantry

alexanders pothos was to conquer the world, it is his army that wouldnt permit him.

[karmaverick]

@Thessalonik1 That's all eh? Ur nick being named after alexander's capital tells me your thought is a little too biased.

[giantgrave]

You are so right...Greek historians like Herodotus and Arrian were the best liars in the Earth. They wanted to proove that Greeks were a superior race and they did this via lying.

[AeroplanumMaximum]

Qin China would have been a struggle to conquer with the state of his army at that time, but who knows: maybe if Alexander lived and had time to consolidate his empire, China would have become Greece's new province.

[parthsna]

Porus had just 20000 men against alexander's 45000+ yet only a pyrhic victory. East of porus' empire there was the great indian kingdom of magadha with more than 80000 men one of india's finest. All this signs of the gods is ancient greek propoganda in the archives. If they were foolish enough to go further, they would have been defeated. Great inspirational figure though. Beyand magadha, there were other kingdoms, equally powerful. Alexander would'nt have stood a chance.

[ketoras]

THEY COULD HAVE 1000000 man they gonna loose against one of the greatest man in history,because the greek army was all warriors against a fiew million hindus who do you think have won stupid?they have beat you once they beat you twice ITS SIMPLE ALL THE OTHERS IS BLA BLA BLA

[parthsna]

Eurocentric BS, alexander was to have his ass handed to him were he to set foot further east.

[zigsauer]

Greekcentric !

[karmaverick]

@parthsna That's what i believe as well parthsna.....too many alexander fanatics here who think it's black and white. However there is only the greek side of the story, no indian side.

[Abhijeetonroll]

@ketoras are u a jew

[ketoras]

@Abhijeetonroll <RE YOU STUPID?

NOPE IAM NOT,why you asking?

[Abhijeetonroll]

@ketoras just wanna know

[Thisisthefuture100]

@Abhijeetonroll are you a racist?

[Abhijeetonroll]

@Thisisthefuture100 i think u r racist

[Thisisthefuture100]

@Abhijeetonroll Wrong answer.

[codenamerishi]

@ketoras are you retarded ??? don't you see clearly that the army was fucking afraid and they run away ?!?!?! dream on you idiot....

[ymoustahib]

no porus had an army of up to 50,000 men, alexanders was around 30,000

[giantgrave]

Partha Bose, a famous Indian historian who won several awards said Alexander had an army of more than 115,000 whereas Porus had 30,000. Besides use your common sense, how can an army that won many times and covered most of Asia have men like 30,000 :D

[Indiaexpress]

hahah!yah right! make alexander wear a blue suit with a 's' mark on him as well.

[jazzyd0464]

wish i cud go bk in tyme and merk him b4 he had a chance .......

[tanman2007]

My clan is from the precise place in Punjab where he turned back. I, my brother and some close relatives were born blond and are light skinned. My dad looked like an American Caucasian Sikh with blue eyes. Now I know the truth. LOL

[IconOfSin24148]

That some Macedonian fucked your great great great great great (take or give a few greats) grandmother? :x?

lol dun worry, Im Punjabi too. Not blond per se, but def light skinned. Punjab was where its at.

[tsingbo169er]

alexander Vs. qin china = holy shit i wanna see this

[z32plus2]

reach china? that's a sure suicide mission. they will right away face the most powerful kingdom in China, Qin, with 1 million standing army with crossbow firing missiles. Qin is just One of five six such kingdoms in China spent hundreds years waring with each other, 50 thousand troops???? dead in a week.

[aspasia09]

You have a thing with numbers, haven't you?

the force of alexander stood not in the number of his soldier but in his unic approach of a battle: STRATEGY!!!

[z32plus2]

haha, ancient chinese army was all about strategy. you have no idea how many historical books wrote about so many battle stories how many battles won and lose in china not by overwhelming number. Qin was able to united china within 10 years, most of time conquering other nations without the use of army at all.

[foonty]

@z32plus2 the Mighty Himalayas in the way would have never let them cross to the other side................

[binoyrakesh]

@z32plus2 I would still say that the man who defeated the MOST POWERFUL KINGDOM in the world, The Persian Empire, Still stood a good chance.

[parshiwal887]

@z32plus2

even reaching there would consume half of his army, that monster karakoram in the way

[johnyjoe2]

@z32plus2 are u crazy alexander smashed persian armys of 200 thousand men crushed indian armys with war elephants what do you think he would have done to a bunch of midgets in paper armour he would of swept through china and they would not be able to with stand cross bows lol

[z32plus2]

@johnyjoe2 midgets? that's just simply negative stereotype and your lack of knowledge on history. in Alexander's time, all men were short. have you been to European village, check out how low their ceiling were? paper armour??? in Qin army there were no such thing. have you been to xian check out Terracotta Army? average height were 5'10 many 6' tall, granted these were thousands elite soldiers, the cream of crop. but just show how little you know about history.

[z32plus2]

paper Armour came much later as more of experiment. there were metal armour in qin's time but not popular, because too expensive to armour half of million soldiers in metal armour. even in medival time in Europe, most soldiers were not in shinny metal armour except small number of noble men, most soldiers had no armour at all.

[z32plus2]

@johnyjoe2 you have no idea how qin society worked, unlike persian a loose collections of different armies. qin army were unified well-trained half million of hungry killer murders, qin's men had only 2 choices in life, be farmer or be soldier, and they only able to move up one rank for every human head they chop off. when qin fought campaign battle last 3 years! not only 1 day battle. in one battle, qin army mass murdered 400,000 enemies soldiers, your 40,000 would be dead in one day.

[z32plus2]

@johnyjoe2 the only chances a small army like Alexander can beat a bigger army if they had better weapons, better training, better organization, better strategies. against Qin? Qin better weapons, better crossbow with bullet shaped arrow heads, longest sword, all different sized of spear... Better training? qin fought campaign in years for each battle not just 1 day affair. Better organization, qin had a total mobile and independent unit of Cavalry and chariot...all able men 1 million soldiers

[cillantro]

@johnyjoe2 history is not very popular nowadays..hence the ignorance..anyway remember King Puru aka Porus was just one King of a medium sized sovereignity in the north west of India+Indians consider all humans as one race so no help there for puru.Alexander did not conquer or crush India's army..As a matter of fact his army rebelled and he lost.He had to make do with small concessions in the form of the Indo-Greeks that ruled this aforementioned north west,a few thousand sqkms at most..Cheers..

[ModernWarfare2vsODST]

@z32plus2 Honestly if we assume Alexander is assaulting China with the subjegation of India we can assume that he therefore source extensive manpower from this region. Second Alexander is a genius and numbers do not determine - consult his various victories. Assuming he is in China Alexander may well have used divide and conquer and it is exactly these '5 kingdoms'that would inhibit the Chinese. Lastly the Macedonian Phalanx as devastating as the Swedish fire drill would have been lethal.

[z32plus2]

@ModernWarfare2vsODST There were easily many generals more talented than alexander and equally good at strategy in war, same period art of war already written and well read, that period china been though constant warfare for 500 years, these were total war no jokes, whole nation state put all available resources including lots brain power into warfare. What ever alexander could came up with not gona work in china

[z32plus2]

@ModernWarfare2vsODST Persian army was a comparatively weak lose collection of different nationalities of different level of loyalty to the Persian king. Qin was completely different story, the whole nation state went to war, young men move up in society by going to war and collect dead enemy human head, more heads more ranks more money, these were blood thirsty heavy drinking killers not going to run away when battle go bad

[z32plus2]

@ModernWarfare2vsODST you can't simply divide conquer, you have to get pass Qin before the rest of other kingdoms. divide conquer is old cheap trick chinese already known using you can't fool them. Qin used more sophisticated strategy, by having good diplomatic relation with distant kingdoms, while killing off near by kingdoms, while walking dangerous path of balance act of preventing all other kingdom united against Qin itself, these were super smart genius

[z32plus2]

@ModernWarfare2vsODST chinese already had phalanx and many other different kind of formation, there were tons of experiments went on what worked what didn't worked from 500 years constant warfare, different size of spears found, long to short suggested sophisticated combination different army units working with each other

[ModernWarfare2vsODST]

@z32plus2 Additionally his ability for Force Multiplication and use of combined arms made him a devastating opponent. Lets not forget his Companions and other Cavalry contingents, true Han cavalry are quite excellent but these guys are more than enough match. Alexander would if he had characteristically truly put his efforts to it been able to do even this...

[z32plus2]

@ModernWarfare2vsODST han cavalry was much later period from alexander's time, qin's cavalry were mounted crossbow men shooting armor-piercing bullet-shaped arrows at you, Alexander's men be dead before could get any where close, Qin's army and cavalry were able to completely kicked out the early ancestors of mongol hordes out of northern china that were no easy feat

[Pheebz1991]

@z32plus2

Dream on, Alexander could have taken on China any day

[KingOfDestruction]

And the award for best movie of all time goes to SIKANDER and the award for best actor ever in the best movie ever goes to that guy who tryed to portrait Alexander HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[IconOfSin24148]

Oh My God, Im Indian and I never knew of this movie. I gotta see it now. Fuckin props there.

[aronboylloyd123]

=o =o

[zberlin32]

17000 miles? jesus. That's like traveling the edge of main to los angeles 3 times back and forth

[gengrant3]

sikander looks like burt lancaster

[alexandros1821]

lol, we dont catch many old American classics here in Greece but ive seen a few with Lancaster and I have to admit, the resemblance with him and the man in this Indian film playing Alexander is almost EXACT !

Weird stuff.

[gengrant3]

Yeah very weird. Thanks Alexandros for footsteps of ALEXANDER the best documentary i have ever seen.I love all things Greek

[foonty]

@alexandros1821 thats Shammi Kapoor

[indianspartacus]

@alexandros1821 The actor was legendary Prithvi Raj Kapoor hailing from the same region of NW frontier before partition so resemblance is not outlandish, father of late Raj Kapoor. India is country of mixed race, black brown white yellow, you speak and we have it. Alexander and Muslims may have destroyed Hindus from the North west but we are still surviving and thriving. Only Caucasian race which which is pre Ibrahim religions.

[Paravasi]

Alexanders GREEK ARMY!

Greetings from Greece

[Aryanam]

well the hindu books of rig veda says so, and that is way older than new theory of jewish origin, pashtuns wont say it but they come from there, like africans moved to india.

[nangamujra]

wrong......Pashtuns are not from India......

[nangamujra]

read my above comments...lolz...I never denied about aryans in afghanistan.....be happy with your aryan race....My point is still there the real warriors in Afghanistan are Pashtuns and they are Jews...Don't feel insulted...be happy...have a nice day....

[Aryanam]

Whah yeah thats a real laugh man, how come your so black than? or most of the Indians, well for all we can say is that we were your direct ancestors from Afghanistan were the three Aryan groups divided it self.

[nangamujra]

They are dark because its all because of environment...hence I don't believe in races..its all because of envoirment...but the point was, Pashtuns are bani Isreal...google it and you will find it...and not all afghans are pashtuns...Pasthuns are the real warriors...google it for ayran in india and Pakistan and you will get some knowledge. We are your ancenstors???? hahahahah ...read..what you have wrote....lolz...My ancestors are dead and so yours.....Have a nice day...get some knowledge.

[nangamujra]

Pasthuns are jews thats for sure..they are not aryans.

[darakhyber]

Pashtun is not the correct term to use here but Pathans (are not jews) although we do trace our origin to bani israel. the reason why i said not pashtun was bcoz alot of pashtuns are not pathans (and hence dont trace their ancestory to jewish people.

[nangamujra]

Pashtuns don't wanna call them self pathan..Pathan is actually the term what India and Pakistani ppl use for ppl for NWFP. But the real word is Pashtun or Pakhtoon.

[darakhyber]

If you are really interested read this book: 1. The Pathans: 550 BC - AD 1957 by Olaf Caroe. It will give you amazing insight into the ancestory of pathans and different tribes and subcastes as well

[darakhyber]

I thought i was clear but lemme explain. Pathans is the race pakhtoons means anybody who speaks pakhto. I am a yousufzai (pathan)therefore i can trace my ancestory by my tribe. I know a lot of pakhtoons who are not pathans (Syeds and all)

[nangamujra]

oh ok now I understand you..I thought exactly vice versa. But do you agree with me, Pathans are bani Israel???

[darakhyber]

yes, personally i do. there are different perspectives about this too. But if you look at the facial features and characteristics you will find a similarity between pathans and jewish people. its actually said that pathans are 1 of the 10 lost tribes of israel. on the funny side, a lot of pathans these days are in the loan business.

[m3gas1]

LOL, their backround follows them wherever they go doesnt it ?

=p

[walwop]

nop, pathan is some one who is or should i say whose ancecters were pashtoons but themselves cant speak pashto and do not pratice pashtoonwali, a code of conduct that pashtoons live by

[darakhyber]

If you are really interested read this book: 1.  The Pathans: 550 BC - AD 1957 by Olaf Caroe. It will give you amazing insight into the ancestory of pathans and different tribes and subcastes as well

[Rafidi2020]

Jats,kashmiris,brahmins are aryan admix's,Pakhtoons are have mixes of aryan blood in them also,doesint mean there not from bani israel

[alexandros1821]

Sure the Greeks conquered southern Afghanistan, in fact the Greek Seleucid empire correpsonded to todays southern Afhganistan and pockets of Pakistan and India. In fact Kandahar was at the very least renamed by Alexander or even founded by him !

Sorry if your ethnic pride has blinded you a bit dear friend.

[Aryanam]

Sure maye he conquered the area but never won of the people, NO ONE EVER DID REALY WON! of the Afghans, you can read this everywhere.

And to let you know all of our names descend from Persian empires not Greeks! Gandahara>Kandahar!

[nangamujra]

Afqhanistan was conquered for several times by different nations... but ppl couldn't get hold of it for long time....and by the way may be you are proud of your aryan race...But Pashtoons are absolutely not aryans..they are descendants of jews...

[karmaverick]

@alexandros1821 Kandahar is named after Gandhari the queen and her tribe. Way more ancient than alexander.

[Thessalonik1]

that's the funniest thing ive heard all week !

[m3gas1]

Great peice this one, those monsoon rains must have been hell for those that havnt encountered them before hand.

maiko: You're teacher was clearly a pot smoker, LOL.

[ndjarnag]

awesome!

[RobHorton1]

keep 'em trucking ! thanks

[ptjoshi]

So it was India which defeated Alexander finally. Today, India is the second greatest country in the world next only to USA.

[Thessalonik1]

well if was a combination of things that finally stopped and forced Alexander and his Greek army around, but surely no one can deny the sheer verosity of the Indian armies stance either....

thanks for the post !

[alive4net]

India shouldnt be that bigger deal

coz India hadbeen captured by so many other ppl.

AhmedShah Abdali

Mehmood Ghaznavi

Britishers

etc

If they all could do it then alexander would have done it easily there would have been other factors involved in it.

[nangamujra]

Every nation in da world was conquered by any other nation of da world....name one what was not????.. so whats da big deal

[karmaverick]

@alive4net Difference was this was India 1500 years earlier than when all of these guys came. Way too many differences.

[dubai3000]

no it didn't

[m3gas1]

India the 2nd greatest country currently ?

In what ? Population count ? That hardly makes a country great.

[prashanthosur]

I have heard similar things...that is why I commented in the last episode...What do the South Asian ancient historians have to say about this????? I have heard from some people that Porus won! I dont know if its right or not...but there are people who give explainations for it!!

[nangamujra]

India defeated Alaxander?? M I missming something in the documentary..??? or was it indian weather??

[eldiablo10028]

the mauryan empire expanded to cover most of the indian subcontinent, and huge parts of central asia that use to belong to the greeks, including modern day afghanistan and iran as well as other central asian territories. mauryan reached its peak under Asoka the Great, who was able to make peace with the Greeks, after pervious mauryan rulers lead bloody campaigns against them, resulting in Greek/Macedonian defeat (and indian victory).

[nangamujra]

Yes..Asoka conquered lots of land..but no body defeated Alexander in India.

[alexandros1821]

Exactly, wether or not Alexander and his Greek army would have successfully ursurped the other Indian kingdoms further in we will never know, Porus did fight valiantly but lost.

So technically, the Greeks did not loose in India. The only thing they lost there effectively though was their morale and will to continue.

[codenamerishi]

@nangamujra he was undefeated, thanks to his soldiers who knew they can't win further more anbd told him

[makai2006]

Thanks for the posting!

[michaelmecca01]

first view, first comment, first 5 star, keep it coming! tnx