Effects of Alexander’s

Invasion to India
By – Shahroz Ejaz
A6257317040
B.A (H) History
Introduction
• The Indian invasion of Alexander covered only a brief period of about
two years. But it had its direct and indirect effects, permanent or
temporary.
• These effects were political, commercial and cultural. As an invasion,
it was like a passing episode without leaving any lasting impression on
the Indian mind.
• The military expedition, as such, thus came and passed like an evil
spectacle.
Political
• Alexander’s invasion of India carried both a political lesson and a
political result. The lesson was that divided into small kingdoms,
republics and tribal units, the North-West India suffered badly from
hands of the foreign invaders. Unity and not the disunity became the
need of the time. The presence of small Macedonian garrisons in the
Indus valley was like a reminder of India’s lack of political unity for
some time at least.
Political
• The political result of the invasion was noteworthy. Alexander
destroyed the power of the many existing states and wiped out the
independent existence of some of them. When soon after his
departure, the process of building a powerful Indian empire began,
the states of the North-West were easily conquered and they formed
a part of that empire.
Political
• Alexander, in-fact, made the work of Chandragupta Maurya simpler,
and paved the path for his imperial power in the Greek invaded areas.
Rightly, therefore, observes historian R.K. Mookeiji: “Alexander’s
invasion promoted the political unification of the country. Smaller
states which handicapped unity were now merged in the larger ones,
such as those of Paurava, Abhisara or Taxila. These conditions were
favourable for the rise of an Indian Empire to be shortly founded by
Chandragupta.”
Commercial
• Alexander, in-fact, made the work of Chandragupta Maurya simpler,
and paved the path for his imperial power in the Greek invaded areas.
Rightly, therefore, observes historian R.K. Mookeiji: “Alexander’s
invasion promoted the political unification of the country. Smaller
states which handicapped unity were now merged in the larger ones,
such as those of Paurava, Abhisara or Taxila. These conditions were
favourable for the rise of an Indian Empire to be shortly founded by
Chandragupta.”
Commercial
• His voyages and campaigns enlarged the geographical horizon of both
the western and eastern peoples. As a result, overland trade and
maritime commerce began to develop between India and the West.
After the destruction of the Persian Empire over which the Greeks
began to rule, the lines of contact between India and the Western
Asia and through that with Europe became more effective and direct.
Commercial
• The land routes to the West ran mainly through Kabul, the Mulla Pass
of Baluchistan and Gedrosia. In his conquered territories, Alexander
founded cities, military posts, and Greek settlements. Those places
developed into centres of trade in course of time, and many of them
survived for a long time. The geographical separation between the
West and East was thus reduced to a large extent in the wake of
Alexander’s invasion.
Cultural
• Culture knows no racial or geographical frontiers. When civilized
peoples meet each other even in hostility, their contact brings about
mutual understanding of cultural values. The Greek invasion of India
provided scope for such an exchange. India was rich in religion and
philosophy at the time of the Greek invasion.
Cultural
• The Greeks also were the pioneers of Western civilisation with a rich
philosophy of their own. The historians, scholars and writers who
came with Alexander closely observed the Indian philosophical
systems and noted them in their descriptions. Alexander himself was
curious to hear and know about some of the most difficult systems of
Indian ascetics and philosophers.
Cultural
• The description left by the Greek writers caused much curiosity in the
advanced Greek minds of that time and of later periods. The Hindu
and the Buddhist religious faiths and philosophies had an impact on
the Greek world of philosophy following Alexander’s time.
Cultural
• The Indians, on their part are supposed to have been impressed by
the Greek coinage. King Saubhuti, whom the Greeks called Sophytes,
struck coins in imitation of the Greek coins. Similarly, the Indians
came to know of the Greek astronomy. And later on, they came to
appreciate the Hellenistic art. Long after Alexander, this influence
came to its admirable form in shape of the Gandhara School of Art.
The images of Buddha, under this art, showed a remarkable mixture
of the Greek and the Indian art of image making. Of course, this art
perfected itself at the time of Emperor Kanishka who brought
sculptors from the Greek settlements of Bactria for the work, and
who were far remote from the days of Alexander the Great.