Gedrosia
Gedrosia (
Geography
Pliny the Elder while explaining the extent of India included four satrapies Arachosia, Gedrosia, Aria and Parapanisidae as western borders of India.[1]
People
According to
Another group of people named as
History
Gedrosia (satrapy)
Gedrosia is a dry, mountainous country along the northwestern shores of the Indian Ocean. It was occupied in the Bronze Age by people who settled in the few oases in the region. Other people settled on the coast and became known in Greek as Ichthyophagi. The Persian king Cyrus the Great attacked to conquer this country but was defeated and lost his entire army (559-530 BCE). Finally after the defeat of the sons of Cyrus this country conquered by Darius the Great. although information about his campaign is comparatively late. The capital of Gedrosia was Pura, which is probably identical to modern Bampur, forty kilometers west of Irânshahr.
Several scholars have argued that the Persian satrapy Maka is identical to Gedrosia (which is a Greek name). One argument is the similarity of the name Maka to the modern name Makran, a part of Pakistan and Iran that is situated a bit more to the east. However, it is more likely that Maka is to be sought in modern Oman, which was called Maketa in Antiquity.[5]
Alexander's campaign
Gedrosia became famous in Europe when the Macedonian king Alexander the Great tried to cross the Gedrosian desert and lost one third of his men.
Following his army's refusal to continue marching east at the
There are two competing theories for the purpose of Alexander's decision to march through the desert rather than along the more hospitable coast. The first argues that this was an attempt to punish his men for their refusal to continue eastward at the Hyphasis River.[11] The other argues that Alexander was attempting to imitate and succeed in the actions of Cyrus the Great, who had failed to cross the desert.[10]
After the death of Alexander, this region became part of the holdings of Seleucus, who held Aria, Arachosia, and Gandhara, in addition to Gedrosia.
Mauryan Empire
The territories, known collectively as Ariyana were later lost to the Mauryan Empire of ancient India under the reign of Chandragupta Maurya.[12] Gedrosia, along with Saurashtra, were regions in ancient India that formed an important part of the Maurya Empire, before being attacked by Indo-Greeks from the west.[13]
References
- ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8.
- ^ Arrian, Indica, 29:
- ^ El-Medinah, p. 144
- ^ The Macedonian Empire: The Era of Warfare Under Philip II and Alexander
- ^ "Gedrosia". Archived from the original on 2013-09-24. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ Bosworth (1988), p. 139
- ^ Bosworth (1988), p. 142
- ^ Bosworth (1988), p. 145
- ^ Plutarch, The Life of Alexander, 66.
- ^ a b Bosworth (1988), p. 146
- ^ Heckel (2002), p. 68
- ISBN 978-0-521-01109-9.
In spite of the vagueness of the historical texts, the consensus among scholars is that the treaty concluded between Candragupta Maurya and Seleucus acknowledged Indian control of territories to the west of the Indus. These included Gedrosia, Paropamisadae (the region of Kabul and Begram) and Arachosia (the Kandahar region).
- ^ The Journal of the Bihar Research Society. Bihar Research Society. 1949. p. 74.
Gedrosia and Saurashtra had formed important parts of the Mauryan empire before the Indo-Greek adventurers attacked in on the west.
Bibliography
- Bosworth, A. B. (1988). Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Canto. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521406796.
- Heckel, Waldemar (2002). The Wars of Alexander the Great. Essential Histories. Osprey. ISBN 9781841764733.
- Saul, David (2009). War: From Ancient Egypt to Iraq. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 9781405341332.