Ancient India from the 'Pacifist' Indus Valley Civilization to Alexander the Great's Invasion

In the 4th century BC, an Indian army marched along the Hydaspes River and took battle order near modern-day Jhelum. This region bordered the Persian Empire but instead of Persians, they encountered a strange force clad in heavy armor under the command of the Greek General Alexander the Great. According to the Greek sources - Indian ones do not exist - Alexander clashed with King Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC. In a decisive battle, he defeated the mighty Indian war elephants, the renowned Indian longbowmen, cavalry, and chariots before turning back and leaving the defeated Porus to rule his newly conquered land for him. Clearly, India had a structured and organized army by Alexander's time, but we can’t say the same with confidence for the earlier Bronze Age civilization of Pakistan and India. In this video, we trace the beginning of violence in ancient India and investigate when and how the first Indian armies entered the stage of history.

Some must read mlitary history books:

00:00 Intro
02:05 Chapter 1: "to light upon the remains of a long forgotten Civilisation"
07:27 Chapter 2: "There is only war"
15:05 Chapter 3: The Vedic Age and Fourfold Army

Bibliography:
Avari, Burjor, A History of the Indian Subcontinent from c. 7000 BCE to CE 1200, 2nd edition, 2016.
Cork, Edward, “Peaceful Harappans? Reviewing the Evidence for the Absence of Warfare in the Indus Civilization of North-West India and Pakistan (c. 2500-1900 BC).” Antiquity, vol. 79, no. 304, 2005, pp. 411–423.
CONINGHAM, ROBIN, ARCHAEOLOGY OF SOUTH ASIA: from the Indus to Asoka, C.6500 Bce-200 Ce. CAMBRIDGE UNIV Press, 2018.
McIntosh, Jane, A Peaceful Realm the Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization. Westview Press, 2001.
Petersen, M. C., Aggressive architecture: fortification of the Indus valley in the mature Harappan phase, Leiden, 2012.
Green, Adam S., “Killing the Priest-King: Addressing Egalitarianism in the Indus Civilization.” Journal of Archaeological Research, 2020.
Wright, Rita, P., The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society (Case Studies in Early Societies, Series Number 10), 2009.
Frayne, Douglas R., Sargonic and Gutian Periods: 2334-2113 BC. Univ. of Toronto Press, 1993.
Schug, Gwen Robbins, et al. “A Peaceful Realm? Trauma and Social Differentiation at Harappa.” International Journal of Paleopathology, vol. 2, no. 2-3, 2012, pp. 136–147.
Lee, Hyejin, et al., “Traumatic Injury in a Cranium Found at Rakhigarhi Cemetery of Harappan Civilization as Anthropological Evidence of Interpersonal Violence.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 23, 2019, pp. 362–367.
Possehl, Gregory, The Indus Civilization: a Contemporary Perspective. Vistaar Publications, 2009.

[SandRhomanHistory]

So, for those people who do NOT actually watch the video but nonetheless claim wild things about it: We never say that there was an invasion into India instead we talk about migration. And yes, as pretty much every historian who researched India would tell you: migration did happen. And NO it's not "debunked", it's actually the mainstream opion in historiography with a plethora of evidence, from linguistics to archaeology, backing it up. And let me be clear: historiography is an international field. You don't have to be Indian to talk about Indian history but let me assure you that however you may see this, this video builds on the work of an Indian historian: BurjorAvari. His books are brilliant, were well received and positively reviewed among historians. Lastly, this channel is dedicated to reporting the insights of historians and historiography. We will never report a fringe opinion. So, only If the nationalistic Indian view on history will become the mainstream opion, we will use it to write our videos. To people who hold this view dearly and want us to consider these views, I suggest you become a historian and start shaping the field of history with your potentially new and insightful research. Because as of right now, there are only fringe historians that claim those things and we can't use these books because they are always negatively reviewed and their flaws both in content and methodology are plentiful.

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[dkzycfe]

Finally a video on ancient Indian history...I'm tired of people talking about the Mughals, Mauryas and other Indian dynasties all the time

[Jim]

Finally a good video on ancient Indian warfare. Most channels hardly touch this area or time. I wish people would also do some on Sri Lanka.

[IllustriousBagel]

Please do a video on the Mauryan-Seleucid war. I'm having a hard time finding any information on the period, and most sources just summarize it to "Chandragupta defeated Seleucus, took some land, married his daughter, then gave him 500 elephants."

[avlaus]

Very nice SandRhoman. Youtube has this problem with tabloid pop history that spreads everywhere. Not here.

[EDF]

Everyone arguing about modern Indian nationalism and other youtubers while I'm just interested in learning about ancient civilizations.

[binbows]

I love how you are doing more ancient era stuff now. Please do some on ancient greek warfare, and maybe some videos about ancient mercenaries? would be really cool

[cephalonbob]

First lesson of Youtube: Stay away from anyting related to india, least there be death threats

[josephkavanagh]

Archaeologists seem to want to prove that some civilisations were peaceful and without was. The claimed the Mayans were also peaceful but now we know different.. I myself am skeptical of any civilisation has ever gone totally without wars. Human nature says different.

[andreascovano]

inb4 Hindu nationalists barge in and claim that aryan invasion never happened or that Alexander lost in India

[aurriusthepure]

Better help is a scam organization that does not use actual therapists but sells personal data gathered from talk sessions to advertisers. Please find sponsors from more reputable sources

[NavneetKumar-mo]

Alexander didn't let Porus Rule on behalf of him, he was defeated in battle.
Fatigue and loss of war was main reason for Alexander Going back.

[dale]

A society without the will or means of defending itself will crumble against the very first aggressor. The fact that Indus Valley civilisation survived for some time before falling to non-invasion causes should be proof enough for people that they possessed the capacity and willingness to wage war even if the evidence is not forthcoming.

[skylark]

King Porus had a tiny army compared to what the Greeks would have encountered further inland beyond the Indus. The encounter with Porus (Puru) gave the Greek army second thoughts and they returned home even though India at the time was as reknowned for its great wealth as Persia was. It took a 300 years of repeated invasions by the Islamic forces to conquer India and that too only the north and central kingdoms were taken over. The kingdoms of the southen Peninsula remained unconquered until the Europeans showed up...for trade.

[semi-useful]

I think that the reason that the myth of a Peaceful Hrappan Civilization has persisted for two factors:
Firstly that it is attractive to those deconstructionists that believe that humanity is fundamentally good and merely corrupted by institutions to have an actual civilization that they can point to to justify their belief.
Secondly it could also be used to justify the racist view that the peoples of Bharat are little more than harmless cattle to be pushed around by their betters.

[kindlad]

Judging by the comments making a video about indian history seems to be more trouble than it's worth lol.

[f-man]

1:09 It's especially ironic that first sewage system was made in India

[Reticent.Breeze]

Defeated king put winning king in power?

[anonymouslyopinionated]

FINALLY!

I've been hoping for you to touch non-european parts of the world... especially mine!

[manu]

One question, Alexander replaced all the defeated kings with his loyalists, why did he give back Porus kingdom ? . If he had to give back why did he fight putting his men’s life at risk ? . Second if he had won the battle why did he return, he could have proceeded further to Pataliputra. I don’t think Magadha was bigger than Persian empire . If he had defeated an empire, he could have easily defeated Magadha ( which was just a kingdom ) . Also there was a university called taxila near the place where the battle took place, there were no records found there . There are several gaps in this story