User:Jonharojjashi/Battle of Sindhu Delta
| War across the Sindhu Delta | |||||||||
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| Part of Chandragupta II's campaigns and Sasanian–Gupta Wars | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Gupta Empire | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Chandragupta II | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| unknown |
Persian contingents were cut down and chased westwards[a] Yavana contingent completely wiped out[b] | ||||||||
Background
[edit]The pre-emptive attack and battle
[edit]- ^ "The great pre-emptive attack on one of the superpowers of the then world – the Sasanian empire was launched as the Gupta empire started crossing the seven mouths of the Sindhu. This crossing was fiercely contested. Persian contingents positioned west of the Sindhu advanced eastwards to stop the offensive. They were, however, ferociously cut down and chased westwards in running warfare. The Mehrauli pillar inscription gives details on the intensity of the conflict across the saptamukhani (seven mouths of the Sindhu:
"...He (emperor Chandra...by whom...having crossed in warfare the seven mouths of the (river) Sindhu..."
As the Gupta army advanced, they had to cross several marshy and shallow creeks and sea inlets along the delta coast. We can get a picture of the geography of the region where the army marched from the following description of a 1st century CE Greek work called Periplus of the Erythraean Sea:
"Beyond this region (Gedrosia), the continent (east of Makran) makes a wide curve from east the depths of the bays, there follows the coastal district ...the whole marshy, from which flows the river Sinthus (Sindhu)...bringing down on enormous volume of water...This river has seven mouths, very shallow and marshy; so that they are not navigable except the one in the middle..."[1]
- ^ "As the Gupta army marched across the marshy shallow mouths of the delta, they encountered a fierce resistance by an advance Sassanian garrison. This garrison positioned along the Sindhu delta or east of Makran was comprised of Ionian and Roman prisoners and mercenaries. The Indians called this opposition the "Yavanas". The Sassanians had a custom of deploying prisoners, slaves and mercenaries from the Byzantanium territories, often obtained as spoils of war in frontier districts.
The Yavana contingent was, however, completely wiped out and a great pall of gloom descended on their settlement. The ferociousness of the struggle and its decisive outcome are represented in the following verse of the Raghuvamsa quoted by historians to represent the Gupta battle:
"...He (the Indian emperor) could not bear the flush caused by the wine in the lotus-faces of the Yavana women, just as the gathering of unreasonable clouds (does not bear and destroys) the young sun (the friend) of the water-lotuses..."
Here Kalidasa very poetically and allegorically paints the desolate picture of the outcome of the battle. The mirth and fun filled celebration of the Yavana settlement was broken due to the news of the death of the Yavana men in battle."[2]
Aftermath
[edit]
The Udayagiri inscription of Chandragupta's foreign minister Virasena suggests that the king had a distinguished military career. It states that he "bought the earth", paying for it with his prowess, and reduced the other kings to the status of slaves.[3] His empire seems to have extended from the mouth of the Indus and northern Pakistan in the west to the Bengal region in the east, and from the Himalayan terai region in the north to the Narmada River in the south.[4][5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Venkatesh Rangan (2024), p. [1]87-88.
- ^ Venkatesh Rangan (2024), p. [2]88.
- ^ R. C. Majumdar 1981, pp. 52–53.
- ^ Upinder Singh 2008, p. 480.
- ^ Hermann Kulke & Dietmar Rothermund 2004, p. 92.