Alexander the Great won the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC. Facing King Porus across the flooded Hydaspes (Jhelum) river in the Punjab, he crossed upstream at night in a storm3, pinned Porus's army and broke its war elephants. Impressed by the wounded king, Alexander restored Porus as ruler4. It was Alexander's last great pitched battle, and soon afterwards his exhausted army refused to march further east.
By 326 BC Alexander the Great had crossed the Hindu Kush into India. On the far bank of the swollen Hydaspes stood King Porus, with a powerful army and a line of war elephants that no Macedonian horse would face. To win, Alexander first had to get across.
A river in flood
Porus held the crossings of the Hydaspes, swollen by melting snow and early summer rains, and his elephants made a direct crossing suicidal: horses panic at the sight and smell of them. For days Alexander marched troops up and down the bank and kept fires burning, until Porus tired of answering every feint.
The night crossing
On a stormy night Alexander slipped a strike force of cavalry and picked infantry upstream to a wooded island and crossed, leaving his general Craterus on the main bank3 to hold Porus in place. By dawn the Macedonians were over. Porus sent his son ahead with chariots3, but the heavy chariots bogged in the wet ground and were routed.
The battle with the elephants
Porus drew up his army with the elephants spaced along his front. Alexander attacked a flank with his cavalry, while the phalanx advanced against the elephants, wounding their drivers and the animals with long spears. Maddened, the elephants turned and trampled friend and foe alike, and Porus's army, hemmed in, broke. Craterus then crossed to complete the victory.
Treat me as a king
Porus fought on until he was wounded. According to the ancient writer Arrian, when Alexander asked how he wished to be treated, Porus replied that he should be treated as a king1. Alexander restored him as ruler of his lands, and even enlarged them, as a ruler loyal to Macedon. Near the battlefield Alexander founded two cities, one named Bucephala after his horse Bucephalus1, who died around this time.
Why the Hydaspes mattered
The Hydaspes was Alexander's last great pitched battle and one of his hardest. A few months later, at the Hyphasis (Beas) river, his exhausted army refused to go any further east5, and Alexander turned back. The battle is still studied for its deception, its river crossing and the handling of war elephants, and the meeting of Alexander and Porus became a lasting legend in both Greek and Indian memory.