भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

later. Here, it should suffice to say that the Indian republics along both the banks of the Indus, whether big or small—made light of Alexander’s threat to come again to conquer India as nothing more than a pompous political stunt, and prepared grimly to oppose his forces, as severely and as stubbornly as possible. But alas! it was a decision taken separately by each particular republic. It was not a well-organized, united effort, under a central authority to destroy the Greeks under Alexander. Hence, the same story of Gandhar and Panchanad was repeated here, and the well-organized army of Alexander, with its superior numbers, could successfully fight each Indian republic and go ahead. Even if these stray battles with various Indian armies did not fail to exhaust and weaken Alexander’s forces, they could not crush him completely. There were, of course, some exceptions to these separatist war efforts. Of them at least two, which even the hostile Greek historians praise wholeheartedly, and which gave such a severe blow to Alexander, deserve a brief mention here. The Republics of the Malavas and the Shudrakas 50. The two republics led their separate lives along the banks of the Indus. Both were rich, brave democracies with a high sense of honour. Of the two, Malava republic was the more famous from the ancient times and was quite extensive. These two republics had at times been hostile to each other. But when they saw Alexander’s powerful navy went on defeating every single Indian state in various battles and kept on forging its way to the sea, the political leaders of both these republics decided to correct the mistake of those several Indian democracies that fought singly with a vastly superior enemy, a mistake that was proving fatal to their wider national interests. So, instead of fighting the Greek army singly, they decided to amalgamate their fighting forces under a unified control. Not only did they unite their men at arms, but they intermarried in order to bring about political and social unity among them. For the intermingling of castes and blood, they had a great collective marriage ceremony, wherein at least a thousand girls from both the ‘Ganas’ (republics) were inter-married to the youths of the other republic. 51. While this unified army of the Malava-Shudrak republics was fighting tooth and nail with the Greeks, Alexander laid siege to one of their important cities. Although the name of this city cannot be ascertained positively, it must have been some capital city or one of similar importance. As this republican city kept on fighting desperately, the Greek siege had to