Time to revisit Alexander and his visit to India.
Conspiracy theory holds that Alexander( note I will resist writing Alexander "the Great" for as much as possible in this post ) was requested by his mentor and Greek intellectuals that he can take all the wealth that he wins ( I don't know why they need to tell him that given that he is the emperor who won) but bring back Sadhu(s) from India to exchange ideas and debate intellectually.
Not sure if this was the advise from him mentor and teacher Aristotle but it does make sense that Greeks, Indians,Chinese,Egyptians, Babylonians and Mesopotamians were the only famous human groups at that time.
We had the native africans, native americans - native indians (they won't have known that just because columbus lost his way and Americo Vespucci had the privilege they became native indians/native americans) native humans who were less popular.
Now let turn to Mongolia from where a young lad ( I think he was 14) when he was crowned a king (note not a prince) he started capturing territories and made an empire.
The chinese who were scared of the Mongols attach build a wall not around the house , not around the king's place, not even around the capital or towns (like forts) but around the entire country...
Imagine a wall to protect china because Mongolos were attacking all the time and some claim that it is the only man made structure visible for naked eye from space (which is proved to be false.google it)
In 1215, Genghis Khan (Temuchin) of the Mongols finally penetrated the Great Wall and took over northern China after four years of continuous attacks. The Mongols were the only invaders to ever have defeated China after the Great Wall was built.
One of the tactics Genghis Khan used was( again it is all history + story I don't know the truth but sounds logical to me.. if it is logical to me it must be true and must be logical to you!)
Kill every single man,woman,child and just leave one man alive and ask that man to go forward to the next village he was planning to attack. .ost villages surrended when they heard the horror story from this lone survivors.
In essence it was not chariots and cavalry (with horse power!) and not arrows and not elephants or not gun powder or drones or germs(biological) or chemical attack but fear! Just pure raw fear that surfaces when one explains what happened to every man,woman and child was enough to surrender the entire town or village to the incoming Genghis Khan army.
Genghis Khan is the Greater than Alexander in terms of square area captured
Alexander conquered 2,000,000 square miles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MacedonEmp
Onto Alexander and the Sadhu(Holy man!)
As you read at the beginning of this post Alexander was tasked to bring back Sadhu(as) to Greece for intellectual exchange of knowledge.
Like any good leader Alexander delegated the task to his commander who in turn delegated to the soldiers.
Finally it was between a soldier and one of the Sadhus who was sleeping under a tree.
Solder commanded the Sadhu to come and meet the greatest emperor king of all kings Alexander.
Conspiracy theory holds that Alexander( note I will resist writing Alexander "the Great" for as much as possible in this post ) was requested by his mentor and Greek intellectuals that he can take all the wealth that he wins ( I don't know why they need to tell him that given that he is the emperor who won) but bring back Sadhu(s) from India to exchange ideas and debate intellectually.
Not sure if this was the advise from him mentor and teacher Aristotle but it does make sense that Greeks, Indians,Chinese,Egyptians, Babylonians and Mesopotamians were the only famous human groups at that time.
We had the native africans, native americans - native indians (they won't have known that just because columbus lost his way and Americo Vespucci had the privilege they became native indians/native americans) native humans who were less popular.
Now let turn to Mongolia from where a young lad ( I think he was 14) when he was crowned a king (note not a prince) he started capturing territories and made an empire.
The chinese who were scared of the Mongols attach build a wall not around the house , not around the king's place, not even around the capital or towns (like forts) but around the entire country...
Imagine a wall to protect china because Mongolos were attacking all the time and some claim that it is the only man made structure visible for naked eye from space (which is proved to be false.google it)
In 1215, Genghis Khan (Temuchin) of the Mongols finally penetrated the Great Wall and took over northern China after four years of continuous attacks. The Mongols were the only invaders to ever have defeated China after the Great Wall was built.
One of the tactics Genghis Khan used was( again it is all history + story I don't know the truth but sounds logical to me.. if it is logical to me it must be true and must be logical to you!)
Kill every single man,woman,child and just leave one man alive and ask that man to go forward to the next village he was planning to attack. .ost villages surrended when they heard the horror story from this lone survivors.
In essence it was not chariots and cavalry (with horse power!) and not arrows and not elephants or not gun powder or drones or germs(biological) or chemical attack but fear! Just pure raw fear that surfaces when one explains what happened to every man,woman and child was enough to surrender the entire town or village to the incoming Genghis Khan army.
Genghis Khan is the Greater than Alexander in terms of square area captured
Alexander conquered 2,000,000 square miles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MacedonEmp
GenghisKhan on the contrary has an empire that stretched across Asia to Central Europe much much bigger than Alexander. The adjective "The Great" confused everyone and Greek language is closely related to English than Mongolian. I am not sure if Genghis Khan has a nick name - Genghis Khan The Man who will always be greater than every man who adds an adjective "The great.."( I am not sure if he was concerned about woman with similar titles)
It was the largest contiguous and second largest empire in world history, five times greater than the Macedonian Empire, much larger than the Persian Empire and Roman Empire, and twice as large as the Arab Empire. The Empire of Genghis Khan was four times larger than that of Alexander the Great. So figure about 8,000,000 square miles. I exclude the successors of Genghis since they built on what he had already conquered.
Onto Chanakya , who has been portrayed as Machiavelli which in my opinion was not true. He wrote 2 books one for economics which few people mention and the other is his theories on political savvy and victory which lot of folks associate him with.
It is notable to understand that India still uses these in foriegn diplomacy and so does Brazil.
India has peaceful relations with Iran and Iraq,Cuba,Russia and America,Palestine(though not an official country) and Israel and everywhere else where there is diplomacy issue. India and Pakistan is the only place ironically India cannot use this tactics.
So does Brazil. Think Brazil won both
FIFA world soccer from 12 June to 13 July 2014 and
Summer Olympics August 5 to 21, 2016
thanks to their diplomacy. You can see their leaders in Russia,Cuba,India and Cuba.
To bring 2 of the world's greatest events for this decade to the same country is a wonderful achievement. I am not sure if they read any of Chankya's books.
What does Chankya have to do with Alexender?
It is notable to understand that India still uses these in foriegn diplomacy and so does Brazil.
India has peaceful relations with Iran and Iraq,Cuba,Russia and America,Palestine(though not an official country) and Israel and everywhere else where there is diplomacy issue. India and Pakistan is the only place ironically India cannot use this tactics.
So does Brazil. Think Brazil won both
FIFA world soccer from 12 June to 13 July 2014 and
Summer Olympics August 5 to 21, 2016
thanks to their diplomacy. You can see their leaders in Russia,Cuba,India and Cuba.
To bring 2 of the world's greatest events for this decade to the same country is a wonderful achievement. I am not sure if they read any of Chankya's books.
What does Chankya have to do with Alexender?
Chanakya took it upon himself to rebuild Indian princely states and recapture Greek territories by making Chandra Gupta the emperor.
Chandra Gupta or his son married Alexander's commander's Seleucus daughter Cornelia, thus being ahead of his time and Rajiv Gandhi in marrying a Italian lady... the foreign lady in Indian land.
In addition to this matrimonial recognition or alliance, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra (Modern Patna in Bihar state).
Onto Alexander and the Sadhu(Holy man!)
As you read at the beginning of this post Alexander was tasked to bring back Sadhu(as) to Greece for intellectual exchange of knowledge.
Like any good leader Alexander delegated the task to his commander who in turn delegated to the soldiers.
Finally it was between a soldier and one of the Sadhus who was sleeping under a tree.
Solder commanded the Sadhu to come and meet the greatest emperor king of all kings Alexander.
Sadhu replied to the soldier - Alexander may be your king and emperor not mine.
The Sadhu reported this to the commander and the commander to Alexander . There were orders from Alexander not to hurt ( I assume) so they didn't hurt or force the Sadhu to meet Alexander .
Alexander came in person to meet the Sadhu.
The Sadhu reported this to the commander and the commander to Alexander . There were orders from Alexander not to hurt ( I assume) so they didn't hurt or force the Sadhu to meet Alexander .
Alexander came in person to meet the Sadhu.
Alexander commanded him to come along with him to Greece for which the Sadhu said If I listen to you I won't be an Sadhu and an intellectual . For a man who have given up everything and in pursuit of knowledge I cannot let you make decisions for me and I will not accept your decision.
Alexander got angry as his soldiers and commanders were watching and didn't want to lost to a lone Sadhu.
Alexander pulled his knife and kept on the Sadhu's throat and cut a small inch from where blodd started to come out and he yelled I will kill you if you don't come with me and the Sadhu said
Alexander pulled his knife and kept on the Sadhu's throat and cut a small inch from where blodd started to come out and he yelled I will kill you if you don't come with me and the Sadhu said
I will watch you kill me the way you will watch killing me!
Interesting.
Think about it.
The Sadhu taught Alexander that I am not this body and if you kill this body my soul will watch this body getting killed just like how your soul will watch this incident.
Learning this profound wisdom Alexander surrendered to the Sadhu.
Great story right. I really don't know the truth but it is great to write things like ..
growing up in India I love Masala movies. Hollywood might have made movies but we made masala movies with Item numbers..songs dance heroes killing 500 bad guys at the same time. So making Alexander lose to this Sadhu in this blog was no big deal!.
Don't lose the lesson though - the body the soul and the story.
Now Alexander will forever be part of Indian history and has always been referred to as sikander. According to Wikipedia Sikandar is the Pashto version of the name Alexander, after Alexander the Great. It is alternatively spelled Sikkandar Sikander or Iskander.
Happy Learning
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran
Think about it.
The Sadhu taught Alexander that I am not this body and if you kill this body my soul will watch this body getting killed just like how your soul will watch this incident.
Learning this profound wisdom Alexander surrendered to the Sadhu.
Great story right. I really don't know the truth but it is great to write things like ..
growing up in India I love Masala movies. Hollywood might have made movies but we made masala movies with Item numbers..songs dance heroes killing 500 bad guys at the same time. So making Alexander lose to this Sadhu in this blog was no big deal!.
Don't lose the lesson though - the body the soul and the story.
Now Alexander will forever be part of Indian history and has always been referred to as sikander. According to Wikipedia Sikandar is the Pashto version of the name Alexander, after Alexander the Great. It is alternatively spelled Sikkandar Sikander or Iskander.
Happy Learning
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran
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