Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

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Ajith
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Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

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Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus
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(Ajith Kumar: These research notes were prepared for my 2 books - “The Murder of Alexander the Great, Book 1: The Puranas” and “The Murder of Alexander the Great, Book 2: The Secret War.”)

Kalanus (Calanus, Greek : Kalanos, Sanskrit/ Kharosthi: Kalana), the mysterious ascetic Brahman from Taxila who accompanied Alexander the Great throughout his campaign in India, is familiar to historians. Kalanus gained a reputation as an oracle and a philosopher (sophist) in Alexander’s camp. The Greek historians called him a gymnosophist, meaning a “naked philosopher.” The classic sources called him a Brahman, as he was a member of the priestly caste, who advised the King on political matters.

Arrian wrote: “I have mentioned Kalanus because no history of Alexander would be complete without the story of Kalanus.” Plutarch points out the “attentions which Alexander so lavishly bestowed upon Dandamis and Kalanus.” (Plutarch, Lives, 8.5)

Kalanus belonged to a cult of Brahman monks that practiced extreme asceticism. They never ploughed any lands nor reaped any grains; they neither built homes nor wore any clothes. By discarding both clothing and shelter, they displayed their complete contempt for earthly comforts of life. These sadhus (mendicants), lived in the open outside the city gates of Taxila, always exposed to the harsh elements of nature. By ignoring basic human wants, they restricted their needs to the barest necessities for survival.

Alexander’s first encounter with Kalanus was outrageous by any means. In April 326 BC, after victoriously marching in arms for about eight years across Persia and Egypt, the heavily armed Greek army entered the Vedic world by crossing the Hindukush Mountains and then the Indus River at Attock, just below its junction with the Kabul River. Taxila, near modern Islamabad in Pakistan, was the first country beyond the Hindukush mountains that Alexander’s invading army occupied in the Indian subcontinent.

As Alexander approached Taxila city, he encountered a bizarre spectacle, which he had witnessed nowhere else in the world. Arrian has recorded the intriguing episode: “On the stately appearance of Alexander and his huge army at the city gates of Taxila, some naked Brahman ascetics standing by the roadside, dismally stamped their feet on the ground and gave no other signs of interest.” (Arrian, Anabasis, 7.1.5.)

The ascetics looked unconcerned by the massive ceremonial march of the army passing by. This unusual behavior surely attracted the attention of the majesty, who was also “a philosopher in arms.” Alexander asked through interpreters what they meant by this unusual behavior and the leader of these ascetics, Dandamis, replied: “You are just human like the rest of us, save you are always fighting and up to no good, traveling so many miles from your home, a nuisance to yourself and to others. Ah well! You will soon be dead, and then you will own just as much of this earth as will suffice to bury you.” (Arrian, Anabasis, 7.1.6.)

Alexander’s General Onesecritus says that he later met one of these sophists, Kalanus, who then accompanied the king as far as Persia and committed suicide in accordance with their ancestral custom, being placed upon a pyre and burned up. (Strabo, Geography, 15.1.61.)
Plutarch confirms that the Indian King Taxiles persuaded Kalanus to join Alexander’s camp: “As to Kalanus, it is certain that King Taxiles prevailed with him to go to Alexander. His real name was Sphines, but as in the Indian tongue, he saluted all he met with the word ‘Kala,’ the Greeks named him Kalanus. It was Kalanus, as we are told, who laid before Alexander the famous illustration of government.” (Plutarch, Alexander, 65.5.)

Alexander, while camping in Taxila, was much fascinated by Kalanus. He took him into his camp, made him one of his closest associates and often consulted him as his adviser. Because of this, Kalanus has received undue attention from the historians of Alexander. Alexander’s admiral Nearchus, engineer Aristobulus, and General Onesecritus were eyewitnesses in Taxila, and they mention in their records their own accounts about Kalanus. The later historians Arrian, Strabo, and Plutarch, who took the information from many earlier sources, also devote time to mention Kalanus, who appears to have had an important relation to Alexander. (Arrian, Anabasis, 7.1.5-3.6; Strabo 15.1.61-68; Plutarch, Lives, 7.67-70).

Onesecritus says he was sent by Alexander to meet the two ascetics, Dandamis and Kalanus, and to have requested them to come to Alexander (Strabo 15.1.63–65.715–716, Plutarch Alex. 64–65, Arrian, Anabasis, 7.2.2–4). Aristobulus claimed to have seen the two gymnosophists standing as they dined at Alexander’s table (Strabo 15.1.61.714).

The Telephos coin
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Now, to confirm the stories of Kalanus, research has unraveled a solid piece of evidence in the form of an ancient coin with the image and the name of Kalanus on it. (Ajith Kumar, The Murder of Alexander the Great, Book 1: The Puranas.)

The coin, issued by King Telephos of Taxila, is an exceptionally rare specimen that depicts a naked priest with his name inscribed on it. It depicts the image of Kalanus conducting an altar ceremony.

Numismatist Osmund Bopearachchi has identified the square bronze coin found in Taxila as that of the Indo-Greek king Telephos (Telephus), who ruled the region in around 75 BC. (Bopearachchi (1995), ‘Indian Brahman on a coin of Telephus’, Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter 145, 8-9.) These coins weigh about nine grams each and are made of bronze or copper. Only few specimens of them exist.

Telephos, a king of Taxila, had issued the coin as a tribute to Kalanus, who had miraculously stopped Alexander the Great on the sacrificial altar in India and helped the Indians to recapture the throne of Taxila. Thus, the commemorative coin records the retreat of Alexander and confirms the end of his Indian conquest in Punjab.

In 1872, the Royal Numismatic Society mentioned a Telephos coin that was found at Attock in Taxila, where Alexander had pitched his camp few centuries earlier. (Royal Numismatic Society, 1872, vol. 12. Google ebooks, Plate XIV, Elliot collection.)

Another Telephos coin with the icon of Kalanus was found in Taxila in 1910. (Journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal. (J.A.S.B.), 1910, p. 561, copper, rectangular.) Pioneering archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893) assigned the Telephos coin to King Telephos of Taxila, who ruled at the time of King Maues of Kashmir, around 75 BC.

Telephos has been identified as the King of Taxila by Whitehead. (Whitehead, NC p. 334 no. 53, Pl. XVI, 14; Journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal (JASB), 1910, p. 496.) Alexander occupied the countries Bactria, Gandhara and Taxila, and established several colonies in ancient India (including modern Afghanistan and Pakistan). (Colonies established by Alexander: Ariana, Prophthasia, Arachosia, Alexandria in the Caucasus, Alexandria Oxiana, Alexandria in Opiania, Nicaea, Taxila, Arigaeum, Bucephala, Uch, Xylinepolis, Sindh, Orietai, Multan, and Patala at the mouth of the Indus River.)

After Alexander’s invasion, territories conquered by Alexander were under the Indo-Greek Kingdom, ruled by more than 30 Hellenistic kings from the 2nd century BC to the beginning of the 1st century AD. They were often in conflict with each other. Indo-Greek kings combined the Greek and Indian symbols and scripts, as seen on their coins. All Indo-Greek kings after Apollodotus I mainly issued bilingual (Greek and Kharoshti) coins.

Bopearachchi noted: "Telephos, who was a close contemporary of Apollodotus II, borrowed two of King Maues’ monograms: Apart from the monograms, the posteriority of Telephos is now attested by a bronze coin of this king overstruck on a coin of Archebius. The Greek power in Paropamisadae (ancient Afghanistan and Gandhara) came to an end with the Kushan (Yuezhi, nomads) invasion. Soon the territories around Taxila yielded to the IndoScythian Maues. Apollodotus II was the immediate successor of Maues and both reigned within a short lapse of time in the same region around Taxila. The monogram (like T) introduced by Maues, was taken by Telephos." (New numismatic evidence on the pre-Kushan history of the Silk Road, Osmund Bopearachchi, C.N.R.S. Paris.)

The obverse side of this coin features the image of sitting Zeus, the Greek god, making a benediction gesture, which is a familiar icon of all coins issued by the Indo-Greek kings in this region. Obviously, the Greek symbol and script on the coin was essential for the currency to hold any monetary value for trade along the Silk Road.

On the reverse side of the coin, contrary to tradition, a naked Indian priest is featured sitting on an altar of stones and offering a fire sacrifice to the right, with a water-pot at his feet and cradling a walking stick over his left arm. It reminds of the ascetic brahman Vamana, who appeared in the legends in the Puranas, and stopped the aggressive conquest of India by the world conqueror Mahabali, an Asura King. Vamana, the Brahman in disguise, had suddenly appeared on the sacrificial altar holding in his hands the walking stick, an umbrella and a waterpot. (Bhagavata Purana, 8.18.23) This legend in the Puranas has more to tell about the story of Kalanus.

He is almost naked, with the traditional long, matted hair of an ascetic, and he carried a walking stick and a water-pot as specified in the Sanskrit Puranas. The Brahmans represented by this attire were Vedic scholars who worshipped the fire altar.

The Ashokan rock inscriptions (268-232 BC) confirm the existence of two types of ascetics in those days: “There is no country where these two classes, the Brahmanas and the Sramanas, do not exist, except among the Greeks.” (Hultzsch, Inscriptions of Asoka, 1913, rock edict 188.) The above rock inscription confirms that the icon on the coin was not a Greek priest but an Indian ascetic, which his name also confirms. Some scholars may disagree with this view, as the physical appearances of all Indian sadhus are similar. In this case, however, the identity of the sadhu who accompanied Alexander is indisputable, as the name of Kalana appears on the coin and, moreover, the coin was found at Taxila, where Alexander had camped for about 2 months, from 13 April to middle of June 326 BC. (Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, 4.22; 5.3; Curtius, History, 8.12; Diodorus, History, 17.86; Plutarch, Alexander, 59, 65; Strabo, Geography, 15.)

The epithet embossed on the coin in Kharosthi script reads from right to left as “Maharajasa Kalana kramasa Telephasa.”

This image has perplexed scholars, because no other coin ever depicts the icon of an ascetic Brahman priest, on the side on which, notably, the local king’s image customarily appears. In the first century BC, the coins in this region used to portray the ruler on the obverse with a Greek legend, and a Hellenistic deity like Zeus on the reverse with a Kharosthi legend surrounding it.

The coins issued by the Indo-Greek king Menander of the Bactria, a neighbouring country to Taxila, had Greek gods on the reverse of the coins, with the king’s bust on the front. Zeus seated in a chair is very common, like that of King Antialkidas, who ruled from 115 to 95 BC and reigned from his capital at Taxila. The coin of Telephos is the only omission, depicting an Indian priest on one side instead of the image of the king.
The “Zeus enthroned” image is a common trademark of the coins minted at the Kapisa mint, (modern Bagram near Kabul) established by the Greek followers of Alexander the Great.

Several important conclusions can be derived from the image and the words embossed on this unique coin. The most notable information available from it is the appearance of the name Kalana, which reminds us of the name of Kalanus (Calanus, Ancient Greek: Καλανoς) in the records of the Greek authors, as the “s” in Greek is always silent. Incredibly, therefore, the coin portrays the name and the image of the naked philosopher, Kalanus, who had joined Alexander at Taxila as a gymnosophist and appeared at the concluding event of the Indian invasion on the altar.

Alexander himself had minted his coins while in Taxila, with the icon of the god Zeus on one side and the icon of Alexander on the other side. Later Indo-Greek had also followed this tradition, as the image of Alexander added monetary value to the coin. Shockingly, however, King Telephos had boldly replaced on this coin the image of Alexander with that of Kalanus. By ancient traditions, this was certainly audacious and yet outrageous.

Apparently, the Indian king was trying to give a political message to the opposing Indo-Greek kings ruling the neighbouring states, especially in Bactria and Sogdiana. Telephos was the first king to issue coins with Indian motifs in the region conquered by Alexander the Great. By introducing familiar Indian icons on his new coins, he was trying to restore the Indian legacy in the country of Taxila.

Notably, even the chiselled stone tablets on which the priest is sitting match with the historical records of Alexander’s altar stones, as historian Curtius notes: “The altar stones were built of hewn stone, as standing monuments of his expedition.” (Curtius, History, 9.19.) In the ancient mounds of Taxila, archaeologist have found burnt bricks, but not chiselled stones, which were the handiwork of the Greek masons, who alone had the iron tools in that epoch to cut hard rocks to shape. The largest durable building built in India after Alexander’s conquest was the Sanchi stupa, which was built in 250 BC with burnt bricks, and not using cut stones. Similarly, the large halls of the magnificent Mauryan palace at Pataliputra was built with wooden columns. Prior to 326 BC, in ancient India, as in Persia, the masonry was always made with burnt bricks. No known cut-stone structures exist anywhere in India prior to Alexander’s invasion. Therefore, the rectangular stone slabs depicted on the coin, on which Kalanus is sitting for the sacrifice, must have been cut to shape by sharp steel hammers wielded by Alexander’s masons.

Further, anyone familiar with the rituals of fire sacrifices (yajna sacrifice) in India would attest that the priest never sits on an elevated altar of stones. They always sit beside the elevated fire pit on the ground with their legs crossed. According to tradition, the sitting position of the master of the ceremonies (Yajamaan) should not be higher than that of the raised platform with the fire of Yajna sacrifice. (Rigveda: 10-88-19). “A comfortable sitting position is called Aasan” (Yog Darshan: Sadhna Paad: Sutra 46). The fire sacrifice itself is an Indian tradition. However, the fire sacrifice depicted on the coin, and the posture of the priest is notably different.

The Kharosthi legend on the coin reads from right to left: “Maharajasa Kalana kramasa Telephasa.” (Vincent A. Smith, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1898, Numismatic notes and novelties No. III, p 131; See also “Emergence of Hinduism in Gandhara: An Analysis of Material Culture; Vorgelegt von, Abdul Samad, Kohat.)

The corresponding Greek legend on the other side of the coin reads: “Basileos Eyepgetoy Thlefoy.” As the Greek word eyepgetoy means “inherited divine power,” we can assume that the corresponding Kharosthi word kramasa on the other side of the coin also means eyepgetoy, or divine inheritance.

Moreover, in the Kharosthi, Sanskrit and Prakrit languages, the word kramasa means “as a consequence of, or inheritance.” According to the Sanskrit dictionary and the modern Malayalam language, the word krama-sa means “hereditary descent.”

According to scholars, the deities on the coin indicate the “dynastic lineage” of the local issuer. (R. C. Senior, Indo-Scythian Coins and History IV, Supplement, London, 2004, pp. xxvi-xxvii.)

Therefore, the Kharosthi monogram on the coin means: “King Telephos who inherits the lineage of Kalanus.” The Telephos coin, therefore, is one of the so-called pedigree coins often issued by Indo-Greek kings to claim their inheritance rights. Kings of neighbouring Bactria and the other Indian kingdoms usually proclaimed their lineage to their predecessors by striking such commemorative coins. The identification of this coin is an important discovery in the story of Alexander. This is an exciting finding that confirms the hypothesis that Kalanus helped to reinstate the throne of Taxila to the Indian King.

After Alexander’s invasion in 326 BC, the Greek Satraps controlled Bactria and the other kingdoms west of Taxila. Soon after Alexander left Taxila, Chandragupta Maurya usurped the throne of Taxila in 324 BC. His descendants, the Mauryas, ruled Taxila from 324 BC to 180 BC, ending with the reign of King Brihadrata Maurya. In 180 BC, Taxila was attacked by the Greco-Bactrian king from the Afghan side, Dharmamita or Demetrius, who was a descendant of the Greek rulers who came with Alexander to this part of the world. This is confirmed in the Indian Puranas also, as the Yuga Purana confirms that a Greek [Yavana] army under King Dharmamita [Demetrius] annexed the territories around Taxila and Punjab in the second century BC.
On checking the chronology of events, we find that shortly before King Telephos, a Greek king, Antialkidas, ruled Taxila in 110 BC. An inscription found on a stone pillar in central India, known as the Heliodorus Pillar, confirms this.

A decade before King Telephos, another Greek king, Hermaois of Taxila, had issued his coins in 90 BC, with the image of the king and his queen, Calliope. The subsequent coins of King Maues, who ruled Taxila, just before Telephos, featured Nike, the goddess of victory, or Buddha on his coins. Telephos, however, changed the icons of the deities and replaced it with the image of Kalanus.

King Telephos recaptured Taxila in 75 BC and issued the commemorative coin with the image of Kalanus, thereby claiming his Indian roots. The coins of Telephos and Maues, probably contemporaries, depict peculiar monograms which are not found on any other coins of the region. (Journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal (JASB), 1910, p. 146.)

Telephos, therefore, claimed his Indian heritage through the Kalanus coin.

This leads us to several fascinating conclusions. First, it confirms that Kalanus, a naked sadhu, lived in ancient Taxila, as recorded in the Greek texts. Second, the coin reveals that Kalanus held a sacrifice on an altar and heralded the liberation of Taxila from foreign rule. Third, on the widely circulated Greek coins of the age, the icon of Kalanus replaced the image of Alexander the Great. Forth, Kalanus had attained a divine status to be depicted on a coin in the region.

The army rebellion
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After a restful stay in Taxila, after two months, by the middle of June 326 BC, Alexander confidently marched east toward the Jhelum River. Punjab, the land of five rivers, was now unpassable, as the rivers were inundated. Alexander’s army was immobilized. Arrian describes the night in which Alexander crossed the flooded Jhelum River, before the solstice on 21 June: “The noise of the storm, with the violence of the thunder and lightning, hindered the clashing of their armor and the voices of the commanding officers.” (Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, 12.) The Greeks had never experienced anything like the monsoon thunderstorms, and they were trapped by the turbulent flood, unable to stay or to move on.
The soldiers were in distress, deprived of necessary clothing, shelter and food. They soon revolted, besieged by the worrisome climate. The rebellious soldiers held meetings throughout the camp, where some men resolutely refused to follow Alexander any farther. (Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, 5.23.5.) Curtius records that Alexander spoke to his men thus: “I am not insensible, soldiers, that the Indians have within these few days spread several rumors on purpose to terrify you; but you do not need being told, how groundless such reports are.” (Curtius, History, 9.3.) The Indians had spread the news of the massive armies waiting for the battle, with thousands of elephants. Alexander was aware of this vicious campaign and could not persuade the army to stay calm.

The Greek generals, most of them childhood friends, (including Perdiccas, Nearchus, Ptolemy, Onesecritus, and Seleucus) seemed to be manifestly determined not to obey Alexander. The Macedonian commanders apparently agreed with the soldiers and probably steered the revolt against Alexander. Initially, not realizing the full import of the situation, Alexander is known to have said, “Let them grumble, so long as they obey.” But they refused to obey. Alexander soon realized with alarm that a mutiny was imminent and that he was alone in enemy territory.
It continuously rained in the monsoon season for about seventy days until the five rivers of Punjab were all in a wild rage. For safety, Alexander set up his camp on Dasuya Hill on the Beas riverside waiting for the torrential rains to subside. According to Strabo, “Aristobulus gives even the measure of the height to which the river rises twenty cubits [thirty feet] of measure of the water when it overflows the plains.” (Strabo, Geography, 15.1.18–19.)

The army struggled in the watery world, with the rivers overflowing everywhere. Most of his soldiers were weary and desperate to return home. (Diodorus, History, 17.94; Plutarch, Lives, 6; Strabo, Geography, 15.1.18–19.) Alexander was determined, however, and it appeared that nothing could stop him from marching to the east. The rains had then stopped, and the floods soon receded.

Alexander then summoned a meeting of his top generals to order them to start marching. Alexander asked them to speak first, but no one dared to speak to him. Below the calm stance was great concern and much fear. They stood together against him on this occasion and refused to be of any help. During the meeting, most of the officers were paralyzed with terror and remained silent, with their eyes steadfastly fixed on the ground. (Curtius, History, 9.3.2.) They appeared to lead the rebellion as a united force.

The meeting was a failure, as Alexander refused to accept their stubborn demands to return home. Still, Alexander was inflexible as usual in his resolve. “I observe that the officers no longer follow my orders with your old spirit,” he shouted in the last meeting. “I have now called this meeting so that we may come to a decision together: Are we, upon my advice, to march forward, or, upon yours, to turn back?” (Arrian, Anabasis, 5.28.1.)

Distressed, Alexander shouted at his men thus: “Those who wish to return home can do so and tell their countrymen that they deserted their king in the midst of his enemies. But tell them he did not force any Macedonian to accompany him against his will.” With visible rage, he then dismissed the council and leaped down from the podium. (Curtius, History, 9.3.18.) Alexander was now stuck alone in enemy land, and he also knew he was in extreme danger from his own troops. In a nasty temper, he withdrew into the royal tent alone, into which he forbade anyone to be admitted. For two days he sulked in his hopelessness, but on the third day he ordered twelve altars of square stones to be erected to offer sacrifices, determined to proceed with the expedition. (Curtius, History, 9.3.18.) He decided to perform a sacrifice to the gods, and he hoped to receive favorable omens for the invasion of the rest of India.

The altar sacrifice.
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The rains had stopped by the middle of August, and the altars were built in a week’s time. Curtius records say that “the altars were built of hewn stone, as standing monuments of his expedition.” (Curtius, History, 9.3.19.) Before the sacrifice, Alexander again delivered a speech to his men trying to persuade the army to follow him. (Curtius, History, 9.2.34.) Arrian records his desperate mood, with Alexander pleading with his men not to desert him. (Arrian, Anabasis, 5.28.2.)

Alexander had few options now. He could not reprimand and punish his men for insubordination as it may erupt into violence. He could not also give in to their rebellious demands and threats, which they would take as his weakness. But he had found a solution to this. Since all Macedonians including the Greek priests were part of the revolt, he deputed Kalanus, a trustworthy associate, as the priest on the altar. Kalanus seems to have played a crucial role during the altar ceremony in Punjab. He had refused to meet any of the Greek Generals and priests for 3 days before the sacrifice, as he refused admission to all except his regular attendants. (Curtius, History, 9.3.18.)

Alexander stood motionless on the altar as Kalanus lit the sacrificial fire. Kalanus, apparently unattached to worldly matters, performed the sacrifices, as he was the only person whom Alexander could trust now.

To Alexander’s great relief, and as he expected, Kalanus declared the sacrificial omens unfavorable to proceed with the conquest.
To the soldiers watching anxiously for the final decision, Alexander announced his decision to halt the campaign and to return home. Arrian records that “then the soldiers shouted as a mixed multitude would shout when rejoicing; and most of them shed tears of joy.” (Arrian, Anabasis, 5.24.)
Kalanus tactfully advised Alexander with a textbook illustration on how to successfully govern a huge empire. This event eventually helped to change the inflexible resolve of Alexander and altered the course of world history.

The following paragraph from the Roman biographer Plutarch reconfirms our assumption that the story of Kalanus is a realistic historical event that ended the Greek invasion of India.

Plutarch (Plutarch, Alexander, 64.6.) describes the incident thus: "It was Kalanus, who laid before Alexander the famous illustration of governing a huge empire. It was this. He spread down upon the ground a dry and shriveled hide and set his foot upon the outer edge of it; the hide was pressed down in one place but rose up in others. He went all around the hide and showed that this was the result wherever he pressed the edge down, and then at last he stood in the middle of it, and lo! It was all held down flat and still. The similitude was designed to show that Alexander ought to put most [of his] attention upon the middle of his empire and not wander far away from it."

This could have happened only on the Altar during the sacrifice, as Alexander was considering his next move. “How far further can you go, Alexander?” the priest asked.

Alexander watched the Indian priest measure few steps on the floor, symbolically marking the boundaries of his empire, and he accepted his advice to return to the center of his empire, rather than roaming farther ahead to its extreme boundaries. (Plutarch, Alexander, 64.6.) It appears that Alexander patiently listened to the Brahman priest as he explained to the king the art of kingship.

Until this day, at every other sacrifice, the priests had pronounced favorable omens, auguring great successes for Alexander. On the banks of the Beas River, however, Alexander’s fortunes fortuitously turned adverse, because of Kalanus.

Subsequent events confirm that Kalanus saved Alexander from the revolt and also protected India from the conqueror. It appears Kalanus attained divine status as the Indians venerated the site of the altar for centuries afterward. As Plutarch notes in Morals, “We are told that the first emperor of India, Chandragupta, who succeeded to the lordship of Alexander’s conquests, and his successors for centuries afterwards, continued to venerate the altars, and were in the habit of crossing the river to offer sacrifice upon them.” (Plutarch, Morals; Henry Frowde, Early History of India, London: Oxford, 1904.) In Lives, Plutarch says that “Alexander also set up altars, which even to the present day are reverenced by the kings of the Prachi [Magadha], who cross the river to them, and offer sacrifice upon them in the Greek fashion.” (Plutarch, Alexander, 6.62.) The Indian kings were paying homage to Kalanus at the altar, as presented on the Telephos coin.

On 24 August 326 BC, for the first time in his eventful career, Alexander the Great stopped and turned back. (Ajith Kumar, The Murder of Alexander the Great, Book 2: The Puranas.)

After the altar ceremony, Alexander told General Ptolemy, “Since all things conspired to hinder further progress, I am determined to return.” (Arrian, Anabasis, 5.28.4.) Alexander also dedicated and installed a pillar with an inscription: “Here Alexander stopped.” (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius.) This likely marked the end of his military career, as he did not successfully win any major battles after this.
Kalanus, the Indian Ascetic, tricked Alexander.

As we have noted earlier, Plutarch confirms that Taxiles, the king of Taxila, persuaded Kalanus to join Alexander’s camp: “As to Kalanus, it is certain that King Taxiles prevailed with him to go to Alexander. It was Kalanus, as we are told, who laid before Alexander the famous illustration of government.” (Plutarch, Alexander, 65.5.)

Kalanus wanted Alexander to abort his war plans and return from India. The demonstration with the goat skin was intended to persuade Alexander to stop the war and withdraw to the center of his domains. The Telephos coin confirms the role played by Kalanus, as the King of Taxila embossed the words “Maharajasa Kalana kramasa Telephasa.” The freedom of Taxila was a divine gift from Kalanus.

In those chaotic days of distrust and revolt, one of the few people who had access to the emperor was Kalanus, who was officially a soothsayer and philosophical adviser to the king. Alexander’s regular Greek priest, Aristander, had been dismissed a few months earlier while crossing a river in Afghanistan. Aristander had refused to obey the king and review an adverse religious forecast, as Alexander desired, to cross the Jaxartes River. Having failed to forecast favorably, Alexander had ordered him to repeat another sacrifice, which he did hesitatingly, but again the sacrifice resulted in an unfavorable omen. Alexander rebuked Aristander for failing to obey his instructions. (Arrian, Anabasis, 4.4.3; 4.4.9; Curtius, History, 7.7.8; 7.7.22.)

Whenever he was determined to proceed with a campaign, Alexander normally commanded a priest to perform another sacrifice to obtain a more favorable result. However now, since the Macedonian priests were also part of the revolt, Alexander could not trust them, and so Kalanus was ordered to conduct the ceremonies for Alexander: a fact the Telephos coin attests. Kalanus was amicable to Alexander’s fickle demands. Kalanus, as expected, faithfully executed the king’s wishes. Alexander eagerly accepted the unfavorable omens Kalanus announced, which helped to publicly justify Alexander’s decision to return from India. With Kalanus’s help, he diplomatically appeased the mutineers without surrendering to their demands.

Significantly, the Telephos coin and the note from Plutarch proves that Kalanus had a key role to play in the history of Alexander. Kalanus appears to have had serious discussions with Alexander on the eminent issue of invading India, as the demonstration on the skin showed. Alexander had several experienced generals to recommend on such important matters. Yet, it appears that the Indian Brahman had significant influence and equal authority to advise the world emperor on matters of state in such a critical situation.

Unfortunately, on that historic day, on the altar, while the sacrificial fire fumed and the solemn prayers concluded, Alexander’s quest for a world empire came to a sudden and surprising end. The king of Taxila had reasons to rejoice and issue a commemorative coin in the name of Kalanus.
According to the historian Ptolemy, Alexander then called together those who were closest to him, and because everything was concluded against his wishes, he declared to the army that he intended to return. It was a mystical moment that would be remembered for ages by the soldiers who witnessed it. Hesitantly, Alexander ordered his men to prepare for the long march back home, but their problems were far from over. Alexander was not going back via the mountain route he had come. He was going to Patala, a remote hell, at the southernmost corner of the inhabited world.
This is attested by the Puranas. After the altar sacrifice the Brahman escorted the conqueror to Patala. “Oh, King of the Asuras, I will stay with you, as the gatekeeper of the city of Patala in the realms of Sutala.” (Bhagavata Purana, 8.22) According to Indian folklore, Patala was at the furthest southern end of the Aryan domains, and it formed the realms of the netherworld, hell itself.

According to Greek records, also Kalanus subsequently led Alexander to Patala. (Greek: Patelene, Pattala.)

On the altar in Kurukshetra, Alexander inadvertently followed the advice of the most dangerous opponent he had ever faced. He was unarmed and pious, and beyond any suspicious attributes of an enemy. He had lead Alexander into a death trap at the furthest corner of the primitive world at Patala at the mouth of the Indus, where Alexander was trapped for about 6 months. In the Indian texts, Patala was the netherworld ruled by the demons. (Ajith Kumar, The Murder of Alexander the Great, Book 2: The Secret War.)

Once he reached there, Alexander was stuck at Patala, as it was surrounded by two large deserts, the Gedrosian desert and the Rajasthan desert. There were no easy exits from Patala. An army could easily sail on the Indus River into Patala from the north, but once in Patala, the place is a cage with no easy exits on any side. In every direction, the country is deserted and empty. The Indus is sandwiched between the Thar Desert in the east and the mountainous Gedrosian Desert in the west. The ocean roars in the south, and the Indus River flows down from the north.

The Indians had led him into a dead end. As he had no other choice, he made himself the king of Patala and made it his capital for about six months. “Alexander had to wait for the monsoon winds to change direction in winter to allow his fleet to sail into the Arabian Sea. He also could not return to Taxila, as the Indus River had been in flood since the end of June because of the annual monsoon rains.” (Ajith Kumar, The Murder of Alexander the Great, Book 1: The Puranas.) Arrian says that Patala was an uninhabited region, which was waterless, and the army had to dig wells to render the land fit for habitation. (Arrian, Anabasis, 6.28.)

Without doubt, the real Kalanus was also an actor, a decoy, whom Alexander naively accepted as a reliable guide. The unexpected developments on the altar, and the unnecessary trip to the dead end at Patala, indicate that a secret war had been unleashed against the invader and the king’s days were numbered thereafter.

The cumulative evidence thus leads to the conclusion that the Telephos coin records the climax of the drama on the altar, where, after symbolically measuring a few steps on the ground, the sadhu Brahman miraculously ended the imperial ambitions of Alexander the Great.

The Peutinger map
----------------------
The Peutinger Map was made over a period of several years in the first century BC, to mark the Roman roads that led to the far-flung global colonies. It mapped an area roughly from southeast England to present day Kochi in south India. The Roman emperor Augustus created this earliest sketch of the world. The emperor ordered it to be engraved on a marble top and set it up in the Porticus Vipsania in Rome in 12 BC. (Pliny, Natural History, 3.17.)

The altars of Alexander are marked on the map, with two icons in northern India, east of Taxila, where Kalanus performed the sacrifice.

An unusual label on the map proves that the cartographers remembered the historic moment on the altar even after 300 years when they carved the words on the marble top. The legend on the map said in ancient Latin: “Here Alexander accepted the oracular advice to the question: How far can you go, Alexander?”

These were the same concepts in words spoken by Kalanus during the goat skin demonstration, as attested by Plutarch. (Plutarch, Alexander, 64.6.)
This sentence is the most significant piece of evidence, literally carved on stone, that proves that Alexander aborted his military campaign on the advice of the sadhu Brahman Kalanus. With these firm words of advice, Kalanus helped Alexander to end his invasion of India. As we know, “Here Alexander stopped.” (Philostrautus, Life of Apollonius.)

Unbelievable though it may be, the Peutinger Map confirms that the Brahman depicted on the Telephos coin persuaded Alexander to stop his military campaign in India.

The end of Kalanus.
------------------------

The suicide of Kalanus is recorded by several ancient historians. (Diodorus, History, 17.107; Strabo, Geography, 15.1.68; Plutarch, Alexander, 69.3; Arrian, Anabasis, 7.3.)

“In Persia, too, Calanus, who had suffered for a little while from intestinal disorder, asked that a funeral pyre might be prepared for him. To this he came on horseback, and after offering prayers, sprinkling himself, and casting some of his hair upon the pyre, he ascended it, greeting the Macedonians who were present, and exhorting them to make that day one of pleasure and revelry with the king, whom, he declared, he should soon see in Babylon. After thus speaking, he lay down and covered his head, nor did he move as the fire approached him, but continued to lie in the same posture as at first, and so sacrificed himself acceptably, as the wise men of his country had done from of old. The same thing was done many years afterwards by another Indian who was in the following of Caesar, at Athens; and the "Indian's Tomb" is shown there to this day.
But Alexander, after returning from the funeral pyre and assembling many of his friends and officers for supper, proposed a contest in drinking neat wine, the victor to be crowned. Well, then, the one who drank the most, Promachus, got as far as four pitchers; he took the prize, a crown of a talent's worth, but lived only three days afterwards. And of the rest, according to Chares, forty-one died of what they drank, a violent chill having set in after their debauch.” (Plutarch 7.69)

Plutarch’s testimony says: “Then he lay down and covered his head and did not stir at all when the flames swallowed him, and he perished.” (Plutarch, Alexander, 69)

In the whole history of humanity, we have not found anyone else capable of burning alive without flinching. How could the sparks of the flames have silenced the reflexes when the whole body is on fire? This does not seem to be realistic.

Kalanus’s self-immolation establishes that he likely had taken poison of some kind, as he did not move at all when the flames engulfed him.
Further, he did something more mysterious before climbing onto his funeral pyre.

Arrian records the suspicious incident: "Also concerning Calanus, the Indian philosopher, the following story has been recorded. When he was going to the funeral pyre to die, he gave the parting salutation to all his other companions; but he refused to approach Alexander to give him the salutation, saying he would meet him at Babylon and there salute him. At the time indeed this remark was treated with neglect; but afterwards, when Alexander had died at Babylon, it came to the recollection of those who had heard it, and they thought forsooth that it was a divine intimation of Alexander's approaching end." (Arrian, Anabasis, 7.18.)

Kalanus refrained from bidding farewell to Alexander, his well-wisher. His last emotionless words to the few people surrounding him were, “I shall certainly meet the King again in Babylon.” It seemed he predicted the premature death of Alexander at the age of 32. Kalanus seemed confident about what awaited the emperor in the coming days, as if he could foretell the future. Maybe he could.

Kalanus declared the last words of a victor who was ending his campaign on a happy note. After predicting Alexander’s untimely death, Kalanus climbed on the burning pile of wood and remained silent. We can conclude that Kalanus had specific information about the pending plot against Alexander. Kalanus certainly knew Alexander would be killed, and he had foretold the time and place of his death.

The mystery did not end with the suicide of Kalanus. Further, on the day Kalanus committed suicide, the Greek historians reported a far more bizarre incident: forty-one soldiers also died soon after Kalanus burned himself on the pyre.

This incident was quoted by the orator Athenaeus in his work Deipnosophistae, or the “banquet of the learned.”: "Then Alexander instituted a contest in athletic games and a musical recital of praises for Kalanus. “And he instituted,” Chares says, “because of the love of drinking on the part of the Indians, also instituted a contest in the drinking of unmixed wine, and the present for the winner was a talent, for the second-best thirty minas, for the third ten minas. Out of those who drank the wine, thirty-five died immediately of a chill, and six others shortly after in their tents. The man who drank the most and came off victor drank twelve quarts and received the talent, but he lived only four days more; he was called Champion." (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 4.49, FGrH, 125 F19a.)

Plutarch calls Chares a royal usher or chamberlain (someone who entertained court visitors), so his notes are reliable personal accounts of the tragic incident. (Plutarch, Alexander, 46.)

This is what happened according to Plutarch: "Alexander, after returning from the funeral pyre and assembling many of his friends and officers for supper, proposed a contest in drinking neat wine, the victor to be crowned. Well, then, the one who drank the most, Promachus, got as far as four pitchers; he took the prize, a crown of a talent's worth, but lived only three days afterwards. And of the rest, according to Chares, forty-one died of what they drank, a violent chill having set in after their debauch."

Forty-one soldiers died after suffering for a few days from something like a fever. Their deaths were not sudden, but slow. From the symptoms of the victims, it is clear that the brew contained a peculiar type of “slow” poison that took effect gradually. This observation is vital to the history of Alexander because, while analyzing Alexander’s death, Greek historians claimed that they were unaware of a poison that could act this slowly. The toxin in the wine had also induced peculiar symptoms, as “most of them had fever.”

Alexander did not drink the same wine, but he was now a marked victim. As predicted by Kalanus he died a few months later at Babylon, with the same symptoms due to a slow poison named in the Sanskrit Puranas as the “destroyer of Time.” (Ajith Kumar, The Murder of Alexander the Great, Book 2: The Secret War.)

In Morals, Plutarch wrote: “Aristobulus says that he had a raging fever, and that when he got thirsty, he drank wine, whereupon he became delirious, and died on the thirtieth day of the month Daesius.” (Plutarch, Morals, 337.)

Death came as a final relief to Alexander, with his jaws locked and eyes staring, but fully aware of his surroundings holding the terror within. In the evening of 10 June 323 BC, Alexander, the King of the World, died quietly without a murmur after ten days of silent agony. Historian Justinus said what many historians felt: “He was overcome at last, not by the prowess of any enemy, but by a conspiracy of those whom he trusted, and the treachery of his own subjects.” (Justinus, Epitome, 12.6)

Plutarch wrote about the rumors: “At the time, nobody had any suspicion of his being poisoned, but upon some information given six years after, they say Olympias put many to death, and scattered the ashes of Iolaus, then dead, as if he had given it him. But those who affirm that Aristotle counselled Antipater to do it, and that by his means the poison was brought, …… gathered like a thin dew, and kept in an ass's hoof; for it was so very cold and penetrating that no other vessel would hold it.” (Plutarch, 77)

Who killed Alexander the Great? The true history of Alexander the Great has never been convincingly narrated. Even after two millennia, the mystery surrounding his premature death at the prime age of 32 remains unresolved. It appears, however, that the Puranas, the ancient Indian Sanskrit texts, hold solemn secrets which could settle the archaic mystery surrounding Alexander’s death.

The Sanskrit word “Purana” literally means “old stories.” The puranic literature includes eighteen Puranas, two epics (Mahabharata and Ramayana) and several commentaries. These sacred texts contain ancient Indian history, religious instructions, and fascinating folk tales. They are also encyclopaedic texts that contain itihasa, or the history of the Indian dynasties which ruled the Aryavartha, the land of the Aryan tribes, for almost 5,000 years.

A popular legend in the Puranas narrates the story of the Greek conquest of the Indus Valley and unveils the covert strategy that led to the rapid return march and the early death of the world conqueror, Alexander. Unfortunately, scholars have not studied these Sanskrit manuscripts in relation to Alexander the Great, mainly because his name is not identifiable in these primeval scriptures. Nevertheless, the historians consider the narrative in the Puranas a highly valuable history because it provides the list of 153 ancient kings who ruled India for more than 5,000 years. (Pargiter, Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, 1922; Vishnu Purana, part IV, section I and section VI.)

The Bhagavata Purana (8.18) portrays the legends of the ‘world conqueror’ who aborted his Indian conquest on the advice of a Brahman ascetic on the altar in Punjab. It has the same narrative sketch and the surprising ending as on the altar of Alexander with a Brahman acting as the priest.
The altar ceremony conducted by the world conqueror is described in many Sanskrit texts. During the altar sacrifice, the Puranas even record the lion emblem on the Grecian flag and the color of Alexander’s famous horse Bucephalus, which were identifiable royal icons of Alexander.

The Bhagavata Purana describes with exciting clarity the horse and the royal emblem of the conqueror: "Thereafter, a chariot wrapped with gold and silk, a bay horse with reddish brown color, and a flag displaying the emblem of a lion, appeared in the light of the blazing flames while offering ghee to the sacrificial fire." (Bhagavata Purana, 8.15.5.)

The reddish-brown color of the bay horse is unmistakable in the Alexander Mosaic, which was found in the House of the Faun in Pompeii, installed around 200 BC. The other proof available in the Purana is again undeniable, and perhaps irrefutable; it declares the national identity of the emperor, with the famous Macedonian lion emblem. The Puranas say that the conqueror carried the lion flag, the iconic royal emblem of the king of Macedonia.

An ancient carnival on the Malabar coast in south India, known as the “Onam” festival, recounts these ancient tales and provides the primary key to resolve the age-old mystery behind Alexander’s death.

Kalanus thus played a significant role in the “The Secret War” against Alexander. The Telephos coin, the Peutinger map, the death prediction by Kalanus and Plutarch’s testimony regarding the slow poison suggest that Alexander was murdered.

The Puranas even identify the weapon as the “Destroyer of Time.”

Further reading:
"The Murder of Alexander the Great: Book 1 - The Puranas." - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999071416

"The Murder of Alexander the Great: Book 2 - The Secret War."- https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999071440
Alexias
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Re: Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

Post by Alexias »

Ok, I took the first part of this seriously, but having checked Plutarch (ch 64.) I think your chronology and logic are off.

Firstly, we appear to be talking about the bottom three coins on this page http://coinindia.com/galleries-telephos.html. The legend on the reverse is given as this Kharoshthi legend around: maharajasa / kalanakra / masa teliphasa, which differs slightly from your inscription “Maharajasa Kalana kramasa Telephasa.” No translation is given on the coin page, but on this page of Kharoshthi text translations, Kala, the greeting apparently used by Kalanus appears to be a title. https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/t ... docts.html

That isn't really relevant though. If you look at Chapter 65 of Plutarch https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/ ... er*/9.html, Plutarch has actually placed the encounter with the gymnosophists after the destruction of the Mallian city where Alexander was wounded. This is much further south than Taxila, and probably about three maybe four months later. I think you have been mislead by the mention of Taxiles, who appears to have still been with Alexander on his southward march. Plutarch appears to have shifted the chronology of the oxhide incident to link Calanus's teaching to the other gymnosphists, but we have no idea when he actually provided the analogy. It certainly though wasn't anything to do with the mutiny of the troops as Calanus does not appear to have been part of Alexander's entourage at this point.

Calanus certainly would not have sacrificed at the 12 altars erected by Alexander after the mutiny, and no one would have paid any attention to any divinations he may or may not have made. He would not have known how to read Macedonian signs derived from a sacrifice.
On the altar in Kurukshetra, Alexander inadvertently followed the advice of the most dangerous opponent he had ever faced. He was unarmed and pious, and beyond any suspicious attributes of an enemy. He had lead Alexander into a death trap at the furthest corner of the primitive world at Patala at the mouth of the Indus, where Alexander was trapped for about 6 months. In the Indian texts, Patala was the netherworld ruled by the demons. (Ajith Kumar, The Murder of Alexander the Great, Book 2: The Secret War.)
I am afraid this is nonsense. Alexander's desire to see the Outer Ocean was long known. He was also establishing the boundaries of his empire and attempting to open up trading routes. Patala was meant to be a trading port the equivalent of what Alexandria in Egypt became, but the hostility of the locals and the difficulties of navigating the Indus delta meant it was a project that didn't really materialise.
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Re: Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

Post by Ajith »

Thank you Alexias for your valuable comments.

I wish to refer to some scholars on the topics raised by you.

1) Regarding the Kharosti script on the coin:

Please see the following paper from a well known historian and numismatist, Osmond Bopearachchi, which clearly reads the "Kalanakramasa" text on the coin and says:

"Perhaps the naked Brahman depicted on this coin reflects the acquaintance of the Greeks with the gymnosophists of India."
(https://www.orientalnumismaticsociety.o ... NS_145.pdf ;
INDIAN BRAHMAN ON A COIN OF INDO-GREEK TELEPHUS Osmund Bopearachchi (C.N.R.S. Paris).

2) Regarding the chronology of the meeting of Kalanus with Alexander:

Arrian has recorded the intriguing episode: “On the stately appearance of Alexander and his huge army at the city gates of Taxila, some naked Brahman ascetics standing by the roadside, dismally stamped their feet on the ground and gave no other signs of interest.” (Arrian, Anabasis, 7.1.5)

"Aristobulus says, that he saw at Taxila two sophists (wise men), both Brachmanes, the elder had his head shaved, but the younger wore his hair.... The king sent after him, but he bade the king to come to him, if he wanted anything of him. The other accompanied the king to the last." (Strabo, Geography, 15.1.61.)

Again, Onesecritus was deputed by Alexander while in Taxila to meet Kalanus. "Onesicritus found, at the distance of 20 stadia from the city, fifteen men standing in different postures." (Strabo, Geography 15.1.63)

"Onesecritus says that he talked to one of these sophists, Kalanus, who then accompanied the king as far as Persia." (Strabo, Geography,15.1.64.)

According to Diodorus, 113th Olympic Games were held when Alexander conquered Kandahar (Arachosia) in 327 BC. “Then, next year (326 BC) Alexander repaired his army in the land of Taxiles.(Diodorus, History, 17.87.1.)

These entries confirm that Kalanus joined Alexander's camp at Taxila soon after he entered India in April 326 BC. The altar sacrifice that ended the Indian campaign was performed by Kalanus in August 326 BC. See the chronology and details in my Book.

3) Alexander was trapped at Patala.

Alexander reached Patala at the time of the rising of Sirius, on 23 July 325 BC. It was the monsoon season again, and the whole region of Patala would again be flooded, as the rivers up north were surging in turbulence.

There was no exit routes from Patala, as the flooded river in the north had led them to the Patala coast, which was sandwiched between two great desserts. In fact, Alexander had no idea where he was going, though the Indians knew the risks of the route he was taking to lands end.

Primitive Europeans believed that India was the eastern part of Egypt, to the east of Ethiopia. Alexander had read Homer, who said in the Odyssey that the Ethiopians were divided in two and lived at the end of the world: one part toward the setting sun, the other toward the rising sun. Herodotus also calls Indians by the name “Ethiopians.”

Alexander, like all other Greeks, was quite ignorant of the topography of the Indus and of the geographical conditions of his marching route.
This ignorance is clear from the fact that on seeing crocodiles in the Indus, Alexander concluded that he had found the source of the Nile River.
From Taxila, he naively wrote to his mother that he had found the source of the Nile River in India, while the Nile actually runs through Egypt on another continent.

"He determined to sail down the Hydaspes to the Great Sea. [2] He had already seen crocodiles on the Indus, as on no other river except the Nile, and beans growing on the banks of the Akesines, of the same sort as the land of Egypt produces; and, having heard that the Akesines runs into the Indus, he thought he had found the origin of the Nile. [3] His idea was that the Nile rose somewhere thereabouts in India, flowed through a great expanse of desert, and there lost the name of Indus, and then, where it began to flow through inhabited country, got the name of Nile from the Ethiopians in those parts and the Egyptians, or that of Aigyptos, which Homer gave in his poem,[1] whence the name of the land, and that it then issued into the inner sea. [4] In fact when writing to Olympias about the Indian country, Alexander wrote among other things that he thought he had discovered the springs of the Nile, drawing a conclusion about matters of so much importance from very slender indications." (Arrian, Anabasis, 6.1.)

The Indians built the boats to send Alexander's army cunningly to Patala.
May be he wanted to see the great ocean, but the Indians had other plans set up for him.
He was stuck at Patala from July 325 BC to September 325 BC and the final march ahead resulted in great tragedy as a major part of his army perished in the dessert.
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Re: Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

Post by Alexias »

Thank you for your reply.

1/ The link you provided does not give a translation of the legend on the coin. It states "As Arnold Momigliano
(p 85) has correctly pointed out that Clearchus of Soli, pupil of Aristotle, who must have read Megasthenes, went a step further and
suggested that the Jews were in fact the descendants of the philosophers of India whom he called Kalanoi The Kalanoi in their turn were
descended from the Persian Magi (Fr 5-13 Wehrli)". This does not support your contention that the kalanakmmasa in the inscription refers to a specific person named Kalanus. It would seem far more likely that it is a generic term referring to this group of philosophers.

Plutarch says that Kalanus was not the man's real name. Why would the coin refer to him by a nickname rather than his real name, especially a nickname given by Greeks when you claim Telephus "was trying to restore the Indian legacy in the country of Taxila".

2/ Yes, I agree that Plutarch has transposed the meeting with Kalanus to later in the Indian campaign. However this makes no difference to your contention that "The altar sacrifice that ended the Indian campaign was performed by Kalanus in August 326 BC." What is your proof for this? Why would Alexander, a religious man who sacrificed to the gods daily, allow someone who did not believe in his gods to sacrifice on their altars? And why would he pay any attention to Kalanus's divination (if he in fact made any)? Kalanus was not a diviner by profession who interpreted omens as messages from the gods. He certainly would not have had any familiarity with Greek divination.

There is also the suspicion that the unfavourable omens revealed by the Greek priests for continuing further east were a face-saving exercise for Alexander so that he could return westwards with the gods approval.

3/ Alexander's overall geography of the Indus region was at fault, and overly optimistic. This however, is very different from saying that Alexander was 'trapped' or lost. There was nothing to stop him from re-tracing his route back along the Indus and heading westwards by the route taken by Craterus, had he so wished. Alexander being Alexander though wanted to conquer the region and, as I said set up trade routes. This was the reason for the march through the Gedrosian desert. It became something of a disaster because Alexander underestimated the difficulties and because the fleet which was meant to supply the army was delayed by bad weather.
The Indians built the boats to send Alexander's army cunningly to Patala.
Under instruction from Macedonian and Greek engineers. Why would the Indians be anxious to send Alexander to Patala? Patala is a considerable distance from the Gedrosian desert, and the area appears to have been quite heavily populated and there was considerable fighting before Alexander had subdued the region sufficiently before moving further westwards.
May be he wanted to see the great ocean, but the Indians had other plans set up for him.
Presumably we have to buy your book to find out what these were?
He was stuck at Patala from July 325 BC to September 325 BC and the final march ahead resulted in great tragedy as a major part of his army perished in the dessert.
He was waiting for the end of the monsoon season. He was also exploring the western and eastern arms of the Indus delta to discover a suitable route for trading ships, while Hephaestion built a harbour and fortress at Patala. These are not the actions of someone who felt 'trapped', although Hephaestion came under attack from the local troops. This hostility was why Nearchus' fleet did not leave on schedule, went down the eastern rather than the western arm of the delta (from memory), and then became becalmed.
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Re: Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

Post by Ajith »

Thanks Alexias for studying my notes carefully.

Too many questions to answer briefly here. I wish you would have the time to read my 2 books for the answers.

I have posted a book review on the related page in the Forum.
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Re: Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

Post by Ajith »

Regarding the "KALANA KRAMASA" legend on the coin, I found this note that explains it:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... sia%29.pdf

Journal_of_the_Asiatic_Society_of_Bengal 1898.
V. A. Smith— Numismatic Notes and Novelties. Page 131

Obv. BAEIAEOZ EYEPrEToY THAEo0Y. Giant (Skythes ? ), his body ending in three serpents ; holds in each hand, hammer (?)
Rev, Kharosthl legend, Maharajasa palanakramasa (or perhaps, palanaksamasa) Teliphasa.

Helios radiate, facing, clad in tunic and chlamys, holds long sceptre; beside him male figure wrapped in mantle, wearing wreath, or horned; in field, mon. Weight 37. Diam. "7. The long epithet which is the Prakrit equivalent of evepyerov appears to be the same on the new coin as on the previously known hemidrachms. The reading is unfortunately doubtful.

Lassen read parakaramasa, which, as Von Sallet remarks, is certainly erroneous.

Cunningham suggested kalanakramasa. Von Sallet reads kalana- (or kalaka-) kramasa.

I agree that the first character is ka, and that the second consonant is l. But the new coin shows a short vertical stroke across the horizontal line of the l, which converts the character into li, or le. The third character, a hook turned to the right, is certainly either the cerebral n, or the dental n.

The first element of the word therefore reads kalina, or kalena. Lengthening the vowels it may be read as kalina, (or kalena), and the whole compound taken as kalinakramasa. Mr. Bendall’s palanaksamasa does not seem to be admissible. But, though kalinakramasa seems to be a good reading of the letters, I do not understand how that form can be used as a translation of EYEPrEToY, ‘benefactor.’1

[1 Editors note: I have not the slightest doubt that the reading of this word is kalanakramasa, or in Sanskrit kalyanakarmanah, which corresponds exactly to the Greek EYEPrEToY.—Ed.].
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Re: Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

Post by Alexias »

The first element of the word therefore reads kalina, or kalena. Lengthening the vowels it may be read as kalina, (or kalena), and the whole compound taken as kalinakramasa. Mr. Bendall’s palanaksamasa does not seem to be admissible. But, though kalinakramasa seems to be a good reading of the letters, I do not understand how that form can be used as a translation of EYEPrEToY, ‘benefactor.’1

[1 Editors note: I have not the slightest doubt that the reading of this word is kalanakramasa, or in Sanskrit kalyanakarmanah, which corresponds exactly to the Greek EYEPrEToY.—Ed.].
But you still haven't provided an independent translation of this word, other than what appears to be your translation, proving that it relates to the proper name Kalanus.
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Re: Alexander the Great, the Telephos coin and Kalanus

Post by Alexias »

Ajith wrote: Fri May 27, 2022 4:50 am Thanks Alexias for studying my notes carefully.

Too many questions to answer briefly here. I wish you would have the time to read my 2 books for the answers.

I have posted a book review on the related page in the Forum.
Based on what I have seen so far, I have no intention of reading your books. You haven't even said what your theory is. Are you proposing that Kalanus was behind an Indian conspiracy to murder Alexander and that the only hint of this is a dubious translation of an inscription on a coin that is 250 years after the event?
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