Alexander - The Great ?
The past few days have been really hectic, I'm just unable to find time for replying to mails, returning calls et all. I have conf call tomorrow morning & gotta sleep early but just before I hit the sack, I thought I would post a few thoughts.
A couple of weeks back I saw the movie Alexander (rather pathetic in its own right) with a friend of mine. I told my friend that I don't believe that Alexander was that great a guy (leave alone an Emperor). My friend just humbly reminded me that there are just 2 men who are called 'The Great'. One's the guy in question Alexander & our own Asoka.
Before talking about Aleaxander we just need to spare a couple of moments to Asoka. Asoka was one of the greatest Emperors in the Indian History. It's a historical fact that Asoka is one of the greatest warriors & was one of the very few to have defeated Kalinga. Kalinga has always been a very brave kingdoms & almost every war over Kalinga has resulted in enormous Man & Material damage to both the sides.
It's well known that Asoka transformed in to something more than a normal man or an Emperor after the Kalinga war. It's mainly for this tranformation & his efforts to in serving the humanity that he's known as Asoka The Great. Asoka & his son Mahendra (or Mahinda as known in SriLanka) spread Buddhism & followed the principles to the best possible extent. These gentlemen were one of the very first to spread buddhism in Srilanka, where currently Buddhism is one of the predominant religions.
Alexander, born to an greek Emperor, (I know bits & pieces of greek mythology) had most of the world known to men under his control in his early 20's. Thats a cool thing, but we need to give a few thoughts to this. As per the myth once he started on the conquests, he never returned back to his homeland. I really doubt if he made it to India in the first place, leave alone capturing babylon, persia et all. Even if we assume that he had captured all these countries & made it to India, he would have waged war with few kingdoms in the North western part of India (if he came via Hindkush). If my memory serves me correctly he won a war against King Purushotamma (PORUS), Porus demanded that he be treated as a king & Alexander did treat him as one. These are common history stuff in India.
Emperor is someone who has everything under his control. If Alexander was busy going on errands to capture kindoms, who'll make sure that everything is under control for him ? Man has been a horrible creature from the time he walked on the surface of mother earth. Alexander would have made more enemies than friends, for killing so many (if there had been wars) on both his side & the opposite. I feel Alexander was lucky that he was born such a long time back, had he been present during the days of Mauryas, Moguls or Lodis he would have been sent home packing.
Is it really correct to call a man great 'cause he rode through barren lands & fought with a few cities or towns with a larger than life force ? Other question is India, back then India was bigger than what it is today. just fighting with some tribes somewhere doesn't make anybody great or make him the Emperor for India.
I wanna say few more things, but am feeling too sleepy to state them now :-)
A couple of weeks back I saw the movie Alexander (rather pathetic in its own right) with a friend of mine. I told my friend that I don't believe that Alexander was that great a guy (leave alone an Emperor). My friend just humbly reminded me that there are just 2 men who are called 'The Great'. One's the guy in question Alexander & our own Asoka.
Before talking about Aleaxander we just need to spare a couple of moments to Asoka. Asoka was one of the greatest Emperors in the Indian History. It's a historical fact that Asoka is one of the greatest warriors & was one of the very few to have defeated Kalinga. Kalinga has always been a very brave kingdoms & almost every war over Kalinga has resulted in enormous Man & Material damage to both the sides.
It's well known that Asoka transformed in to something more than a normal man or an Emperor after the Kalinga war. It's mainly for this tranformation & his efforts to in serving the humanity that he's known as Asoka The Great. Asoka & his son Mahendra (or Mahinda as known in SriLanka) spread Buddhism & followed the principles to the best possible extent. These gentlemen were one of the very first to spread buddhism in Srilanka, where currently Buddhism is one of the predominant religions.
Alexander, born to an greek Emperor, (I know bits & pieces of greek mythology) had most of the world known to men under his control in his early 20's. Thats a cool thing, but we need to give a few thoughts to this. As per the myth once he started on the conquests, he never returned back to his homeland. I really doubt if he made it to India in the first place, leave alone capturing babylon, persia et all. Even if we assume that he had captured all these countries & made it to India, he would have waged war with few kingdoms in the North western part of India (if he came via Hindkush). If my memory serves me correctly he won a war against King Purushotamma (PORUS), Porus demanded that he be treated as a king & Alexander did treat him as one. These are common history stuff in India.
Emperor is someone who has everything under his control. If Alexander was busy going on errands to capture kindoms, who'll make sure that everything is under control for him ? Man has been a horrible creature from the time he walked on the surface of mother earth. Alexander would have made more enemies than friends, for killing so many (if there had been wars) on both his side & the opposite. I feel Alexander was lucky that he was born such a long time back, had he been present during the days of Mauryas, Moguls or Lodis he would have been sent home packing.
Is it really correct to call a man great 'cause he rode through barren lands & fought with a few cities or towns with a larger than life force ? Other question is India, back then India was bigger than what it is today. just fighting with some tribes somewhere doesn't make anybody great or make him the Emperor for India.
I wanna say few more things, but am feeling too sleepy to state them now :-)
posted by கோகுல் சத்தியமூர்த்தி at 11:43 PM
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