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The Indus river

The great river of Hindush, explored for Darius by Scylax, about 517 BCE

In the game: Level 5: The Charter, Mycale

The Indus flows from the mountains of the north-west to the Arabian Sea. Its valley became the Persian province of Hindush under Darius. Herodotus says Darius sent Scylax of Caryanda down the river to the sea, then conquered the Indians and used the sea route.

In the game: The Indus is the road of Scylax's voyage in the Susa level: the India trade partner stays closed until Scylax has sailed it, and its ivory comes up for the palace.

The voyage down the river

Ancient account

Herodotus says Darius wished to know where the Indus, a second river with crocodiles after the Nile, met the sea. He sent ships with Scylax of Caryanda, who set out from Caspatyrus in Pactyice, sailed down the river and across the sea westward, and came in the thirtieth month to Egypt.

Herodotus 4.44

Hindush in the record

In the record

Darius's inscriptions list Hindush among his lands, though the Behistun inscription of about 520 does not. The Persepolis reliefs show its people bringing jars, probably of gold dust, and the Susa charter says ivory came from Hindush, Kush and Arachosia.

DPh; DNa; DSf

Gold dust and tribute

Ancient account

Herodotus says the Indians paid 360 talents of gold dust a year, the largest tribute of any people. He tells a tale of giant ants that dig up gold-bearing sand, which the Indians steal on fast camels. The ants are a traveller's story; the gold tribute fits the jars on the reliefs.

Herodotus 3.94, 3.98-105

How far east the King ruled

Disputed

How much of the Indus valley the Persians held is argued. Most historians think Hindush covered the middle and lower Indus, with Gandhara to the north as a separate land. The voyage's route back by sea is also doubted by some, since Scylax's own book is lost.

P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 2002