Indus River

So pack your bags and let's go.

Have you ever heard of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar? History is full of famous conquerors, but how many of us know the story of the man who built an empire larger than the ancient world had ever seen? Stretching from the Aegean Sea to the Indus River, this empire was ruled by a man who called himself King of the World.

His life is filled with legends, stories of strange dreams, secret identities, and dangerous battles.

But how much of it is true? And how did this boy from Iran rise up to rule the largest empire the ancient world had ever known? This is the tale of Cyrus the Great, King of the Persian Empire.

But as to Asia, most of it was discovered by Darius.

There is a river, Indus, second of all rivers in the production of crocodiles.

Darius, desiring to know where this Indus empties into the sea, sent ships manned by Scylax, a man of Carianda, and others whose word he trusted.

These set out from the city of Caspatyrus and the Pactyan country and sailed down the river toward the east and the sunrise until they came to the sea and voyaging over the sea west they came in the thirtieth month to that place from which the Egyptian king sent the above-mentioned Phoenicians to sail around Libya.

After this circumnavigation, Darius subjugated the Indians and made use of this sea.

geographies of the world or pose problems potentially significant dangers of escalation or expansion.

So think of the conflict that we were talking about in the Indus Basin, where India and Pakistan have longstanding tensions between them related not only to the Indus River Basin water, but territorial contestation around Jammu and Kashmir, through which the main tributaries of the Indus flow, India and Pakistan, are nuclear-armed neighbors.

The suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty may have raised potentially dangerous lessons for India and Pakistan in the recent conflict in that modern technology of missiles and drones and their use in the May crisis of last year seem to have taught India and Pakistan that there may be more steps or rungs on the escalatory ladder through non-contact warfare.

Because when civilian infrastructure becomes in the minds of adversaries a potential weapon or tool of conflict, then a preemptive strike or a defensive strike or tensions around that infrastructure can in turn become not only a potential consequence of conflict, but possibly a logic or a driver to conflict.

[upbeat music] Welcome back to Beyond the Indus, a podcast on the geopolitics and economics of South Asia and the Indo-Pacific.

I'm your host, Tushar Shetty.

Well, the BRICS summit just wrapped up last weekend, and as we saw the leaders of the Global South, representing more than half the world's population, descend on New Delhi, we were treated to a weekend of glamour, celebration, bonhomie, and a couple of interesting surprises.

But as to Asia, most of it was discovered by Darius.

There is a river, Indus, second of all rivers in the production of crocodiles.

Darius, desiring to know where this Indus empties into the sea, sent ships manned by Scylax, a man of Carianda, and others whose word he trusted.

These set out from the city of Caspatyrus and the Pactyic country and sailed down the river toward the east and the sunrise until they came to the sea.

And voyaging over the sea west, they came in the thirtieth month to that place from which the Egyptian king sent the above-mentioned Phoenicians to sail around Libya.

But there was a third major cradle of civilization farther east in South Asia, the Indus Valley.

The Indus River flows from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean, mainly through what is now Pakistan, and it played a role similar to that of the Nile in Egypt or the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia.

Along its banks, favorable conditions and productive agriculture supported growing populations and trade within the region.

Cities emerged and flourished there during the Bronze Age.

This was partly because it was farther away from Europe and because many Western views of antiquity were shaped by the Greco-Roman heritage.

As a result, there was traditionally great interest in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, extending eastward as far as Persia, but less understanding of what had taken place beyond them.

The Indus River was known to the Greeks and Romans.

The Persian Empire had expanded into the Indus region, and Greek travelers had visited it.