Place · sacred river · India
Vipāśā / Beas
Also known as Beas, Vipasha, Vipas, Hyphasis, Bias
Vipāśā, the unfettered, which rises at the Beas Kund below the Rohtang and runs through Kullu and Mandi before turning out onto the plain. It is the shortest of the five and the only one entirely within India, and it is where Alexander’s army refused to go further in 326 BCE — the eastern limit of the Macedonian march. It joins the Sutlej at Harike.
- Periods
- Indus Valley Urbanisation, Vedic Age, Second Urbanisation, Classical and Puranic Age, Regional Flourishing, Islamic Age and Bhakti Traditions, Early Modern Age, British Colonial Age, Republic and Living Practice
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — The physical place or feature is identifiable; its sacred origin or association belongs to a textual or living tradition.
- Location
- 31.600, 75.400 (approximate)
Worth knowing
The name is glossed as the river that unbound: the sage Vasishtha is said to have thrown himself into it bound, and been released. The Greeks called it the Hyphasis, and Alexander raised twelve altars on its bank before turning back, none of which has ever been found.
Connections (2)
- River flowŚutudrī / Sutlej
The Beas ends at Harike, where it meets the Sutlej and the confluence has become a wetland and a bird sanctuary. It is the only one of the five that never reaches the Chenab or the Indus under its own name, and the shortest course of the seven — which did not stop it being the point at which Alexander’s army refused to go any further east.
- Biographical routeAlexander of Macedon
The Beas is where the march ended. In 326 BCE, after the Hydaspes, Alexander’s army refused to cross the Hyphasis and go on towards the Ganga; he sulked in his tent, gave way, raised twelve altars on the bank and turned south down the Indus instead. The eastern limit of the Macedonian empire is a river in Punjab, fixed by soldiers who would not go further.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Beas River”, “Rigvedic rivers” and “Alexander the Great”.
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