Ἰνδικά 26: Arrian. Ind. c. 10

26

Λέγεται δὲ καὶ τάδε, μνημήια ὅτι Ἰνδοὶ τοῖς τελευτήσασιν οὐ ποιέουσιν, ἀλλὰ τὰς ἀρετὰς γὰρ τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἱκανὰς ἐς μνήμην τίθενται τοῖσιν ἀποθανοῦσι, καὶ τὰς ᾠδὰς αἳ αὐτοῖσιν ἐπᾴδονται. (2) Πολίων δὲ ἀριθμὸν οὐκ εἶναι ἂν ἀτρεκὲς ἀναγράψαι τῶν Ἰνδικῶν ὑπὸ πλήθεος· ἀλλὰ γὰρ ὅσαι παραποτάμιαι αὐτέων ἢ παραθαλάσσιαι, ταύτας μὲν ξυλίνας ποιέεσθαι· (3) οὐ γὰρ εἶναι ἐκ πλίνθου ποιεομένας διαρκέσαι ἐπὶ χρόνον τοῦ τε ὕδατος ἕνεκα τοῦ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ὅτι οἱ ποταμοὶ αὐτοῖσιν ὑπερβάλλοντες ὑπὲρ τὰς ὄχθας ἐμπιπλᾶσι τοῦ ὕδατος τὰ πεδία. (4) Ὅσαι δὲ ἐν ὑπερδεξίοισί τε καὶ μετεώροισι τόποισι καὶ τούτοισιν ὑψηλοῖσιν, ᾠκισμέναι εἰσὶ, ταύτας δὲ ἐκ πλίνθου τε καὶ πηλοῦ ποιέεσθαι· (5) μεγίστην δὲ πόλιν ἐν Ἰνδοῖσιν εἶναι Παλίμβοθρα καλεομένην, ἐν τῇ Πρασίων γῇ, ἵνα αἱ συμβολαί εἰσι τοῦ τε Ἐραννοβόα ποταμοῦ καὶ τοῦ Γάγγεω· τοῦ μὲν Γάγγεω, τοῦ μεγίστου ποταμῶν· ὁ δὲ Ἐραννοβόας τρίτος μὲν ἂν εἴη τῶν Ἰνδῶν ποταμῶν, μέζων δὲ τῶν ἀλλῃ καὶ οὗτος· ἀλλὰ ξυγχωρέει αὐτὸς τῷ Γάγγῃ, ἐπειδὰν ἐμβάλλῃ ἐς αὐτὸν τὸ ὕδωρ. (6) Καὶ λέγει Μεγασθένης, μῆκος μὲν ἐπέχειν τὴν πόλιν κατ’ ἑκατέρην τὴν πλευρὴν ἵναπερ μακροτάτη αὐτὴ ἑωυτῆς ᾤκισται ἐς ὀγδοήκοντα σταδίους τὸ δὲ πλάτος ἐς πεντεκαίδεκα· (7) τάφρον δὲ περιβεβλῆσθαι τῇ πόλι τὸ εὖρος ἑξάπλεθρον, τὸ δὲ βάθος τριήκοντα πήχεων· πύργους δὲ ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ πεντακοσίους ἐπέχειν τὸ τεῖχος καὶ πύλας τέσσαρας καὶ ἑξήκοντα. (8) Εἶναι δὲ καὶ τόδε μέγα ἐν τῇ Ἰνδῶν γῇ, πάντας Ἰνδοὺς εἶναι ἐλευθέρους, οὐδέ τινα δοῦλον εἶναι Ἰνδόν· τοῦτο μὲν Λακεδαιμονίοισιν ἐς ταὐτὸ συμβαίνει καὶ Ἰνδοῖσι. (9) Λακεδαιμονίοισι μέν γε οἱ εἵλωτες δοῦλοί εἰσι καὶ τὰ δούλων ἐργάζονται Ἰνδοῖσι δὲ οὐδὲ ἄλλος δοῦλός ἐστι μήτι γε Ἰνδῶν τις.

It is farther said that the Indians do not rear monuments to the dead, but consider the virtues which men have displayed in life, and the songs in which their praises are celebrated, sufficient to preserve their memory after death. But of their cities it is said that the number is so great that it cannot be stated with precision, but that such cities as are situated on the banks of rivers or on the sea-coast are built of wood instead of brick, being meant to last only for a time, — so destructive are the heavy rains which pour down, and the rivers also when they overflow their banks and inundate the plains, — while those cities which stand on commanding situations and lofty eminences are built of brick and mud; that the greatest city in India is that which is called Palimbothra, in the dominions of the Prasians, where the streams of the Erannoboas and the Ganges unite, — the Ganges being the greatest of all rivers, and the Erannoboas being perhaps the third largest of Indian rivers, though greater than the greatest rivers elsewhere; but it is smaller than the Ganges where it falls into it. Megasthenes informs us that this city stretched in the inhabited quarters to an extreme length on each side of eighty stadia, and that its breadth was fifteen stadia, and that a ditch encompassed it all round, which was six hundred feet in breadth and thirty cubits in depth, and that the wall was crowned with 670 towers and had four-and-sixty gates. The same writer tells us farther this remarkable fact about India, that all the Indians are free, and not one of them is a slave. The Lakedaimonians and the Indians are here so far in agreement. The Lakedaimonians, however, hold the Helots as slaves, and these Helots do servile labour; but the Indians do not even use aliens as slaves, and much less a countryman of their own.