Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6.66

6.66

regi LX peditum, equites M, elephanti DCC in procinctu bellorum excubant. namque vita mitioribus populis Indorum multipertita degitur: tellurem exercent, militiam alii capessunt, merces alii suas evehunt, externas invehunt, res publicas optumi ditissimique temperant, iudicia reddunt, regibus adsident. quintum genus, celebratae ibi et prope in religionem versae sapientiae deditum, voluntaria semper morte vitam accenso prius rogo finit. unum super haec est semiferum ac plenum laboris inmensi — a quo supra dicta continentur — venandi elephantos domandique: his arant, his vehuntur, haec maxime novere pecuaria, his militant dimicantque pro finibus; dilectum in bella vires et aetas atque magnitudo faciunt.

One of these classes tills the earth, another attends to military affairs, others again are occupied in mercantile pursuits, while the wisest and the most wealthy among them have the management of the affairs of state—act as judges, and give counsel to the king. The fifth class, entirely devoting themselves to the pursuit of wisdom, which in these countries is almost held in the same veneration as religion, always end their life by a voluntary death upon the lighted pile. In addition to these, there is a class in a half-savage state, and doomed to endless labour; by means of their exertions, all the classes previously mentioned are supported. It is their duty to hunt the elephant, and to tame him when captured; for it is by the aid of these animals that they plough; by these animals they are conveyed from place to place; these in especial they look upon as constituting their flocks and herds; by their aid they wage their wars, and fight in defence of their territories. Strength, age, and size, are the points usually considered in making choice of these animals.

CHAP. 22. (18.)—THE GANGES. Some writers have stated that this river, like the Nile, takes its rise from unknown sources, and, in a similar manner, waters the neighbouring territory; others, again, say that it rises in the mountains of Scythia. They state also that nineteen rivers discharge their waters into it; those among them that are navigable, besides the rivers already mentioned, are the Condochates, the Erannoboas, the Cosoagus, and the Sonus. Other writers again say that it bursts forth at its very source with a loud noise, hurling itself over rocks and precipices; and that after it has reached the plains, its waters become more tranquil, and it pauses for a time in a certain lake, after which it flows gently on. They say also that it is eight miles in breadth, where it is the very narrowest, and one hundred stadia where it is but moderately wide, and that it is nowhere less than twenty paces in depth. The last nation situate on the banks of the Ganges is that of the Gangarides Calingæ; the city where their king dwells has the name of Protalis. (19.) This king has sixty thousand foot-soldiers, one thousand horse, and seven hundred elephants, always caparisoned ready for battle. The people of the more civilized nations of India are divided into several classes.