The Classical Accounts of India c10: III. Indica by Arrian

The Classical Accounts of India c10

Language: English

c10.s1 Introduction — 2 parts
c10.s2 The Indika of Arrian — 36 parts

III. Indica by Arrian

Introduction

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Arrian, who variously distinguished himself as a philosopher, a statesman, a soldier, and an historian, was born in Nikomedia, in Bithynia, towards the end of the first century. He became a pupil of the philosopher Epiktetos, whose lectures he published. Having been appointed prefect of Kappadokia under the Emperor Hadrian, he acquired during his administration a practical knowledge of the tactics of war in repelling an attack made upon his province by the Alani and Messagetae. His talents recommended him to the favour of the succeeding Emperor, Antoninus Pius, by whom he was raised to the consulship (A.D. 146). In his later years he retired to his native town, where he applied his leisure to the composition of work on history, to which he was led by his admiration of Xenophon. He died at an advanced age, in the reign of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The work by which he is best known is his account of the Asiatic expedition of Alexander the Great, which is remarkable alike for the accuracy of its narrative, and the Xenophontic ease and clearness, if not the perfect purity, of its style. His work on India may be regarded as a continuation of his *Anabasis*, though it is not written, like the *Anabasis*, in the Attic dialect, but in the Ionic The reason may have been that he wished his work to supersede the old and less accurate account of India written in Ionic by Ktesias of Knidos.

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The *Indika* consists of three parts—the first gives a general description of India, based chiefly on the accounts of the country given by Megasthenes and Eratosthenes (chaps. i—xvii); the second gives an account of the voyage made by Nearchus the Cretan from the Indus to the Pasitigris, based entirely on the narrative of the voyage written by Nearchus himself (chaps. xviii.—xlii); the third contains a collection of proofs to show that the southern parts of the world are uninhabitable on account of the great heat (chap. xliii to the end).

The Indika of Arrian

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1\. The regions beyond the river Indus on the west are inhabited, up to the river Cophen, by two Indian tribes, the Astakenoi and the Assakenoi, who are not men of great stature like the Indians on the other side of the Indus, nor so brave, nor yet so swarthy as most Indians. They were in old times subject to the Assyrians, then after a period of Median rule submitted to the Persians, and paid to Cyrus the son of Cambyses the tribute from their land which Cyrus had imposed. The Nysaioi, however, are not an Indian race, but descendants of those who came into India with Dionysus,—perhaps not only of those Greeks who had been disabled for service in the course of the wars which

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[^asterisk]: * This Introduction and the Text that follows are based on M-II. For a short account of Arrian cf. above, p. 5

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Dionysus waged against the Indians, but perhaps also of natives of the country whom Dionysus, with their own consent, had settled along with the Greeks. The district in which he planted this colony he named Nysaia, after Mount Nysa, and the city itself Nysa. But the mountain close by the city, and on the lower slopes of which it is built, is designated Meros, from the accident which befell the god immediately after his birth. These stories about Dionysus are of course but fictions of the poets, and we leave them to the learned among the Greeks or barbarians to explain as they may. In the dominions of the Assacenoi there is a great city called Massaga, the seat of the sovereign power which controls the whole realm. And there is another city, Peucelaïtis, which is also of great size and not far from the Indus. These settlements lie on the other side of the river Indus, and extend in a westward direction as far as the Cophen.

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II. Now the countries which lie to the east of the Indus I take to be India Proper, and the people who inhabit them to be Indians. The northern boundaries of India *so defined* are formed by Mount Taurus, though the range does not retain that name in these parts. Taurus begins from the sea which washes the coasts of Pamphylia, Lycia, and Cilicia, and stretches away towards the Eastern Sea, intersecting the whole continent of Asia. The range bears different names in the different countries which it traverses. In one place it is called Parapamisos, in another Emodos, and in a third Imaos, and it has perhaps other names besides. The Macedonians, again, who served with Alexander called it Caucasus,—this being another Caucasus and distinct from the Scythian so that the story went that Alexander penetrated to the regions beyond Caucasus.

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On the west the boundaries of India are marked by the river Indus all the way to the great ocean into which it pours its waters, which it does by two mouths. These mouths are not close to each other, like the five mouths of the Ister (Danube), but diverge like those of the Nile, by which the Egyptian delta is formed. The Indus in like manner makes an Indian delta, which is not inferior in area to the Egyptian, and is called in the Indian tongue Pattala.

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On the south-west, again, and on the south, India is bounded by the great ocean just mentioned, which also forms its boundary on the east. The parts toward the south about Pattala and the river Indus were seen by Alexander and many of the Greeks, but in an eastern direction Alexander did not penetrate beyond the river Hyphasis, though a few authors have described the country as far as the river Ganges and the parts near its mouths and the city of Palimbothra, which is the greatest in India, and situated near the Ganges.

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III. *I shall now state the dimensions of India*, and in doing so let me follow Eratosthenes of Cyrenê as the safest authority, for this Eratosthenes made its circuit a subject of special inquiry. He states, then, that if a line be drawn from Mount Taurus, where the Indus has its springs, along the course of that river and as far as the great ocean and the mouths of the Indus, this side of India will measure 13,000 stadia. But the contrary side, which diverges 'from the same point of Taurus and runs along the Eastern Sea, he makes of a much different length, for there is a headland which projects far out into the sea, and this headland is in length about 3,000 stadia. The eastern side of India would thus by his calculation measure 16,000 stadia, and this is what he assigns as the breadth of India. The length, again, from west to east as far as the city of Palimbothra he sets down, he says, as it had been measured by *schoeni*, since there existed a royal highway, and he gives it as 10,000 stadia. But as for the parts beyond they were not measured with equal accuracy. Those, however, who write from mere hearsay allege that the breadth of India, inclusive of the headland which projects into the sea, is about 10,000 stadia, while the length measured from the coast is about 20,000 stadia. But Ktesias of Knidos says that India equals in size all the rest of Asia, which is absurd; while Onesicritus as absurdly declares that it is the third part of the whole earth. Nearchus, again, says that it takes a journey of four months to traverse even the plain of India; while Megasthenes, who calls the breadth of India its extent from east to west, though others call this its length, says that where shortest the breadth is 16,000 stadia, and that its length—by which he means its extent from north to south—is, where narrowest, 22,300 stadia. But, whatever be its dimensions, the rivers of India are certainly the largest to be found in all Asia. The mightiest are the Ganges and the Indus, from which the country receives its name. Both are greater than the Egyptian Nile and the Scythian Ister even if their streams were united into one. I think, too, that even the Acesines is greater than either the Ister or the Nile where it joins the Indus after receiving its tributaries the Hydaspes and the Hydraotes, since it is at that point so much as 300 stadia in breadth. It is also possible that there are even many other larger rivers which take their course through India.

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IV. But I am unable to give with assurance of being accurate any information regarding the regions beyond the Hyphasis, since the progress of Alexander was arrested by that river. But to recur to the two greatest rivers, the Ganges and the Indus. Megasthenes states that of the two the Ganges is much the larger, and other writers who mention the Ganges agree with him; for, besides being of ample volume even where it issues from its springs, it receives as tributaries the river Kainas, and the Erannoboas, and the Kossoanos, which are all navigable. It receives, besides, the river Sonos and the Sittokatis, and the Solomatis, which are also navigable, and also the Kondochates, and the Sambos, and the Magon, and the Agoranis, and the Omalis. Moreover there fall into it the Kommenases, a great river, and the Kakouthis, and the Andomatis, which flows from the dominions of the Madyandinoi, an Indian tribe. In addition to all these, the Amystis, which flows past the city Katadupa, and the Oxymagis from the dominions of a tribe called the Pazalai, and the Errenysis from the Mathai, an Indian tribe, unite with the Ganges. Regarding these streams Megasthenes asserts that none of them is inferior to the Maiandros, even at the navigable part of its course; and as for the Ganges, it has a breadth where narrowest of one hundred stadia, while in many places it spreads out into lakes, so that when the country happens to be flat and destitute of elevations the opposite shores cannot be seen from each other. The Indus presents also, he says, similar characteristics. The Hydraotes, flowing from the dominions of the Kambistholi, falls into the Acesines after receiving the Hyphasis in its passage through the Astrybai, as well as the Saranges from the Kekians, and the Neudros from the Attakenoi. The Hydaspes again, rising in the dominions of the Oxydrakai, and bringing with it the Sinaros, received in the dominion of the Arispai, falls itself into the Akesines, while the Akesines joins the Indus in the dominions of the Malloi, but not until it has received the water of a great tributary, the Toutapos. Augmented by all these confluents the Acesines succeeds in imposing its name on the combined waters, and still retains it till it unites with the Indus. The Cophen, too, falls into the Indus, rising in Peucelaitis, and bringing with it the Malantos, and the Soastos, and the Garroia. Higher up than these, the Parenos and Saparnos, at no great distance from each other, empty themselves into the Indus, as does also the Soanos, which comes without a tributary from the hill-country of the Abissareans. According to Megasthenes most of these rivers are navigable. We ought not, therefore, to distrust what we are told regarding the Indus and the Ganges, that they are beyond comparison greater than the Ister and the Nile. In the case of the Nile we know that it does not receive any tributary, but that, on the contrary, in its passage through Egypt its waters are drawn off to fill the canals. As for the Ister, it is but an insignificant stream at its sources, and though it no doubt receives many confluents, still these are neither equal in number to the confluents of the Indus and Ganges, nor are they navigable like them, if we except a very few,—as, for instance, the Inn, and Save which I have myself seen. The Inn joins the Ister where the Noricans march with the Rhaetians, and the Save in the dominions of the Pannonians, at a place which is called Taurunum. Some one may perhaps know other navigable tributaries of the Danube, but the number certainly cannot be great.

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V. Now if anyone wishes to state a reason to account for the number and magnitude of the Indian rivers let him state it. As for myself I have written on this point, as on others, from hearsay; for Megasthenes has given the names even of other rivers which beyond both the Ganges and the Indus pour their waters into the Eastern Ocean and the outer basin of the Southern Ocean, so that he asserts that there are eight-and-fifty Indian rivers which are all of them navigable. But even Megasthenes so far as appears, did not travel over much of India, though no doubt he saw more of it than those who came with Alexander the son of Philip, for, as he tells us, he resided at the court of Sandracottus, the greatest king in India, and also at the court of Porus, who was still greater than he. This same Megasthenes then informs us that the Indians neither invade other men, nor do other men invade the Indians: for Sesostris the Egyptian, after having overrun the greater part of Asia, and advanced with his army as far as Europe, returned home; and Idanthyrsos the Skythian issuing from Skythia, subdued many nations of Asia, and carried his victorious arms even to the borders of Egypt; and Semiramis, again, the Assyrian queen, took in hand an expedition against India, but died before she could execute her design; and thus Alexander was the only conqueror who actually invaded the country. And regarding Dionysus many traditions are current to the effect that he also made an expedition into India, and subjugated the Indians before the days of Alexander. But of Heracles tradition does not say much. Of the expedition, however, which Bacchus led, the city of Nysa is no mean monument, while Mount Meros is yet another, and the ivy which grows thereon, and the practice observed by the Indians themselves of marching to battle with drums and cymbals, and of wearing a spotted dress such as was worn by the Bacchanals of Dionysus. On the other hand, there are but few memorials of Heracles, and it may be doubted whether even these are genuine: for the assertion that Heracles was not able to take the rock Aornus, which Alexander seized by force of arms, seems to me all a Macedonian vaunt, quite of a piece with their calling Parapamisus—Caucasus, though it had no connexion at all with Caucasus. In the same spirit, when they noticed a cave in the dominions of the Parapamisadai, they asserted that it was the cave of Prometheus the Titan, in which he had been suspended for stealing the fire. So also when they came among the Sibai, an Indian tribe, and noticed that they wore skins, they declared that the Sibai were descended from those who belonged to the expedition of Heracles and had been left behind: for, besides being dressed in skins, the Sibai carry a cudgel, and brand on the backs of their oxen the representation of a club, wherein the Macedonians recognized a memorial of the club of Heracles. But if any one believes all this, then this must be another Heracles,—not the Theban, but either the Tyrian or the Egyptian, or even some great king who belonged to the upper country which lies not far from India.

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VI. Let this *be said by way of a digression to discredit the accounts which some writers have given of the Indians beyond the Hyphasis, for those writers who were in Alexander’s expedition are not altogether unworthy of our faith when they describe India as far as the Hyphasis. Beyond that limit we have no real knowledge of the country; since this is the sort of account which Megasthenes gives us of an Indian river:—*Its name is the Silas; it flows fram a fountain, called after the river. through the dominions of the Silaeans, who again are called after the river and the fountain; the water of the river manifests this singular property—that there is nothing which it can buoy up, nor anything which can swim or float in it, but everything sinks down to the bottom, so that there is nothing in the world so thin and unsubstantial as this water. But *to proceed*. Rain falls in India during the summer, especially on the mountains Parapamisos and Emodos and the range of Imaos, and the rivers which issue from these are large and muddy. Rain during the same season falls also on the plains of India, so that much of the country is submerged: and indeed the army of Alexander was obliged at the time of midsummer to retreat in haste from the Acesines, because its waters overflowed the adjacent plains. So we may by analogy infer from these facts that as the Nile is subject to similar inundations, it is probable that rain falls during the summer on the mountains of Ethiopia, and that the Nile swollen with these rains overflows its banks and inundates Egypt. We find, at any rate, that this river, like those we have mentioned, flows at the same season of the year with a muddy current, which could not be the case if it flowed from melting snows, nor yet if its waters were driven back from its mouth by the force of the Etesian winds which blow throughout the hot season, and that it should flow from melting snow is all the more unlikely as snow cannot fall upon the Ethiopian mountains, on account of the burning heat; but that rain should fall on them, as on the Indian mountains, is not beyond probability, since India in other respects besides is not unlike Ethiopia. Thus the Indian rivers, like the Nile in Ethiopia and Egypt, breed crocodiles, while some of them have fish and monstrous creatures such as are found in the Nile, with the exception only of the hippopotamus, though Onesikritus asserts that they breed this animal also. With regard to the inhabitants, there is no great difference in type of figure between the Indians and the Ethiopians, though the Indians, no doubt, who live in the south-west bear a somewhat closer resemblance to the Ethiopians, being of black complexion and black-haired, though they are not so snub-nosed nor have the hair so curly; while the Indians who live further to the north are in person liker the Egyptians.

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VII. The Indian tribes, Megasthenes tells us, number in all 118. And I so far agree with him as to allow that they must be indeed numerous, but when he gives such a precise estimate I am at a loss to conjecture how he arrived at it, for the greater part of India he did not visit, nor is mutual intercourse maintained between all the tribes. He tells us further that the Indians were in old times nomadic, like those Scythians who did not till the soil, but roamed about in their wagons, as the seasons varied, from one part of Scythia to another, neither dwelling in towns nor worshipping in temples; and that the Indians likewise had neither towns nor temples of the gods, but were so barbarous that they wore the skins of such wild animals as they could kill, and subsisted on the bark of trees; that these trees were called in Indian speech *tala*,² and that there grew on them, as there grows at the top of the palm-trees, a fruit resembling balls of wool; that they subsisted also on such wild animals as they could catch, eating the flesh raw,—before, at least, the coming of Dionysus into India. Dionysus, however, when he came and had conquered the people, founded cities and gave laws to these cities, and introduced the use of wine among the Indians, as he had done among the Greeks, and taught them to sow the land, himself supplying seeds for the purpose,—either because Triptolemos, when he was sent by Dêmêter to sow all the earth, did not reach these parts, or this must have been some Dionysus who came to India before Triptolemos, and gave the people the seeds of cultivated plants. It is also said that Dionysus first yoked oxen to the plough, and made many of the Indians husbandmen instead of nomads, and furnished them with the implements of agriculture; and that the Indians worship the other gods, and Dionysus himself in particular, with cymbals and drums, because he so taught them; and that he also taught them the Satyric dance, or, as the Greeks call it, the *Kordax*; and that he instructed the Indians to let their hair grow long in honour of the god, and to wear the turban; and that he taught them to anoint themselves with unguents, so that even up to the time of Alexander the Indians were marshalled for battle to the sound of cymbals and drums.

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VIII. But when he was leaving India, after having established the new order of things, he appointed, it is said, Spatembas, one of his companions and the most conversant with Bacchic matters, to be the king of the country. When Spatembas died his son Boudyas succeeded to the sovereignty; the father reigning over the Indians fifty-two years, and the son twenty; the son of the latter, whose name was Kradeuas, duly inherited the kingdom, and thereafter the succession was generally hereditary, but that when a failure of heirs occurred in the royal house the Indians elected their sovereigns on the principle of merit; Heracles, however, who is currently reported to have *come as a stranger* into the country, is said to have been in reality a native of India. This Heracles is held in especial honour by the Sourasenoi, an Indian tribe who possess two large cities, Methora and Cleisobora, and through whose country flows a navigable river called the Iobares. But the dress which this Heracles wore, Megasthenes tells us, resembled that of the Theban Heracles, as the Indians themselves admit. It is further said that he had a very numerous progeny of male children born to him in India (for, like his Theban namesake, he married many wives), but that he had only one daughter. The name of this child was Pandaia, and the land in which she was born, and with the sovereignty of which Heracles entrusted her, was called after her name, Pandaia, and she received from the hands of her father 500 elephants, a force of cavalry 4000 strong, and another of infantry consisting of about 130,000 men. Some Indian writers say further of Heracles that when he was going over the world and ridding land and sea of whatever evil monsters infested them, he found in the sea an ornament for women, which even to this day the Indian traders who bring us their wares eagerly buy up and carry away to foreign markets, while it is even more eagerly bought up by the wealthy Romans of to-day, as it was wont to be by the wealthy Greeks long ago. This article is the sea-pearl, called in the Indian tongue *margarita*. But Heracles, it is said, appreciating its beauty as a wearing ornament, caused it to be brought from all the seas into India, that he might adorn with it the person of his daughter.

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Megasthenes informs us that the oyster which yields this pearl is there fished for with nets, and that in these same parts the oysters live in the sea in shoals like bee-swarms: for oysters, like bees, have a king or a queen, and if any one is lucky enough to catch the king he readily encloses in the net all the rest of the shoal, but if the king makes his escape there is no chance that the others can be caught. The fishermen allow the fleshy parts of such as they catch to rot away, and keep the bone, which forms the ornament: for the pearl in India is worth thrice its weight in refined gold, gold being a product of the Indian mines.

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IX. Now in that part of the country where the daughter of Heracles reigned as queen, it is said that the women when seven years old are of marriageable age, and that the men live at most forty years, and that on this subject there is a tradition current among the Indians to the effect that Heracles, whose daughter was born to him late in life, when he saw that his end was near, and he knew no man his equal in rank to whom he could give her in marriage, had incestuous intercourse with the girl when she was seven years of age, in order that a race of kings sprung from their common blood might be left to rule over India; that Heracles therefore made her of suitable age for marriage, and that in consequence the whole nation over which Pandaia reigned obtained this same privilege from her father. Now to me it seems that, even if Heracles could have done a thing so marvellous, he could also have made himself longer-lived, in order to have intercourse with his daughter when she was of mature age. But in fact, if the age at which the women there are marriageable is correctly stated, this is quite consistent, it seems to me, with what is said of the men's age,—that those who live longest die at forty; for men who come so much sooner to old age, and with old age to death, must of course flower into full manhood as much earlier as their life ends earlier. It follows hence that men of thirty would there be in their green old age, and young men would at twenty be past puberty, while the stage of full puberty would be reached about fifteen. And, quite compatibly with this, the women might be marriageable at the age of seven. And why not, when Megasthenes declares that the very fruits of the country ripen faster than fruits elsewhere, and decay faster?

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From the time of Dionysus to Sandracottus the Indians counted 153 kings and a period of 6042 years, but among these a republic was thrice established * * * * and another to 300 years, and another to 120 years. The Indians also tell us that Dionysus was earlier than Heracles by fifteen generations, and that except him no one made a hostile invasion of India,—not even Cyrus the son of Cambyses, although he undertook an expedition against the Scythians, and otherwise showed himself the most enterprising monarch in all Asia; but that Alexander indeed came and over-threw in war all whom he attacked, and would even have conquered the whole world had his army been willing *to follow him.* On the other hand, a sense of justice, they say, prevented any Indian king from attempting conquest beyond the limits of India.

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X. It is further 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, for were they built of brick they would not last long—so destructive are the rains, and also the rivers when they overflow their banks and inundate the plains; those cities, however, which stand on commanding situations and lofty eminences are built of brick and mud. The greatest city in India is that which is called Palimbothra, in the dominions of the Prasians, where the streams of the Erannoboas³ 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 says further of this city that the inhabited part of it stretched on either side to an extreme length of eighty stadia, and that its breadth was fifteen stadia, and that a ditch encompassed it all round, which was six *plethra* in breadth and thirty cubits in depth, and that the wall was crowned with five hundred and seventy towers and had four-and-sixty gates. The same writer tells us further this remarkable fact about India, that all the Indians are free, and not one of them is a slave. The Lakedaimonians and the Indians here so far agree. 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.

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XI. But further: in India the whole people are divided into about seven castes. Among these are the Sophists, who are not so numerous as the others, but hold the supreme place of dignity and honour,—for they are under no necessity of doing any bodily labour at all, or of contributing from the produce of their labour anything to the common stock, nor indeed is any duty absolutely binding on them except to perform the sacrifices offered to the gods on behalf of the state. If any one, again, has a private sacrifice to offer, one of these sophists shows him the proper mode, as if he could not otherwise make an acceptable offering to the gods. To this class the knowledge of divination among the Indians is exclusively restricted and none but a sophist is allowed to practise that art. They predict about such matters as the seasons of the year, and any calamity which may befall the state; but the private fortunes of individuals they do not care to predict,—either because divination does not concern itself with trifling matters, or because to take any trouble about such is deemed unbecoming. But if any one fails thrice to predict truly, he incurs, it is said, no further penalty than being obliged to be silent for the future, and there is no power on earth able to compel that man to speak who has once been condemned to silence. These sages go naked, living during winter in the open air to enjoy the sunshine, and during summer, when the heat is too powerful, in meadows and low grounds under large trees, the shadow whereof Nearchus says extends to five plethra in circuit, adding that even ten thousand men could be covered by the shadow of a single tree. They live upon the fruits which each season produces, and on the bark of trees,—the bark being no less sweet and nutritious than the fruit of the date-palm.

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After these, the second caste consists of the tillers of the soil, who form the most numerous class of the population. They are neither furnished with arms, nor have any military duties to perform, but they cultivate the soil and pay tribute to the kings and the independent cities. In times of civil war the soldiers are not allowed to molest the husbandmen or ravage their lands; hence, while the former are fighting and killing each other as they can, the latter may be seen close at hand tranquilly pursuing their work;—perhaps ploughing, or gathering in their crops, pruning the trees, or reaping the harvest.

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The third caste among the Indians consists of the herdsmen, both shepherds and neatherds; and these neither live in cities nor in villages, but they are nomadic and live on the hills. They too are subject to tribute, and this they pay in cattle. They scour the country in pursuit of fowl and wild beasts.

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XII. The fourth caste consists of handicraftmen and retail-dealers. They have to perform gratuitously certain public services, and to pay tribute from the products of their labour. An exception, however, is made in favour of those who fabricate the weapons of war,—and not only so, but they even draw pay from the state. In this class are included shipbuilders, and the sailors employed in the navigation of the rivers.

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The fifth caste among the Indians consists of the warriors, who are second in point of numbers to the husbandmen, but lead a life of supreme freedom and enjoyment. They have only military duties to perform. Others make their arms, and others supply them with horses, and they have others to attend on them in the camp, who take care of their horses, clean their arms, drive their elephants, prepare their chariots, and act as their charioteers. As long as they are required to fight they fight, and when peace returns they abandon themselves to enjoyment,—the pay which they receive from the state being so liberal that they can with ease maintain themselves and others besides.

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The sixth class consists of those called superintendents. They spy out what goes on in country and town, and report everything to the king where the people have a king, and to the magistrates where the people are self-governed, and it is against use and wont for these to give in a false report;—but indeed no Indian is accused of lying.

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The seventh caste consists of the councillors of state, who advise the king, or the magistrates of self-governed cities, in the management of public affairs. In point of numbers this is a small class, but it is distinguished by superior wisdom and justice, and hence enjoys the prerogative of choosing governors, chiefs of provinces, deputy-governors, superintendents of the treasury, generals of the army, admirals of the navy, controllers, and commissioners who superintend agriculture.

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The custom of the country prohibits inter-marriage between the castes:—for instance, the husbandman cannot take a wife from the artizan caste, nor the artizan a wife from the husbandman caste. Custom also prohibits any one from exercising two trades, or from changing from one caste to another. One cannot, for instance, become a husbandman if he is a herdsman, or become a herdsman if he is an artizan It is permitted that the sophist only be from any caste: for the life of the sophist is not an easy one but the hardest of all.

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XIII. The Indians hunt all wild animals in the same way as the Greeks, except the elephant, which is hunted in a mode altogether peculiar, since these animals are not like any others. The mode may be thus described :—The hunters having selected a level tract of arid ground dig a trench all round it, enclosing as much space as would suffice to encamp a large army. They make the trench with a breadth of five fathoms and a depth of four. But the earth which they throw out in the process of digging they heap up in mounds on both edges of the trench, and use it as a wall. Then they make huts for themselves by excavating the wall on the outer edge of the trench, and in these they leave loopholes, both to admit light, and to enable them to see when their prey approaches and enters the enclosure. They next station some three or four of their best-trained she-elephants within the trap, to which they leave only a single passage by means of a bridge thrown across the trench, the framework of which they cover over with earth and a great quantity of straw, to conceal the bridge as much as possible from the wild animals, which might else suspect treachery. The hunters then go out of the way, retiring to the cells which they had made in the earthen wall. Now the wild elephants do not go near inhabited places in the day-time, but during the night-time they wander about everywhere, and feed in herds, following as leader the one who is biggest and boldest, just as cows follow bulls. As soon, then, as they approach the enclosure, and hear the cry and catch scent of the females, they rush at full speed in the direction of the fenced ground, and being arrested by the trench move round its edge until they fall in with the bridge, along which they force their way into the enclosure. The hunters meanwhile, perceiving the entrance of the wild elephants, hasten, some of them to take away the bridge, while others, running off to the nearest villages, announce that the elephants are within the trap. The villagers, on hearing the news, mount their most spirited and best-trained, elephants, and as soon as mounted ride off to the trap; but, though they ride up to it, they do not immediately engage in a conflict with the wild elephants, but wait till these are sorely pinched by hunger and tamed by thirst; when they think their strength has been enough weakened, they set up the bridge anew and ride into the enclosure, when a fierce assault is made by the tame elephants upon those that have been entrapped, and then, as might be expected, the wild elephants, through loss of spirit and faintness from hunger, are overpowered. On this the hunters, dismounting from their elephants, bind with fetters the feet of the wild ones, now by this time quite exhausted. Then they instigate the tame ones to beat them with repeated blows, until their sufferings wear them out and they fall to the ground. The hunters meanwhile, standing near them, slip nooses over their necks and mount them while yet lying on the ground; and, to prevent them shaking off their riders, or doing mischief otherwise, make with a sharp knife an incision all round their neck, and fasten the noose round in the incision. By means of the wound thus made they keep their head and neck quite steady: for if they become restive and turn round, the wound is galled by the action of the rope. They shun, therefore, violent movements, and, knowing that they have been vanquished suffer themselves to be led in fetters by the tame ones.

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XIV. But such as are too young, or through the weakness of their constitution not worth keeping, their captors allow to escape to their old haunts; while those which are retained they lead to the villages, where at first they give them green stalks of corn and grass to eat. The creatures, however, having lost all spirit, have no wish to eat; but the Indians, standing round them in a circle, soothe and cheer them by chanting songs to the accompaniment of the music of drums and cymbals, for the elephant is of all brutes the most intelligent. Some of them, for instance, have taken up their riders when slain in battle and carried them away for burial; others have covered them, when lying on the ground, with a shield; and others have borne the brunt of battle in their defence when fallen. There was one even that died of remorse and despair because it had killed its rider in a fit of rage. I have myself actually seen an elephant playing on cymbals, while other elephants were dancing to his strains: a cymbal had been attached to each foreleg of the performer, and a third to what is called his trunk, and while he beat in turn the cymbal on his trunk he beat in proper time those on his two legs. The dancing elephants all the while kept dancing in a circle, and as they raised and curved their forelegs in turn they too moved in proper time, following as the musician led.

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The elephant, like the bull and the horse, engenders in spring, when the females emit breath through the spiracles besides their temples, which open at that season. The period of gestation is at shortest sixteen months, and never exceeds eighteen. The birth is single, as in the case of the mare, and is suckled till it reaches its eighth year. The elephants that live longest attain an age of two hundred years, but many of them die permaturely of disease. If they die of sheer old age, however, the term of life is what has been stated. Diseases of their eyes are cured by pouring cows' milk into them, and other distempers by administering draughts of black wine; while their wounds are cured by the application of roasted pork. Such are the remedies used by the Indians.

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XV. But the tiger the Indians regard as a much more powerful animal than the elephant. Nearchus tells us that he had seen the skin of a tiger, though the tiger itself he had not seen. The Indians, however, informed him that the tiger equals in size the largest horse, but that for swiftness and strength no other animal can be compared with it: for that the tiger, when it encounters the elephant, leaps up upon the head of the elephant and strangles it with ease; but that those animals which we ourselves see and call tigers are but jackals with spotted skins and larger than other jackals. In the same way with regard to ants, also, Nearchus says that he had not himself seen a specimen of the sort which other writers declared to exist in India, though he had seen many skins of them which had been brought into the Macedonian camp. But Megasthenes avers that the tradition about the ants is strictly true,—that they are gold-diggers, not for the sake of the gold itself, but because by instinct they burrow holes in the earth to lie in, just as the tiny ants of our own country dig little holes for themselves, only those in India being larger than foxes make their burrows proportionately larger. But the ground is impregnated with gold, and the Indians thence obtain their gold. Now Megasthenes writes what he had heard from hearsay, and as I have no exacter information to give I willingly dismiss the subject of the ant. But about parrots Nearchus writes as if they were a new curiosity, and tells us that they are indigenous to India, and what-like they are, and that they speak with a human voice; but since I have myself seen many parrots, and know others who are acquainted with the bird, I will say nothing about it as if it were still unfamiliar. Nor will I say aught of the apes, either touching their size, or the beauty which distinguishes them in India, or the mode in which they are hunted, for I should only be stating what is well known, except perhaps the fact that they are beautiful. Regarding snakes, too, Nearchus tells us that they are caught in the country, being spotted, and nimble in their movements, and that one which Peitho the son of Antigenês caught measured about sixteen cubits, though the Indians allege that the largest snakes are much larger. But no cure of the bite of the Indian snake has been found out by any of the Greek physicians, though the Indians, it is certain, can cure those who have been bitten. And Nearchus adds this, that Alexander had all the most skilful of the Indians in the healing art collected around him, and had caused proclamation to be made throughout the camp that if any one were bitten he should repair to the royal tent: but these very same men were able to cure other diseases and pains also. With many bodily pains, however, the Indians are not afflicted, because in their country the seasons are genial. In the case of an attack of severe pain they consult the sophists, and these seemed to cure whatever diseases could be cured not without divine help.

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XVI. The dress worn by the Indians is made of cotton, as Nearchus tells us,—cotton produced from those trees of which mention has already been made. But this cotton is either of a brighter white colour than any cotton found elsewhere, or the darkness of the Indian complexion makes their apparel look so much the whiter. They wear an under-garment of cotton which reaches below the knee halfway down to the ankles, and also an upper garment which they throw partly over their shoulders, and partly twist in folds round their head. The Indians wear also earrings of ivory, but only such of them do this as are very wealthy, for all Indians do not wear them. Their beards, Nearchus tells us, they dye of one hue and another, according to taste. Some dye their white beards to make them look as white as possible, but others dye them blue; while some again prefer a red tint, some a purple, and others a rank green. Such Indians, he also says, as are thought anything of, use parasols as a screen from the heat. They wear shoes made of white leather, and these are elaborately trimmed, while the soles are variegated, and made of great thickness, to make the wearer seem so much the taller.

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I proceed now to describe the mode in which the Indians equip themselves for war, premising that it is not to be regarded as the only one in vogue The foot-soldiers carry a bow made of equal length with the man who bears it. This they rest upon the ground, and pressing against it with their left foot thus discharge the arrow, having drawn the string far backwards: for the shaft they use is little short of being three yards long, and there is nothing which can resist an Indian archer's shot,—neither shield nor breastplate, nor any stronger defence if such there be. In their left hand they carry bucklers made of undressed ox-hide, which are not so broad as those who carry them, but are about as long. Some are equipped with javelins instead of bows, but all wear a sword, which is broad in the blade, but not longer than three cubits; and this, when they engage in close fight (which they do with reluctance), they wield with both hands, to fetch down a lustier blow. The horsemen are equipped with two lances like the lances called *saunia*, and with a shorter buckler than that carried by the foot-soldiers. But they do not put saddles on their horses, nor do they curb them with bits like the bits in use among the Greeks or the Celts, but they fit on round the extremity of the horse's mouth a circular piece of stitched raw ox-hide studded with pricks of iron or brass pointing inwards, but not very sharp: if a man is rich he uses pricks made of ivory. Within the horse's mouth is put an iron prong like a skewer, to which the reins are attached. When the rider, then, pulls the reins, the prong controls the horse, and the pricks which are attached to this prong goad the mouth, so that it cannot but obey the reins.

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XVII. The Indians are in person slender and tall, and of much lighter weight than other men. The animals used by the common sort for riding on are camels and horses and asses, while the wealthy use elephants,—for it is the elephant which in India carries royalty. The conveyance which ranks next in honour is the chariot and four; the camel ranks third; while to be drawn by a single horse is considered no distinction at all. But Indian women, if possessed of uncommon discretion, would not stray from virtue for any reward short of an elephant, but on receiving this a lady lets the giver enjoy her person. Nor do the Indians consider it any disgrace to a woman to grant her favours for an elephant, but it is rather regarded as a high compliment to the sex that their charms should be deemed worth an elephant. They marry without either giving or taking dowries, but the women, as soon as they are marriageable, are brought forward by their fathers and exposed in public, to be selected by the victor in wrestling or boxing or running, or by some one who excels in any other manly exercise. The people of India live upon grain, and are tillers of the soil; but we must except the hillmen, who eat the flesh of beasts of chase.

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It is sufficient for me to have set forth these facts regarding the Indians, which, as the best known, both Nearchus and Megasthenes, two men of approved character, have recorded. And since my design in drawing up the present narrative was not to describe the manners and customs of the Indians, but to relate how Alexander conveyed his army from India to Persia, let this be taken as a mere episode.

The Classical Accounts of India c10: III. Indica by Arrian

Contents

III. Indica by Arrian

Introduction

The Indika of Arrian

Cites (2)