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The Classical Accounts of India c20: XIII. Accounts of the Brahmanas and Sramanas

The Classical Accounts of India c20

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XIII. Accounts of the Brahmanas and Sramanas

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This chapter contains extracts from different writers describing the lives and habits of Indian Brahmanas and Sramanas. The latter term seems to include both Buddhists and Jains. The last section concerns two individual ascetics named Calanus and Dandamis who flourished at the time of Alexander (4th century B.C.)

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The extracts in sections 1-4 are based on McCrindle's Translation (M-V, pp. 167-186, and M-II, 103-4), and those in section 5 are taken from M-II, 115-6, 120-9.

1. Bardaisan (Bardesanes)

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Bardaisan was an early teacher of Christianity and wrote a number of works in Syriac which are all lost. According to the Chronicle of Edessa, which is a trustworthy work, he was born in that city in A.D. 154. Porphyry states that on one occasion at Edessa (a city in the northern extremity of Mesopotamia) he met an Indian deputation to the Roman Emperor and learnt from them the nature of Indian religion. According to Stobaeus (who probably flourished about the beginning of the sixth century A.D.) the Indian embassy was headed by Dandamis or Sandanes, and came to Syria during the reign of the Emperor Elagabalus (A.D. 218-22). The information regarding the Indian Gymnosophists which Bardaisan gathered from the Indians was embodied in a work. This work is lost but an extract has been preserved by Porphyry (A.D. 233-306) in the fourth Book of his treatise *On Abstinence from Animal Food*¹. This is reproduced below from McCrindle (M-V, pp. 169 ff.) as Extract A.

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It is to be noted that Porphyry calls Bardesanes a Babylonian, but there is hardly any doubt that he refers to the Christian writer of that name, born in Edessa, mentioned above.

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Two extracts from the work of Bardaisan have been preserved by Joannes Stobaeus, mentioned above, who compiled a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The first Extract, B, is more or less identical with A, and the second Extract, C, deals with other matters. Both are reproduced from McCrindle—V, pp. 167-9 and 172-4.

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*De Abstinentia*, Book IV. 16. But since we have already made mention of one of the foreign nations which is known to fame, and righteous and believer to be pious towards the gods, we shall proceed to further particulars regarding them.

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17. For since in India the body politic has many divisions, one of them is the order of the holy sages, whom the Greeks are wont to call the Gymnosophists, and of whom there are two sects—the Brachmans and the Samanaeans. The Brachmans form the leading sect, and succeed by right of birth to this kind of divine wisdom as to a priesthood. The Samanaeans, on the other hand, are selected, and consist of persons who have conceived a wish to devote themselves to divine wisdom. Their style of life is described as follows by Bardesanes, a Babylonian who lived in the days of our fathers, who met with those Indians who accompanied

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Damadamis on his embassy to the emperor. For all the Brachmans are of one race, all of them deducing their origin from one (common) father and one (common) mother. The Samanaeans, again, are not of their kindred, but are collected, as we have said, from all classes of the Indians. The Brachman is not subject to the authority of the king, and pays no tribute with others to the state. Of these philosophers, some live on the mountains, and others on the banks of the river Ganges. The mountain Brachmans subsist on fruits and cow-milk, curdled with herbs, while the dwellers by the Ganges subsist on the fruits which grow in great plenty on the banks of that river, for the soil produces an almost constant succession of fresh fruits—nay, even much wild rice which grows spontaneously, and is used for food when there is a lack of fruit. But to taste anything else, or so much as to touch animal food, is held to be the height of impurity and impiety They inculcate the duty of worshipping the deity with pious reverence. The whole day and greater part of the night they set apart for hymns and prayers to the gods. Each of them has a hut of his own in which he passes as much time as possible in solitude. For the Brahmans have an aversion to society and much discourse. and when either occurs, they withdraw and observe silence for many days, and they even frequently fast The Samanaeans, on the other hand, are, as we have observed, collected from the people at large, and when any one is to be enrolled in their order, he presents himself before the magistrates of the city or of the village to which he happens to belong, and there resigns all his possessions and his other means The superfluous parts of his person are then shaved off, and he puts on the Samanaean robe and goes away to join the Samanaeans, taking no concern either for his wife or his children, if he has any, and thinks of them no more. The king takes charge of his children and supplies their wants, while his relatives provide for his wife. The life of the Samanaeans is on this wise. They live outside the city, and spend the whole day in discourse on divine things Their houses and temples are founded by the king, and in them are stewards who receive a fixed allowance from the king for the support of the inmates of the convents, this consisting of rice, bread, fruits, and pot-herbs. When the convent bell rings all strangers then in the house withdraw, and the Samanaeans entering offer up prayers. Prayer over, the bell rings a second time, whereupon the servants had a dish to each (for two never eat out of the same vessel). The dish contains rice, but should one want a variety he is supplied with vegetables, or some kind of fruit. As soon as dinner, which is soon despatched, is over, they go out and betake themselves to their usual occupations. They are neither allowed to marry nor to possess property. They and the Brahmans are held in such high honour by the other Indians that even the king himself will visit them to solicit their prayers when the country is in danger or distress and their counsel in times of emergency

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18. Both classes take such a view of death that they endure life unwillingly, as being a hard duty exacted by nature, and accelerate the release of their souls from their bodies; and frequently, when their health is good and no evil assails or forces them, they take their leave of life². They let their intention to do so be known to their friends beforehand, but no one offers to prevent them; on the contrary, all deem them happy, and charge them with messages to their dead relatives, so firm and true is the belief in their own minds, and in the minds of many others, that souls after death have intercourse with each other. When they have heard the commissions entrusted to them, they commit their body in completest purity, and then they die amid hymns resounding their praises, for their most attached friends dismiss them to death with less reluctance than it gives us to part with our fellow-citizens who set out on a distant journey They weep, but it is for themselves, because they must continue to live, and those whose death they have witnessed they deem happy in their attainment of immortality And neither among those Samanaeans nor among the Brachmans whom I have already mentioned, has any sophist come forward, as have so many among the Greeks, to perplex with doubts by asking where would we be if every one should copy their example.

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B.

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According to Stobaeus (who flourished probably about the beginning of the sixth century) an Indian embassy came to Syria in the reign of Antoninus of Emesa (Elagabalus), who reigned from A.D. 218-222 (*Physica*, i 54). The chief of this embassy, Dandamis or Sandanes, having in Mesopotamia met with Bardesanes¹, communicated to him information regarding the Indian Gymnosophists which Bardesanes embodied in a work now lost, but of which the following fragment has been preserved by Stobaeus from Porphyry.

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‘The Indian Theosophs, whom the Greeks call Gymnosophists, are divided into two sects, Brahmans and Shamans, Samanaeoi. The Brahmans are one family, the descendants of one father and mother, and they inherit their theology as a priesthood. The Shamans, on the other hand, are taken from all Indian sects indifferently, from all who wish to give themselves up to the study of the divine things. The Brahmans pay no taxes like other citizens, and are subject to no king. Of the philosophers among them, some inhabit the mountains, others the banks of the Ganges. The mountain Brahmans subsist on fruit and cow’s milk, curdled with herbs. The others live on the fruit of trees which are found in plenty near the river and which afford an almost constant succession of fresh fruits, and, should these fail, on the self-sown wild rice that grows there. To eat any other food, or even to touch animal food, they hold to be the height of impiety and uncleanness. Each man has his own cabin, and lives as much as he can by himself, and spends the day and the greater part of the night in prayers and hymns to the gods. And they so dislike society, even that of one another, or much discourse, that when either happens, they expiate it by a retirement and silence of many days. They fast often.

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‘The Shamans, on the other hand, are, as I said, an elected body. Whoever wishes to be enrolled in their order presents himself to the city or village authorities, and there makes cession of all his property. He then shaves his body, puts on the Shaman robe, and goes to the Shamans, and never turns back to speak or look at his wife and children if he have any, and never thinks of them any more, but leaves his children to the king and his wife to his relations, who provide them with the necessaries of life. The Shamans live outside the city, and spend the whole day in discourse upon divine things. They have houses and temples of a royal foundation, and in them stewards, who receive from the king a certain allowance of food, bread, and vegetables for each convent. When the convent bell rings, all strangers then in the house withdraw, and the Shamans enter and betake themselves to prayer. Prayer ended, at the sound of a second bell the servants place before each individual, for two never eat together, a dish of rice, but to any one who wants variety they give besides either vegetables or fruit. As soon as they have done dinner, and they hurry over it, they go out to their usual occupations. They are not allowed to marry or to possess property. They and the Brahmans are so honoured by the Indians, that even the king will come to them to solicit their counsel in matters of moment, and their intercession with the gods when danger threatens the country.

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Both Shamans and Brahmans have such a notion of death that they impatiently bear with life, and view it but as a necessary though burdensome service imposed upon them by nature. They hasten, therefore, to free the soul from the body. And often when a man is in good health, and no evil whatever presses upon him, he will give notice of his intention to quit the world, and his friends will not try to dissuade him from it, but rather account him happy, and give him messages for their dead relations; so firm and true is the conviction of this people that souls after death have intercourse with one another. When he has received all his commissions, he throws himself, in order that he may quit the body in all purity, into a burning pile, and dies amid the hymns of the assembled crowd.² And his nearest friends dismiss him to his death more willingly than we our fellow-citizens when about to set out on some short journey. They weep over themselves that they must continue to live, and deem him happy who has thus put on immortality. And among neither of these sects, as among the Greeks, has any sophist yet appeared to perplex them by asking, "If everybody did this, what would become of the world?"

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C.

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*Physica*, i. 56. Gaisford's Edition—Bardisanes has recorded that a lake in India still exists called the Lake of Probation, into which any Indian goes down who professes his innocence of a crime with which he is charged. The Brachmans apply the ordeal in this way. They ask the man if he is willing to undergo the trial by water, and if he declines they send him to be punished as being guilty. But should he consent, they conduct him to the lake with his accusers, for these also are subjected to the ordeal by water, lest the charge they prefer should be fictitious or malevolent. On entering the water they pass through to the other side of the lake, which is everywhere knee-deep for every one who goes in Now should the accused be innocent, he goes in and passes through without any fear, and is never wet above the knee; but if guilty, before he goes far the water is over his head. Then the Brachmans drag him out of the water and deliver him up alive to his accusers, considering him to deserve any punishment short of death. But this is of rare occurrence, since no one cares to deny his guilt through dread of the ordeal by water.

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The Indians, then, have this lake for the trial of voluntary offences, and they have another besides for the voluntary and involuntary alike—in fact, for the trial of a man's whole life. Bardisanes gives the account of it, which I transcribe in his own words: They (the Indian ambassadors) told me further that there was a large natural cave in a very high mountain almost in the middle of the country, wherein there is to be seen a statue of ten, say, or twelve cubits high, standing upright with its hands folded crosswise—and the right-half of its face was that of a man, and the left that of a woman; and in like manner the right hand and right foot, and in short the whole right side was male and the left female, so that the spectator was struck with wonder at the combination, as he saw how the two dissimilar sides coalesced in an indissoluble union in a single body". In this statue was engraved, it is said, on the right breast the sun, and on the left the moon, while on the two arms was artistically engraved a host of angels and whatever the world contains, that is to say, the sky and mountains and a sea, and a river and ocean, together with plants and animals—in fact, everything The Indians allege that the deity had given this statue to his son when he founded the world as a visible representation thereof. And I inquired, adds Bardisanes, of what material this statue was made, when Sandales assured me, and the others confirmed his words, that no man could tell what the material was, for it was neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, nor stone, nor indeed any known substance, but that though not wood it most resembled a very hard wood, quite free from rot. And they told how one of their kings had tried to pluck out one of the hairs about the neck, and how blood flowed out, whereat the king was so struck down with terror that, even with all the prayers of the Brachmans, he hardly recovered his senses. They said that on its head was the image of a god, seated as on a throne, and that in the great heats the statue ran all over with sweat, so copiously discharged that it would have moistened the ground at the base, did not the Brachmans use their fans to stop the flux. Farther on in the cave, a long way behind the statue, all, the Indians say, was dark, and those who wish, go in advance with lighted torches till they come to a door from which water issues and forms a lake around the far end of the cave. Through this door those must pass who desire to prove themselves. Those who have lived unstained with vice pass through without impediment, the door opening wide to them, and find within a large fountain of water clear as crystal and of sweetest taste—the source of the stream spoken of. The guilty, however, struggle hard to push in through that door, but fail in the attempt, for it closes against them. They are thus compelled to confess their offences against others, and to entreat the rest to pray for them. They also fast for a considerable time.

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Sandanes further stated that himself and his companions found the Brachmans on an appointed day assembled together in this place, that some of them spent their life there, but that others come in the summer and autumn when fruit is plentiful both to see the statue and meet their friends, as well as to prove themselves whether they could pass through the door. At the same time, it is said, they examine the sculptures on the statue and try to discover their meaning, for it is not easy to attend to the whole representation, the objects being numerous, while some of the plants and animals are not to be found in any part of the country. Such then is the account which the Indians give to the ordeal by water. It is, I think, of this water in the cave that Apollonius of Tyana makes mention, for when writing to the Brachmans he swears this oath. ‘No, by the water of Tantalus, you shall not initiate me into your mysteries’; for, it seems to me, he speaks of this water of Tantalus because it punishes with the disappointment of their hopes those who come eagerly to it, and try to drink of it

2. Dion Chrysostom

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Dion, surnamed Chrysostom or the golden-mouthed on account of his shining abilities as an orator, was born at Prusa, a city of Mysia, about the middle of the first Christian century He found occupation at first in his native place, where he held important offices, practised the composition of speeches and rhetorical essays, and studied philosophy. Eight of his Orations are still extant, and these sufficiently justify the opinion of the ancients that Dion is one of the most eminent among the Greek rhetoricians and sophists His style is praised for its Attic purity and grace

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*Oratio.* XXXV. 434. No men live more happily than you (the Phrygians), with the exception of the Indians, for in their country, ’tis said, the rivers flow not, like yours, with water, but one river with pellucid wine, another with honey, and another with oil, and they have their springs among the hills—in the breasts, so to speak, of the earth. In these respects there is a world of difference between you and them as regards pleasure and power; for what you have here, you get with difficulty and in a shabby way, pilfering trees of their fruits, calves of their milk, and bees of their honey; but in India things are altogether purer, except, I imagine, for violence and rascality. The rivers flow for one month for the king, and this is his tribute, but for the rest of the year they flow for the people. So then they pass each day in the society of their children and their wives at the sources and by the streams of the rivers, playing and laughing as if at a festival. Along the river banks there flourishes in great vigour and luxuriance the lotus—and this is about the sweetest of all comestibles, and not like our lotus, which is no better than food for cattle. Sesame also grows there in abundance, and parsley, as one might conjecture from their similarity—but in respect of excellence of quality there can be no comparison. In the same country is produced another seed yielding a better and much more suitable food than wheat and barley. This grows in large enveloping leaves like a rose, but these leaves are more fragrant and of larger size. The roots of these plants they eat as well as the fruit, and they require not to labour. There are many channels to convey water from the rivers, some of them large and others which are smaller and mingle with each other. These are made by the inhabitants as suits their pleasure; and they convey water in ducts with facility, just as you convey water for the irrigation of your gardens. They have besides at hand water-baths of two kinds; that which is hot and clearer than silver, and the other dark-blue by reason of its depth and coldness. In these the women and children swim about together—all of them models of beauty. Emerging from the bath, I can fancy them lying down in the meadows, commingling their sweet voices in mirth and song. And there the meadows are of ideal loveliness, and decked by nature with flowers, and with trees, which from overhead cast a protecting shade, and offer fruit within reach of all who would pluck it from the descending branches. Of birds, again, there is a great plenty, which make the hills where they have their homes resound with their songs, while others, from the spray of overhanging boughs, warble notes more melodious than those played by your instruments of music. The wind, too, blows gently, and there is always an equable temperature, such as prevails at the beginning of summer, and besides all this, the sky is there clearer than yours, and surpasses it in the multitude and splendour of its stars. Their span of life is not less than forty years, and for all this time they are in the bloom of youth and they know neither old age nor disease nor want. But, though India is actually in the enjoyment of all these blessings, there are nevertheless men called Brachmans, who, bidding adieu to the rivers and turning away from those with whom they had been thrown in contact, live apart, absorbed, in philosophic contemplation, subjecting their bodies to sufferings of astonishing severity, though no one compels them, and submitting to terrible endurances. It is said, further, that they possess a remarkable fountain—that of truth—by far the best and most divine of all—and that any one who has once tasted it can never be satiated or filled with it.

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These statements are not fictions, for some of those who come from India have ere now asserted them to be facts, and some few do come in pursuit of trade. Now these do business with the inhabitants of the sea coast, but this class of Indians is not held in repute, and are reprobated by the rest of their countrymen You must needs then acknowledge that the people of India are more blest than yourselves. while you are yourselves more blessed than all others, with the solitary exception of a race of men that are the richest in gold. This gold, let me tell you, they take from ants—creatures that are larger than foxes, though in other respects like your own foxes. They dig under the earth in the same way as other ants, but the gold which they heap up is purer than all other gold and of greater brilliancy. The mounds are piled up close to each other in regular order like hillocks of gold dust, and flash their splendour all the plain over. It is difficult in consequence to look towards the sun, and many who have tried to do so have ruined their eyesight. The men who are next neighbours to the ants, in seeking to plunder these mounds, cross the intervening space—a desert of no great extent, mounted on wagons drawn by their swiftest horses. They arrive at noon when the ants have gone underground, and seizing at once the contents of the mound, take to flight. The ants on discovering the theft give chase, and overtaking the robbers, close with them in fight till they conquer or die; for in prowess they surpass all other wild beasts.

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*Oratio.* XLIX. 538. The Indians have the Brachmans, who excel in self-control and in righteousness and their love of the Diving Being, whence they have a better knowledge of the future than other men have of the present *Oratio.* XXXII. 373. For I see in the midst of you (the Alexandrians) not only Greeks, Italians, Syrians, Libyans, Cilicians, Ethiopians, Arabians, but even Bactrians and Scythians and Persians, and some Indians who view the spectacles with you and are with you on all occasions.

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*Oratio.* LIII. 554-55. It is said that the poetry of Homer is sung by the Indians, who had translated it into their own language and modes of expression, so that even the Indians, to whom many of our stars are invisible since it is said that the Bears do not show themselves in their horizon, are not unacquainted with the woes of Priam, and the weeping and wailing of Andromache and Hecuba, and the heroic feats of Achilles and Hector, so potent was the influence of what one man had sung.⁴

3. Pseudo-Kallisthenes

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Kallisthenes, the nephew of Aristotle, was one of the men of learning who accompanied Alexander on his Asiatic expedition. He offended Alexander by reproaching him for introducing the dress and manners of the Persian Court into his own. He was accused at Baktra of having instigated the conspiracy of the Court Pages, was imprisoned and cruelly put to death. The Romance History was falsely ascribed to him.

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C. Muller, who is so well known as the editor of the *Geographi Graeci Minores* and other classical texts, published in 1846, along with the *Anabasis* and the *Indike* of Arrian, the Romance History of Alexander the Great under the title *Pseudo-Kallisthenes.* In his Preface to this work, after expressing a fear lest, in conjoining the *Pseudo-Kallisthenes* with Ptolemy and Aristobulus, he should be charged with wandering from his proper into an alien sphere, he says it is very remarkable how widely the myths about Alexander were spread throughout the world, and how it came to pass that, in days when Europe, spurred by the crusading frenzy, invaded Asia, these myths became themes of song. Since Muller thus wrote, much light has been thrown on their origin and the accretions by which they reached their present from. The Greek MSS. which contain them were long lost sight of, buried in the depths of various European libraries. There existed, however, translations in Italian, French, and German, not made from the original Greek, but from a Latin version made in Egypt by Julius Valerius not later than the beginning of the fifth century of our era. The original appears to have been composed before the middle of the fourth century. No single MS is complete, but what is wanting in the one which forms the basis of the text is supplied from other MSS. To the Greek text is subjoined the Latin version of Julius Valerius. In the third of the three books into which the history is divided, we find Alexander in India. He is represented to have entered it after overcoming the reluctance of his army to encounter toils and dangers anew after the conquest of Persia. He was opposed by Porus, whom he slew in single combat. He then proceeded to the country of the Oxydrakai, where he lived with the Brahmans or Gymnosophists, with whose doctrines and practices he had a great desire to become acquainted. An account is given at great length of his intercourse with these pious ascetics, who condescended to receive his visit, instructed him in their philosophy, and failed not to impress upon him the superior grandeur of their view of life to his. From the Brahmans he marched forward to Prasiaca, the capital of India, which was seated on a promontory which overlooked the sea. From Prasiaca Alexander wrote a long epistle to his old master, Aristotle, in which he described the difficulties and dangers which he had encountered on his march, and the many kinds of strange animals and other marvels which he had seen and witnessed. On leaving India he went on his way to visit Candace, the Queen of Meroe, who was famous for her beauty and the splendour of her capital.

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In the midst of the report of the conversations held between Alexander and the Brahmans, is abruptly inserted in the leading MS. a small treatise *About the Nations of India and the Brachmans*, which does not belong to the *History of Alexander*, but to the *Lausiac Histories* of Palladius, who wrote about 420 A D. Muler has subjoined the Latin version of this little work prepared by St. Ambrose. Here I give it in English from the Greek text.

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Book-III. vii. Your great love of labour, of learning, and of the beautiful, and your piety—a disposition of mind which adorns the best men—have induced us to take in hand yet another work, a narrative full to overflowing of wise instruction. We then, prompted by our regard for you, in addition to what we have already related, will further give you a description of the Brachmans, whose country I have neither visited, nor met with any of its people; for they live far remote, dwelling near the Ganges, the river of India and Serica. But I merely reached the Akrotêria of India a few years ago with the blessed Moses, the Bishop of Adulê, for, being distressed by the heat, which was so fierce that water which on gushing from its fountain was excessively cold began to boil when put into a vessel, I turned back when I noticed this, as I found no shelter from the burning heat.

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This river Ganges is in our opinion that which is called in Scripture the Phison, one of the rivers which are said to go out from Paradise. A story is told of Alexander, the King of the Macedonians, in which their (the Brahmans') mode of life is described; but to connect the story with him is perhaps a mistake, for he did not, I think, make his way to the Ganges, but penetrated to Sêrica, where the Sêres produce silk, and where he erected a stone pillar with the inscription: ‘Alexander, the King of the Macedonians, reached this place’.

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Now, for what I have been able to learn about the Brachmans I am indebted to a certain Theban scholar, who willingly left his home to travel abroad, but had unwillingly to endure captivity. This person, so he told me, was unfitted by nature to succeed in the legal profession, and, regarding it with indifference, resolved to explore the land of the Indians. So he set sail with an elderly man and came first to Adoulis (Adulê), and next to Auxoumê . . . . . . in which a petty Indian King resided. After spending some time there and making many acquaintances, he formed a wish to visit the island of Taprobanê, inhabited by the people called Makrobioi (that is, *the long-lived*). For in the island the old live to 150 years by reason of the extreme goodness of the climate and through the unsearchable will of Heaven. In this island, too, resides the Great King of the Indians, unto whom all the petty kings of that country are subject as satraps, as the scholar himself explained to me, who had himself learned the fact from some one else, for he had not been able to enter the island. In the neighbourhood of this island, if I have not been falsely informed, are a thousand other islands in the Erythraean Sea lying close to each other. Since, then, the magnet stone which attracts iron exists in these islands, which are called the Maniolai, if any vessel that has iron nails approaches them, it is held back by the property inherent in the magnet so that it cannot reach the shore But there are boats specially adapted for crossing over into that great island, being fastened with the wooden pegs.

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viii. ‘This island,’ the traveller says, ‘has five very large rivers, which are navigable. As the islanders informed him, the trees in these parts were never without fruit—for, as he states, while on the same tree one spray is budding, another has unripe fruit, and a third fruit that is quite ripe. The island has also palm-trees and nuts of the largest size produced in India, as well as the small odoriferous nut. The inhabitants of that country live on milk, rice, and fruit. As neither cotton nor flax is a product of their soil, they wear round their loins the fleeces of sheep beautifully worked, but leave the rest of the body bare. The sheep have hair instead of wool, give great quantities of milk, and have broad tails. They use as food mutton and goat flesh, but not pork—for from the Thebaid to the farthest confines of India and Ethiopia the swine is not to be found on account of the excessive heat. The scholar therefore relates, that “when I found certain Indians engaged in commerce, embarking on a voyage across from Auxoumê, I was tempted to go farther afield, and reached the people called the Bisadae, who gather the pepper. They are a feeble folk, of very diminutive stature, and live in caves among the rocks. They understand how to climb precipices through their intimate knowledge of the localities, and are thus able to gather the pepper from the bushes”. For, as my informant, the scholar, told me, pepper grows on a low dwarf tree, while the Bisadae are small men of stunted growth, but with big heads, the hair of which is straight and is not cut. The Ethiopians and Indians elsewhere are black and of a youthful appearance and have bristly hair. When I plucked up courage and endeavoured to enter that country, I was prevented by the sovereign, and neither did they understand what I said in my own behalf, as they knew not the language of my country, nor did I again know what inquiries they were addressing to me, for I knew not their language. All we could do was to keep in line with each other by employing distortions of the eyes as intelligible signs. For my part, I conjectured the import of what was charged against me from the bloodshot colour of their eyes and from the fierce grinding of their teeth. They, on the other hand, were quick to perceive, from the trembling of my limbs, the paleness of my face, from my terror and anguish, the pitiable state of my mind and the coward fears that shook my frame I was accordingly detained among them for six years, during which I had to work in the service of a baker to whom I was handed over. The expenditure of their king, he says, was a peck (*Modios*, Latin *Modius*) of flour for the whole palace. Where this king came from I know not As I was in captivity for six years, I thus by degrees learned a good deal of their language, and acquired also some knowledge of the adjacent tribes. I got away, he proceeds, from that place in the manner following. Another king, who made war upon the one who detained me, accused him to the Great King, who resides in Taprobanê, of having made a Roman citizen of importance prisoner, and of subjecting him to the meanest of employments Then the Great King sent one of his officers to investigate the case, and he, on learning the truth, ordered the offender to be flayed and his skin to be made into a bag, for his insolent treatment of a Roman. For the people there are said to have a profound respect for the Roman Empire, yea, even to entertain a dread of the Romans, who could invade their country, owing to their matchless courage and their prowess in war.'

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IX. The traveller stated that the Brachman nation was not an order like that of the monks, which one could enter if he chose—but a society, admission into which was allotted from above by the decrees of God. They live in a state of nature near the river, and go about naked. They have no quadrupeds, no tillage, no iron, no house, no fire, no bread, no wine, no implement of labour, nothing tending to pleasure. The air they breathe is at once bracing and temperate, and altogether most delightful. They reverence the Deity, and are not so scant of wit as to be unable to discern aright the principles of divine Providence. They pray without ceasing, and, while so engaged, instead of looking towards the East, they direct their eyes steadfastly towards heaven without averting their gaze to the East. They subsist on such fruits as chance offers, and on wild lupines that grow spontaneously. They drink water as they roam about the woods, and they take their repose on the leaves of trees. In their country *persunon* (elecampane?) grows abundantly and acantha wood, and the soil elsewhere yields fruits for the sustenance of man. And the men dwell by the shores of the ocean on yonder side of the river Ganges, for this river discharges its waters into the ocean—but their women live on the other side of the Ganges, towards the interior of India. The men cross over to their wives in the months of July and August. These months are colder with them than the other months, because at that season the sun is elevated in our direction and over the North; and it is said that the temperature is more exhilarating and adapted to excite the sexual desires. After spending forty days with their wives they recross the river. When the wife has borne two children, her husband does not again cross over nor go near his wife. When, therefore, they have given sons as their substitutes, they abstain for the rest of their lives from intercourse with their wives. But if it happens that a wife proves barren, her husband crosses over to her for five years and cohabits with her. And if she does not then bear a child, he no longer goes near her. The race accordingly does not multiply much, both because of the hardships to which life is exposed in these regions, and also the strict control of the impulse to procreation. Such is the body politic of the Brachmans.

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x. They say that the crossing of the river is rendered difficult by the monstrous creature called the Odontotyrannos. For it is an animal of most enormous size that lives in the river, and that can swallow down whole the amphibious elephant. At the time when the Brachmans cross over to their wives it is not seen thereabouts. There are besides huge snakes in those parts seventy cubits long. I saw the skin of one of them, and its breadth measured five cubits. There, too, are the ants of old renown, and scorpions a cubit long. Travelling in these places, need I say, is beset with great peril and difficulty. But enormous animals are not found everywhere in the country, but only in uninhabited places. There are large herds of elephants.

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Arrian, the disciple of Epiktêtos the philosopher, who had been a slave, but whose genius for philosophy led him to take up its pursuit in the days of the Emperor Nero, who put to death the illustrious apostles, the blessed Peter and Paul—this Arrian wrote a history of Alexander the Macedonian, a work which I acquired and sent to thee, brave and worthy sir, packed up along with my own Memoir, which if you read intelligently, and study with care, you will live in security.

4. Incidental Notices

A. Clemens Alexandrinus

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Clemens was a native of Athens and was probably born about A.D. 150, but as he spent the greater part of his life in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, he was surnamed the Alexandrian. During his residence there he became the disciple of Pantaenus, who was the head of the Christian School of Alexandria, and whom he succeeded in that office in 211 A D. His notice of the Brachmans or Brahmans is contained in his work which he called *Stromateis*, to indicate the miscellaneous nature of its contents.⁵ He probably lived till A D 220

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Stromateis. III. 194. The Brachmans neither eat anything having life nor drink wine, but some of them every day, like ourselves, take food, while others of them do so once in three days, as Alexander Polyhistor relates in his *Indika*. They despise death, and set no value on life; for they are persuaded that there is a new birth (*paliggenesia*), and these worship Herakles and Pan. But those Indians who are called *Semnoi* go naked all their lives.⁶ These practise truth, make predictions about futurity, and worship a kind of pyramid beneath which they think the bones of some divinity lie buried⁷. But neither the Gymnosophists nor the Semnoi use women, for they regard this as contrary to nature and unlawful; for which reason they keep themselves chaste. The *Semnai*, too, remain virgin. They observe closely the heavenly bodies, and by the indications of futurity which these offer, make some predictions.

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I. 305. That the Jewish race is by far the oldest of all these, and that their philosophy, which has been committed to writing, preceded the philosophy of the Greeks, Philo the Pythagorean shows by many arguments, as does also Aristoboulos the Peripatetic, and many others whose names I need not waste time in enumerating. Megasthenes, the author of a work on *India*, who lived with Seleukos Nikator, writes most clearly on this point, and his words are these⁸ :—"*All that has been said regarding nature by the ancients is asserted also by philosophers out of Greece, on the one part in India by the Brachmanes, and on the other in Syria by the people called the Jews.*"

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Philosophy, then, with all its blessed advantages to man, flourished long ages ago among the barbarians, diffusing its light among the Gentiles, and eventually penetrated into Greece. Its hierophants were the prophets among the Egyptians, the Chaldaeans among the Assyrians, the Druids among the Gauls, the Sarmanaeans who were the philosophers of the Baktrians and the Kelts, the Magi among the Persians, who, as you know, announced beforehand the birth of the Saviour, being led by a star till they arrived in the land of Judaea, and among the Indians the Gymnosophists, and other philosophers of barbarous nations

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There are two sects of these Indian philosophers—one called the Sarmânai and the other the Brachmânai. Connected with the Sarmânai are the philosophers called the Hylobioi, who neither live in cities nor even in houses. They clothe themselves with the bark of trees, and subsist upon acorns, and drink water by lifting it to their mouth with their hands. They neither marry nor beget children [like those ascetics of our own day called the Enkratêtai. Among the Indians are those *philosophers* also who follow the precepts of Boutta,⁹ whom they honour as a god on account of his extraordinary sanctity.

B. St. Jerome (c. A.D. 340-420)

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II. *Adv. Jovın* 14. Bardesanes, a Badylonian, divides the Indian Gymnosophists into two sects. one of which he calls Brachmans and the other Samanaeans, who are so abstemious that they subsist on the fruits of trees or a public allowance of rice or flour. And the king on coming to them worships them, and the peace of his dominions depends according to his judgement on their prayers.

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*Contra Jov.* Epist pt. I., Tr ii 26. Hence among the Gymnosophists there is a tradition which lends authority to this opinion (the honour of virginity), that Buddha (Buddas), the founder of their doctrine, was born from the side of a virgin.

C. Plutarch

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T. II. p. 36. To bewail him who enters life because of the many ills he comes to, but on the other hand to dismiss from his earthly home him whom death hath released from his miseries with gladness and expressions of felicitation.

D. Archelaos

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Archelaos, the Bishop of Carrha in Mesopotamia, is famous for the discussion which he held in public with the heretic Manes in A D 278

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*Archelat et Manetis Disputatio*, I. 97. Terebinthus proclaimed himself learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and gave out that his name was no longer Terebinthus¹⁰, but that he was a new Budiha (Buddas), for such was the name he now assumed, and that he was born of a virgin, and had been brought up on the mountains by an angel

E. Kedrenos

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Kedrenos, a Greek monk of the eleventh century was the compiler of a *Synopsis of History* which begins with the creation of the world and goes down to the year 1057 As an author he shows himself deficient alike in historical knowledge and in judgement Of his life nothing is known.

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*Synop. Hist.* I. pp 516-17. Bohn’s Edition —And in this year of the Emperor Constantine, Metrodoros, a Persian by birth, on pretence of philosophy, went off to India and the Brachmans, and by leading a strictly ascetic life won their respect and reverence. He constructed for them water-mills and baths—things previously unknown in the country. This man for his piety was admitted into the most sacred recesses of their temples, and stole their precious stones and pearls. He received also from the king of the Indians presents to carry to the emperor, and those he gave to him as if they were his own.

F. Hierokles

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Hierokles a native of Hyllarima in Karia is supposed to have been the author of a work called *Oeconomicas*, of which Stobaeus has preserved some extracts

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Hierokles—from Stephanos of Byzantium, s.v. Brachmanes. —After this I thought it worth my while to go and visit the Brahman caste. These men are philosophers dear to the gods, and especially devoted to the sun. They abstain from all flesh meats and live out in the open air. and honour truth Their dress is made of the soft and skin-like fibres of stones, which they weave into a stuff that no fire burns or water cleanses. When their clothes get soiled or dirty, they are thrown into a blazing fire, and come out quite white and bright.—Priaulx's *Trans.*

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Hierokles—from the *Chiliads* of Tzetzes (VII. *Hist.* 144-716).—Then I came to a country very dry and burnt up by the sun. And all about this desert I saw men naked and houseless, and of these some shaded their faces with their ears, and the rest of their bodies with their feet raised in the air. Of these men Strabo has a notice, as also of the no-heads and ten-heads and four-hands-and-feet men, but none of them did I ever see, quoth Hierokles.

5. Calanus and Dandamis

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a. Arrian—*Anabasis of Alexander* (See p. 5) VII. ii. 3-9.

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This shows that Alexander, notwithstanding the terrible ascendancy which the passion for glory had acquired over him, was not altogether without a perception of the things that are better; for when he arrived at Taxila and saw the Indian gymnosophists, a desire seized him to have one of these men brought into his presence, because he admired their endurance. The eldest of these sophists, with whom the others lived as disciples with a master, Dandamis by name, not only refused to go himself, but prevented the others going. He is said to have returned this for answer, that he also was the son of Zeus as much as Alexander himself was, and that he wanted nothing that was Alexander's (for he was well off in his present circumstances), whereas he saw those who were with him wandering over so much sea and land for no good got by it, and without any end coming to their many wanderings. He coveted, therefore, nothing Alexander had it in his power to give, nor, on the other hand, feared aught he could do to coerce him: for if he lived, India would suffice for him, yielding him her fruits in due season, and if he died, he would be delivered from his ill-assorted companion the body. Alexander accordingly did not put forth his hand to violence, knowing the man to be of an independent spirit. He is said, however, to have won over Calanus, one of the sophists of that place, whom Megasthenes represents as a man utterly wanting in self-control, while the sophists themselves spoke opprobriously of Calanus, because that, having left the happiness enjoyed among them, he went to serve another master than God.

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b. Pseudo-Origen, *Philosoph.* 24, ed. Delarue, Paris, 1733, vol. I. p. 904.

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There is among the Brachhmans in India a sect of philosophers who adopt an independent life, and abstain from animal food and all victuals cooked by fire, being content to subsist upon fruits, which they do not so much as gather from the trees, but pick up when they have dropped to the ground, and their drink is the water of the river Tagabena. Throughout life they go about naked, saying that the body has been given by the Deity as a covering for the soul. They hold that God is light, but not such light as we see with the eye, nor such as the sun or fire, but God is with them the Word,—by which term they do not mean articulate speech, but the discourse of reason, whereby the hidden mysteries of knowledge are discerned by the wise. This light, however, which they call the Word, and think to be God, is, they say, known only by the Brachhmans themselves, because they alone have discarded vanity, which is the outermost covering of the soul. The members of this sect regard death with contemptuous indifference, and, as we have seen already, they always pronounce the name of the Deity with a tone of peculiar reverence, and adore him with hymns. They neither have wives nor beget children. Persons who desire to lead a life like theirs cross over from the other side of the river, and remain with them for good, never returning to their own country. These also are called Brachhmans, although they do not follow the same mode of life, for there are women in the country, from whom the native inhabitants are sprung, and of these women they beget offspring. With regard to the Word, which they call God, they hold that it is corporeal, and that it wears the body as its external covering, just as one wears the woollen surcoat, and that when it divests itself of the body with which it is enwrapped it becomes manifest to the eye. There is war, the Brachhmans hold, in the body wherewith they are clothed, and they regard the body as being the fruitful source of wars, and, as we have already shown, fight against it like soldiers in battle contending against the enemy. They maintain, moreover, that all men are held in bondage, like prisoners of war, to their own innate enemies, the sensual appetites, gluttony, anger, joy, grief, longing desire, and such like, while it is only the man who has triumphed over enemies who goes to God. Dandamis accordingly, to whom Alexander the Macedonian paid a visit, is spoken of by the Brachhmans as a god because he conquered in the warfare against the body, and on the other hand they condemn Calanus as one who had impiously apostatized from their philosophy. The Brachhmans, therefore, when they have shuffled off the body, see the pure sunlight as fish see it when they spring up out of the water into the air.

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c. *Pallad. de Bragmanibus*, pp. 8, 20 *et seq.* ed. Londin. 1668 (*Camerar libell. gnomolog.* pp. 116, 124 *et seq.*)

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They (the Bragmanes) subsist upon such fruits as they can find, and on wild herbs, which the earth spontaneously produces, and drink only water. They wander about in the woods, and sleep at night on pallets of the leaves of trees . . . . .

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“Calanus, then, your false friend, held this opinion, but he is despised and trodden upon by us By you, however, accomplice as he was in causing many evils to you all, he is honoured and worshipped, while from our society he has been contemptuously cast out as unprofitable. And why not? when everything which we trample under foot is an object of admiration to the lucre-loving Calanus, your worthless friend, but no friend of ours,—a miserable creature, and more to be pitied than the unhappiest wretch, for by setting his heart on lucre he wrought the perdition of his soul! Hence he seemed neither worthy of us, nor worthy of the friendship of God, and hence he neither was content to revel away life in the woods beyond all reach of care, nor was he cheered with the hope of a blessed hereafter. for by his love of money he slew the very life of his miserable soul.

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