The Classical Accounts of India c6.s2.3

c6.s2.3

The knowledge possessed by the classical writers about the Prasii and the Gangaridae, ruling over the whole of North India to the east of the Beas river up to which Alexander advanced, was very vague and indefinite This applies even to their military strength, about which Alexander made extensive enquiries and must have secured fairly reliable accounts (172). In the first place, while they are represented as a united nation under a single king by Diodorus (172) and Curtius (128) Plutarch (198) refers to them as separate nations under different kings. Secondly, while the first two authors give the number of the cavalry and chariots of the kingdom, respectively as 20,000 and 2,000, Plutarch increases their number four times, and the number of elephants given by the three are, respectively 4,000, 3,000, and 6,000. Pliny (342) refers to a standing army of 600,000 (or 60,000?) footsoldiers, 30,000 cavalry and 9,000 elephants. When it is remembered that these numbers must have been recorded by contemporary writers on the basis of the information collected by Alexander, whom they accompanied, it is difficult to account for these discrepancies