The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.200

v1.c24.200

In addition to the evidence of the inscriptions, the fact that a portion of Northern India was incorporated into the Achaemenian Empire under Darius is further attested by the witness of Herodotus, who, in giving a list of the twenty satrapies or governments that Darius established, expressly states that the Indian realm was the ‘twentieth division’ (Hdt. III, 94, cf. III, 89). Some inference regarding its wealth and extent may furthermore be gathered from the tribute which it paid into the Persian treasury. Herodotus is our authority on this point, when he explicitly narrates (III, 94): ‘The population of the Indians is by far the greatest of all the people that we know; and they paid a tribute proportionately larger than all the rest—[the sum of] three hundred and sixty talents of gold dust.’ This immense tribute was equivalent to over a million pounds sterling, and the levy formed about one-third of the total amount imposed upon the Asiatic provinces³. All this implies the richness of Persia’s acquisition in annexing the northern territory of Hindustān⁴; and it may also be brought into connexion with the curious story of the gold-digging ants in this region, which Herodotus tells directly afterwards (III, 102–105).