The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.117

v1.c26.117

When we turn to the Greeks' account of Indian humanity, we find them noting that they were a tall people—'tall and slender,' says Arrian⁸, 'lightly-built to a degree far beyond any other people.' On the other hand Diodorus, following perhaps some other source, describes them as eminently tall and massive⁹. In the south of India complexions approximate to the Ethiopian and in the north to the Egyptian. But in features there is not any marked difference, and no Indian people has woolly hair, like the negro races, 'owing to the dampness of the Indian climate'¹⁰. It is curious that there should have been discussion among the Greeks whether the darkness of skin was due to the action of the sun or to a property in the water of the African and Indian rivers¹¹. The Indians, or some races among them, were believed by the Greeks, in striking contrast with the truth, to be singularly free from diseases and long-lived¹². The people of Sind, Onesicritus said, sometimes reached 130 years¹³. The intellectual powers which they displayed in the arts and crafts were attributed, like their health and longevity, to the purity of the air and the rarified quality of the water¹, but their health was also attributed to the simplicity of their diet and their abstinence from wine².