Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c8.34

c8.34

The first thing which struck Megasthenes on entering India, was the Royal Road from the frontier to Pāṭaliputra, down which the envoy must have travelled to the capital¹. It was constructed in eight stages, and ran from the frontier town of Peukelaotis² to Taxila : from Taxila, across the Indus to the Jihlam ; then to the Beās, near the spot where Alexander erected his altars. From here it went to the Sutlej : from the Sutlej to the Jamnā : and from the Jamnā, probably *viâ* Hastināpura, to the Ganges. From the Ganges the road ran to a town called Rhodopha³, and from Rhodopha to Kalinipaxa (probably Kanyākubja or Kanauj)⁴. From Kanauj it went to the mighty town of Prayāga at the junction of the Ganges and the Jamnā, and from Prayāga to Pāṭaliputra. From the capital it continued its course to the mouth of the Ganges, probably at Tāmluk, though Megasthenes never traversed the last stage of the road. At every mile along the road was a stone to indicate the by-roads and distances. The road was in the charge of the officers of the Board of Works who were responsible for its upkeep. The milestones were of great assistance to geographers in the computation of the distances between places in India. There seems to be little doubt that this road was one of the many schemes emanating from the master-mind of the great Maurya Emperor, though he may have utilized to some extent existing routes, which he linked up for the purpose¹. The idea may have been suggested by the Royal Road of Persia, and may be reckoned as one of the many signs of Persian influence in the Maurya Empire. Its value, from a commercial as well as a strategic point of view, must have been enormous. By means of it, troops could be moved from Pāṭaliputra to the furthest confines of the Empire; it joined up all the great cities—Taxila, Kanauj, Hastināpura, Prayāga—with the capital; and by it trade was immensely facilitated. Goods from the Golden Chersonese and beyond, silk from the Seres, Gangetic muslins, spices from Arabia, specie from the West, all poured into the bazaars of Pāṭaliputra, and caravans could pass uninterrupted from the Ganges to the Khaibar. The prosperity of the foreign trade is attested by the elaborate regulations made by Chandragupta for the entertainment of foreign merchants².