Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c8.49

c8.49

Of the court of Chandragupta, with its ceremonies, and of his system of administration, we have a highly interesting and detailed description in Megasthenes. Chandragupta was by no means popular. His rule, as we have seen before, was considered tyrannous and oppressive. The easy-going and indolent Indians, no doubt, disliked a highly-organized system of government to which they were unused; and the foreign air of the court, with its Greek inmates, and its Persian ceremonial, did not help to ingratiate the monarch with his subjects. Megasthenes, whose account is confirmed by Indian writers¹, says that he was obliged to dwell in strict seclusion. He was surrounded by a body-guard of women, who cooked his food, served his wine, and when of an evening he had become weary, carried him to his apartments and lulled him to sleep with Indian music². Even at night he was constantly compelled to change his bedroom, to avoid the attacks of possible conspirators, who, according to native tradition, even dug tunnels under the palace walls³. In the day he sat in the Hall of Justice, hearing complaints, while his attendant⁴ massaged him with wooden rollers, rubbed scented ointments on his feet, and combed and dressed his long hair.