Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c8.60

c8.60

Chandragupta lived in considerable state. In the processions held on festal occasions, elephants decked in gold and silver, four-horsed chariots, and yokes of oxen took part. " Then comes a great host of attendants in holiday dress, with golden vessels such as huge basins and goblets, six feet broad, tables, chairs of state, drinking vessels and lavers, all of Indian copper, and many of them set with jewels such as emeralds, beryls and Indian garnets ; others bear robes embroidered in gold thread, and lead wild beasts, such as buffaloes, leopards and tame lions, and rare birds in cages¹." " In the Indian royal palace," says another writer, " where the greatest of all the kings of the country resides, besides much else which is calculated to excite admiration, there are wonders with which neither Memnonian Susa in all its glory, nor the magnificence of Ekbatana can hope to vie; indeed, only the well-known vanity of the Persians could imagine such a comparison¹.'