Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c8.92

c8.92

One feature of Hindu society struck Megasthenes with admiration. Slavery, a universal custom in the Graeco-Roman world, was unknown. Had Megasthenes, however, seen the social conditions of the Chaṇḍāla or Pariah in the days of Hiuen Tsiang, he might have modified his opinions. Under the caste-system, the wretched Pariah, compelled to dwell outside the city-walls, and to strike a gong when he came within range of respectable men, fared far worse than the Greek or Roman slave. But in the days when Buddhism was a growing force in the land, caste regulations were doubtless less rigidly enforced.