Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c8.93

c8.93

Of the moral tone of Hindu society as he saw it, Megasthenes speaks in the highest terms. Hindus lived frugal, happy lives. Wine was never drunk except at the sacrifices, when the Soma juice was consumed by the priests. The chief article of food was rice-pottage. Polygamy was indeed common among the upper classes, but women enjoyed great liberty. They studied philosophy, and could take monastic vows¹. The seclusion of the female sex was only introduced in Moham-medan times. *Satī*, the terrible custom so common in later India, was only practised among two tribes, and is mentioned as a curiosity, whence we may conclude that it was very unusual. It was confined to the Kathaei and to Taxila. The Kathaei were no doubt a Rājput tribe, who left the Amritsar district and occupied the modern Kathiāwār at a later period. *Satī* has always been commonest among that stern and warlike nation. Suicide, chiefly by burning, was always occasionally practised among Buddhist ascetics, though strictly forbidden by Gautama himself¹.