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Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s2: II. Regions Beyond the Magadhan Empire

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s2

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II. Regions Beyond the Magadhan Empire

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No account of India in the age of the Nandas is complete without a brief notice of the vast stretches of territory within the confines of this country that lay beyond the limits of their empire. Unfortunately, the exact boundary of the Nanda dominions cannot be determined with any amount of precision with the aid of available evidence. This is particularly true of the south. In the north the inclusion of the Ganges valley within the Nanda empire is, as already noted, suggested by Greek and Purāṇic evidence. We shall perhaps not be far wrong if we regard the upper reaches of the stream, that once flowed through the Ghaggar-Hakra bed, as forming roughly the boundary line between the Magadhan empire of those days and the autonomous tribes and kingships of the Uttarāpatha. In the south Greek evidence is not of much help. Purāṇic testimony, as we have seen, hints at the incorporation into their empire by the Nandas of the principalities of all the leading Kshatriya families of the day, including in all probability those of the south. Among the latter prominent mention is made of the Haihayas, Kaliṅgas and Aśmakas.

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Following this evidence, which comes from sources assignable to the commencement of the Gupta Age, we may tentatively fix the southern boundary of the Nanda empire, or at least of the arena of its political and military activities, at the river Godāvarī. Barring some mediaeval Jaina treatises and inscriptions, of doubtful value for early times, there is hardly any evidence that the hegemony of the Nandas extended far beyond that famous river. Persian inscriptions, observations of Greek and Latin writers, supplemented by brief notices in Indian literature and epigraphs, enable us to say a few words about the two great regions of India—namely the Indus basin beyond the Ghaggar and South India beyond the Godāvarī—which, in the light of the evidence we have adduced, seem to have lain beyond the limits of the Nanda empire.

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(i) North-West India.

A. Physical Aspects

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Bounded on the north by the Outer Himalayas; on the west, by the eastern Hindukush, the Safed Koh, the Suleiman and the Kirthar ranges; on the south, by the surging waters of the Arabian Sea and the "immense salt-water waste of the Rann of Cutch"; and on the east by the sand-dunes of the Thar or the Great Indian Desert and the uplands and ridges of the Eastern Punjab, the extensive valley of the Indus and its feeders constituted a little world not much affected by the eddies and currents of Magadhan history before the rise of the Great Mauryas.

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The country falls into three natural divisions :—(1) the mountainous regions extending from the upper reaches of the Sutlej to the basin of the Chitral and certain outlying rocky areas; (2) the flat rolling plains of the Punjab intersected by a network of rivers and brooks; and (3) the almost rainless tract of the lower Indus and its delta, an important part of which now forms the province of Sind.

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The land described above presents great varieties of scenery. The eyes meet in the north the snow-clad speaks and glaciers of the Himalayas and the luxuriant vegetation that clothes the submontane region. A striking contrast to this is afforded by the plains of the Indus, which look like an “interminable waste”, overgrown with tamarisk scrubs and ultimately merging in the great desert of Rajputana, the Registan of Sind and the sandy, surf-beaten shore of the Arabian Sea. The dreary and monotonous sight is only redeemed by the green verdure of the riverine fringes and “endless expanse of waving crops of different shades of colour” that covers the country at the approach of the harvest season.

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The history of the region cannot be properly understood without a reference to its river-system. The central stream of the Indus, taking its rise in the heights of the Tibetan Plateau, meanders its course through the whole length of the land. It has not only given its name to our country but, according to some Greek writers, formed sometimes its north-western boundary. Near Attock in the north-western part of the Punjab it receives the combined waters of the Kabul and its confluents, including the Swat, the Panjkora, the Kunar and the Panjshir. The rivers which contribute most to the stream of the Indus, however, lie to the east and sweep through the plains of the Punjab proper, the “Land of the Five Rivers.” The nearest among the “Five Streams” is the Jhelum or Vitastā, the Hydaspes of the Greeks. It adds to the wealth and beauty of the sunny vale of Kashmir and unites with the next stream, the Chenab, the ancient Chandrabhāgā or Asiknī, the Akesines of the Greek writers, near Jhang. The whirling of waters produced by the confluence threatened to spell disaster to a flotilla of Alexander in the fourth century B. C. The next of the sister torrents, the Rāvi, ancient Paruṣṇī or Irāvatī, the Hydraotis of the Greeks, rises in the Chamba State and falls into the united waters of the Jhelum and the Chenab. To the east of the Rāvi flows the Beas, ancient Vipāś or Vipāśā, the Hyphasis of the Greeks, which is now an affluent of the Sutlej, Sutudri, or Śatadru, the Hesidrus or Zaradros of the Greeks. The five streams mingle their waters into the Panjnad and join the Indus above Mithankot. The mighty river then sweeps on into the Arabian sea through a number of shifting channels. Traces of old river beds are found in several directions and remains of ancient cities stud the neighbourhood.

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During winter the rivers of the Punjab look comparatively small but at the approach of the hot season, when the snow of the mountains begins to melt, and particularly when the monsoons burst, the streams are lashed to fury and rush through their wide beds "in uncontrolled vagary". Large tracts of the country assume an almost oceanic character. Greek writers, as we shall see, bear ample testimony to the vagaries of these rivers and their effect on the landscape.

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Although drained by a large number of rivers the soil of the Punjab is comparatively poor. The scarcity of regular rainfall and the absence of sufficient facilities for irrigation in early times added to the difficulties of extensive cultivation. The forest-clad sub-montane region, including the country round Taxila, has, however, been noted for its fertility since times long gone by. Besides agricultural products, salt added to the wealth of the Indus basin, being found embedded in rocks particularly the Salt Range, and the delta of Sind. No trace of gold mines has been found in this region, but the metal was met with in the sands of the Indus, and the Kabul rivers and the upper reaches of several other streams.

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The gold-washing industry is no longer remunerative. But Herodotus informs us that in the fifth century B. C. "India", i. e., the Indus valley, paid a tribute of 360 talents of gold-dust. The existence of gold and silver "mines" in the countries of Sophytes and Mousikanos and certain other regions was reported to the companions of Alexander and the Chinese pilgrims of the seventh century A. D. The forests of Gandhāra supplied teak for a Persian palace, and the country in general ivory for its adornment. Alexander, too got timber for his flotilla from the hilly region flanking the north of the Punjab.

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Geographical factors exercised a controlling influence upon the history of the Land of the Five Rivers as on the rest of the country. The mountains on the west and the north that frown on the riparian plains afforded shelter to fighting clans, who turned every rocky eminence into a citadel of defence and braved the wrath of the mightiest conqueror of antiquity. The numerous streams and rivulets that intersect the plains made each doab or strip of territory between two sheets of water nourish centres of autonomous political life. The mighty Indus with its confluent streams at times promoted an opposite tendency. They served as highways for ambitious rulers who sought to compel the political molecules of the Punjab and Sind to submit to one controlling force. The story of the mineral and agricultural wealth of the country must have been carried by travellers and merchants beyond its border so as to reach the ears of the King of Kings who held his court at Susa and Ekbatana from the sixth to the fourth century B. C. The riches of India and the lack of political cohesion among the children of the soil invited invasion from outside. The existence of a centralised monarchy in Iran indicated the source from which it was to come.

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B. THE ADVANCE OF PERSIA TO THE INDUS.

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Some sort of military activity in India and its borderland and even conquest of a well defined territory in this direction are attributed to Cyrus (558-529 B. C.), the founder of the Persian empire, by Xenophon and other writers. But the evidence points to the inclusion within the dominions of the first Achaemenid of only the Kabul valley as far as the Indus. We learn from Pliny that Cyrus destroyed the famous city of Kāpiśī and Arrian tells us that "the district west of the Indus as far as the Kophen (Kabul).. submitted to the Persians and paid tribute to Cyrus". Kāpiśī, the Ka-pi-shih of Hiuen Tsang and Ki-pin (cf. Greek Kophen) of other Chinese texts stood at or near the junction of the Ghorband and the Panjshir. The eastern part of the realm of Ki-pin comprised, according to later writers, K'ien-t'o-lo or Gandhāra. Classical writers thus make it clear that the region between the Panjshir and the Indus, embracing ancient Kāpiśī or Ki-pin and Gandhāra proper (Peshawar district), was under the sway of Cyrus, a fact that accords with the appearance of Gadara or Gandhāra among the subject peoples in the earliest epigraphs of Darius (522-486 B. C.).

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Another eastern people who owed allegiance to the Persians were the "Thatagus" or the Sattagydians. They together with the Gandarians, the Dadicae and the Aparytae constituted the seventh satrapy. Herzfeld is inclined to regard the Sattagydians as an Indian people located in the Punjab. Rawlinson, however, thinks that they lived near the Arachosians (of Kandahar) and occupied a part of south-eastern Afghanistan. According to Sarre they are to be located in the Ghazni and Ghilzai regions. Dames placed them in the Hazara country. The exact position of the Sattagydians still remains uncertain and the matter cannot be finally decided until the discovery of fresh evidence.

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A more famous name that occurs in several inscriptions of Darius in the list of subject peoples is Hidu (Hindu), which corresponds to the "Indians" of Herodotus. The circumstances leading to their subjugation, as described by the famous Greek historian, are too well known to need recounting. We are told that "the Indians, who are more numerous than other nations with which we are acquainted, paid a tribute exceeding that of every other people, viz., 360 talents of gold-dust. This was the twentieth satrapy." Herzfeld takes Hidu to refer to Sind. The description of Herodotus that "the tribes of India are more numerous than any other nation and do not all speak the same language", taken together with the information that they paid an amount of tribute exceeding that of every other people, suggests that the twentieth province of the Achaemenid Empire could not have been confined within the narrow limits of modern Sind. If the sandy tract, which is said to have lain 'eastward of India' refers to the desert of Rajputana, then we have probably to include a considerable portion of the southern Punjab, if not the whole of the *central* as well as the lower Indus valley within the borders of the twentieth satrapy. It may no doubt be argued in this connection that certain words of Megasthenes and Arrian suggest a more restricted dominion. The former says that "the Indians had never engaged in foreign warfare, nor had ever been invaded and conquered by a foreign power, except by Hercules and Dionysus and lately by the Macedonians". Arrian also makes the statement that "according to the Indians, no one before Alexander, with the exception of Dionysus and Hercules, had invaded their country." As both these writers often take the Indus to be the western boundary of India proper, their statements may be taken to imply that the Persian dominion in the east did not extend beyond the mighty Sindhu. But it has perhaps been rightly pointed out that "Alexander's historians may have been inclined to minimise the accomplishments" of the Persians "in order to bring into greater prominence the achievements of the famous Greek invader." In any case we should give more weight to the contemporary testimony of Herodotus than to the observations of Megasthenes and Arrian who wrote in much later ages.

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The empire which Darius ruled with wisdom and vigour did not long survive his death. Xerxes, who succeeded his father in 486 B. C. and reigned till 465 B. C., had to face a sea of troubles. Rebellions broke out on all sides. We learn from a Persepolis inscription, usually assigned to the period between 486-480 B. C., that he destroyed the temple of the daivas. This, in all likelihood, has reference to India. It is, however, difficult to determine whether the Achaemenian ruler proclaimed a jihad in honour of Ahuramazda or was faced with a rebellion of the far-eastern province of his empire, the land of the Deva-worshippers. That the monarch succeeded in retaining some hold over the Indian provinces is amply attested by the fact that the people of Gandhāra as well as the Indians figured in the vast host that he led against Hellas in 480 B. C.

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The discomfiture that the fleet and army of Persia suffered in the fight against the Greeks at Salamis and Plataea, Mycale and Eurymedon, clearly indicated that her days of conquest and ascendancy were over. The weak and incapable successors of Xerxes found more delight in the boudoirs of the harem than on fields of battle. The direction of state affairs gradually passed into the hands of ambitious women or all-powerful officials. Murder of princes, rebellions of satraps and popular outbreaks lined the path of national decline. But genius for intrigue and possession of gold enabled the agents of a corrupt and effete system to continue for sometime to wield an influence which the valour and enterprise of their antagonists failed effectively to eradicate.

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The Achaemenians succeeded in retaining some control or influence over the tribes of the Indian borderland till 330

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B. C. when their hegemony was finally extinguished by Alexander. Strabo informs us, on the authority of Eratosthenes, that "the Indus was the boundary between India and Ariana, which latter was situated next to India to the west and was in possession of the Persians at that time" (i. e. when Alexander invaded India).

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Indian contingents fought side by side with the Persians against the Hellenic host at Guagamela. Arrian refers to three distinct groups of Indians who responded to the trumpet call of Darius III Codomanus (335-330 B. C.). The Indians who were neighbours of the Bactrians (of the Balkh region), possibly the inhabitants of Kāpiśi-Gandhāra, were arrayed with the Bactrians themselves and the Sogdianians (of the Samarkand territory) under the command of Bessus, the satrap of Bactria. A second group of Indians styled the "Indian hillmen" or "mountaineer Indians", possibly the Sattagydians or people of the principality of Sambos in Sind, were placed with the Arachosians (of the Kandahar area) under Bersaentes, Satrap of Arachosia. Besides these, we have pointed reference to a third group, viz. Indians on *this* side of the Indus, apparently those of the twentieth satrapy, who came to the help of the Persian king with a comparatively small force of fifteen elephants.

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In the huge Persian army that Darius pitched against Alexander the Indians occupied the centre where the great king himself took up his position. They obviously enjoyed, in a special measure, the confidence of the sovereign and had the honour of protecting his person with his kinsmen, "the Persians whose spears were fitted with golden apples, the 'transplanted' Carians and the Mardian bowmen." Nor did they belie the trust reposed in them. When the attack began and the great king himself took to flight some of the Indians, together with the Persian cavalry, fell upon the enemy with great impetuosity and threatened one contingent (the army of Parmenio) with total annihilation. The timely help of Alexander saved the situation.

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It is interesting to note that two important sections of Indians who joined the army of Darius III fought under the banner of the satraps of Bactria and Arachosia. This possibly implies that their territories were committed to the charge of those two satrapies. The amalgamation of two, or even three, provinces is a feature of the administrative history of the later Achaemenids. Like the Daṇḍapanatasāmantas, mentioned in Kauṭiliyan Arthaśāstra, Indian lieges furnished contingents to the paramount power in the hour of its need. The great provincial satraps had the assistance of district officials or local potentates of the rank of nomarch and hyparch. A number of these functionaries are mentioned as ruling in the Kabul and Indus valleys on the eve of the Macedonian invasion of 326 B. C. Alexander did not meet with any Persian satrap after he crossed the Indus. But hyparchs and nomarchs were to be found as far as the Salt range. Some of the chiefs assumed the full insignia of sovereignty and even styled themselves Basileus or king. The hold of the Persian king and satraps had by this time grown very weak. Each petty principality or chiefship cherished "with a passionate tenacity its individual life and.. political ambition, making wars and alliances as the interest of the moment might dictate."

C. Successors of the Achaemenids

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The little states in North-western India and the borderland that rose on the ruins of the Persian Empire may be grouped under three heads : (a) kingships, mainly of a tribal character, in the region between the Kunar and the Ravi, with a solitary hill-state apparently under oligarchical rule; (b) the autonomous tribes east of the Ravi and south of the junction of the Jhelum and the Chenab; and (c) monarchies and one state under 'diarchy' in the lower Indus valley below Mithankot, in parts of which Brāhmaṇas seem to have exercised considerable political influence.

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The first group begins with the principalities in the hill country drained by the northern affluents of the Kabul river comprising the valleys of the Kunar, the Panjkora and the Swat, occupied by the Aspasians, the Gaureans and the Assakenians respectively. The name Aspasian is derived from the Iranian 'Aspa', horse, corresponding to the Sanskrit 'Aśva' or 'Aśvaka'. They were thus identical with, or kindreds of, the Assakenians or Aśvakas. The ruler of the Aspasians is styled a *hyparch*. The chief wealth of the people seems to have consisted in cattle, 230,000 of which were captured by Alexander.

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The territory occupied by the Assakenians lay in the Swat valley and was known in the Gupta Age as Suvāstu and Udyāna. The royal seat of the country was Massaga, a great city well fortified both by nature and art. It was surrounded by a wall of 35 stadia in circumference, built of sun-baked brick on a foundation of stone work. Towers and engines had to be employed by Alexander to bring about its fall. The Assakenian king had a powerful army of 20,000 cavalry, more than 30,000 infantry and 30 elephants. He was probably in alliance with the king of Abhisāra, as his brother, when attacked by Alexander, took shelter with the latter.

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Somewhere in the rugged country to the west of the Indus stood the small hill-state Nysa "at the foot of Mt. Meros." Holdich locates it on the lower spurs and valleys of Kohi-Mor in the Swat country. The Nysaeans are alleged to have been Greek colonists, descendants of men who came to India with Dionysus. The presence of a Yona or Greek *janapada* on the Indian borderland in the days of the Buddha is vouched for by the *Majjhima-nikāya*. The people of Nysa lived under an aristocratic government and their laws received the approbation of Alexander. The members of the Governing Body numbered 300. Akuphis held the office of the President at the time of the Macedonian invasion.

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The old territory of Gandhāra was in the latter part of the fourth century B. C. divided between two *hyparchs* viz., those of Pūshkalāvati and Takshaśilā or Taxila. Pūshkalāvati, or Peuc laotis of the Greeks, lay to the west of the Indus in the modern district of Peshawar. Taxila stood in the eastern part of ancient Gandhāra. The oldest city of that name is probably represented by the present Bhir mound near Saraikala, 20 miles north-west of Rawalpindi. It was a great and prosperous city in those days, "the largest of all which lay between the river Indus and Hydaspes (Jhelum)." Plutarch, giving an exaggerated estimate of the size of the realm of "Taxiles", says that it was "as large as Egypt, with good pasturage, too, and in the highest degree productive of beautiful fruits". Strabo refers to its "most excellent laws" and speaks of it as spacious and very fertile, adding that "some say that this is larger than Aegypt." The wealth of the country is testified to by the fact that one of its chiefs presented to Alexander 200 silver talents, 3,000 cattle for sacrificial offering, over 10,000 sheep and 30 elephants. The succeeding ruler gave Alexander and his friends golden crowns and 80 talents of coined silver. The attitude of Taxila towards its neighbours throws welcome light on interstate and inter-tribal relations in the later half of the fourth century B. C. It entertained no friendly feelings towards Pūshkalāvati and was actually at war with "Abisares" (the Abhisāra chief) and "Porus" (the Paurava) both of whom held sway beyond the river Jhelum. It is difficult to determine the exact political status of the ruler of Taxila at the time of Alexander's invasion. Arrian styles him a *hyparch* but Strabo calls him a *basileus*. It is possible that he was one of the subordinate governors or vassal chiefs of the Persian empire and took advantage of the collapse of Achaemenian authority to declare his independence. The cases of several *nawabs* of the eighteenth century furnish us with close parallels.

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"The hilly region above the Taxila country was occupied by Arsakes or the chief of Uraśā (Hazara district) and Abisares or Prince of Abhisāra (Punch and Nowshera districts)." It is interesting to note that like many of his brother chieftains on the borderland Arsakes is described as a *hyparch*.

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The ruler of Abhisāra, on the other hand, is styled by Arrian as a *Basileus* or king. He was a very powerful prince and a man of shrewd political sense. He seems to have been a member of a powerful combination of chiefs consisting of Porus, Arsakes and possibly Assakenus. He was no friend of the king of Taxila and is known to have led an expedition against the Cathaeans and other self-governing tribes of the Punjab in alliance with Porus. He sensed the danger of the Macedonian invasion and tried to stop the invader at the gate of India. Thus he sent help to the frontier city of Ora and gave shelter to the brother of Assakenus. When Alexander actually arrived at Taxila he sent envoys offering his submission and yet before the battle of the Hydaspes (Jhelum) he made preparations for joining his forces with Porus.

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To the south-east of Taxila between the Jhelum and the Ravi lay the twin territories of the Purus or Pauravas, a people already famous in the *Rig Veda*. The realm of the elder of the two chieftains roughly corresponded to parts of the modern districts of Gujarat and Shahpur. It was an extensive and fertile region containing three hundred cities. The second Paurava or Porus, styled a *hyparch* by Arrian, governed a principality between the Chenab and the Rāvi. A man of undaunted courage, brave as a lion, Porus the Elder towered like a triton among minnows. The king of Taxila on the west and his own nephew or cousin, styled the Younger Porus, on the east were both afraid of him. The Cathaeans and other self-governing tribes also had a wholesome respect for his prowess. Diodorus informs us that he was in alliance with Embisaros (Abisares or king of Abhisāra) and in the battle of the Hydaspes he received help from Spitaces, a *nomarch* who possibly owed him allegiance. The army he marshalled against Alexander numbered more than 50,000 foot, about 3,000 horses and above 1,000 chariots and 130 elephants.

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Not far from the domains of the Pauravas stretched the principality of the *nomarch* Sophytes or Saubhuti. It included a mountain composed of fossil salt sufficient for the whole of India; Saubhuti is therefore sometimes represented as the "lord of the fastness of the Salt Range" stretching from the Indus to the Jhelum. Classical writers, however, agree in placing his territory to the *east* of the Jhelum. We have some coins of this potentate bearing on the obverse the royal head and on the reverse the figure of a cock. The issue of coins, like the assumption of the title of *Basileus* by the chief of Taxila, may point to the assumption of the rank of an independent king. Both Curtius and Diodorus agree that the people of the kingdom of Saubhuti lived under good laws and customs and beauty was held by them in the highest estimation. "Officers were appointed to discriminate between children with deformed or defective limbs and those with perfect and healthy constitutions and features. The former were put to death, and the latter were reared, not according to the will of the parents but according to the wishes of the state. In contracting marriages they did not seek an alliance with high birth nor did they care whether a bride had dowry or a handsome fortune, but made their choice by the looks and other advantages of the outward person. The inhabitants were therefore held in higher estimation than the rest of their countrymen and also excelled in wisdom."¹

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¹ M'Crindle *Invasion* pp. 219, 279.

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With the Pauravas and Saubhuti we take leave of the tribal chieftains, who held sway on the borderland and the western Punjab under the titles of *hyparch*, *nomarch* and, more rarely, *Basileus*. We now come to the territories of the autonomous clans. We have to mention first the Glauganikai or Glausians, whose country lay to the west of the Chenab close to the territory of the Pauravas. In their land were no less than thirty-seven cities; of these, the least populated had above five thousand inhabitants many of them had over ten thousand. There was also a large number of populous villages.² We have next to mention the Kathaioi or Cathaeans, who are placed by some on the far side of the Chenab and the Ravi. The name possibly stands for the Sanskrit Katha. A brave and warlike race, the Cathaeans had their stronghold at Sangala, probably situated in the Gurudaspur district not far from Fathgarh, though some prefer the claims of Jandiala to the east of Amritsar, or that of Lahore itself. The people had a keen sense of beauty. Strabo, on the authority of Onesicritus, tells us that they chose the handsomest person as their king, and had customs that remind one of the realm of Saubhuti. Other observations of Onesicritus on the Cathaeans will be cited later.

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² Arrian (Loeb) II 63, 65.

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Not far from the Cathaeans on the eastern side of the Ravi lived the Adraistai. Their main stronghold was Pimprama. Between the Ravi and the Beas we find mention of a chief named Phegeus or Phegelis. The name of the king probably answers to the Sanskrit Bhagala, known from the *Gaṇapāṭha* as a designation of a royal race of Kshatriyas.

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Below the junction of the Jhelum and the Chenab, in the Shorkot region of the Jhang district lay the territory of a people, called the Siboi. They were probably identical with the Śiva people mentioned in the *Rig Veda* and the Śibis of the later literature. They were dressed with skins like Herakles and had clubs for their weapon, and further branded their cattle and mules with the mark of a club.¹ The nation mustered 40,000 soldiers to oppose Alexander. This people had the Agalassoi as their neighbours. Their army too numbered 40,000, besides 3,000 horse. Curtius tells us that "three largest rivers in India washed the line of the fortifications of their stronghold. The Indus flows close up to it, and on the south the Akesines unites with the Hydaspes."²

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¹ *Geography of Stabo* (Loeb) VII 11.

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² M'Crindle, *Invasion* p 233.

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Below the confluence of these rivers, on the confines of a waterless tract and along the Ravi and the Chenab lived the people called Malloi. Their name, as is well known, represents the Sanskrit Mālava. Closely connected with them in Sanskrit and Greek literature were the Oxydrakai or Oxydracae (variously called Sydracae, Sudracae, Syrakousai) or the Kshudrakas. Strabo informs us that they were regarded as the descendants of Dionysus, judging from the vine of their country and their bacchanalian procession. Pāṇini refers to the Mālavas as living by the profession of arms. Arrian includes them among self-governing Indians and says that they were the most numerous and the most warlike of the Indians in these parts. The evidence of Strabo seems to suggest that the Kshudrakas were ruled by petty kings (*basileus*), comparable to the *Rājās* among the Lichchhavis and the Mallas of Eastern India. Arrian in one passage refers to the mayors of the cities and rulers of districts (*nomarchai*) among them, who were entrusted with full power to negotiate with foreign potentates. Before the invasion of Alexander the Mālavas and the Kshudrakas were often at war with one another. But at the approach of the common enemy they decided to join forces. According to Curtius the combined army numbered 90,000 foot, 10,000 cavalry and 900 war chariots and they placed at their head a brave warrior of the nation of the Kshudrakas. A somewhat different account is given by Diodorus who says that the two nations at first mustered a force of 80,000 foot, 10,000 horse and 700 chariots and cemented their alliance by intermarriages, each nation taking and giving in exchange 10,000 of their young women for wives; but subsequently a dispute arose among them regarding leadership and they drew off into adjoining towns. Arrian's narrative seems to imply that Alexander reached the territory of the Mālavas before any help could come to them from their neighbours.

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The territory on the lower Chenab, situated between the confluence of that river with the Ravi and the junction with the Indus respectively was occupied by several autonomous tribes, such as the Abastence, also called Sambastai, Sabaragae (Ambashṭhas), the Xathroi (Kshatri) and the Ossadioi (Vasāti). The Ambashṭhas find prominent mention in Sanskrit and Pāli literature, including the great epics, along with the Śibis, the Kshudrakas, the Mālavas and the Sindhavas. Curtius and Diodorus both agree that they were a powerful people with a *democratic* government. Their army consisted of 60,000 foot, 6,000 cavalry and 400 chariots in Alexander's time. The Xathroi and the Ossadioi possibly the Kshatris and Vasātis of Sanskrit texts, do not seem to, have shared the eminence of their famous neighbours.

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Below the confluence of the five rivers lived the Sodrai and the Massanoi. The river Indus seems to have separated the territories of the two. The Sodrai are, in all probability, the Śūdras of the epic, a people closely associated with the Ābhiras dwelling on the Sarasvati.

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The major part of Sind from Sukkur to the delta was divided among a number of potentates of whom the most important was Mousikanos. The capital of this prince is usually placed at or near Alor. His country was reported to be the richest in India and Arrian tells us that Alexander much admired it and its capital. Strabo gives interesting information about the kingdom of Mousikanos on the authority of Onesicritus and this will be reproduced elsewhere.

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From the account left by Arrian it appears that the "Brahmans" or Brāhmaṇas exercised considerable influence in the country. They instigated a revolt against the Macedonian invader. Nearchus informs us "that the Brachamanes engage in affairs of state and attend the kings as councillors".

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Not far from the territory of Mousikanos lay the principality over which Oxykanos or Portikanos held sway. Arrian calls him a *nomarch*. The inhabitants of the region are styled by Curtius Praesti, possibly the Proṣṭhas of the epic.

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In the mountainous country adjoining the kingdom of Mousikanos ruled Sambos, called Sabus by Strabo and Sabbas by Plutarch. His capital was Sindimana or Sindomana, which has been identified, with little plausibility, with Sehwan, a city on the Indus. Arrian informs us that Sambos and Mousikanos were at enmity with one another. Sambos was appointed satrap of the Indian hillmen by Alexander; but if Plutarch is to be believed he rose in rebellion at the instance of the *gymnosophists*. This hints at the fact that "naked philosophers" who were either Brāhmaṇas or followers of the Jina had considerable political influence in the country of Sambos. Conditions therefore were not unlike those in the realm of Mousikanos. Diodorus makes explicit mention of a nation and country of the Brāhmaṇas in the neighbourhood of the Sindian chiefships. He also places at the extremity of the "country of the Brāhmaṇas" a city, called Harmatelia, which, as the evidence of Justin suggests, was ruled by a chief named Ambigerus.

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In the delta of the Indus lay the territory of Patalene, referred as Pottala and identified with Tauala of Diodorus. The capital probably stood near the site of Bahmanabad. Diodorus tells us Tauala had a political constitution like that of Sparta. The army was commanded by two kings belonging to separate families, while a Council of Elders directed the affairs of the state with supreme authority. One of the kings in the time of Alexander is styled by Curtius Moeres, a name that sounds like Moriya or Maurya of Indian records.

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To sum up, North-West India presented on the whole a picture of disunion when the Nandas held sway in the Ganges valley. Constant references to *hyparchs* and *nomarchs*, however, indicate that, as in the eighteenth century, agents of a defunct empire were, with few exceptions, still content with the subordinate titles they had in the palmy days of the rule of their former imperial masters. The time was ripe for interference from powers that dominated the tableland of Iran on the west and the valley of the Ganges in the east.

2. The Far South

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In comparison with the North-West our information regarding the Far South of India beyond the river Godāvarī in the age of the Nandas is extremely meagre. The region falls into three well-marked natural divisions: (1) The high land enclosed between the Western and the Eastern Ghats, which has its ‘orographical apex’ at the Nilgiri where the great mountain systems of the south merge into one another; (2) a narrow strip of territory on its west extending as far as the shores of the sea, intersected by numerous coves and creeks, but “unbroken by the passage of any considerable river”; and (3) the broader eastern sea-board embracing the fertile deltas of the Godāvarī, the Kṛṣṇā and the Kāveri as well as the “open treeless plains” of Madura and Tinnevelly.

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The two low-lying strips of territory overlooking the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal respectively are “filled with luxuriant vegetation, nourished by sea-borne mists and vapours”, bedecked with groves of palm and cocoanut and adorned in places by a number of backwaters, lagoons or lakes. They afford a most picturesque sight to the traveller. The wide expanse of the table land of the interior, “in some parts mountainous and wooded, in others flat and undulating, with stretches of rich crop-growing fields as well as sterile soil”, also presents a beautiful and diversified scenery. The south became justly famous for its natural wealth. The maritime belts are in many places exceedingly fertile and produced abundant crops of cereals. Ancient ports are found scattered all along the coastline through which a brisk trade was carried on with the countries of the west and the east from bygone times. Among the chief articles of commerce pepper, beryl and pearls were highly prized in Europe. The last-mentioned articles find prominent mention in the works of the Classical authors since the days of Megasthenes. Kauṭilya, too, refers to pearl called Tāmraparṇika, “that which is produced in Tāmraparṇi,” besides articles produced in Pandya-kapāṭa and the cotton fabrics of Madura.

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It is the wealth of the Far South, rather than the annals of its people, their manners and customs, religion and philosophy, that interested the earliest foreign observers. The contemporaries and immediate successors of Alexander seem to have had some vague knowledge of the south. A place called Keras is mentioned by Aristotle. But its identification with Kerala or Chera is not beyond doubt. Onesicritus, however, gives a description of the island of Taprobane (Tāmraparṇī or Ceylon). Eratosthenes in his description of India in the days of Alexander informs us that the most southerly part of India was occupied by the lands of Coniaci and Taprobane was seven days' sail from this place. He gathered the information that the most southerly capes of India rose opposite to the region of Meroe, from treatises written by men who had been to that region. Nearchus speaks of the setting of the Bears and if Megasthenes is to be believed this was a phenomenon observed in the southern parts of India. Aristobulus shows acquaintance with the products of "the southern land of India, (which) like Arabia and Aethiopia bears cinnamon, nard and other aromatic products." Strabo speaks of the people of the south as being like the Aethiopians in colour, but he does not specify his authority. Megasthenes speaks, in one of his doubtful fragments, of the Andrae (Andhras) who "possessed numerous villages, thirty towns defended by walls and towers, and supplied their king with an army of 100,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 1,000 elephants." The tribe is referred to in certain Brāhmaṇa texts and is found in historical times in the region watered by the lower courses of the Godāvarī and the Kṛṣṇā. Mention is also made of a tribe called the "Modubae" who are placed beyond the "Modogalingae". They are apparently identical with the Mutibas, a Dasyu tribe associated by the Brāhmaṇa texts, referred to above, with the Andhras.

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The extreme south of India to which the designation Tamilakam or Draviḍa (Damirike of Greek writers of the earliest centuries A. D.) was applied in post-vedic times consisted of four independent principalities in the third century B. C. These were the Cholas, the Pāṇḍyas, Keralaputra and Satiyaputra. Of these Satiyaputra does not seem to have been mentioned by any author historically or traditionally assignable to the Nanda period. We shall therefore content ourselves with a brief notice of the three remaining regions.

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The Chola country proper comprised the districts of Trichinpoly and Tanjore and was watered by the river Kāveri. The fame of the country in the age of the Nandas is vouched for by the celebrated grammarian Kātyāyana.

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The Pāṇḍya country is represented by the modern districts of Madura, Ramnad and Tinnevelly together with the southern part of the Travancore state. It was drained by the rivers Kṛtamālā or the Vaigai and the Tāmraparṇī. Like the Cholas, the Pāṇḍyas too are mentioned by Kātyāyana. He derives the name of the country from the famous Pāṇḍu. Megasthenes also refers to the Pāṇḍaian (Pāṇḍya) country and repeats some confused traditions regarding the connection of the land with the North, with Śūrasena, Mathurā and Herakles. The Pāṇḍyan people were distributed in 365 villagee and on every day of the year a village brought the tribute to the treasury, "so that the queen (represented by the Classical writers as the daughter of Herakles) might always have the assistance of those men whose turn it was to pay the tribute in coercing those who for the time being were defaulters in their payments."¹ It is interesting to note that the chief ornaments of the Pāṇḍyas were made of sea-pearl. Arrian tells us that the Pāṇḍya queen received from her father 500 elephants, 4,000 horses and 130,000 cavalry. Pliny tells us that her descendants ruled over 3,000 cities and commanded an army of 150,000 foot and 500 elephants. According to the same authority Pāṇḍya 'is the only race in India ruled by women.' Later writers, however, refer to more than one such territory.

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¹ M'Crindle, Megasthenes and Arrian, p. 159.

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If the Mahāvaṃsa is to be believed the Pāṇḍya kingdom and its capital, were in existence even in the time of Vijayasimha, the traditional conquerer of Ceylon, who is represented as a contemporary of Buddha. In this region we should perhaps place the land of the Coniaci, whose name may represent Kumārikā of Indian writers. The identification with Dhanushkoṭi is less plausible.

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Kerala, the third among the classic realms of the Far South, corresponds roughly to south Malabar and seems to have extended down to central Travancore. As already stated, its identification with *Keras* of Aristotle is problematical.

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Kerala may have embraced within its boundaries a district styled Mūshika. In a passage of Strabo, Onesicritus is said to have represented the "country of Mousikanos" as the *most southerly* part of India. The territory of the famous Mousikanos, the contemporary of Alexander, was, as is well known, located in the lower Indus valley. But it is not improbable that Onesicritus had heard also of the Mūshikas in the Far South and corrupted the name into Mousikanos. It may be pointed out in this connection that both Baharampur in the Murshidabad District of Bengal and Brahmapur in Ganjam have been corrupted into Berhampur by British officials.

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CHAPTER II

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ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGNS IN INDIA

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After Alexander's conquest of Bactria and Sogdiana, the Indian satrapy was the only province of the Persian empire into which he had not carried his arms. Of this province he must have gained some valuable knowledge from Sisikottos (Śaśigupta), the Indian mercenary leader who transferred his services from Bactria to her conqueror. Alexander also received an embassy in Sogdiana from Omphis (Āmbhi) of Takshaśilā (Taxila) which offered him the alliance of the Indian prince and sought the foreigner's aid against his powerful neighbour Porus, the first recorded instance of an Indian seeking foreign aid against fellow Indians.

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At the end of the spring of 326 B. C., Alexander started on his Indian expedition leaving Amyntas behind with 3,500 horse and 10,000 foot to hold the land of the Bactrians. He crossed the Central Hindu Kush in ten days following the main road from Balkh to Kabul, and reached the rich and beautiful valley of Koh-i-Daman, where he had already founded an Alexandria, which he now strengthened with fresh recruits from the neighbourhood and from among his war-worn soldiers. He placed Nicanor in charge of the city, and appointed Tyriespes satrap of the area, dispositions intended, as was usual with Alexander, to secure his rear before advancing further.

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Alexander then proceeded to Nikaia (Greek for 'city of victory'), a place that lay most likely on his route to the river Kābul. Here he offered a sacrifice to the goddess Athena, and met an Indian embassy headed by the king of Takshaśilā which 'brought him such presents as are most esteemed by the Indians' and gave him also all the elephants they had with them, twenty-five in number.

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After leaving Nikaia and at some distance from the city on the way to the Kabul river, Alexander divided his army, and sent one part of it under Hephaestion and Perdiccas to the Indus, along the course of the Kabul river, with instructions to take Peucelaotis (Pushkalāvati, near Charsadda, N. E. of Peshawar) and other places on the way by force if they would not submit of their own accord. When they reached the Indus they were to make necessary preparations for the transport of the army across that river. We have the name of only one tribal chief, Astes, in the Peucelaotis region (the Yusufzai country) who ventured to offer resistance, and paid for it with his life. His city was captured after thirty days, and in his place was installed Sangaios (Sañjaya ?) who had quarrelled with him some time before and gone over to Taxiles. The boats built by the Greeks on reaching the Indus were such as could be taken to pieces and reassembled on reaching another river (Curtius).

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