Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s2.t2.9

c9.s2.t2.9

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