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Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s2.t3: 2. The Far South

Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s2.t3

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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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