The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c16.48

c16.48

The capital of this stiff-necked king may be probably, although not certainly, identified with Alōr or Arōr, the ancient capital of Sind, now included in the Sukkur District, and situated in N. lat. 27° 39′, E. long. 68° 59′. The peculiarities of the people of this kingdom excited the surprise and admiration of the Macedonians. The inhabitants were believed to attain the age of a hundred and thirty years, their longevity being the result of good health secured by temperance in diet. Although their country possessed mines of both gold and silver, they refused to make use of either metal. Unlike the other Indians, they kept no slaves, employing in their stead 'young men in the flower of their age, as the Cretans employ the Aphamiōtai, and the Lacedaemonians the Helots'. They also resembled the Lacedaemonians in observing the custom of a public meal, at which the food served was the produce of the chase. They decline to study any science save that of medicine, and were reputed to have no system of civil law, the jurisdiction of the courts being confined to cases of murder and other violent crime.¹