The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c18.65

c18.65

³ Fragment xxxiv in Schwanbeck, from *Strabo*, xv, 1, 51; translated by McCrindle in *Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian*, p. 87, and again (revised) in *Ancient India as described in Classical Literature*, p. 54. The words ἀπὸ συσσήμου, twice mistranslated by McCrindle as 'by public notice', really mean 'with official stamp', the *abhijñāna-mudrā* of the *Arthaśāstra*, Bk. ii, chap. 21. Similar regulations continued in use until comparatively recent times. The French traveller Tavernier (1st ed., 1675) tells us that at Benares there were 'two galleries where they sell cottons, silken stuffs, and other kinds of merchandise. The majority of those who vend the goods are the workers who have made the pieces, and in this manner foreigners obtain them at first hand. These workers, before exposing anything for sale, have to go to him who holds the contract [*scil.* for collecting the tax on sales], in order to get the king's stamp impressed on the pieces of calico or silk, otherwise they are fined and flogged' (V. Ball, transl. Tavernier, *Travels in India*, I, 118). It is interesting to note that the cotton fabrics of Benares were famous in Maurya times. The best kinds came from Madura in the south, the Konkan, Kalinga, Benares, Eastern Bengal (Vanga), Vatsa or Kauśāmbī, and Mahishmati (Mandhāta on the Narbadā) (*Arthaśāstra*, Bk. ii, chap. 12). The harbours were those on the Sōn and Ganges rivers. The remains of the brick embankments along the old course of the Sōn can still be traced.