The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c18.83

c18.83

² Megasthenes has a peculiar enumeration of the occupational classes (γενεαί), commonly mistranslated ‘castes’, which he reckoned as seven (‘ἐς ἑπτὰ μάλιστα γενεάς’ = to about 7): (1) the ‘sophists’ (σοφισταί); (2) agriculturists (γεωργοί); (3) herdsmen, shepherds, and graziers (νομέες, ποιμένες, βουκόλοι); (4) artisans and traders (τὸ δημιουργικόν τε καὶ καπηλικὸν γένος); (5) the military (πολεμισταί); (6) the overseers (ἐπίσκοποι); (7) the councillors (οἱ ὑπὲρ τῶν κοινῶν βουλευόμενοι ὁμοῦ τῷ βασιλεῖ, ἢ κατὰ πόλιας ἔσαι αὐτόνομοι σὺν τῇσιν ἀρχῇσι, Fragm. xxxii of Schwanbeck, from Arrian, *Indika*, 11, 12). Strabo calls No. 1, τοὺς φιλοσόφους; No. 3, ποιμένων καὶ θηρευτῶν; No. 4, τοὺς ἐργαζομένους τὰς τέχνας καὶ τοὺς καπηλικοὺς καὶ οἷς ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος ἡ ἐργασία; No. 6, ἔφοροι; and No. 7, οἱ σύμβουλοι καὶ σύνεδροι τοῦ βασιλέως. His nomenclature of Nos. 2 and 5 agrees with Arrian’s. The Brahman books, as is well known, reckon four classes or groups (*varṇa*) of castes (*jāti*), namely, Brahmans, Kshatriyas or Rājanyas, Vaiśyas, and Sūdras. It is a mistake to translate *varṇa* as ‘caste’.