The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s1.19

c35.s1.19

The frequency and savagery of the internecine wars described in the old literature might seem to justify the opinion that the arts of peace and the amenities of civil life must have been wholly neglected in the ancient Tamil states. But such an inference would be erroneous, for there is no doubt that poetry and other refined arts were carried to a high degree of excellence, and that the dwellers in the cities, at all events, enjoyed all the luxuries which wealth could purchase. In this matter, too, an observation of Megasthenes helps us to understand the apparent contradiction between a state of incessant war and the existence of a rich trading and agricultural community of peaceful citizens.