The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s2.14

c35.s2.14

The capital of the country, as already mentioned, was at Madura in Pliny's time, but the kingdom had existed from much earlier days. The Pāndyas were known to the Sanskrit grammarian Kātyāyana, whose date probably is not later than the fourth century B. C. ;⁴ and in the same century, Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleukos Nikator at the court of Chandragupta Maurya, was told strange tales about the southern realm, which was supposed to be under the regimen of women. He was informed that 'Herakles begat a daughter in India whom he called Pandaia. To her he assigned that portion of India which lies to the southward and extends to the sea, while he distributed the people subject to her rule into 365 villages, giving orders that one village each day should bring to the treasury the royal tribute, so that the queen 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 payment.’ This female potentate was credited with having received from her hero father 500 elephants, 4,000 cavalry, and 130,000 infantry. She possessed a great treasure in the fishery for pearls, which, as Arrian observes, had been eagerly sought by the Greeks, and in his time were equally prized by the Romans.¹