The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s2.257

c10.s2.257

Now the Brahman was the natural enemy of the Greek invader, not of course on religious but on patriotic grounds: no one who studies the history of Alexander can miss the fact that the Brahmans had been his most determined opponents.² For the Brahman was under the necessity of proving himself. It is too early yet to talk of ‘castes’ in India, but the four ‘colours’ existed³—warriors (Kshatriyas), priests (Brahmans), husbandmen (Vaisyu), proletariat (Sūdras). The Kshatriyas, to whom the kings usually belonged, had long held the first place,⁴ but a silent struggle was now in progress between warrior and priest for social primacy,⁵ a struggle to be settled centuries later in favour of the Brahmans. Now Indian writers assigned the Greeks, as they did many foreign invaders later, to the Kshatriya ‘colour’; they could hardly do otherwise, for the Greeks came as fighting men, not as priests or peasants or labourers. The assignment indeed was often qualified by saying that the Greek was an inferior sort of Kshatriya, half Kshatriya half Sūdra by descent, or else a Kshatriya who had degenerated through neglect of the Brahmans,⁶ obviously a Brahman definition; but a Kshatriya of some sort he was, and as such a member of the ‘colour’ opposed to the Brahmans. Greeks must have known this well enough, for the Sacas who came after them knew it, as is shown by their adopting