The Greeks in Bactria and India c16.45

c16.45

Finally §6, which Kern so tantalisingly omitted. Lévi’s brief paraphrase in 1890¹ of this section, based I suppose on Kern’s indications, was ‘tunc pravae religioni addicti populi (Buddhistae scilicet) imperabunt’, and a section in this sense would have been invaluable to the historian; but Jayaswal’s full translation has nothing in it about ruling. What the section seems to mean is that the world will be turned upside down, distinctions of caste will vanish, and low-caste Sūdras will do many things which they have no business to do. The reference to Sūdras becoming Buddhists seems to me meaningless, as Buddhism knew no castes and equally accepted Brahman and beggar; it *may* be a way of saying that Buddhism will get the upper hand, but I do not so read it. But whether this picture is meant for the result of the Greek conquest at all may be doubtful; the section begins ‘In the end of the Yuga’, the Age, and it looks as if Druva might be right in transferring the whole section to the final period of destruction which will follow all the wars and close the Yuga. Also this section clumsily cuts in half the chronicle of the acts of the Yavanas and looks like an interpolation; it may be that the destruction of caste was a common-form accusation which could at any time be brought against any foreign ruler, as it is against the Mlechchhas in §11. One thing is clear: a Greek historian could only use §6 with the greatest reserve, and I am not using it.