Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c42.6

c42.6

¹ Cf. McCrindle, *Megasthenes*, pp. 124-126:— “God, the supreme king, is never the author, of insolent wrong, but is the creator of light, of peace, of life, of water, of the body of man, and of souls and these he receives when death sets them free being in no way subject to evil desire. He alone is the god of my homage, who abhors slaughter and instigates no wars. But Alexander is not god, since he must taste of death, and how can such as he be the world's master, who has not yet reached the further shore of the river Tiberoboas, and has not yet seated himself on a throne of universal dominion?......If his present dominions are not capacious enough for his desire, let him cross the Ganges river, and he will find a region able to sustain men if the country on our side be too narrow to hold him. Know this, however, that what Alexander offers me, and the gift he promises, are all things to me utterly useless... The earth supplies me with everything, even as a mother her child with milk......Should Alexander cut off my head, he cannot also destroy my soul. My head alone now silent, will remain, but the soul will go away to its master, leaving the body like a torn garment upon the earth whence also it was taken. I then, becoming spirit, shall ascend to my god......he is judge of all proud wrong-doing. For the groans of the oppressed become the punishments of the oppressors. Let Alexander, then, terrify with these threats those who wish for gold and for wealth and who dread death, for against us these weapons are both alike powerless, since the Bragmanes (=Brāhmaṇas) neither love gold nor fear death.” No wonder that the Greeks should say that ‘Dandamis...though old and naked, was the only antagonist in whom he, the conqueror of many nations, had found more than his match.’ The reader need hardly be reminded that the ascetic was quoting the Upanishads. His description of the Brahmin who neither wished for gold nor dreaded death is relevant to what we say below (§ 290).