Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c14.8

c14.8

**Greek accounts of Hindu Society: Confusion between Caste and Craft.** It is not at all a matter of surprise that the Greek notices of Hindu Society do not show a complete comprehension of a system which is rather singular and strange to foreigners. Megasthenes, and the Greek writers after him, describe the seven ‘classes’ of India by a confusion between castes proper and the crafts associated with them. “But his seven classes may truly reflect”, as Bevan well points out [*Ib.* 409], “the various activities which a Greek resident at Pāṭaliputra could see going on round about him in the fourth century B.C.”