The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c10.30

c10.30

The sons of aristocratic families were educated, along with Brāhmaṇa youths, at Takkasilā on the north-western frontier. It seems to have been one of the most notable seats of learning in ancient India. On the basis of contemporary Greek accounts, Pliny states that the town itself was situated on a level where the hills sink down into the plain. Strabo praises the soil as extremely fertile from the number of its springs and water-courses. In Ptolemy’s geography it is called Taxiala, probably from the Sanskrit Takṣaśilā, hewn stone or Takṣaśilā, i.e., rock of Takṣaka, the Nāga king, though others take it to be derived from the Takkas, a powerful tribe which probably occupied the regions between the Indus and the Chenāb. It seems to have been an extremely rich town. There is a myth in a Jātaka that a Benares king attacked Takkasilā, but amazed at the rich glory of its gate tower which he fancied to be the king’s residence, he abandoned the expedition (II, 217-8). Jaina literature, which contains numerous references to Takkasilā, shows that it was at one time adorned with vast numbers of Jaina edifices.