The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c11.60

c11.60

It was probably during the lifetime of the Buddha that the Persians under Darius conquered certain districts in the north-west of India and grouped them into the twentieth satrapy of their empire.² It stretched along the banks of the Indus and probably included the whole of Sindh and part of the Puñjâb to the east of the river. It paid 360 Euboic talents of gold dust, equal to 185 hundredweights as tribute.³ But a passage in Xenophon’s Life of Cyrus shows that partly at least the Persian dominion fell into line with the fundamental political conditions of India. There is a reference to an Indian ‘king’ who sent a sum of money through some agents to the Persian king.⁴ The passage points not to downright annexation but to the relationship of suzerainty and vassalage. The Persian empire always respected local autonomy and it is more than probable that its Indian tracts were either left in the hands of old dynasties or at any rate governed on the old lines. About Indian royal houses themselves it is interesting to recall that Aristotle quotes from a book by Scylax of Caryanda (employed by Darius to navigate the Indus) that among Indians kings were held to be of a race superior to their subjects.¹ Here a ruling caste is indicated. The Persian connection probably provided fresh openings for an exchange of cultural influences between India and Persia. The general similarity between the political institutions of ancient India and ancient Persia makes it difficult to estimate the extent of the influence of the latter on the former but that there was some influence cannot be doubted.²