The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c11.75.1

c11.75.1

the child they order it to be killed."' This order, adds Strabo, was pronounced by a magistrate according to the law.² Diodorus embellishes the details and adds that beauty was highly prized by those people in politics as in marriage³ Political infanticide is opposed to all we know of Hindu life, character and institutions in any part of the country from indigenous or foreign sources. Nowhere in Hindu literature or inscriptions is there the remotest hint at it whether by way of approval or disapproval. If such a practice really prevailed at this time, Aśoka who came shortly after and who was a humanitarian above all else would be sure to condemn it in his edicts. The fact is that the Greeks, struck by the heroism and endurance of the Kathas naturally compared them to Spartans and then imagined that similar institutions were required to produce similar characteristics. Another stretch of fancy can be detected in the description of Patala by Diodorus. It was a city of great note "with a political constitution drawn on the same lines as the Spartan; for in this community the command in war is vested in two hereditary kings of two different houses while a council of elders rules the whole state with paramount authority."⁴ Here, again, the Greek imagination seems to have transplanted the Spartan constitution to the banks of the Indus. Patala was perhaps really an oligarchy and its people were undoubtedly valorous.