The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t1.1

c11.t1.1

Indeed the Charlemagnes and Fredericks, by whose *parâkrama* (prowess) the frontiers of India were advanced so far as to include, on several occasions, Afghanistan and Central Asia on the land side, and the islands of the Indian Ocean to the south, had their hands always full with the problem of training and equipping the soldiers and sailors. The profession of arms and the command of the fleet called forth as a matter of course the administrative capabilities of Young India from age to age, — in the northern, eastern, central, western and southern provinces. And the spirit that pervaded these disciplined forces is what came out in the fourth gymnosophist's reply to Alexander's query. Alexander asked him as to why he had persuaded Sabbas (Śambhu) to revolt. Because, as we read in Plutarch's *Lives*, said the Hindu sage, "I wished him either to live with honor or die as a coward deserves."¹