The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t1.11

c11.t1.11

In Plutarch’s *Life of Alexander* we learn, further, that the king of Magadha (the Gangaridae and Prasii nations on the banks of the Ganges) in Eastern India was master of 20,000 horse, 200,000 foot, 2,000 chariots, and 3,000 or 4,000 elephants. Evidently this ruler was one of the “nine Nandas”. The size of one of the smallest Hindu armies can be given from Pliny’s *Natural History*.¹ It belonged to another people of the eastern provinces of India, viz., the Gangaridae Kalingoe, ancestors of the modern Oriyas. Their king with capital at Protalis had 60,000 infantry, 1,000 horse, and 700 elephants “always caparisoned for battle”. But, as usual, in regard to most of the periods of Hindu military and naval history, authentic information is wanting about the system of discipline, salaries, hierarchy of officers and other items of the War Office, except what may be gathered from the *nîti-śâstras* and other literature on polity.