Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

That's French for "the ancient system," as in the ancient system of feudal privileges and the exercise of autocratic power over the peasants. The ancien regime never goes away, like vampires and dinosaur bones they are always hidden in the earth, exercising a mysterious influence. It is not paranoia to believe that the elites scheme against the common man. Inform yourself about their schemes here.

Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Fri Sep 10, 2021 11:50 pm

Translation of the First Part of the Indika of Arrian.

Chaps. I.— XVII. inclusive.

FROM TEUBNER'S EDITION, Leipzig, 1867.

INTRODUCTION.




Arrian, who variously distinguished himself as a philosopher, a statesman, a soldier, and an historian, was born in Nikomedia, in Bithynia, towards the end of the first century. He became a pupil of the philosopher Epiktetos, whose lectures he published. Having been appointed prefect of Kappadokia under the emperor Hadrian, he acquired during his administration a practical knowledge of the tactics of war in repelling an attack made upon his province by the Alani and Massagetai. His talents recommended him to the favour of the succeeding emperor, Antoninus Pius, by whom he was raised to the consulship (A.D. 146). In his later years he retired to his native town, where he applied his leisure to the composition of works on history, to which he was led by his admiration of Xenophon. Ho died at an advanced age, in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. The work by which he is best known is his account of the Asiatic expedition of Alexander the Great, which is remarkable alike for the accuracy of its narrative, and the Xenophontic ease and clearness, if not the perfect purity, of its style. His work on India ([x] or [x]) may be regarded as a continuation of his Anabasis, though it is not written, like the Anabasis, in the Attic dialect, but in the Ionic. The reason may have been that he wished his work to supersede the old and less accurate account of India written in Ionic by Ktesias of Knidos.

The Indika consists of three parts: — the first gives a general description of India, based chiefly on the accounts of the country given by Megasthenes and Eratosthenes (chaps i-xvii.); the second gives an account of the voyage made by Nearchos the Kretan from the Indus to the Pasitigris, based entirely on the narrative of the voyage written by Nearchos himself (chaps. xviii.-xlii.); the third contains a collection of proofs to show that the southern parts of the world are uninhabitable on account of the great heat (chap. xlii. to the end).
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Sat Sep 11, 2021 7:33 am

I.

The regions beyond the river Indus on the west are inhabited, up to the river Kophen, by two Indian tribes, the Astakenoi and the Assakenoi, who are not men of great stature like the Indians on the other side of the Indus, nor so brave, nor yet so swarthy as most Indians. They were in old times subject to the Assyrians, then after a period of Median rule submitted to the Persians, and paid to Kyros the son of Kambyses the tribute from their land which Kyros had imposed. The Nysaioi, however, are not an Indian race, but descendants of those, who came into India with Dionysos, — perhaps not only of those Greeks who had been disabled for service in the course of the wars which Dionysos waged against the Indians, but perhaps also of natives of the country whom Dionysos, with their own consent, had settled along with the Greeks. The district in which he planted this colony he named Nysaia, after Mount Nysa, and the city itself Nysa.*

[*Nysa, the birthplace of the wine-god, was placed, according to fancy, anywhere up and down the world wherever the vine was found to flourish. Now, as the region watered by the Kophes was in no ordinary measure feracious of the joyous tree, there was consequently a Nysa somewhere upon its banks. Lassen doubted whether there was a city to the name, but M. de St.-Martin is less sceptical, and would identify it with an existing village which preserves traces of its name, being called Nysatta. This, he says, is near the northern bank of the river of Kabul at less than two leagues below Hashtnagar, and may suitably represent the Nysa of the historians. This place, he adds, ought to be of Median or Persian foundation, since the nomenclature is Iranian, the name of Nysa or Nisaya which figures in the cosmogonic geography of the Zendavesta being one which is far-spread in the countries of ancient Iran. He refers his readers for remarks on this point, to A. de Humboldt's Central Asia, 1. pp. 116 seq. ed. 1843.]

But the mountain close by the city, and on the lower slopes of which it is built, is designated Meros, from the accident which befell the god immediately after his birth. These stories about Dionysos are of course but fictions of the poets, and we leave them to the learned among the Greeks or barbarians to explain as they may. In the dominions of the Assakenoi there is a great city called Massaka, the seat of the sovereign power which controls the whole realm.*

[*Massaka (other forms are Massaga, Masaga, and Mazaga.) — The Sanskrit Masaka, a city situated near the Gauri. Curtius states that it was defended by a rapid river on its eastern side. When attacked by Alexander, it held out for four days against all his assaults.]

And there is another city, Peukelaitis, which is also of great size and not far from the Indus.*

[*Peukelaitis (other forms— Peukelaetis, Peukolitae, Peukelaotis). "The Greek name of Peukelaotis or Peukolaitis was immediately derived from Pukkalaoti, which is the Pali or spoken form of the Sanskrit Pushkalavati. It is also called Poukelas by Arrian, and the people are named Peukalei by Dionysius Periegetes, which are both close transcripts of the Pali Pukkala. The form of Proklais, which is found in Arrian's Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and also in Ptolemy's Geography, is perhaps only an attempt to give the Hindi name of Pokhar, instead of the Sanskrit Pushkara." So General Cunningham, who fixed its position at "the two large towns Parang and Charsada, which form part of the well-known Hashtnagar, or 'eight cities,' that are seated close together on the eastern bank of the lower Swat river." The position indicated is nearly seventeen miles to the northeast of Peshawar. Pushkala, according to Prof. Wilson, is still represented by the modern Pekhely or Pakholi, in the neighbourhood of Peshawar.]

These settlements lie on the other side of the river Indus, and extend in a westward direction as far as the Kophen.
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Sun Sep 12, 2021 12:16 am

II.

Now the countries which lie to the east of the Indus I take to be India Proper, and the people who inhabit them to be Indians.*

[*In limiting India to the eastern side of the Indus, Arrian expresses the view generally held in antiquity, which would appear to be also that of the Hindus themselves, since they are forbidden by one of their old traditions to cross that river.[Kala pani taboo] Much, however, may be said for the theory which would extend India to the foot of the great mountain ranges of Hindu Kush and Parapamisos.
There is, for instance, the fact that in the region lying between these mountains and the Indus many places either now bear, or have formerly borne, names which can with certainty be traced to Sanskrit sources. The subject is discussed at some length in Elphinstone's History of India, pp. 331-6, also by de St-Martin.— E'tude, pp. 9-14.]


In the year 305 BC, Seleucus I Nicator went to India and apparently occupied territory as far as the Indus, and eventually waged war with the Maurya Emperor Chandragupta Maurya.[??][citation needed]

Only a few sources mention his activities in India. Chandragupta[??] (known in Greek sources as Sandrokottos), founder of the Mauryan empire, had conquered the Indus valley and several other parts of the easternmost regions of Alexander's empire. Seleucus began a campaign against Chandragupta[??] and crossed the Indus. Most western historians note that it appears to have fared poorly as he did not achieve his goals[citation needed], even though what exactly happened is unknown. The two leaders ultimately reached an agreement, [Kosmin, Paul J. (2014). The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire. P. 98.] and through a treaty[??] sealed in 305 BC, [John Keay (2001). India: A History. Grove Press. pp. 85–86.] Seleucus abandoned the territories he could never securely hold in exchange for stabilizing the East and obtaining elephants, with which he could turn his attention against his great western rival, Antigonus Monophthalmus. The 500 war elephants Seleucus obtained from Chandragupta[??] were to play a key role in the forthcoming battles, particularly at Ipsus against Antigonus and Demetrius. The Maurya king might have married the daughter of Seleucus. [Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (2003) [1952]. Ancient India. P. 105.]

According to Strabo, the ceded territories bordered the Indus:
... "... these places, in part, some that lie along the Indus are held by Indians, although they formerly belonged to the Persians. Alexander took these away from the Arians and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus, upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange five hundred elephants. — Strabo 15.2.9."

From this, it seems that Seleucus surrendered the easternmost provinces of Arachosia, Gedrosia, Paropamisadae and perhaps also Aria.[!!!] On the other hand, he was accepted by other satraps of the eastern provinces. His Iranian wife, Apama, may have helped him implement his rule in Bactria and Sogdiana. This would tend to be corroborated archaeologically, as concrete indications of Mauryan influence, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka which are known to be located in, for example, Kandhahar in today's southern Afghanistan.

Some authors say that the argument relating to Seleucus handing over more of what is now southern Afghanistan is an exaggeration originating in a statement by Pliny the Elder referring not specifically to the lands received by Chandragupta[??], but rather to the various opinions of geographers regarding the definition of the word "India":
Most geographers, in fact, do not look upon India as bounded by the river Indus, but add to it the four satrapies of the Gedrose, the Arachotë, the Aria, and the Paropamisadë, the River Cophes thus forming the extreme boundary of India. According to other writers, however, all these territories, are reckoned as belonging to the country of the Aria. — Pliny, Natural History VI, 23

Nevertheless, it is usually considered today that Arachosia and the other three regions did become dominions of the Mauryan Empire.[citation needed]

-- Seleucus I Nicator, by Wikipedia

The northern boundaries of India so defined are formed by Mount Tauros, though the range does not retain that name in these parts. Tauros begins from the sea which washes the coasts of Pamphylia, Lykia, and Kilikia, and stretches away towards the Eastern Sea, intersecting the whole continent of Asia. The range bears different names in the different countries which it traverses. In one place it is called Parapamisos, in another Emodos,*...

[*Parapainisos (other forms— Paropamisos, Paropamissos, Paropanisos). This denotes the great mountain range now called Hindu Kush, supposed to be a corrupted form of "Indicus Caucasus," the name given to the range by the Macedonians, either to flatter Alexander, or because they regarded it as a continuation of Kaukasos. Arrian, however, and others held it to be a continuation of Tauros. The mountains belonging to the range which lie to the north of the Kabul river are called Nishadha, (see Lassen, Ind. Alt. I. p. 22, note), a Sanskrit word which appears perhaps in the form Paropanisos, which is that given by Ptolemy. According to Pliny, the Skythians called Mount Caucasus Graucasis, a word which represents the Indian name of Paropamisos, Gravakshas, which Ritter translates "splendentes rupium montes." According to General Cunningham, the Mount Paresh or Aparasin of the Zendavesta corresponds with the Paropamisos of the Greeks. Paro, the first part of the word, St. Martin says, represents undoubtedly the Paru or Paruta of the local dialects (in Zend, Purouta meaning mountain). He acknowledges, however, that he cannot assign any reason why the syllable pa has been intercalated between the vocables paru and nishada to form the Paropanisadae of the Greek. The first Greek writer who mentions the range is Aristotle, who calls it Parnassos: see his Meteorol. I. 18. Hindu Kush generally designates now the eastern part of the range, and Paropamisos the western. According to Sir Alexander Barnes, the name Hindu Kush is unknown to the Afghans, but there is a particular peak and also a pass, bearing that name between Afghanistan and Turkestan. — Emodes (other forms — Emoda, Emodon, Hemodes). The name generally designated that part of the Himalayan range which extended along Nepal and Bhutan and onward towards the ocean. Lassen derives the word from the Sanskrit haimavata, in Prakrit haimota, 'snowy.' If this be so, 'Hemodos' is the more correct form. Another derivation refers the word to "hemadri' (hema, gold, and adri, mountain), 'the golden mountains,' — so called either because they were thought to contain gold mines, or because of the aspect they presented when their snowy peaks reflected the golden effulgence of sunset.]

... and in a third Imaos, and it has perhaps other names besides. The Makedonians, again, who served with Alexander called it Kaukasos, — this being another Kaukasos and distinct from the Skythian, so that the story went that Alexander penetrated to the regions beyond Kaukasos.

On the west the boundaries of India are marked by the river Indus all the way to the great ocean into which it pours its waters, which it does by two mouths. These mouths are not close to each other, like the five mouths of the Ister (Danube), but diverge like those of the Nile, by which the Egyptian delta is formed. The Indus in like manner makes an Indian delta, which is not inferior in area to the Egyptian, and is called in the Indian tongue Pattala.*

[*Pattala. — The name of the Delta was properly Patalene, and Patala was its capital. This was situated at the head of the Delta, where the western stream of the Indus bifurcated. Thatha has generally been regarded as its modern representative, but General Cunningham would "almost certainly" identify it with Nirankol or Haidarabad, of which Patalpur and Patasila ('flat rock') were old appellations. With regard to the name Patala he suggests that "it may have been derived from Patala, the trumpet flower" (Bignonia suaveolens), "in allusion to the trumpet shape of the province included between the eastern and western branches of the mouth of the Indus, as the two branches as they approach the sea curve outward like the mouth of a trumpet." Ritter, however, says: — "Patala is the designation bestowed by the Brahmans on all the provinces in the west towards sunset, in antithesis to Prasiaka (the eastern realm) in Ganges-land: for Patala is the mythological name in Sanskrit of the under-world, and consequently of the land of the west." Arrian's estimate of the magnitude of the Delta is somewhat excessive. The length of its base, from the Pitti to the Kori mouth, was less than 1000 stadia, while that of the Egyptian Delta was 1300.]

In the country of the Praxii [Prachyas (i.e. Easterns) are called by Strabo, Arrian, and Pliny Prasii] who are an Indian people, Megasthenes says there are apes not inferior in size to the largest dogs. They have tails five cubits long, hair grown on their forehead, and they have luxuriant beards hanging down their breast. Their face is entirely white, and all the rest of the body black. They are tame and attached to man, and not malicious by nature like the apes of other countries....

The Indus skirts the frontiers of the Prasii, whose mountain tracts are said to be inhabited by the Pygmies.

-- Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian; Being a Translation of the Fragments of the Indika of Megasthenes Collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the First Part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle


On the south-west, again, and on the south, India is bounded by the great ocean just mentioned, which also forms its boundary on the east. The parts toward the south about Pattala and the river Indus were seen by Alexander and many of the Greeks, but in an eastern direction Alexander did not penetrate beyond the river Hyphasis, though a few authors have described the country as far as the river Ganges and the parts near its mouths and the city of Palimbothra, which is the greatest in India, and situated near the Ganges.
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Sun Sep 12, 2021 7:24 am

III.

I shall now state the dimensions of India, and in doing so let me follow Eratosthenes of Kyrene as the safest authority, for this Eratosthenes made its circuit a subject of special inquiry.*

[*Schmieder, from whose text I translate, has here altered (perhaps unnecessarily) the reading of the MSS. from [x] to [x]. The measurements given by Strabo are more accurate than those of Arrian. They are, however, not at all wide of the mark; General Cunningham, indeed, remarks that their close agreement with the actual size of the country is very remarkable, and shows, he adds, that the Indians, even at that early date in their history, had a very accurate knowledge of the form and extent of their native land.]

He states, then, that if a line be drawn from Mount Tauros, where the Indus has its springs, along the course of that river and as far as the great ocean and the mouths of the Indus, this side of India will measure 13,000 stadia.*

[*The Olympic stadium, which was in general use throughout Greece, contained 600 Greek feet = 625 Roman feet, or 606-3/4 English feet. The Roman mile contained eight stadia, being about half a stadium less than an English mile. The schoinos (mentioned below) was = 2 Persian parasangs — 60 stadia, but was generally taken at half that length.]

But the contrary side, which diverges from the same point of Tauros and runs along the Eastern Sea, he makes of a much different length, for there is a headland which projects far out into the sea, and this headland is in length about 3,000 stadia. The eastern side of India would thus by his calculation measure 16,000 stadia, and this is what he assigns as the breadth of India. The length, again, from west to east as far as the city of Palimbothra he sets down, he says, as it had been measured by schoeni, since there existed a royal highway, and he gives it as 10,000 stadia. But as for the parts beyond they were not measured with equal accuracy. Those, however, who write from mere hearsay allege that the breadth of India, inclusive of the headland which projects into the sea, is about 10,000 stadia, while the length measured from the coast is about 20,000 stadia. But Ktesias of Knidos says that India equals in size all the rest of Asia, which is absurd; while Onesikritos as absurdly declares that it is the third part of the whole earth. Nearchos, again, says that it takes a journey of four months to traverse even the plain of India; while Megasthenes, who calls the breadth of India its extent from east to west, though others call this its length, says that where shortest the breadth is 16,000 stadia, and that its length — by which he means its extent from north to south— is, where narrowest, 22,300 stadia. But, whatever be its dimensions, the rivers of India are certainly the largest to be found in all Asia. The mightiest are the Ganges and the Indus, from which the country receives its name. Both are greater than the Egyptian Nile and the Skythian Ister even if their streams were united into one. I think, too, that even the Akesines is greater than either the Ister or the Nile where it joins the Indus after receiving its tributaries the Hydaspes  and the Hydraotes, since it is at that point so much as 300 stadia in breadth. It is also possible that there are even many other larger rivers which take their course through India.
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Mon Sep 13, 2021 1:48 am

IV.

But I am unable to give with assurance of being accurate any information regarding the regions beyond the Hyphasis, since the progress of Alexander was arrested by that river. But to recur to the two greatest rivers, the Ganges and the Indus, Megasthenes states that of the two the Ganges is much the larger, and other writers who mention the Ganges agree with him; for, besides being of ample volume even where it issues from its springs, it receives as tributaries the river Kainas, and the Erannoboas, and the Kossoanos, which are all navigable. It receives, besides, the river Sonos and the Sittokatis, and the Solomatis, which are also navigable, and also the Kondochates, and the Sambos, and the Magon, and the Agoranis, and the Omalis. Moreover there fall into it the Kommenases, a great river, and the Kakouthis, and the Andomatis, which flows from the dominions of the Madyandinoi, an Indian tribe. In addition to all these, the Amystis, which flows past the city Katadupa, and the Oxymagis from the dominions of a tribe called the Pinzalai, and the Errenysis from the Mathai, an Indian tribe, unite with the Ganges.*  

[*Arrian here enumerates seventeen tributaries of the Ganges. The number is given as nineteen by Pliny, who adds the Prinas and the Jomanes, which Arrian elsewhere (cap. viii.) mentions under the name of the Jobares. Those tributaries have been nearly all identified by the researches of such learned men as Rennel, Wilford, Schlegel, Lassen, and Schwanbeck. M. de St. Martin, in reviewing their conclusions, clears up a few points which they had left in doubt, or wherein he thinks they had erred. I shall now show how each of the nineteen tributaries has been identified.

Kainas. — This has been identified with the Kan, or Kane, or Kena, which, however, is only indirectly a tributary of the Ganges, as it falls into the Jamna. The Sanskrit name of the Kan is Sena, and Schwanbeck (p. 36) objects to the identification that the Greeks invariably represent the Sanskrit e by their [x], and never by ai. St. Martin attaches no importance to this objection, and gives the Sanskrit equivalent as Kaiana.

Erranoboas. — As Arrian informs us (cap. x.) that Palibobothra (Pataliputra, Patna) was situated at the confluence of this river with the Ganges, it must be identified with the river Son, which formerly joined the Ganges a little above Bankipnr, the western suburb of Patna, from which its embouchure is now 16 miles distant and higher up the Ganges. The word no doubt represents the Sanskrit Hiranyavaha ('carrying gold') or Hiranyabahn ('having golden arms'), which are both poetical names of the Son. Megasthenes, however, and Arrian, both make the Erannoboas and the Son to be distinct rivers, and hence some would identify the former with the Gandak (Sanskrit Gandaki), which, according to Lassen, was called by the Buddhists Hiranyavati, or 'the golden.' It is, however, too small a stream to suit the description of the Erannoboas, that it was the largest river in India after the Ganges and Indus. The Son may perhaps in the time of Megasthenes have joined the Ganges by two channels, which he may have mistaken for separate rivers.

Kosoanos. — Cosoagus is the form of the name in Pliny, and hence it has been taken to be the representative of the Sanskrit Kaushiki, the river now called the Kosi. Schwanbeck, however, thinks it represents the Sanskrit Kosavaha ('treasure-bearing'), and that it is therefore an epithet of the Son, like Hiranyavaha, which has the same meaning. It seems somewhat to favour this view that Arrian in his enumeration places the Kosoanos between the Erannoboas and the Son.

Sonos. — The Son, which now joins the Ganges ten miles above Dinapur. The word is considered to be a contraction of the Sanskrit Suvarna (Suvanna). 'golden,' and may have been given as a name to the river either because its sands were yellow, or because they contained gold dust.

Sittokatis. — It has not been ascertained what river was denoted by this name, but St. Martin thinks it may be the representative of the Sudakanta -- a river now unknown, but mentioned in the Mahabharata, along with the Kousadhara (the Kosi), the Sadanira (the Karatoya), and the Adhrichya (the Atreyi), from which it is evident that it belonged to the northern parts of Bengal.

Solomatis. — It has not been ascertained what river was denoted by this name. General Cunningham in one of his maps gives the Solomatis as a name of the Saranju or Sarju, a tributary of the Ghagra; while Benfey and others would identify it with the famous Sarasvati or Sarsuti, which, according to the legends, after disappearing underground, joined the Ganges at Allahabad. There is more probability, however, in Lassen's suggestion, that the word somewhat erroneously transliterates saravati, the name of a city of Kosola mentioned by Kalidasa and in the Puranas, where it appears generally in the form sravasti. This city stood on a river which, though nowhere mentioned by name, must also have been called Saravati, since there is an obvious connexion between that name and the name by which the river of that district is now known — the Rapti.

Kondochates. — Now the Gandak, — in Sanskrit, Gandaki or Gandakavati ([x]), — because of its abounding in a kind of alligator having a horn-like projection on its nose. It skirted the eastern border of Kosala, joining the Ganges opposite Palibothra,

Sambos. — This has no Sanskrit equivalent. It perhaps designated the Gumti, which is said to go by the name of the Sambou at a part of its course below Lucknow.

Magon. — According to Mannert the Ramganga, but much more probably the Mahanada, now the Mahona, the principal river of Magadha, which joins the Ganges not far below Patna.

Agoranis. — According to Rennel the Ghagra—a word derived from the Sanskrit Gharghara ('of gurgling sound'), but according to St. Martin it must be some one or other of the Gaouris so abundant in the river nomenclature of Northern India. The vulgar form is Gaurana.

Omalis has not boon identified, but Schwanbeck remarks that the word closely agrees with the Sanskrit Vimala ('stainless'), a common epithet of rivers.

Kommenases. — Rennel and Lassen identify this with the Karmanasa (bonorum operum destructris), a small river which joins the Ganges above Baxer. According to a Hindu legend, whoever touches the water of this river loses all the merit of his good works, this being transferred to the nymph of the stream.

Kakouthis.— Mannert erroneously takes this to be the Gumti. Lassen identifies it with the Kakouttha of the Buddhist chronicles, and hence with the Bagmatti, the Bhagavati of Sanskrit.

Andomatis. — Thought by Lassen to be connected with the Sanskrit Andhamati (tenebricosus), which he would identify, therefore, with the Tamasa, (now the Tonsa), the two names being identical in meaning; but, as the river came from the country of the Madyandini (Sanskrit Madhyandina, meridionalis), — that is, the people of the South, — Wilford's conjecture that the Andomatis is the Dammuda, the river which flows by Bardwan, is more likely to be correct. The Sanskrit name of the Dammuda is Dharmadaya.

Amystis. — The city Katadupa,which this river passes, Wilford would identify with Katwa or Cutwa, in Lower Bengal, which is situated on the western branch of the delta of the Ganges at the confluence of the Adji. As the Sanskrit form of the name of Katva should be Katadvipa '(dvipa, an island'), M. de St. Martin thinks this conjecture has much probability in its favour. The Amystis may therefore be the Adji, or Ajavati as it is called in Sanskrit.

Oxymagis. — The Pazalai or Passalai, called in Sanskrit Pankala, inhabited the Doab, and through this or the region adjacent flowed the Ikshumati ('abounding in sugarcane'). Oxymagis very probably represented this name, since the letters [x] and [x] in Greek could readily be confounded. The form of the name in Megasthenes may have been Oxymetis.

Errenysis closely corresponds to Varanasi, the name of Banaras in Sanskrit, — so called from the rivers Varana and Asi, which join the Ganges in its neighbourhood. The Mathai, it has been thought, may be the people of Magadha. St. Martin would fix their position in the time of Megasthenes in the country between the lower part of the Gumti and the Ganges, adding that as the Journal of Hiwen Thsang places their capital, Matipura, at a little distance to the east of the upper Ganges near Gangadvara, now Hardwar, they must have extended their name and dominion by the traveller's time far beyond their original bounds. The Prinas, which Arrian has omitted, St. Martin would identify with the Tamasa, which is otherwise called the Parnasa, and belongs to the same part of the country as the Kainas, in connexion with which Pliny mentions the Prinas.
]

Regarding these streams Megasthenes asserts that none of them is inferior to the Maiandros, even at the navigable part of its course; and as for the Ganges, it has a breadth where narrowest of one hundred stadia, while in many places it spreads out into lakes, so that when the country happens to be flat and destitute of elevations the opposite shores cannot be seen from each other. The Indus presents also, he says, similar characteristics. The Hydraotes, flowing from the dominions of the Kambistholi, falls into the Akesines after receiving the Hyphasis in its passage through the Astrybai, as well as the Saranges from the Kekians, and the Neudros from the Attakenoi. The Hydaspes again, rising in the dominions of the Oxydrakai, and bringing with it the Sinaros, received in the dominion of the Arispai, falls itself into the Akesines, while the Akesines joins the Indus in the dominions of the Malloi, but not until it has received the waters of a great tributary, the Toutapos. Augmented by all these confluents the Akesines succeeds in imposing its name on the combined waters, and still retains it till it unites with the Indus. The Kophen, too, falls into the Indus, rising in Peukelaitis, and bringing with it the Malantos, and the Soastos, and the Garroia. Higher up than these, the Parenos and Saparnos, at no great distance from each other, empty themselves into the Indus, as does also the Soanos, which comes without a tributary from the hill-country of the Abissareans.*

[*Tributaries of the Indus: — Arrian has here named only 13 tributaries of the Indus (in Sanskrit Sindhu, in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Sinthos), but in his Anabasis (v. 6) he states that the number was 15, which is also the number given by Strabo. Pliny reckons them at 19.

Hydraotes.— Other forms are Rhouadis and Hyarotis. It is now called the Ravi, the name being a contraction of the Sanskrit Airavati, which means 'abounding in water,' or 'the daughter of Airavat,' the elephant of Indra, who is said to have generated the river by striking his tusk against the rock whence it issues. His name has reference to his 'ocean' origin. The name of the Kambistholai does not occur elsewhere. Schwanbeck (p. 33) conjeeturcs that it may represent the Sanskrit Kapisthala, 'ape-land,' the letter m being inserted, as in 'Palimbothra.' He rejects Wilson's suggestion that the people may be identical with the Kambojae. Arrian errs in making the Hyphasis a tributary of the Hydraotes, for it falls into the Akesines below its junction with that river. See on this point St. Martin, E'tude, p. 396.

Hyphasis (other forms are Bibasis, Hypasis, and Hypanis). — In Sanskrit the Vipasa, and now the Byasa or Bias. It lost its name on being joined by the Satadru, 'the hundred-channelled,' the Zaradros of Ptolemy, now the Satlej. The Astrobai are not mentioned by any writer except Arrian.

Saranges. — According to Schwanbeck, this word represents the Sanskrit Saranga, 'six-limbed.' It is not known what river it designated. The Kekians, through whose country it flowed, were called in Sanskrit, according to Lassen, Sekaya.

Neudros is not known. The Attakenoi are likewise unknown, unless their name is another form of Assakenoi.

Hydaspes. — Bidaspes is the form in Ptolemy, which makes a nearer approach to its Sanskrit name — the Vitasta. It is now the Behut or Jhelam; called also by the inhabitants on its banks the Bedusta, 'widely spread.' It is the "fabulosus Hydaspes" of Horace, and the "Medus (i.e. Eastern) Hydaspes" of Virgil. It formed the western boundary of the dominions of Poros.

Akesines. — Now the Chenab: its Sanskrit name Asikni ('dark -coloured') is met with in the hymns of the Veda. It was called afterwards Chandrabhaga (portio lunae). This would be represented in Greek by Sandrophagos, — a word in sound so like Androphagos or Ale-xandrophagos ('devourer of Alexander') that the followers of the great conqueror changed the name to avoid the evil omen, — the more so, perhaps, on account of the disaster which befell the Makedonian fleet at the turbulent junction of the river with the Hydaspes. Ptolemy gives its name as Sandabaga, (Sandabala by an error on the part of copyists), which is an exact transcription of the Prakrit Chandabaga, of which word the Cantabra of Pliny is a greatly altered form. The Malli, in whose country this river joins the Indus, are the Malava of Sanskrit, whose name is prescribed in the Multan of the present day.

Toutapos. — Probably the lower part of the Satadru or Satlej.

Kophen. — Another form of the name, used by Strabo, Pliny, &c, is Kophes, -etis. It is now the Kabul river. The three rivers here named as its tributaries probably correspond to the Suvastu, Gauri, and Kampana mentioned in the 6th book of the Mahabharata. The Soastos is no doubt the Suvastu, and the Garaea the Gauri. Curtius and Strabo call the Suastus the Choaspes. According to Mannert the Suastus and the Garaea or Guraeus were identical. Lassen, however (Ind. Alterthums. 2nd ed. II. 673 ff.), would identify the Suastus with the modern Suwad or Svat, and the Garaeus with its tributary the Panjkora; and this is the view adopted by Cunningham. The Malamantos some would identify with the Choes (mentioned by Arrian, Anabasis iv. 25), which is probably represented by the Kameh or Khonar, the largest of the tributaries of the Kabul; others, however, with the Panjkora, while Cunningham takes it to be the Bara, a tributary which joins the Kabul from the south. With regard to the name Kophes this author remarks: — "The name of Kophes is as old as the time of the Vedad, in which the Kubha river is mentioned [Roth first pointed this out; — conf. Lassen, ut sup.] as an affluent of the Indus; and, as it is not an Aryan word, I infer that the name must have been applied to the Kabul river before the Aryan occupation, or at least as early as B.C. 2500. In the classical writers we find the Choes, Kophes, and Choaspes rivers to the west of the Indus; and at the present day we have the Kunar, the Kuram, and the Gomal rivers to the west, and the Kunihar river to the east of the Indus,— all of which are derived from the Skythian ku, 'water.' It is the guttural form of the Assyrian hu in 'Euphrates' and 'Eulaeus,' and of the Turki su, and Tibetan chu, all of which mean 'water' or 'river.' Ptolemy the Geographer mentions a city called Kabura, situated on the banks of the Kophen, and a people called Kabolitae.

Parenos.— Probably the modern Burindu.

Saparnos.— Probably the Abbasin.

Soanus represents the Sanskrit Suvana, 'the sun,' or 'fire' — now the Svan. The Abissaraeans, from whose country it comes, may be the Abisara of Sanskrit: Lassen, Ind. Alt. II. 163. A king called Abisares is mentioned by Arrian in his Anabasis (iv. 7). It may be here remarked that the names of the Indian kings, as given by the Greek writers, were in general the names slightly modified of the people over whom they ruled.
]  

According to Megasthenes most of these rivers are navigable. We ought not, therefore, to distrust what we are told regarding the Indus and the Ganges, that they are beyond comparison greater than the Ister and the Nile. In the case of the Nile we know that it does not receive any tributary, but that, on the contrary, in its passage through Egypt its waters are drawn off to fill the canals. As for the Ister, it is but an insignificant stream at its sources, and though it no doubt receives many confluents, still these are neither equal in number to the confluents of the Indus and Ganges, nor are they navigable like them, if we except a very few, — as, for instance, the Inn, and Save which I have myself seen. The Inn joins the Ister where the Noricans march with the Rhaetians, and the Save in the dominions of the Pannonians, at a place which is called Taurunum.*

[*Taurunum. — The modern Semlin.]

Some one may perhaps know other navigable tributaries of the Danube, but the number certainly cannot be great.
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Mon Sep 13, 2021 2:17 am

V.

Now if anyone wishes to state a reason to account for the number and magnitude of the Indian rivers let him state it. As for myself I have written on this point, as on others, from hearsay; for Megasthenes has given the names even of other rivers which beyond both the Ganges and the Indus pour their waters into the Eastern Ocean and the outer basin of the Southern Ocean, so that he asserts that there are eight-and-fifty Indian rivers which are all of them navigable. But even Megasthenes, so far as appears, did not travel over much of India, though no doubt he saw more of it than those who came with Alexander the son of Philip, for, as he tells us, he resided at the court of Sandrakottos, the greatest king in India, and also at the court of Poros, who was still greater than he.

Delu is said to have been a prince of uncommon bravery and generosity; benevolent towards men, and devoted to the service of God. The most remarkable transaction of his reign is the building of the city of Delhi, which derives its name from its founder, Delu. In the fortieth year of his reign, Phoor, a prince of his own family, who was governor of Cumaoon, rebelled against the Emperor, and marched to Kinoge, the capital. Delu was defeated, taken, and confined in the impregnable fort of Rhotas.
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Sirhind / Patiala / Delhi / Kannauj / "Pataliputra"

Phoor immediately mounted the throne of India, reduced Bengal, extended his power from sea to sea, and restored the empire to its pristine dignity. He died after a long reign, and left the kingdom to his son, who was also called Phoor, and was the same with the famous Porus, who fought against Alexander.

The second Phoor [Porus], taking advantage of the disturbances in Persia, occasioned by the Greek invasion of that empire under Alexander, neglected to remit the customary tribute, which drew upon him the arms of that conqueror. The approach of Alexander did not intimidate Phoor [Porus]. He, with a numerous army, met him at Sirhind, about one hundred and sixty miles to the north-west of Delhi, and in a furious battle, say the Indian historians, lost many thousands of his subjects, the victory, and his life. The most powerful prince of the Decan, who paid an unwilling homage to Phoor, or Porus, hearing of that monarch's overthrow, submitted himself to Alexander, and sent him rich presents by his son. Soon after, upon a mutiny arising in the Macedonian army, Alexander returned by the way of Persia.

Sinsarchund, the same whom the Greeks call Sandrocottus, assumed the imperial dignity after the death of Phoor, and in a short time regulated the discomposed concerns of the empire. He neglected not, in the mean time, to remit the customary tribute to the Grecian captains, who possessed Persia under, and after the death of, Alexander. Sinsarchund, and his son after him, possessed the empire of India seventy years. When the grandson of Sinsarchund acceded to the throne, a prince named Jona, who is said to have been a grand-nephew of Phoor, though that circumstance is not well attested, aspiring to the throne, rose in arms against the reigning prince, and deposed him.


-- The History of Hindostan, In Three Volumes, Volume I, by Alexander Dow, Esq., Lieutenant-Colonel in the Company's Service, 1812


Greek scholars often mentioned that Sandrocottus was the king of the country called as Prasii (Prachi or Prachya). Pracha or Prachi means eastern country. During the Nanda and Mauryan era, Magadha kings were ruling almost entire India. Mauryan Empire was never referred in Indian sources as only Prachya desa or eastern country. Prachya desa was generally referred to Gupta Empire because Northern Saka Ksatrapas and Western Saka Ksatrapas were well established in North and West India. Megasthenes mentioned that Sandrocottus is the greatest king of the Indians and Poros is still greater than Sandrocottus which means a kingdom in the North-western region is still independent and enjoying at least equal status with the kingdom of Sandrocottus. Chandragupta Maurya and his successors were the most powerful kings of India. It was impossible for any other Indian king to enjoy equal status with Mauryan kings because Mauryans inherited a strongest and vast empire from Nandas. Therefore, Sandrocottus, the king of Prasii can only be Samudragupta not Chandragupta Maurya.

-- Who was Sandrocottus: Samudragupta or Chandragupta Maurya? The Chronology of Ancient India, Victim of Concoctions and Distortions, by Vedveer Arya


This same Megasthenes then informs us that the Indians neither invade other men, nor do other men invade the Indians: for Sesotris the Egyptian, after having overrun the greater part of Asia, and advanced with his army as far as Europe, returned home; and Idanthyrsos the Skythian issuing from Skythia, subdued many nations of Asia, and carried his victorious arms even to the borders of Egypt; and Semiramis, again, the Assyrian queen, took in hand an expedition against India, but died before she could execute her design: and thus Alexander was the only conqueror who actually invaded the country. And regarding Dionysos many traditions are current to the effect that he also made an expedition into India, and subjugated the Indians before the days of Alexander. But of Herakles tradition does not say much. Of the expedition, however, which Bakkhos led, the city of Nysa is no mean monument, while Mount Meros is yet another, and the ivy which grows thereon, and the practice observed by the Indians themselves of marching to battle with drums and cymbals, and of wearing a spotted dress such as was worn by the Bacchanals of Dionysos. On the other hand, there are but few memorials of Herakles, and it may be doubted whether even these are genuine: for the assertion that Herakles was not able to take the rock Aornos, which Alexander seized by force of arms, seems to me all a Makedonian vaunt, quite of a piece with their calling Parapamisos— Kaukasos, though it had no connexion at all with Kaukasos. In the same spirit, when they noticed a cave in the dominions of the Parapamisadai, they asserted that it was the cave of Prometheus the Titan, in which he had been suspended for stealing the fire.*

[*The Cave of Prometheus. -- Probably one of the vast caves in the neighbourhood of Bamian.]

So also when they came among the Sibai, an Indian tribe, and noticed that they wore skins, they declared that the Sibai were descended from those who belonged to the expedition of Herakles and had been left behind: for, besides being dressed in skins, the Sibai carry a cudgel, and brand on the backs of their oxen the representation of a club, wherein the Makedonians recognized a memorial of the club of Herakles. But if any one believes all this, then this must be another Herakles; — not the Theban, but either the Tyrian or the Egyptian, or even some great king who belonged to the upper country which lies not far from India.
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Tue Sep 14, 2021 12:11 am

VI.

Let this be said by way of a digression to discredit the accounts which some writers have given of the Indians beyond the Hyphasis, for those writers who were in Alexander's expedition are not altogether unworthy of our faith when they describe India as far as the Hyphasis. Beyond that limit we have no real knowledge of the country: since this is the sort of account which Megasthenes gives us of an Indian river: — Its name is the Silas; it flows from a fountain, called after the river, through the dominions of the Silaeans, who again are called after the river and the fountain; the water of the river manifests this singular property — that there is nothing which it can buoy up, nor anything which can swim or float in it, but everything sinks down to the bottom, so that there is nothing in the world so thin and unsubstantial as this water.*

[*See note, p. 65.]

But to proceed. Rain falls in India during the summer, especially on the mountains Parapamisos and Emodos and the range of Imaos, and the rivers which issue from these are large and muddy. Rain during the same season falls also on the plains of India, so that much of the country is submerged: and indeed the army of Alexander was obliged at the time of midsummer to retreat in haste from the Akesines, because its waters overflowed the adjacent plains. So we may by analogy infer from these facts that as the Nile is subject to similar inundations, it is probable that rain falls during the summer on the mountains of Ethiopia, and that the Nile swollen with these rains overflows its banks and inundates Egypt. We find, at any rate, that this river, like those we have mentioned, flows at the same season of the year with a muddy current, which could not be the case if it flowed from melting snows, nor yet if its waters were driven back from its mouth by the force of the Etesian winds which blow throughout the hot season,*...

[*Cf., Herodotus, II. 20-27.]

... and that it should flow from melting snow is all the more unlikely as snow cannot fall upon the Ethiopian mountains, on account of the burning heat; but that rain should fall on them, as on the Indian mountains, is not beyond probability, since India in other respects besides is not unlike Ethiopia. Thus the Indian rivers, like the Nile in Ethiopia and Egypt, breed crocodiles, while some of them have fish and monstrous features such as are found in the Nile, with the exception only of the hippopotamus, though Onesikritos asserts that they breed this animal also. With regard to the inhabitants, there is no great difference in type of figure between the Indians and the Ethiopians, though the Indians, no doubt, who live in the south-west bear a somewhat closer resemblance to the Ethiopians, being of black complexion and black-haired, though they are not so snub-nosed nor have the hair so curly; while the Indians who live further to the north are in person liker the Egyptians.
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Tue Sep 14, 2021 12:18 am

VII.

The Indian tribes, Megasthenes tells us, number in all 118. (And I so far agree with him as to allow that they must be indeed numerous, but when he gives such a precise estimate I am at a loss to conjecture how he arrived at it, for the greater part of India he did not visit, nor is mutual intercourse maintained between all the tribes.) He tells us further that the Indians were in old times nomadic, like those Skythians who did not till the soil, but roamed about in their wagons, as the seasons varied, from one part of Skythia to another, neither dwelling in towns nor worshipping in temples; and that the Indians likewise had neither towns nor temples of the gods, but were so barbarous that they wore the skins of such wild animals as they could kill, and subsisted on the bark of trees; that these trees were called in Indian speech tala, and that there grew on them, as there grows at the tops of the palm-trees, a fruit resembling balls of wool;*...

[*Tala.— The fan-palm, the Borassus flabelliformis of botany.]

... that they subsisted also on such wild animals as they could catch, eating the flesh raw, — before, at least, the coming of Dionysos into India. Dionysos, however, when he came and had conquered the people, founded cities and gave laws to these cities, and introduced the use of wine among the Indians, as he had done among the Greeks, and taught them to sow the land, himself supplying seeds for the purpose, — either because Triptolemos, when he was sent by Demeter to sow all the earth, did not reach these parts, or this must have been some Dionysos who came to India before Triptolemos, and gave the people the seeds of cultivated plants. It is also said that Dionysos first yoked oxen to the plough, and made many of the Indians husbandmen instead of nomads, and furnished them with the implements of agriculture; and that the Indians worship the other gods, and Dionysos himself in particular, with cymbals and drums, because he so taught them; and that he also taught them the Satyric dance, or, as the Greeks call it, the Kordax; and that he instructed the Indians to let their hair grow long in honour of the god, and to wear the turban; and that he taught them to anoint themselves with unguents, so that even up to the time of Alexander the Indians were marshalled for battle to the sound of cymbals and drums.
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Tue Sep 14, 2021 12:24 am

VIII.

But when he was leaving India, after having established the new order of things, he appointed, it is said, Spatembas, one of his companions and the most conversant with Bakkhic matters, to be the king of the country. When Spatembas died his son Boudyas succeeded to the sovereignty; the father reigning over the Indians fifty-two years, and the son twenty; the son of the latter, whose name was Kradeuas, duly inherited the kingdom, and thereafter the succession was generally hereditary, but that when a failure of heirs occurred in the royal house the Indians elected their sovereigns on the principle of merit; Herakles, however, who is currently reported to have come as a stranger into the country, is said to have been in reality a native of India. This Herakles is held in especial honour by the Sourasenoi, an Indian tribe who possess two large cities, Methora and Cleisobora, and through whose country flows a navigable river called the Iobares. But the dress which this Herakles wore, Megathenes tells us, resembled that if the Theban Herakles, as the Indians themselves admit. It is further said that he had a very numerous progeny of male children born to him in India (for, like his Theban namesake, he married many wives), but that he had only one daughter. The name of this child was Pandaia, and the land in which she was born, and with the sovereignty of which Herakles entrusted her, was called after her name, Pandaia, and she received from the hands of her father 500 elephants, a force of cavalry 4000 strong, and another of infantry consisting of about 130,000 men. Some Indian writers say further of Herakles that when he was going over the world and ridding land and sea of whatever evil monsters infested them, he found in the sea an ornament for women, which even to this day the Indian traders who bring us their wares eagerly buy up and carry away to foreign markets, while it is even more eagerly bought up by the wealthy Romans of to-day, as it was wont to be by the wealthy Greeks long ago. This article is the sea-pearl, called in the Indian tongue margarita. But Herakles, it is said, appreciating its beauty as a wearing ornament, caused it to be brought from all the sea into India, that he might adorn with it the person of his daughter.

Megasthenes informs us that the oyster which yields this pearl is there fished for with nets, and that in these same parts the oysters live in the sea in shoals like bee-swarms: for oysters, like bees, have a king or a queen, and if any one is lucky enough to catch the king he readily encloses in the net all the rest of the shoal, but if the king makes his escape there is no chance that the others can be caught. The fishermen allow the fleshy parts of such as they catch to rot away, and keep the bone, which forms the ornament: for the pearl in India is worth thrice its weight in refined gold, gold being a product of the Indian mines.
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Re: Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian

Postby admin » Tue Sep 14, 2021 2:04 am

IX.

Now in that part of the country where the daughter of Herakles reigned as queen, it is said that the women when seven years old are of marriageable age, and that the men live at most forty years, and that on this subject there is a tradition current among the Indians to the effect that Herakles, whose daughter was born to him late in life, when he saw that his end was near, and he knew no man his equal in rank to whom he could give her in marriage, had incestuous intercourse with the girl when she was seven years of age, in order that a race of kings sprung from their common blood might be left to rule over India; that Herakles therefore made her of suitable age for marriage, and that in consequence the whole nation over which Pandaia reigned obtained this same privilege from her father. Now to me it seems that, even if Herakles could have done a thing so marvellous, he could also have made himself longer-lived, in order to have intercourse with his daughter when she was of mature age. But in fact, if the age at which the women there are marriageable is correctly stated, this is quite consistent, it seems to me, with what is said of the men's age, — that those who live longest die at forty; for men who come so much sooner to old age, and with old age to death, must of course flower into full manhood as much earlier as their life ends earlier. It follows hence that men of thirty would there be in their green old age, and young men would at twenty be past puberty, while the stage of full puberty would be reached about fifteen. And, quite compatibly with this, the women might be marriageable at the age of seven. And why not, when Megasthenes declares that the very fruits of the country ripen faster than fruits elsewhere, and decay faster?

From the time of Dionysos to Sandrakottos the Indians counted 153 kings and a period of 6042 years, but among these a republic was thrice established * * * * and another to 300 years, and another to 120 years.*

[*It is not known from what sources Megasthenes derived these figures, which are extremely modest when compared with those of Indian chronology, where, as in geology, years are hardly reckoned but in myriads. For a notice of the Magada dynasties see Elphinstone's History of India, bk. III. cap. iii.]

The Indians also tell us that Dionysos was earlier than Herakles by fifteen generations, and that except him no one made a hostile invasion of India, — not even Kyros the son of Kambyses, although he undertook an expedition against the Skythians, and otherwise showed himself the most enterprising monarch in all Asia; but that Alexander indeed came and overthrew in war all whom he attacked, and would even have conquered the whole world had his army been willing to follow him. On the other hand, a sense of justice, they say, prevented any Indian king from attempting conquest beyond the limits of India.
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