The History of Antiquity Volume Iv Part 22

[554] La.s.sen, 1^2, 127; 782, 2^2, 167.

[555] Arrian, "Anab." 5, 21.

[556] Arrian, "Anab." 6, 2. According to Plutarch ("Alex." 60) there were 15 nations and 5000 cities.

[557] Diod. 17, 92. "Ramayana," 2, 70, 21.

[558] La.s.sen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 175.

[559] Arrian, "Ind." 5, 12. La.s.sen, _loc. cit._ 1^2, 792.

[560] Diod. 17, 98. Curt. 9, 4.

[561] Arrian, "Anab." 6, 7.

[562] Arrian, "Anab." 6, 9, 10; Droysen, _loc. cit._ s. 438 ff.

[563] Droysen, _loc. cit._ s. 445.

[564] "Brahma-Vasatya" in the Mahabharata; La.s.sen, _loc. cit._ 1^2, 973.

[565] Diod. 17, 102.

[566] Praesti; Curt. 9, 8. La.s.sen, _loc. cit._ 2^2, 187.

[567] La.s.sen, _loc. cit._ 1^2, 125.

[568] Droysen, _loc. cit._ 464, 469.

CHAPTER V.

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE OF THE INDIANS IN THE FOURTH CENTURY B.C.

The Arians on the Indus and in the Panjab had remained more true to the old tendencies of life than their tribesmen who had turned towards the east. In the variety of the forms of their political life and their stimulating influence on each other, in healthy simple feeling, in warlike energy and martial spirit they were in advance of the land of the Ganges. Great as was the number of the tribes and states which filled the region of the Indus, and thickly as the land was populated, wide and many-sided as was the civilisation, in the development of religious and intellectual life, in industrial and mercantile activity, in civilisation of external life, in comfort and wealth, the land of the Ganges was undoubtedly in advance of the Indus.

After Alexander's army trod the soil of the Panjab, the eastern district also became better known to the Greeks. Megasthenes tells us that India was inhabited by 118 nations; the cities were so numerous that it was impossible to know and enumerate them.[569] Beyond the desert which extends from the Vipaca and catadru to the lands of the east,--the breadth is put by the Greeks at twelve days' journey--on the navigable Yamuna (Yomanes) dwelt the curasenas, whose cities were Mathura and Krishnapura;[570] further to the east were the Panchalas. At the head of this tribe, as we have seen, the Pandus once deposed the Kurus, the dominant family of the Bharatas, and took their place. Hence the name Panchalas was used instead of the name Bharatas for the tribes governed by the Pandus, first from Hastinapura and then from Kaucambi, as we a.s.sumed from native accounts (p. 96).[571] It has been remarked above (p. 366) that the dynasty of the Pandus came to an end about the middle of the fifth century, and the curasenas and Panchalas became subject to the kings of Magadha. In the south-west, on the hill and mountain territory, which gradually rises to the spurs of the Vindhyas, lay the Mavellas, according to the account of the Greeks, whose prince possessed five hundred elephants;[572] on the gulf of Cambay reigned kings, who resided in the city of Automela, which must have been a considerable place of trade. Lastly, in the peninsula of Surashtra (Guzerat) was a kingdom where the ruling family according to the Greeks bore the name of Pandus, and who therefore were connected by their lineage with Pandu, the father of Yudhishthira and Arjuna. The Pandus of Surashtra are said to have reigned over 300 cities and to have possessed 500 elephants of war.[573] If a branch of the house of Pandu, which ruled over the Panchalas and Bharatas, had founded the second Mathura on the south side of the Deccan, it was colonists from Surashtra who made Ceylon subject to the Brahmanic law (p. 369, 370). We have already stated what was known to Alexander and his companions of the inhabitants of the Ganges, the kingdom of the Gangarides, the Prasians (Prachyas), _i.e._ the men of the east, as they call themselves, obviously after the name common in the land of the Indus. The ample resources and powerful army which were ascribed in the land of the Indus to the ruler of this kingdom, the well-known Magadha, may have contributed in no small measure to the fact that Alexander's campaign came to an end on the Vipaca. In any case the accounts which the Greeks received in the land of the Indus about Magadha, confirm the predominant position which our inferences from native authorities compel us to ascribe to this kingdom after the time of king Kalac.o.ka, in the land of the Ganges. However exaggerated the statement of the Greeks about the power of the king of the Prasians may be, they give us the further proof that the consequence and power of Magadha under the Nandas in the first half of the fourth century B.C.

had rather increased than diminished; they show us, finally, that even the usurper who overthrew the Nandas, and the Dhanapala who sat on the throne of Magadha at the time when Alexander marched through the Indus--the Greeks call him Xandrames--maintained the ruling position of Magadha on the Ganges.

Of the nations which lay to the west of the Gangarides, _i.e._ to the east of Magadha, the Greeks can mention few. First come the Kalingas who dwelt on "the other sea," below the mouths of the Ganges. The kings of this nation were masters of 60,000 foot soldiers and 700 elephants. Next to them dwelt the Andhras in numerous villages and thirty cities with walls and towers; these were followed by the most southern realm in India, the land of Pandaea[574]--the kingdom of the southern Mathura, the southern Pandus (p. 369) is meant--and the great island of Taprobane, which lay off the southern sh.o.r.e of India. The mention of the Kalingas and Andhras shows that the Arian colonisation must have made considerable advances in the course of the fourth century in the region between Orissa (p. 368) and the southern Mathura.

To grasp clearly the picture which the contemporaries of Alexander received of the life and pursuits of the Indians in its essential lines, in order to compare it with the native traditions and to supplement them, is of great importance owing to the peculiar nature of the latter.

The splendour of the Indian princes is described by the Greeks in glowing colours. Gold and silver, elephants, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were possessed by them in abundance. Their robes were adorned with gold and purple, even the soles of their shoes glittered with precious stones.[575] In their ears they carried precious stones of peculiar size and brilliance; the upper and lower arm no less than the neck were surrounded by pearls, and a golden staff was the symbol of their rank.[576] Every one showed them the greatest reverence; men not only prostrated themselves before them but even prayed to them.[577]

Nevertheless conspiracies against them were common. For this reason the kings were waited upon by women only, who had been purchased from their parents. These had to prepare the food, bring the wine, and accompany them to the bed-chamber, which for the sake of security was frequently changed. In the daytime the kings of the Indians did not venture to sleep.[578] Even when hunting the king was accompanied by his wives, who were in turn surrounded by his bodyguards. Any one who ventured to advance as far as the women lost his life. If the king hunted in a park, he shot from a framework, on which stood also two or three women, equipped for hunting; if in the open, he was still followed by the women, partly in chariots, partly like the king himself on elephants. In the same way women accompanied the Indian kings to war.[579] Except for hunting and war the kings only left the palace to offer sacrifice. Then they appeared in a beautifully-flowered robe.[580] Drum-beaters and bell-players preceded them; then came elephants adorned with gold and silver, four-yoked chariots, and others yoked with pairs of oxen. The soldiers marched out in the best armour; gold utensils, great kettles and dishes quite a fathom in diameter--tables, seats, and water-basins of Indian copper, set with precious stones, emeralds, beryls, and carbuncles, and gay robes adorned with gold were carried in procession.

After these wild animals were brought out--buffaloes, panthers, and bound lions and tigers.[581] On waggons of four wheels stood trees with large leaves, on which were various kinds of tame birds, some distinguished by their gorgeous plumage, others by their fine voices.[582]

The splendour of the princes, the hundreds of "lotus-eyed" women who surrounded and waited on them, no less than their anxious cares for their own safety are well-known to us from the native authorities; and the change in the succession, which we have so frequently met with, proves that these precautions were not superfluous.[583] The sutras describe how the kings at festivals march out on elephants to the sound of all kinds of instruments, amid the scent of perfumes and clouds of frankincense, accompanied by their ministers and mult.i.tudes of people.

An inscription of Ac.o.ka of Magadha ordains processions of elephants and festal chariots, "announced by trumpets;"[584] and the Epos goes to great length in the description of the processions of the princes for the consecration of the king (p. 225), and on other occasions of a similar kind.

According to the Greeks the kings of the Indians gave great attention to justice; they occupied themselves with it almost the whole day. The other judges were also conscientious, and the guilty were severely punished.[585] We remember how urgently the book of the law impressed on the princes the duty of dispensing justice, the protection of persons and property, the awarding of punishment (p. 203). The Indians were, the Greeks a.s.sure us, honest in trade, and had few lawsuits. Personal a.s.saults were forbidden; no one might offer or receive them; and so the Indians were accustomed to bring charges merely for wounding and murder.

Theft was rare, though little was locked up in the houses. Any one who mutilated another was mutilated in the same manner and lost a hand in addition; but any one who deprived an artisan of a hand or an eye must be put to death. False witness was punished with loss of the hand or foot; the worst criminals were punished at the king's order by flaying.[586]

The Indian nation was divided, we are told, into seven tribes. The first was formed by the sages; in numbers it was the weakest, but in importance and honour the most considerable. The second by the magistrates, who "distinguished themselves by wisdom and justice." Out of this order the kings, no less than the free nations of India, took their supreme council; from them the kings also selected the overseers of the cantons, the judges and leaders in war. The third was the order of spies, whose business it was to find out everything that took place in the cities and in the country; the kings maintained them for their own safety, and the spies were a.s.sisted by the public women, both those in the cities and those who in time of war went out in the camps. The fourth order, that of the warriors, was numerous. It enjoyed great liberty, and was the most prosperous, inasmuch as it had no other duty but to practise the use of arms. The warriors were paid out of the treasury of the king, and so liberally that they could even support others on their pay. The armour, horses and elephants which they required they received from the king, together with the necessary servants, so that others forged their weapons for them, tended and led their horses, adorned and drove their chariots and guided their elephants. In time of war the soldiers fought; in time of peace they lived in idleness and enjoyment, in pleasure and festivity. Those also who practised arts and handicraft, or carried on trade, formed in India a separate order (the fifth). Of these some made what the husbandmen required, others were makers of armour and builders of s.h.i.+ps. Most of them were subject to taxes and had to give service beside; only the artisans who manufactured implements of war, and the carpenters who built s.h.i.+ps were free not only from service and taxes but even received maintenance from the king, for whom alone they were permitted to work.[587] The most numerous order by far was that of the husbandmen (the sixth). These never went to war, nor possessed weapons, nor were employed in other public services; they even withdrew from dealings with the cities. The Indian peasant lived undisturbed with his wife and children on his farm, occupied only with the tillage of the field. Even the outbreak of a war did not disturb his employment; under the protection of the kings he carried on his labours quietly.[588] Some accounts of the Greeks go so far as to a.s.sure us that the farms were sacred and inviolable; that even the soldiers of the enemy were not permitted to lay them waste, to burn trees and houses and lay hand on the people, so that the peasants fearlessly followed the plough amid the arrangements of battle and warfare, got in their harvest, and gathered the fruits of the field.[589] The seventh and last cla.s.s of the Indians consisted of the hunters and herdmen. The herdmen led a wandering life in the mountain regions and lived on their cattle, from which they had to pay tribute to the king; the hunters were bound to cleanse the land of wild animals, and protect the crops of the husbandmen against them.[590] These seven orders of the Indians might not contract marriage with each other, nor was it permitted to pa.s.s from one order into another, or to carry on the occupation of two orders at once. Only those who belonged to the first order could carry on the occupation of any other, just as any one in any order could enter the order of the sages.

This conception of the Indian castes is idealized in some points, and in others falls into errors, of which the causes are easily detected and pardonable. The happy, careless, and free life of the Kshatriyas is obviously exaggerated for all the states in which they had not maintained the position of a landed warlike n.o.bility, as they did in the free nations,[591] unless indeed among the monarchies a king sat on the throne who especially favoured the Kshatriyas, and was in a position to treat handsomely the soldiers in service, or registered for service. It has already been mentioned that all Kshatriyas did not serve (p. 244); and it would not occur to any prince to pay men who were not in service.

Still less do the idyllic descriptions of the honoured and inviolable life of the husbandmen agree with the taxes and exactions and miserable position of the villagers, to which we find such frequent references in the native authorities. It is true that the Brahmanic law laid emphasis on settled life, and gave the preference to agriculture over trade and handicraft (p. 244), but of such a respect for husbandry as the Greeks describe we often find the opposite. These and similar traits in the Greek accounts owe in part their origin to the exaggerated picture of this distant land, which the fame of Indian marvels, of the wisdom and justice of the Indian nation, had produced among the Greeks. Yet we must not overlook the fact that agriculture _was_ carried on with industry and care, that these accounts are essentially based on the impression which Megasthenes received of the condition of India circ.u.mstances in the period soon after Alexander, when a great prince on the throne of Magadha maintained peace and order in his wide dominions with a powerful hand. Even the sutras of the Buddhists dwell on the flouris.h.i.+ng condition of agriculture at this period.

If the Greeks give seven orders instead of four, if they speak of the magistrates, spies, handicraftsmen, and finally of the hunters and herdmen, as separate tribes beside the priests, warriors, and husbandmen, the error is founded in the fact that they had a tendency to find the distinction of castes everywhere. Beside the chief castes were the castes of mixed origin, and it has been observed above how strong was the tendency of persons engaged in similar occupations to form into separate bodies within the castes. It was natural for an observant foreigner to think that the retired life of the sages was separated from the busy occupation of the magistrates by a sharper line, and to make the special calling of the magistrates into a caste, though on the other hand it did not escape the Greeks that the sages also were counsellors of the kings. Manu's law had wisely prescribed that kings should diligently avail themselves of the help of spies, whom they must select out of all the orders; these spies were more especially to watch the courtesans,[592] and the Ramayana extols the ministers of king Dacaratha of Ayodhya for their skill in giving information of everything that went on in the land.[593] If the Greeks could regard these spies as a special caste, many persons must have been employed by the system of secret police in the fourth century B.C. in India. That the unity of the caste, which comprised agriculturists, merchants, and handicraftsmen, and on the other hand the distinction between the Vaicyas and the cudras, was overlooked, is easily to be explained, for even Manu's law permitted the cudras to be handicraftsmen, and the Brahmans and Kshatriyas to descend to the occupation of the other castes (p. 243), a permission which, in the case of the Brahmans, did not escape the Greeks. That the handicraftsmen and others had to perform tax-labour for the king, is an arrangement fixed by the book of the law (p. 212). Lastly, the Greeks apparently included among the hunters and the herdmen the impure and despised castes; the book of the law had also fixed what castes, _i.e._ what tribes of the pre-Arian or Arian population, were to occupy themselves with hunting and the capture of wild animals.[594]

Of the order of the sages the Greeks tell us that it a.s.sisted the king in the conduct of sacred wors.h.i.+p, as the Magians a.s.sisted the Persians.

Nor was it kings only, but communities and individuals who employed the services of these sages at sacrifices, because they stood nearest the G.o.ds, to whom a sacrifice offered by others could not be acceptable.

Together with the sacrifice the sages conducted the burial and wors.h.i.+p of the dead, as they were acquainted with the under world. They even occupied themselves with prediction, and soothsaying was in their hands.

They rarely told individual persons their fate, for this was too insignificant and beneath the dignity of prophecy, but they foretold the fortunes of the state. At the new year the kings annually summoned the sages and a great a.s.sembly, when they announced whether the year would be good or bad, dry or wet; whether there would be sickness or not. At this a.s.sembly any sage also stated what he had observed that was of use in the affairs of the community, to promote the prosperity of the fruits and animals, etc. If any one prophesied falsely, no punishment awaited him; but any one who for the third time announced what did not take place was bound to keep silence for ever, a penalty so strictly observed by those on whom it was imposed, that nothing in the world could move them to utter another word.[595]

The life of these sages was no easy one; on the contrary, it was the most burdensome of all. From their earliest childhood they were brought up to wisdom; nay, even before their birth guardians from among the sages were allotted to them, who visited the mothers in order to ensure them a happy delivery by magic arts; so at least it was believed; as a fact they gave them wise exhortations. After birth other sages undertook the education of the children, and with advancing years the boys ever received better instructors. When grown up they lived for the most part in groves, in solitary isolation from the cities, lay on the earth, clothed themselves with the skins of animals, ate nothing that had life, refrained from s.e.xual intercourse, and exercised great firmness both in bearing pain and in endurance, inasmuch as they sometimes remained in one position for the whole day, or stood for a long time on one leg, and carried on conversations on important matters. These could be listened to even by the common people; but such listeners must sit in profound silence; they must neither speak nor cough nor spit. Any sage who had lived in this manner for thirty-six or forty years, which they call the years of practice (p. 398), departs to his possessions and henceforth lives a less severe life. He wears garments of cotton, and rings of gold of moderate size on his hands and in his ears; he may eat the flesh of animals which are useless, but he may not eat acid food. The sages then take several wives, because it is important to have many children, in order to propagate wisdom the better. Others, clad in cotton garments, wander through the cities and teach, and are accompanied by pupils. The greater part of the time they spend in the market-place, where they are visited by many persons for advice. Others again live in the forest under the huge trees and eat nothing but bark and ripe herbs. In summer they endured without clothing the burning heat of the midday sun, and the winter also they pa.s.sed in the open air, amid torrents of rain. The sages who live in the forest do not go to the kings, even though requested to do so; but the kings from time to time ask questions of them by messengers, and entreat them to call upon and wors.h.i.+p the G.o.ds on their behalf. Others of the sages, however, manage the business of the state, and accompany the kings as counsellors; others are physicians, who live simply on rice and barley, and heal sickness by diet more than by any other means;[596] others again are soothsayers and magicians, and acquainted with the sacrifices to the dead and the ritual, and go about begging among the villages and cities. These were the least cultivated of the sages, but even the others did not contradict the fables of the under-world, "because they advanced piety and sanct.i.ty."[597]

The sages were one and all highly honoured by the kings and the nation.

They paid no taxes, they had no duties and services to perform, but on the contrary received valuable presents. Those who lived in the cities and gave advice in the market-place could take whatever and as much as they pleased of the food exposed for sale there, especially of oil and sesame; any one who is carrying figs or grapes gives to them of his store without payment. All whom they visit feel themselves honoured, and every house is open to them, except the apartments of the women; they enter when they choose, and take part in the conversation and the meal.

Even the physicians among the sages are hospitably entertained in all the houses, and receive rice and barley wherever they lodge.[598]

Megasthenes tells us that the sages were divided into two sects, of which the one was called Brahmans, the other Sarmans. There was also a third sect, wrangling and quarrelsome men, whom the Brahmans regarded as vain boasters and fools.[599] The Brahmans were held in higher estimation than the Sarmans, because there was more agreement in their doctrines. They occupied themselves with researches into nature, and the knowledge of the stars, and taught everything like the h.e.l.lenes; maintaining that the world was created, and globular, and perishable, permeated by the Deity who created and governed it. The earth was the centre of the universe. In addition to the four elements of the h.e.l.lenes the sages of the Indians a.s.sumed a fifth, out of which arose the sky and the stars. About the nature of the soul, also, the Indians had the same notions as the h.e.l.lenes; but like Plato they interspersed many fables on the imperishable nature of the soul, on the judgment which will be held in the under-world on the souls, and other things of the kind. As a rule their acts were better than their words; their proofs were generally supported by the narration of extraordinary stories. They maintained that in itself there was nothing good or bad; otherwise it would be impossible that some persons should be in trouble about an event while others felt delighted at it; that even the same persons should be distressed and then in turn delighted at the selfsame occurrence.[600]

According to the account of Onesicritus quoted above (p. 398), the Brahmans of Takshacila considered that doctrine the best which removed joy and sadness utterly from the soul. In order to attain this the body must be accustomed to pain that the power of the soul may thus be strengthened. That man is the best who has the fewest needs; he is the most free who needs neither presents nor anything else from another; who has to fear no threats; he who equally disregarded pleasure and toil and life and death will be second to no other. The Brahmans spoke a good deal of death, which they regarded as a deliverance from the flesh when rendered useless by age. Life on earth they regarded merely as the completion of birth in the flesh, death as the birth to true life, and to happiness for the wise. Diseases of the body appeared to them dishonourable; and if a man fell into sickness, he anointed himself, caused a pyre to be erected, placed himself on it, gave orders that it should be kindled, and was burnt, without moving. Others put an end to their lives by throwing themselves into water, or over precipices; others by hanging or by the sword. Yet Megasthenes maintains that suicide was no article in the Indian creed.[601]

In all essential points these accounts agree with the native authorities, though the view taken is here and there too favourable, in some points too advanced, in others not sufficiently discriminating. It is true that the Brahmans and the initiated of the Enlightened, the cramanas, are confounded in the order of the sages; this is shown by the statement that any one could enter into this order.[602] It would have required peculiar acuteness on the part of a stranger to distinguish matters so closely resembling each other in their external appearances; and the one were mendicants no less than the others. It is evidence of clear observation that the Brahmans like the Bhikshus were regarded by the Greeks as philosophers rather than priests; they give prominence to their position as advisers of the king and soothsayers as well as their philosophical inquiries and conduct of sacrifices. The custom of advising the princes agrees with the rules which are known to us from the book of the law, the statements of the sutras, the Epos, the Puranas, and the incidents in the land of the Indus which have been mentioned above (p. 405); and with regard to soothsaying we have already seen from the sutras how much the Brahmans were given to astrology after the year 600 B.C.; how they suggested fortunate names to parents for their children, and favourable times for invest.i.ture with the sacred girdle, for cutting the hair, and for marriage. The a.s.semblies at the new year, of which the Greeks tell us, have reference no doubt to the establishment of the calendar, _i.e._ to the fixing of the proper and fortunate days for sacrifice and festivity, for seedtime, etc., as is done at this day in every village by the Brahmans, and for the court and kingdom by the Brahmans of the king. Even now nothing of importance is undertaken in the state or in the house, before the Brahmans have declared the signs of heaven to be favourable. As to the sacrifices to the departed, we are acquainted with the meals for the dead, and their importance, which the Brahmans retained, while the Bhikshus, as we shall see, had meanwhile gone so far as to wors.h.i.+p the manes of Buddha and his chief disciples. The sutras have already informed us of the frequent use of physicians; they were Brahmans who carried on the art of healing on the basis of the Atharvaveda. The care of the young Brahmans and their instruction is correctly stated; the time of teaching which the book of the law fixes at thirty-six years (p. 179) is not forgotten; even among the Bhikshus a noviciate was customary. In the description of the life of the ascetics and wandering sages, the Brahmans and Bhikshus are again confounded, and if the Greeks tell us that the severe sages of the forest were too proud to go to the court at the request of the king, the statement holds good according to the evidence of the Epos of the Brahmanic saints, and the sutras of the great teachers among the Buddhists.[603]

In the examination of the doctrines of the Indian sages Megasthenes distinguished the Brahmans and the Buddhists, inasmuch as he opposes the less honoured sects to the first, and declares the Brahmans to be the most important. From his whole account it is clear that at his date, _i.e._ about the year 300 B.C., the Brahmans had distinctly the upper hand. But, according to him, the cramanas took the next place to the Brahmans, among the less honoured sects. Among the Buddhists cramana is the ordinary name for their clergy (p. 377). The doctrines of the Brahmans of the world-soul and the five elements (by the fifth, with which the Greeks were not acquainted, the aether or Akaca of the Brahmans is meant), the dogmas of liberation from sensuality and the body, are rightly stated by Megasthenes in all essentials, and his a.s.sertion that the Brahmans for the most part narrated fabulous stories in support of their doctrines is based very correctly on the numerous Brahman legends about the great saints. Megasthenes takes too favourable a view of the object of Brahmanic asceticism, but he brings out with sufficient prominence the mortification of the flesh, and remarks the diversity of the views on voluntary death or suicide, which, as we have seen, the book of the law, in case of incapacity, regards as a meritorious end to the later years of life, while the Buddhists condemned it altogether.

Of the religion of the Indians the Greeks ascertained that they wors.h.i.+pped Zeus, who brought the rain, and other native, _i.e._ peculiar, deities, and the Ganges. Of the G.o.ds of the Greeks Dionysus was the first to come to India; he instructed the Indians in the culture of the field and the vine, founded the monarchy, and taught them how to wear the mitra and to dance the cordax (a Bacchic dance).[604] Heracles also had been in India, but fifteen generations later than Dionysus. The Indians called Heracles one of the earth-born, who had attained divine honours after his death, because he surpa.s.sed all men in power and boldness. This Indian Heracles had cleared land and sea from wild and hurtful animals, and, like the Theban Heracles, had carried the lion's skin and club. He had many sons, among whom India was equally divided, and these had bequeathed their dominions to many descendants, from generation to generation; some of these kingdoms existed even when Alexander came to India. Beside these sons Heracles had one daughter, Pandaea, whom he had also made a queen, and had given her for a kingdom the land in which she was born, the most southern part of India;[605]

and when on one of his voyages Heracles had discovered pearls he gathered together all that could be found in the Indian sea in order to adorn his daughter with them. As he had never seen a man worthy of her, when in old age he made her though but seven years old of full age for marriage in order that he might beget with her a successor for her land.

After this time, all the women in the land named after her were of marriageable age in their seventh year.[606] The Indians on the mountains wors.h.i.+pped Dionysus, those in the plains Heracles;[607] the latter was chiefly wors.h.i.+pped among the curasenas on the Yamuna,[608]

and the cibis (p. 403), who wore the skins of animals and carried clubs like Heracles, and branded their oxen and mules with the mark of a club.[609] The Indians did not slaughter the animals for sacrifice, but strangled them.[610]

The rain-bringing Zeus is the ancient sky-G.o.d of the Indians, Indra, who cleaves the clouds with the lightning, and sends down the fructifying water, even as he causes the springs imprisoned in the rocks to bubble forth in freedom. Concerning the sacredness of the Ganges we are sufficiently instructed in Indian authorities. With regard to Dionysus, the Greeks tell us that when Alexander was in the land of the Acvakas, an emba.s.sy came from the Nysaeans with the message that Dionysus had founded their city, had given it the name of Nysa, and had called the neighbouring hill Meron. In the valleys and on the hills of the Acvakas the Greeks saw the vine growing wild, the thick creepers of a plant not unlike ivy, myrtles, bay, box-trees, and other evergreens, along with luxuriant orchards,[611] a vegetation which reminded them of their own homes and the sacred places of Dionysus. When in the Hindu Kush they heard the name of the tribe of the Nishadas and of the divine mountain Meru, which with the Indians lay beyond the Himalayas (the highest ranges were with them the southern slopes of the divine mountain), there was no longer any doubt that the G.o.d of Nysa, who had grown up in the Nysaean cave, and on the Nysaean mountain, had marched to India, just as he had reduced the nations of Asia Minor as far as the Euphrates.[612]

In this way the Nysaean mountain, which the Greeks first placed in Boeotia and Thrace, was then removed to the borders of Egypt, afterwards to Arabia and Ethiopia,[613] and even to India. To the Greeks the Nishadas were Nysaeans and their city Nysa; they were at once convinced that Meru received the name from Dionysus or in honour of Dionysus, whom his divine father had once carried in his thigh ([Greek: meros]).[614] Diodorus, after his manner, gives this pragmatic explanation of the story: Dionysus was compelled to refresh his wearied army on a mountain, which was then called Meros after him. Further, the processions of the Indian princes to sacrifices and the chase reminded the Greeks of the Dionysiac processions at home. They caught the sound of cymbals and drums; they saw the number of the royal women with their female servants in these trains; the king and his company in their long gay and flowered robes, with turbans on their heads,[615] which reminded them of the fillet of Dionysus; they saw great cups and goblets, the treasures of the king's palace, and finally, lions and panthers, the animals of Dionysus, brought forth in these processions; coloured masks and beards, just as the Greeks were accustomed to paint the face at the festival of Dionysus.[616]

Among the Indians, as we saw, in the course of the sixth century, the wors.h.i.+p of Rudra-civa grew up first and chiefly in the high mountains and valleys, where the storms were the most violent. He was a wild deity like Dionysus; like him he was invoked as "lord of the hills" (p. 330), a G.o.d of increase and fertility, of nature creating through moisture, of reproduction. And if ecstasy and frenzy were peculiar to the wors.h.i.+p of Dionysus, there was also a certain wildness in the nature of civa-Rudra, a trait which gradually became more strongly marked among the Indians in contrast to the form of Vishnu.

The culture of the vine on the Indus, the green mountain valleys, the sound of the names Nishada and Meru, the procession of the Indian kings, and the wors.h.i.+p of civa, convinced the Greeks that they had found the wors.h.i.+p of their G.o.d. That they restricted this to the inhabitants of the mountains is due, no doubt, to the fact that they were more closely acquainted with the mountain land of the west, that the vine-clad valleys and the names Nysa and Meru belonged to the region of the high mountains, that even in the land of the Ganges the Himalayas pa.s.sed as the abode of civa (p. 330). Moreover, the plains of India did not produce the vine, which indeed does not nourish in India, with the exception of some districts on the Indus, and the inhabitants of the Ganges valley did not drink wine.

As the Indians of the mountains, according to the account of the Greeks, wors.h.i.+pped Dionysus, so were the Indians of the plains wors.h.i.+ppers of Heracles. According to the statement of Megasthenes, he was wors.h.i.+pped especially among the curasenas on the Yamuna and in the cities of Mathura and Krishnapura, and therefore Krishna must be meant (p. 105).

Among the Indians Vishnu-Krishna carries the club, which Varuna once gave to him, and is called the club-bearer (_gadadhara_); with the club Krishna smote the wild tribes, the heroes, and the monsters. The weapon carried by Krishna's nation, the extinct Yadavas, was the club. The Greeks tell us that the Indian Heracles begot many sons; in the Mahabharata Krishna entreats Mahadeva, _i.e._ civa, the G.o.d of fertility, for hundreds of sons; the Vishnu-Purana ascribes to Krishna 16,100 wives and 180,000 sons.[617] According to the Greeks, Krishna was first placed among the G.o.ds after his death; in the ancient conception of the Indians, Krishna, as we know, was a strong herdman, who overcame bulls, kings, and giants, gave crafty counsel in the great wars, and at length died, wounded by the arrows of a hunter (p. 95); he becomes a deity by amalgamation with Vishnu. That the Greeks overlook the peaceful side of the deity in the incarnations of Vishnu as Paracurama, Rama, and Krishna, and their heroic achievements, is easily explained from their tendency to find their native G.o.ds in India. The derivation of the royal races of India from Heracles has reference only to the dynasties which claimed to be derived from the Pandus, the extinct royal houses of the Bharatas and Panchalas, the Pandus in Guzerat and southern Mathura, whose ancestors the Epos places in such close connection with Vishnu-Krishna. This derivation might easily be extended to the families which carried their lineage beyond the Pandus to Kuru, Puru, and Pururavas, like the Pauravas on the Panjab (p. 399), and the oldest dynasty of the kings of Magadha (p. 74). The most southern part of India is said to have fallen to Pandaea, the daughter of Heracles, and to have received its name from her; the pearls were procured from the sea for her adornment. We know that a Pandu family ruled there; among the heroic achievements of Krishna, the Mahabharata mentions the conquest of the giant Panchajana;[618] Vishnu is the bearer of the mussel, the lord of the jewel, and the pearl fishery can only be carried on in the gulf between Mathura and Ceylon. That a daughter and not a son of Heracles founded the kingdom here, is perhaps due to an Indian legend, woven into the history of this kingdom of Mathura. Sampanna-Pandya, the king mentioned above, wors.h.i.+pped the protecting G.o.ddess of the city so zealously that in order to reward him she caused herself to be born as his daughter. She succeeds her father on the throne, marches through India performing great deeds as far as the lake of Kailasa, the lofty Himalayas, where she overcomes even civa by her beauty, so that he follows her to Mathura, and there reigns at Sundara-Pandya (_i.e._ the beautiful Pandya), and gives prosperity to the land.[619] Hence it is possible that the protecting deity of Mathura and her warlike achievements are the basis underlying the story of the daughter of Heracles. If Heracles begets a son with this daughter in her seventh year, and all the women of the land became henceforth marriageable at that age, the latter part of the statement is correct; the fact is due to the position of the country under the equator. Even the law of Manu, which is adapted to the land on the central Ganges, permits marriage in the twelfth and even in the eighth year (p. 254).

Whatever may be the case with regard to the several items of the statements of the Greeks about the wors.h.i.+p of Dionysus and Heracles, they make it certain that in the fourth century B.C. the wors.h.i.+p of Indra was indeed in existence, but not prominent, while the wors.h.i.+p of Rudra-civa and Vishnu was in the foremost position. The wors.h.i.+p of Vishnu was the chief wors.h.i.+p of the Indians of the plains, _i.e._ of the land of the Ganges, and Krishna and Rama, the figures in the Epos, were already transformed into incarnations of Vishnu.

Of the justice of the Indians, their contempt of death, and reverence towards the kings, Ctesias has much to tell.[620] The companions of Alexander extol their love of truth; no Indian was ever accused of a lie. Megasthenes adds that the Indians lent money without witnesses or seals; a man ought to know whom he could trust; if he made a mistake he must bear the loss with equanimity. Wives were generally bought of their parents for a yoke of oxen; but Megasthenes a.s.sures us that in Magadha marriages were made without giving or receiving.[621] In that case the rule of the book of the law (p. 255), had become current here. The Indian wives were faithful and chaste, though it was the custom to have more than one. The Greeks also extol the moderation of the Indians in eating and drinking. The majority ate nothing but a little rice and fruits of the field; the mountaineers alone lived on the flesh of the wild animals which they caught in the chase. So little importance did they ascribe to eating that they had no fixed hour for meals. Nor did the inhabitants of the plains drink wine except at sacrifices, and this was not prepared from the grape but from rice.[622] At the banquets of the rich a separate table was set apart for each guest, with a golden cup; in this first rice and then other vegetables were brought, which the Indians were very skilful in cooking.[623] They were partial to singing and dancing, and paid great attention to beauty and the care of the body. They anointed themselves and had their bodies frequently rubbed; even when the king was dispensing justice four men frequently rubbed him with strigils. The hair of the Indians was plaited, and a band worn like the Persian mitre. They preferred white garments, which among them seemed brighter than with other nations, either because cotton was whiter than linen or because they appeared brighter owing to the dark colour of the Indians.[624] Over the cotton s.h.i.+rt, reaching half way down the thigh, many threw a mantle, which was fastened under the right shoulder. Many also wore linen clothes instead of cotton, and gay garments embroidered with flowers. Their shoes were of white leather, delicate in workmans.h.i.+p, and provided with high parti-coloured heels, that the figure might appear taller. They allowed the beard to grow, and tended it carefully; some tribes even stained the beard with various lively hues--white, green, dark-blue, and purple-red--and the country provided excellent colours for this purpose. The richer men had rings of gold and ivory in their ears and on their hands; they had beautiful parasols held over them, and did everything that could enhance the beauty of their appearance.[625] Persons of importance rode only in chariots with four horses; it was thought mean to make a journey on horseback without a retinue.[626]