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on the E. coast of the Golden Chersonesus (in the neighbourhood of Malacca); Tacola (perhaps Tavai or Tavoy); Triglyphon, in the district of the Cyrrhadiae, at the mouth of the Brahmaputra (now Tiperah or Tripura); and Cattigara, the exact position of which has been much disputed among geographers, but which Lassen has placed conjecturally in Borneo. Northward of Triglyphon are a number of small districts, about which nothing certain is known, as Chalcitis, Basanarae, Cacobae, and Aminachae, the Indraprathae, and Iberingae; and to the W., along the swamp-land at the foot of the Himalaya chain, are the Tiladae, Passalae, Corancali, and the Tacaraei. All the above may be considered as belonging to India extra Gangem.

the Indus, Pattalene (Lower Scinde, and the neighbourhood of Kuráchi), with its capital Pattala | (Pótala.)

are known to have overthrown the Greek kingdom of Bactriana, at the same time effacing many of the names of the tribes whom Alexander had met with two centuries before, such as the Aspasii, Assaceni, Massiani, Hippasii; with the towns of Acadera, Daedala, Massaga, and Embolima, which are preserved in Arrian, and others of Alexander's historians.

It is much more difficult to determine the exact site of the various tribes and nations mentioned in ancient authors as existing in the interior of the country, than it is to ascertain the corresponding modern localities of those which occupied the seacoast. Some, however, of them can be made out with sufficient certainty, by comparison of their classical names with the Sanscrit records, and in some instances with the modern native appellations. Following, then, the course of the Indus northwards, we find, at least in the times of Ptolemy and of the Periplus, a wide-spread race of Scythian origin, occuAgain, from the line of coast from E. to W., the pying both banks of the river, in a district called, first people along the western mouths of the Ganges from them, INDO-SCYTHIA. The exact limits of are called the Gangaridae, with their chief town their country cannot now be traced; but it is proGange (in the neighbourhood of the modern Cal- bable that they extended from Pattalene on the S. cutta); the Calingae, with their chief towns Par- as far as the lower ranges of the Hindu-Kush, - in thalis and Dandagula (the latter probably Calina- fact, that their empire swayed over the whole of pattana, about halfway between Mahanadi and modern Scinde and the Panjáb; a view which is Godavari); the Maesoli and Maesolia, occupying borne out by the extensive remains of their Topes nearly the same range of coast as that now called and coinage, which are found throughout these disthe Circars, with the capital Pitynda, and Conta-tricts, and especially to the northward, near the head cossyla (Masulipattana ?) and Alosygna on the sea- waters of the three western of the Five Rivers. A coast; W. of the Maesolus (Godávari), the Arvarni, great change had no doubt taken place by the sucwith the chief town Malanga (probably Manda- cessful invasion of a great horde of Scythians torágja, the present Madras). Then follow the So-wards the close of the second century B. C., as they ringi and Bati, till we come to the land of Pandion (Пavdiovos xúpa), which extends to the southern extremity of the peninsula of Hindustan, and was a district of great wealth and importance at the time of the Periplus. (Peripl. pp. 31, 33.) There can be no doubt that the land of Pandion is the same as the Indian Pándja, and its capital Modura the present Mathura. Within the same district were Argara (whence the S. Argaricus derives its name), the Carci, and the Colchi. At the SW. end of the peninsula were Cottiara (Cochin), and Comaria, whence the promontory Comorin derives its name. Following the western coast, we arrive at Limyrica (Peripl. pp. 30, 36), undoubtedly in the neighbourhood of Mangalore, with its chief towns Carura (most likely Coimbatore, where a great quantity of Roman coins have been dug up during the last fifteen years) and Tyndis (in the neighbourhood of Goa); and then Musopale, Nitrae, and Mandagara; all places on the sea-coast, or at no great distance from it. Somewhat further inland, within the district known generically at the time of the Periplus by the name of Dachinabades (Dakhinabháda, or Deccan), was the district of Ariaca ('Apíaka Zadavŵv, Ptol. vii. 1. §§ 6, 82; cf. Peripl. p. 30), with its chief town Hippocura (Nandira or Hydrabad, if not, as Ritter has imagined, the sea-port Mangalore); Baetana, Simylla (on the coast near Bassein), Omenagara (undoubtedly the celebrated fortress Ahmed-nagar), and Tagara (Peripl. p. 19), the present Deoghir. Further N., the rich commercial state of Larice appears to have extended from the Namadus (Narmadá or Nerbudda) to Barygaza (Beroach) and the Gulf of Cambay. Its chief town was, in Ptolemy's time, Ozene (Oujein or Ujjayini), a place well known to the antiquaries of India for the vast numbers of the earliest Indian coinage constantly found among its ruins; Minnagara, the position of which is doubtful, and Barygaza, the chief emporium of the commerce of Western India. North of Larice was Syrastrene (Saurashtran), to the west of the Gulf of Cambay;

Further N., along the bases of the Paropamisus, Imaus, and Emodus, in the direction from W. to E., we find mention of the Sampatae, the district Suastene (now Sewad), and Goryaea, with the towns Gorya and Dionysopolis, or Nagara (now Nagar); and further E., between the Suastus and the Indus, the Gandarae (one, doubtless, of the original seats of the Gandháras). Following the mountain range to the E., we come to Caspiria (now Cashmir, in earlier times known, as we have seen, to Herodotus, under the name of Caspatyrus). Southward of Cashmir was the territory of Varsa, with its capital Taxila, a place of importance so early as the time of Alexander (Arrian, v. 8), and probably indicated now by the extensive remains of Manikyála (Burnes, Travels, vol. i. p. 65), if, indeed, these are not too much to the eastward. A little further S. was the land of Pandous (Пavdov xúpa, doubtless the representative of one of the Pandava dynasties of early Hindú history), during the time of Alexander the territory of the king Porus. Further eastward were the state Cylindrine, with the sources of the Sutledge, Jumna, and Ganges; and the Gangani, whose territory extended into the highest range of the Himalaya.

Many small states and towns are mentioned in the historians of Alexander's campaigns along the upper Panjab, which we cannot here do more than glance at, as Peucelaotis (Puskkalávatí), Nicaea, Bucephala the Glaucanitae, and the Sibae or Sibi. Following next the course of the Ganges, we meet with the Daetichae, the Nanichae, Prasiaca; and the Mandalae, with its celebrated capital Palibothra (beyond all doubt the present

the Erannoboas (Hiranjávaha) and the Ganges, with some smaller states, as the Surasenae, and the towns Methora and Clisobra, which were subject to the Prasii. Southward from Palibothra, in the interior of the plain country, dwelt the Cocconagae, on the banks of the Adamas, the Sabârae, the Sala-peditions of Dionysus and Hercules, and the wars of ceni, the Drillophyllitae, the Adeisathri, with their capital Sagida (probably the present Sohagpur), situated on the northern spurs of the Vindhya, at no great distance from the sources of the Sonus. Between the Sonus and the Ganges were the Bolingae. In a NW. direction, beyond the Sonus and the Vindhya, we find a territory called Sandrabatis, and the Gymnosophistae, who appear to have occupied the country now called Sirhind, as far as the river Sutledge. The Caspeiraei (at least in the time of Ptolemy; see Ptol. vii. 1. § 47) seem to have extended over a considerable breadth of country, as their sacred town Modura (Módoupa ʼn τŵv Sew) was situated, apparently, at no great distance from the Nerbudda, though its exact position has not been identified. The difficulty of identification is much, indeed, increased by the error of reckoning which prevails throughout Ptolemy, who held that the coast of India towards the Indian Ocean was in a straight line E. and W. from Taprobane and the Indus, thereby placing Nanaguna and the Namadus in the same parallel of latitude. On the southern spurs of the Vindhya, between the Namadus and Nanaguna, on the edge of the Deccan, were the Phyllitae and Gondali; and to the E. of them, between the Bittigo M. and the river Chaberus (Caverí), the nomad Sorae (Zŵpai voμádes), with a chief town Sora, at the eastern end of M. Bittigo. To the southward of these, on the Chaberus and Solen, were several smaller tribes, the Brachinani Magi, the Ambastae, Bettigi or Bitti, and the Tabassi.

All the above-mentioned districts and towns of any importance are more fully described under their respective names.

The ancients appear to have known but little of the islands which are now considered to form part of the East Indies, with the exception of Taprobane or Ceylon, of which Pliny and Ptolemy have left some considerable notices. The reason is, that it was not till a much later period of the world's history that the Indian Archipelago was fully opened out by its commercial resources to scientific inquiry. Besides Ceylon, however, Ptolemy mentions, in its neighbourhood, a remarkable cluster of small islands, doubtless (as we have remarked before) those now known as the Laccadires and Maldives; the island of Labadins (Java), below the Chersonesus Aurea; and the Satyrorum Insulae, on the same parallel with the S. end of this Chersonesus, which may perhaps answer to the Anamba or Natuna islands."

Of the government of India, considered as a whole, comparatively little was known to the Greek writers; indeed, with the exception of occasional names of kings, it may be asserted that they knew nothing E. of Palibothra. Nor is this strange; direct connection with the interior of the country ceased with the fall of the Graeco-Bactrian empire; from that period almost all the information about India which found its way to the nations of the West was derived from the merchants and others, who made voyages to the different out-ports of the country. It may be worth while to state briefly here some of the principal rulers mentioned by the Greek and Roman writers; premising that, previous to the advance of Alexander, history is on these subjects

silent. Previous, indeed, to Alexander, we have nothing on which we can rely. There is no evidence that Darius himself invaded any part of India, though a portion of the NW. provinces of Bactria may have paid him tribute, as stated by Herodotus. The exSesostris and Semiramis in India, can be considered as nothing more than fables too credulously recorded by Ctesias. At the time of the invasion of Alexander the Great, there can be no doubt that there was a settled monarchy in the western part of India, and his dealings with it are very clearly to be made out. In the north of the Panjab was the town or district Taxila (probably Manikyúla, or very near it), which was ruled by a king named Taxiles; it being a frequent Indian custom to name the king from the place he ruled over. His name in Diodorus is Mophis (xvii. 86), and in Curtius, Omphis (viii. 12), which was probably the real one, and is itself of Indian origin. It appears that Alexander left his country as he found it. (Strab. xv. pp. 698, 699, 716.) The name of Taxiles is not mentioned in any Indian author. The next ruler Alexander met with was Porus (probably Paurava Sanser., a change which Strabo indicates in that of Aapiaúnv into Aapetov), with whom Taxiles had been at war. (Arrian, v. 21.) Alexander appears to have succeeded in reconciling them, and to have increased the empire of Porus, so as to make his rule comprehend the whole country between the Hydaspes and Acesines. (Arrian, v. 20, 21, 29.) His country is not named in any Indian writer. Shortly afterwards, Alexander received an embassy and presents from Abisaris (no doubt Abhisára), whose territory, as has been shown by Prof. Wilson from the Annals of Cashmir, must have been in the mountains in the southern part of that province. (Asiat. Res. vol. xv. p. 116.) There had been previously a war between this ruler and the Malli, Oxydracae, and the people of the Lower Panjab, which had ended in nothing. Alexander confirmed Abisaris in the possession of his own territory, made Philip satrap of the Malli and Oxydracae, and Pytho of the land between the confluence of the Indus and Acesines and the sea (Arrian, vi. 15); placing, at the same time, Oxyarces over the Paropamisadae. (Arr. vi. 15.) It may be observed that, in the time of Ptolemy, the Cashmirians appear to have held the whole of the Panjab, so far as the Vindhya mountains, a portion of the southern country being, however, in the hands of the Malli and Cathaei.

The same state of things prevailed for some time after the death of Alexander, as appears by a decree of Perdiccas, mentioned in Diodorus (xviii. 3), and with little material change under Antipater. (Diod. xviii. 39.) Indeed, the provinces remained true to the Macedonians till the commencement of the rule of the Prasii, when Sandrocottus took up arms against the Macedonian governors. (Justin. xv. 4.) The origin of this rebellion is clearly traceable. Porus was slain by Eudamus about B.C. 317 (Diod. xix. 14); hence Sandrocottus must have been on the throne about the time that Seleucus took Babylon, B.C. 312. The attempt of the Indians to recover their freedom was probably aided by the fact that Porus had been slain by a Greek. Sandrocottus, as king of the Prasii (Sansc. Prachya) and of the nations on the Ganges, made war with Seleucus Nicator, who penetrated far into India. Plutarch says he ruled over all India, but this is not likely. (Plut. Alex. 62.) It appears

that he crossed the Indus, and obtained by marriage Arachosia, Gedrosia, and the Paropamisadae, from Selencus. (Strab. xv. p. 724; Appian, Syr. 55.) It was to his court that Megasthenes (as we have before stated) was sent. Sandrocottus was succeeded by Amitrochates (Sansc. Amitraghátas), which is almost certainly the true form of the name, though Strabo calls him Allitrochades. He was the contemporary of Antiochus Soter. (Athen. xiv. 67.) It is clear, from Athenaeus (1. c.), that the same friendship was maintained between the two descendants as between the two fathers. Daimachus was sent as ambassador to Palibothra. (Strab. ii. p. 70.) Then came the wars between the Parthians and Bactrians, and the more complete establishment of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, under Menander, Apollodotus, Eucratides, and their successors, to which we cannot here do more than allude. The effect, however, of these wars was to interrupt communication between the East and the West; hence the meagre nature of the historical records of the period. The expedition of Antiochus the Great to India brought to light the name of another king, Sophagasenus (Polyb. xi. 32), who was, in all probability, king of the Prasii. The Scythians finally put an end to the Bactrian empire about B. c. 136. (De Gaignes, Mém. de l'Acad. d. Inscr. xxv. p. 17.) This event is noticed in the Periplus (p. 22), where, however, Parthi must be taken to mean Scythi. (See also Periplus, p. 24; Dionys. Perieg. vv. 1087 -1088.) Eustathius adds, in his commentary on Dionysius:-Oi kaì 'Ivdoσkúla, ovvléτws λeyoμévol. Minnagara was their chief town, a name, as appears from Isid. Char. ( p. 9), which was partly Scythian and partly Sanscrit. (Cf. also De Guignes, 1. c.)

The Scythians were in their turn driven out of India by Vicrámaditya, about B. C. 56 (Colebrooke, Ind. Algebra, Lond. 1817, p. 43), who established his seat of empire at Oujein (Ujjayini). At the time when the Periplus was compiled, the capital had been again changed, as we there read, 'OŠývn, év ỷ кal τὰ Βασιλεία πρότερον ἦν.

It is remarkable that no allusion has been found in any of the early literature of the Hindús to Alexander the Great; but the effect of the later expeditions of the Bactrian kings is apparently indicated under the name of the Yavana. In the astronomical works, the Yavana are barbarians who understood astronomy, whence it has been conjectured by Colebrooke that the Alexandrians are referred to. (Ind. Algebra, p. 80.) Generally, there can be no doubt that the Yavana mean nations to the W. of India. Thus, in the Mahabharata, they make war on the Indians, in conjunction with the Páradi (i. e. Parthi), and the Sacae or Scythians. (Lassen, Pentap. p. 60.) In the Drama of the Mudra-Raxasa, which refers to the war between Chandragupta and another Indian King, it is stated that Cusumapura (i. e. Palibothra) was surrounded by the Cirratae, Yavani, Cambogi, Persae, Bactrians, and the other forces of Chandragupta, and the king of the Mountain Regions. Lassen thinks, with much reason, that this refers to Seleucus, who, in his war with Chandragupta, reached, as we know, Palibothra (Plin. vi. 17.)

With regard to the commerce of ancient India, which we have every reason to suppose was very extensive, it is impossible in this place to do more than to indicate a few of the principal facts. Indeed, the commerce of India, including the northern and the southern districts, may be considered as an epitome of the commerce of the world, there being few pro

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ductions of any other country which may not be found somewhere within its vast area.

The principal directions in which the commerce of ancient India flowed were, between Western India and Africa, between the interior of the Deccan and the outports of the southern and western coast of the Indian Ocean, between Ceylon and the ports of the Coromandel coast, between the Coromandel coast and the Aurea Chersonesus, and, in the N., along the Ganges and into Tátary and the territory of the Sinae. There appears also to have been a remarkable trade with the opposite coast of Africa along the district now called Zanguebar, in sesamum, rice, cotton goods, cane-honey (sugar), which was regularly sent from the interior of Ariaca (Concan) to Barygaza (Beroach), and thence westward. (Peripl. p. 8.) Arab sailors are mentioned who lived at Muza (Mocha), and who traded with Barygaza. (Peripl. p. 12.) Banians of India had established themselves on the N. side of Socotra, called the island of Dioscorides (Peripl. p. 17): while, even so early as Agatharchides, there was evidently an active commerce between Western India and Yemen. (Agatharch. p. 66, ed. Hudson.) Again, the rapidity with which Alexander got his fleet together seems to show that there must have been a considerable commerce by boats upon the Indus. At the time of the Periplus there was a chain of ports along the western coast, Barygaza (Beroach), Muziris in Limyrica (Mangalore), Nelkynda (Neliceram), Pattala (once supposed to be Tatta, but much more probably Hydrabád), and Calliene, now Gallian (Peripl. p. 30): while there were three principal emporia for merchandise, Ozene (Oujein), the chief mart of foreign commerce, (vide an interesting account of its ruins, Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 36), and for the transmission of the goods to Barygaza; Tagara, in the interior of the Deccan (almost certainly Deoghir or Devanagari near Ellora), whence the goods were conveyed over difficult roads to Barygaza and Pluthana or Plithana, a place the exact position of which cannot now be determined, but, from the character of the products of the place, must have been somewhere in the Ghats.

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Along the Regio Paralia to the S., and on the Coromandel coast, were several ports of consequence; and extensive pearl fisheries in the kingdom of king Pandion, near Colchi, and near the island of Epiodorus, where the TVVIKóv (a silky thread spun from the Pinna-fish) was procured. (Peripl. p. 33). Further to the N. were, - Masalia (Masulipatam), famous for its cotton goods (Peripl. p. 35); and Gange, a great mart for muslin, betel, pearls, &c., somewhere near the mouth of the Ganges, its exact locality, however, not being now determinable. (Peripl. p. 36.) The commerce of Ceylon (Selandib, i. e. Sinhala-dwipa) was in pearls of the best class, and precious stones of all kinds, especially the ruby and the emerald. The notices in Ptolemy and Pliny shew that its shores were well furnished with commercial towns (Ptol. vii. 4. §§ 3, 4, 5), while we know from the narrative of Cosmas Indicopleustes (ap. Montfaucon, Coll. Nova Bibl. Patr. vol. ii.) that it was, in the sixth century A.D., the centre of Hindu commerce. Besides these places, we learn that there was an emporium upon the Coromandel coast, whence the merchant ships crossed over to Chryse (in all probability Malacca), in the Aurea Chersonesus; the name of it, however, is not specified.

It is probable, however, that the greatest line of commerce was from the N. and W. along the

Ganges, commencing with Taxila near the Indus, or Lahore on that river, and passing thence to Palibothra. This was called the Royal Road. It is remarkable that the Ramayana describes a road from Ayodhiya (Oude), over the Ganges and the Jumna, to Hastinapura and Lahore, which must be nearly identical with that mentioned in the Greek geographers. The commerce, which appears to have existed between the interior of Asia, India, and the land of the Sinae and Serica, is very remarkable. It is stated that from Thina (the capital of the Sinae) fine cottons and silk were sent on foot to Bactra, and thence down the Ganges to Limyrica. (Peripl. p. 36.) The Periplus speaks of a sort of annual fair which was held within the territory of the Thinae, to which malabathron (betel) was imported from India. It is not easy to make out whereabouts Thina itself was situated, and none of the modern attempts at identification appear to us at all satisfactory: it is clearly, however, a northern town, in the direction of Ladakh in Thibet, and not, as Ptolemy placed it, at Malacca in Tenasserim, or, as Vincent (Voyage of Nearchus, vol. ii. p. 735) conjectured, at Arraoan. It is curious that silk should be so constantly mentioned as an article of import from other countries, especially Serica, as there is every reason to suppose that it was indigenous in India; the name for silk throughout the whole of the Indian Archipelago being the Sanscrit word sutra. (Colebrooke, Asiat. Res. vol. v. p. 61.)

It is impossible to give in this work any details as to the knowledge of ancient India exhibited in the remains of native poems or histories. The whole of this subject has been examined with great ability by Lassen in his Indische Alterthumskunde; and to his pages, to which we are indebted for most of the Sanscrit names which we have from time to time inserted, we must refer our readers. From the careful comparison which has been made by Lassen and other orientalists (among whom Pott deserves especial mention) of the Indian names preserved by the Greek writers, a great amount of evidence has been adduced in favour of the general faithfulness of those who recorded what they saw or heard. In many instances, as may be seen by the names we have already quoted, the Greek writers have been content with a simple adaptation of the sounds which they heard to those best suited for their own pronunciation. When we consider the barbarous words which have come to Europe in modern times as the European representations of the names of places and peoples existing at the present time, we have reason to be surprised at the accuracy with which Greek ears appreciated, and the Greek language preserved, names which must have appeared to Greeks far more barbarous than they would have seemed to the modern conquerors of the country. The attention of modern scholars has detected many words of genuine Indian origin in a Greek dress; and an able essay by Prof. Tychsen on such words in the fragments of Ctesias will repay the perusal of those who are interested in such subjects. (See Heeren, Asiatic Nations, vol. ii. Append. 4, ed. Lond. 1846.)

The generic name of the inhabitants of the whole country to the E. of Persia and S. of the Himalaya mountains (with the exception of the Seres) was, in ancient times, INDI ('Ivdoí), or Indians. It is true that the appellation referred to a much wider or much less extensive range of country, at different periods of history. There can, however, be no doubt, that

when the ancient writers speak of the INDI, they mean the inhabitants of a vast territory in the SE. part of Asia. The extension of the meaning of the name depended on the extension of the knowledge of India, and may be traced, though less completely, in the same manner as we have traced the gradual progress of knowledge relative to the land itself. The Indi are mentioned in more than one of the fragments of Hecataeus (Hecat. Fragm. 175, 178), and are stated by Aeschylus to have been a people in the neighbourhood of the Aethiopians, who made use of camels. (Suppl. 284-287.) Herodotus is the first ancient author who may be said to give any real description of them; and he is led to refer to them, only because a portion of this country, which adjoined the territory of Darcius, was included in one of the satrapies of his vast empire, and, therefore, paid him tribute. Some part of his narrative (iii. 94-106, iv. 44, vii. 65) may be doubted, as clearly from hearsay evidence; some is certainly fabulous. The sum of it is, that the Indians were the most populous and richest nation which he knew of (iii. 94), and that they consisted of many different tribes. speaking different languages. Some of them, he states, dwelt in the immediate neighbourhood of the Aethiopians, and were, like them, black in colour (iii. 98, 101); some, in the marshes and desert land still further E. The manners of these tribes, whom he calls Padaei, and Callatiae or Calantiae, were in the lowest grade of civilisation,-a wandering race, living on raw flesh and raw fish, and of cannibal habits (Cf. Strab. xv. p. 710, from which Mannert, v. 1. p. 3, infers that the Padaei were not after all genuine Indians, but Tátars.) Others (and these were the most warlike) occupied the more northern districts in the neighbourhood of Caspatyrus (Cashmir) in the Regio Pactyice. Herodotus places that part of India which was subject to Dareius in the 20th satrapy, and states that the annual tribute from it amounted to 360 talents (iii. 94). Xenophon speaks of the Indians as a great nation, and one worthy of alliance with Cyaxares and the Medes (i. 5. §3, iii. 2. § 25, vi. 2. §1), though he does not specify to what part of India he refers. That, however, it was nearly the same as that which Herodotus describes, no one can doubt.

From the writers subsequent to Alexander, the following particulars relative to the people and their manners may be gathered. The ancients considered that they were divided into seven castes:-1. Priests, the royal counsellors, and nearly connected with, if not the same as, the Bpaxuâves or Brahmins. (Strab. xv. pp. 712-716; Arrian, Ind. 11.) With these Strabo (l. c.) makes another class, whom he calls Tapuaves. These, as Grosskurd (iii. p. 153) has suggested, would seem, from the description of their habits, to have been fakirs, or penitents, and the same as the Gymnosophistae so often mentioned by Strabo and Arrian. This caste was exempted from taxes and service in war. 2. Husbandmen, who were free from war-service. They were the most numerous of the seven castes. (Strab. xv. p. 704.) The land itself was held to belong to the king, who farmed it out, leaving to the cultivator one-fourth of the produce as his share. 3. Hunters and shepherds, who lead a wandering life, their office being to rear cattle and beasts of burden: the horse and the elephant were held to be for the kings only. (Strab. 1. c.) 4. Artizans and handicraftsmen, of all kinds. (Strab. xv. p. 707.) 5. Warriors. (Strab. I. c.) 6. Political officers (ěpopo, Strab.

1. c.), who looked after affairs in the towns, &c., and reported secretly to the king. 7. The Royal Counsellors, who presided over the administration of justice (Strab. I. c.), and kept the archives of the realm. It was not permitted for intermarriages to take place between any of these classes, nor for any one to perform the office allotted to another, except in the case of the first caste (called also that of the piλoσopol), to which class a man might be raised from any of the other classes. (Strab. I. c.; Arrian, Ind. c. 12; Diod. ii. 41; Plin. vi. 19. s. 22.) We may remark that the modern writers on India recognise only four castes, called respectively Brahmans, Kshatryas, Vaisyas, and Sudras, a division which Heeren has suggested (we think without sufficient evidence) to indicate the remains of distinct races. (Asiat. Nat. vol. ii. p. 220.) The lowest of the people (now called Pariahs), as belonging to none of the above castes, are nowhere distinctly mentioned by ancient writers (but cf. Strab. xv. p. 709; Diod. ii. 29; Arrian, Ind. c. 10).

common use; and they were wont to dye their beards, not only black and white, but also red and green. (Arrian, l. c.) In general form of body, they were thin and elegantly made, with great litheness (Arrian, Ind. c. 17; Strab. ii. p. 103, xv. p. 695), but were larger than other Asiatics. (Arrian, Exped. Alex. v. 4; Plin. vii. 2.)

Some peculiar customs they had, which have lasted to the present day, such as self-immolation by water or fire, and throwing themselves from precipices (Strab. xv. pp. 716, 718; Curt. viii. 9; Arrian, Exped. Alex. vii. 5; Lucan. iii. 42; Plin. vi. 19. s. 20), and the burning of the widow (suttee); not, indeed, agreeably to any fixed law, but rather according to custom (Strab. xv. pp. 699-714; Diod. xvii. 91, xix. 33; Cic. Tusc. Disp. v. 27.) For writing materials they used the bark of trees (Strab. xv. p. 717; Curt. ix. 15), probably much as the modern Cinghalese use the leaf of the palm. Their houses were generally built of wood or of the bamboo-cane; but in the cold mountain districts, of clay. (Arrian, Ind. c. 10.) It is a remarkable proof of the extent to which civilisation had been carried in ancient India, that there were, throughout great part of the country, high roads, with stones set up (answering to our milestones), on which were inscribed the name of the place and the distance to the next station. (Strab. xv. pp. 689–708; Arrian, Ind. c. 3.) [V.]

The general description of the Indians, drawn from Megasthenes and others who had lived with them, is very pleasing. Theft is said to have been unknown, so that houses could be left unfastened. (Strab. xv. p. 709.) No Indian was known to speak falsehood. (Strab. Lc.; Arrian, Ind. c. 12.) They were extremely temperate, abstaining wholly from wine (Strab. I. c.),—their hatred of drunkenness being so great that any girl of the harem, who should see IN'DICUS OCEANUS (8 'Ivdikds wкeavós, the king drunk, was at liberty to kill him. (Strab. Agath. ii. 14; tò ’Ivdikùv wéλayos, Ptol. vii. 1. § 5). xv. p. 710.) No class eat meat (Herod. iii. 100), The Indian Ocean of the ancients may be considered their chief sustenance being rice, which afforded generally as that great sea which washed the whole them also a strong drink, i. e. arrak. (Strab. xv. of the southern portion of India, extending from the p. 694.) Hence an especial freedom from diseases, parallel of longitude of the mouths of the Indus to and long lives; though maturity was early developed, the shores of the Chersonesus Aurea. It seems, inespecially in the female sex, girls of seven years old deed, to have been held by them as part, however, of being deemed marriageable. (Strab. xv. pp. 701- a yet greater extent of water, the limits of which 706; Arrian, Ind. 9.) The women are said to have were undefined, at least to the southwards, and to been remarkable for their chastity, it being impos- which they gave the generic name of the Southern sible to tempt them with any smaller gifts than that Sea. Thus Herodotus speaks of ʼn vorín dáλaooa of an elephant (Arrian, Ind. c. 17), which was not in this sense (iv. 37), as does also Strabo (ii. p. 121); considered discreditable by their countrymen; and Diodorus calls it ǹ karà μeonμsplav wкeavós (iii the usual custom of marriage was for the father to 38), while the Erythraean sea, taken in its most take his daughters and to give them in marriage to extended meaning, doubtless conveyed the same the youths who had distinguished themselves most sense. (Herod. ii. 102, iv. 37; compared with Strab. in gymnastic exercises. (Arrian, l. c.; Strab. xv. i. p. 33.) Ptolemy gives the distances across this p. 717.) To strangers they ever showed the utmost sea as stated by seafaring men; at the same time he hospitality. (Diod. ii. 42.) As warriors they were guards against their over-statements, by recording notorious (Arrian, Ind. c. 9; Exped. Alex. v. 4; his opinion in favour of no more than one-third of Plut. Alex. c. 59, 63): the weapons of the foot- their measurements: this space he calls 8670 stadia soldiers being bows and arrows, and a great two- (i. 13. § 7). The distance along its shores, followhanded sword; and of the cavalry, a javelin and a ing the indentations of the coast-line, he estimates, round shield (Arrian, Ind. c. 16; Strab. xv. p. 717; on the same authority, at 19,000 stadia. Curt. viii. 9.) In the Panjab, it is said that the evident, however, that Ptolemy himself had no clear Macedonians encountered poisoned arrows. (Diod. idea of the real form of the Indian Ocean, and that xvii. 103.) Manly exercises of all kinds were in he inclined to the opinion of Hipparchus, Polybius, vogue among them. The chase was the peculiar and Marinus of Tyre, that it was a vast inland sea privilege of royalty (Strab. xv. pp. 709-712; Ctes. the southern portion of it being bounded by the shores Ind. 14; Curt. viii. 9, seq.); gymnastics, music, and of an unknown land which he supposed to connect Catdancing, of the rest of the people (Strab. xv. p. 709; tigara in the Chersonesus Aurea with the promontory Arrian, Exp. Alex. vi. 3); and juggling and slight of Prasum (now Cape Delgado) in Africa (comp. iv. of hand were then, as now, among their chief amuse-9. §§ 1, 3, vii. 3. §§ 1, 3, 6). The origin of this error ments. (Aelian, viii. 7; Juven. vi. 582.) Their usual dress befitted their hot climate, and was of white linen (Philost. Vit. Apoll. ii. 9) or of cottonstuff (Strab. xv. p. 719; Arrian, Ind. c. 16); their heads and shoulders partially covered (Arrian, l. c. ; Curt. viii. 9, 15) or shaded from the sun by umbrellas (Arrian, 1. c.); with shoes of white leather, with very thick and many-coloured soles. (Arrian, Lc.) Gold and ivory rings and ear-rings were in

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it is not easy now to ascertain, but it seems to have been connected with one which is found in the historians of Alexander's expedition, according to which there was a connection between the Indus and the Nile, so that the sources of the Acesines (Chenab) were confounded with those of the Nile. (Arrian, vi. 1.) Strabo, indeed, appears to have had some leaning to a similar view, in that he connected the Erythraean with the Atlantic sea (ii. p. 130); which was also

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