of the Greek Bactrian em Nikator. of frequent wars, yet the provinces were beginning to CHAPTER IV. harden into independent kingdoms. The region Establishment between the Euphrates and the Indus fell to the lot pire of Seleukos of Seleukos Nikator, who dated his reign from the year B.C. 312, which is the era of the dynasty of the Seleukidæ. Seleukos Nikator had accompanied Alexander in his expedition into the Punjab; and he appears to have been ambitious to carry out the designs of his great commander. Like him he conquered Bactria; and then he turned towards the south and east, and appeared on the bank of the Indus. But he found himself confronted by a far superior enemy to the one whom Alexander had encountered. There was no longer a dismembered empire to be subdued in detail. Sandrokottos had already consolidated his imperial authority over the Punjab and Hindustan; and was apparently enabled to concentrate such an overwhelming force on his north-west frontier that Seleukos deemed it expedient to cultivate his friendship, rather than assail him as an enemy. A treaty was accordingly concluded between the Greek sovereign and the Hindú Raja. Sandrokottos supplied his Greek neighbour with a force of five hundred elephants. In return Seleukos ceded the mountain territory westward of the Indus; and also gave one of his own daughters to be the bride of his Indian ally. This alliance was strengthened by the residence of a Greek ambassador named Megasthenes at the court of Sandrokottos; and it will hereafter appear that the most authentic information respecting the condition and civilization of the Gangetic valley at this period is supplied by Megasthenes.39 "Strabo, India, sects. 36, 53, 57; Ariana, sect. 9. The Greek and Hindú CHAPTER IV. The marriage of a Hindú Raja to a Greek Marriage of the princess is an unexpected event in the history of Greek princess. India. In the Punjab it would perhaps have been Hindu Raja to a Hindú civiliza tion described by Megas dence. 40 less remarkable, because of the general absence of caste ideas. But in the Gangetic valley caste institutions had been maintained from time immemorial; and Megasthenes, who resided for a considerable period at Patali-putra, bears direct testimony to the fact that in the kingdom of Sandrokottos no one was allowed to marry out of his caste or hereditary profession. There is reason, however, to believe that Sandrokottos was a convert to Buddhism, and consequently not unwilling to prove to his Hindú subjects that he had thrown off the trammels of caste. But under any circumstances such a marriage must have created a profound impression amongst a people so conservative as the Hindús. It will be seen hereafter that traces of this marriage between Sandrokottos and a Greek princess lingered for many centuries in both Brahmanical and Buddhist tradition; and the event ultimately gave rise to a controversy, which must have caused considerable agitation in the old Hindú world, as to whether the son of a Raja by a Sudrá queen could rightly inherit the throne. The pictures of old Hindú civilization which are thenes authen- presented by Megasthenes possess a value which ticity of his evi- has scarcely been sufciently appreciated. They are drawn from real life, and generally from what the ambassador himself saw; and though they are confined to the surface of society, they are of the authorities respecting Sandrokottos are reprinted in Wilson's Hindú Theatre, vol. ii. Preface to the Mudrá Rákshasa, 40 Megasthenes in Strabo, India, sect. 49. highest importance as the authentic observations of CHAPTER IV. a Greek political officer, elaborately drawn up at a period when such literary labour probably formed his chief amusement and occupation amidst the dreary monotony of an Asiatic court with its miserable intrigues and tedious ceremonial."! Above all, Megasthenes, like Herodotus, was evidently anxious to furnish correct information. Those of his statements which were based upon mere hearsay evidence, may sometimes prove to be fabulous; but for this the Greek ambassador cannot be held entirely responsible. Asiatics will exaggerate. Their inagination is boundless, and only equalled by their ignorance and credulity. No doubt they told stories, with the utmost gravity and child-like faith, of ants as big as foxes digging for gold, of men strong enough to pull up trees, of people with ears hanging down to their feet, and of other strange monstrosities.42 Megasthenes believed these stories, The position of the Greek ambassadors or residents at Patali-putra, seems to have strongly resembled that of the political agents of the British government at the court of Mandalay, the capital of the kingdom of upper Burma. The author was especially struck with this analogy during a visit to the political agent at Mandalay in 1870. Strabo is unduly severe upon Megasthenes, and denounces him as a fabulist (Introd. sect. 9). Yet it is easy for any one conversant with India to point out the origin of many of the so-called fables. The ants are not as big as foxes, but they are very extraordinary excavators. The stories of men pulling up trees, and using them as clubs, are common enough in the Mahá Bhárata, especially in the legends of the exploits of Bhima. Men do not have ears hanging down to their feet, but both men and women will occasionally elongate their ears after a very extraordinary fashion by thrusting articles through the lobe. Other stories have been discredited, which are based upon actual fact. Megasthenes describes serpents with membranous wings like bats, whose moisture will putrefy the skin; but these are nothing more than the common house lizards, and certainly their moisture will cause acute inflammation. Again, Megasthenes describes a river named Silas, in the Himalayas, on which nothing will float; and here he has been obviously misled by some legend of Kailasa, the mountain heaven of Siva or Mahadeva. If there was one story more than another which excited the wrath of Strabo, CHAPTER IV. and naturally repeated them; and it may be added that similar stories were related by Sir John Mandeville, and implicitly believed by our forefathers. But when Megasthenes tells us of what he saw, his statements may be accepted as authentic and reliable; although they are susceptible of further explanation by the light of the larger experience which is available in the present day. Of Megasthenes himself little is known beyond the fact that he was a Greek ambassador, and apparently the first of his countrymen who had reached Ancient capital the banks of the Ganges, and entered the greatand hear the modern remote city of Patali-putra. He must have noted, of Patali-putra, Patna. though he does not say so, the quaint shipping in the river, which no doubt kept up a communication through the greater part of the empire, from the neighbourhood of the Punjab to the Bay of Bengal. He certainly observed with a military eye the great wooden wall or palisade which surrounded the city; and he mentions that it was pierced with holes through which the archers could discharge their arrows against a besieging force. Outside this wall was a ditch which ran round the city, and probably communicated with the river; and which served both as a means of defence and a common sewer. He was impressed with the immense size of the city. Patali-putra was a vast metropolis in the shape of a parallelogram, extending ten miles along the bank of the river, and two miles into the interior. There it was that of a people whose ears hung down to their feet. Yet the story is still current in Hindustan. Baboo Johurree Dass says:-"An old woman once told me that her husband, a sepoy in the British army, had seen a people who slept on one ear and covered themselves with the other." (Domestic Manners and Customs of the Hindús. Benares, 1860.) The story may be referred to the Himalayas. Fitch, who travelled in India about 1585, says that a people in Bootan had ears a span long. the exiled Greek gazed upon the dreamy oriental CHAPTER IV. life which still meets the eye in a Hindú or Burmese capital. The stately elephants, with richly ornamented howdahs moving slowly but majestically along; chariots and horsemen followed by numerous retinues; crowded bazaars, with their endless variety of shops, and industrious artisans of every class; the soldiers with their bows and arrows, their swords, bucklers, and javelins; the shameless Yogis and arrogant Bráhmans. Megasthenes also describes a festival procession such as may still be occasionally seen in eastern cities. An array of elephants with furniture and trappings of gold and silver; numerous chariots drawn by four horses, or by several pairs of oxen; large bodies of attendants, handsomely attired, bearing huge vessels or goblets of gold and silver, as well as tables, state chairs, drinking cups, and bowls of Indian copper, richly set with emeralds, beryls, Indian carbuncles, and other precious stones; whilst the whole procession was invested with a sensational character from being associated with wild beasts, such as hump-backed oxen, panthers, tame lions, and a multitude of birds of variegated plumage and fine song." Megasthenes furnishes a picture of the royal Royal palace palace at Patali-putra, which seems to have been more of a Tartar than an Aryan type. It was a splendid building occupied only by the Raja and his women; for even the body guard was stationed 43 Megasthenes in Strabo's India, sects. 36, 69. tions for the installation of Ráma as Yuvaraja. chap. 8. 43 Compare also the prepara- A similar procession was to be seen at Rangoon in 1871, when the famous Shwé-Dagon pagoda was crowned with the gold Htee, or royal umbrella, excepting that on the latter occasion there were no wild beasts. and zenana. |