best be described as the inhabitants of Lower Bengal. The likeness of
their name to that of the Gandaridai, the people of Gandhâra, whose seats
were in the neighbourhood of the Indus and the Kôphên or Kâbul river,
has been the source of much confusion and error. Fortunately the notice
of them in the _Indika_ of Megasthenes has been preserved both by Pliny
and Solinus, from whom we learn that they were a branch of the great race
of the Calingae, that their capital was Parthalis (Bardwan?), and that
their king had an army of 60,000 foot, 1000 horse, and 700 elephants,
which was always ready for action (Pliny, vi. 18; Solin. 52). They are
mentioned in Ptolemy’s _Geography_ as a people who dwelt about the mouth
of the Ganges and whose capital was Gangê. The name of the _Gangaridai_
has nothing corresponding with it in Sanskrit, nor can it be, as Lassen
supposed, a designation first invented by the Greeks, for Phegelas used
it in describing to Alexander the races that occupied the regions beyond
the Hyphasis. According to Saint-Martin, their name is preserved in
that of the Gonghrîs of S. Bihâr, with whom were connected the Gangayîs
of North-Western and the Gangrâr of Eastern Bengal. These designations
he takes to be but variations of the name which was originally common
to them all. Wilford, in his article on the chronology of the Hindus
(_Asiat. Res._ v. p. 269), says that “the greatest part of Bengal was
known in Sanskrit under the name of Gancaradesa, or ‘country of Gancara,’
from which the Greeks made Gangari-das.” But this view must be rejected
on the same ground as Lassen’s. The Gangaridai are mentioned by Virgil,
_Georg._ iii. l. 27. As their king, at the time when Megasthenes recorded
the strength of the army which he maintained, was subject to Magadha, we
may infer that Sandrokottos treated the various potentates who submitted
to his arms as Alexander treated Taxilês and Pôros, permitting them to
retain as his vassals the power and dignity which they had previously
enjoyed.
NOTE D_D_.—THE PRASIOI
The Sanskrit word _Prâchyâs_ (plur. of _Prachya_, “eastern”) denoted
the inhabitants of the east country, that is, the country which lay to
the east of the river Sarasvatî, now the Sursooty, which flows in a
south-western direction from the mountains bounding the north-east part
of the province of Delhi till it loses itself in the sands of the great
desert. The Magadhas, it would seem, had, before Alexander’s advent
to India, extended their power as far as this river, and hence were
called Prâchyâs by the people who lived to the west of it. They are
called by Strabo, Arrian, and Pliny, _Prasioi_, _Prasii_; by Plutarch,
_Praisioi_; by Nikolaös Damask., _Praiisioi_; by Diodôros, _Brêsioi_; by
Curtius, _Pharrasii_; by Justin, _Praesides_. Ailianos in general writes
_Praisioi_ like Plutarch, but in one passage where he quotes Megasthenes,
he transcribes the name with perfect accuracy in the adjective form as
_Praxiakê_. General Cunningham does not agree in referring the name to
_Prâchya_, as all the other modern writers do, but takes _Prasii_ to be
only the Greek form of _Palâsiya_ or _Parâsiya_, a “man of _Palâsa_ or
_Parâsa_,” a name of _Magadha_ of which Palibothra was the capital. This
derivation, he says, is supported by the spelling of the name given by
Curtius, who calls the people _Pharrasii_, an almost exact transcript
of Parâsiya (see his _Ancient Geog. of India_, p. 454). His view, we
think, is hardly destined to supplant the other. Ptolemy describes in
his _Geography_ a small kingdom with seven cities which he locates in
the regions of the upper Ganges, and calls Prasiakê. Kanoge is one of
these cities, but Palibothra is not in the number, appearing elsewhere
as the capital of the Mandalai. One is at a loss to understand what
considerations could have led Ptolemy to push the Prasians so far from
their proper seats and transfer their capital to another people.
NOTE E_E_.—THE SIBI
The Sanskrit word _Śivi_ denotes a country, the inhabitants of which,
_Sivayas_, may be the Sibi of Curtius and Diodôros. The Sibi inhabited a
district between the Hydaspês and the Indus, and their capital stood at
a distance of about thirty miles from the former river, and, as appears
from Diodôros, above its confluence with the Akesinês. As they were clad
with the skins of wild beasts and were armed with clubs, they reminded
the Greeks of Herakles, who was similarly dressed and armed, and thence
arose the legend that the Sibi were the descendants of the followers of
that wandering hero. The truth, however, is that the Sibi represent one
of the chief aboriginal tribes of the regions of the Indus. The Sanskrit
poems and the Pauranik traditions give this great tribe its real name
_Śibi_, and represent it as one of the important branches of the race
which originally peopled all the north-western region. According to
Moorcroft, the inhabitants of the district of Bimber are called Chibs,
while Baber in his _Memoirs_ had mentioned a people so named as belonging
to the same parts. Arrian does not expressly mention Alexander’s
expedition against the Sibi in his _History_, but in his _Indika_ (c. 5)
he thus refers to them: “So also when the Greeks came among the _Sibai_,
an Indian tribe, and observed 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 their oxen the representation
of a club.” In the ordinary texts of Curtius the _Sibi_ appears as
the _Sobii_, and in Justin as the _Silei_. They are mentioned in the
_History_ of Orosius (iii. 19), along with a people called Gessonae, who
are evidently the people called by Diodôros the _Agalassi_.
NOTE F_F_.—THE AGALASSIANS
Curtius does not give the name of the people whom Alexander proceeded
to attack after he had received the submission of the Sibi, but it is
supplied by Diodôros, who calls them Agalasseis. Saint-Martin says
(_Étude_, p. 115) that they adjoined the eastern side of the Sibi and
occupied the country below the junction of the Hydaspês and Akesinês.
Though _Agalassi_ is the most commonly received reading of their name,
yet there are many variant readings of it, especially in the manuscripts
and editions of Justin, where we find _Agesinae_, _Hiacensanae_,
_Argesinae_, _Agini_, _Acensoni_, and _Gessonae_. The last form occurs
also in the _History_ of Orosius (iii. 19), where the people it
designates are mentioned along with the Sibi. The original name to which
these may be referred is probably _Arjunâyana_. This name occurs between
that of the Mâlava (Malloi) and that of the Yaudheyas on the Pillar at
Allahabad, whereon Samudragupta, who reigned towards the end of the 4th
century A.D., inscribed the names of the countries and peoples included
in his dominions. The Arjunâyana are mentioned also by the Scholiast of
Pânini, and in the geographical list which Wilford compiled from the
_Varâha Sanhita_. Arrian in his _Indika_ (c. 4) calls the people situated
at the junction of the Hydaspês and Akesinês the _Arispai_ (_Ibid._ p.
116, and footnotes).
NOTE G_G_.—TIDES IN INDIAN RIVERS
Several Indian rivers present the tidal phenomenon called the _bore_, the
most celebrated being those of the Brahmaputra, the Ganges, the Nerbada,
and the Indus. The bore is sometimes many feet in height, and the noise
it makes in contending against the descending stream frightful. The bore
which rushes up the Hughli has a speed of about seventeen or eighteen
miles per hour. A vivid description of the tide or bore of the Nerbada
has been given by the author of the _Periplûs_. “India,” he says (c. 45),
“has everywhere an abundance of rivers, and her seas ebb and flow with
tides of extraordinary strength, which increase both at new and full
moon, and for three days after each, but fall off intermediately. About
Barygaza (Bharoch) they are more violent than elsewhere; so that all of a
sudden you see the depths laid bare and portions of the land turned into
sea, and the sea where ships were sailing but just before turned without
warning into dry land. The rivers, again, on the access of flood-tide
rushing into their channels with the whole body of the sea, are driven
upwards against their natural course for a great many miles with a force
that is irresistible.” In c. 46, after explaining how dangerous these
tides are to ships navigating the Nerbada, he thus proceeds: “But at new
moons, especially when they occur in conjunction with a night tide, the
flood sets in with such extraordinary violence that on its beginning to
advance, even though the sea be calm, its roar is heard by those living
near the river’s mouth, sounding like the tumult of battle heard in the
distance, and soon after the sea with its hissing waves bursts over the
bare shoals.”
NOTE H_H_.—INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS
Arrian has given the account here promised of the Indian sages, whom he
calls _Sophists_, in the eleventh chapter of his _Indika_. They formed
the highest and most honoured of the seven castes into which, he says,
Indian society was divided. His account is, however, very meagre compared
with that which Strabo, quoting from the same authority, Megasthenes, has
given in the fifteenth book of his _Geography_. We may subjoin a notice
of the more important points. The philosophers were of two kinds, the
Brachmânes and the Garmanes (Śramanas, i. e. _Buddhist ascetics_). The
Brachmans were held in greater repute, as they agreed more exactly in
their opinions. They lived in a grove outside the city, lay upon pallets
of straw and on skins, abstained from animal food and sexual intercourse.
After living thirty-seven years in this manner each individual retired
to his own possessions, led a life of greater freedom, and married as
many wives as he pleased. They discoursed much upon death, which they
held to be for philosophers a birth into a real and happy life. They
maintained that nothing which happens to a man is bad or good, opinions
being merely dreams. On many points their notions coincided with those
of the Greeks. They said, for instance, that the world was created and
liable to destruction, that it was of a spheroidal figure, and that
its Creator governed it and was diffused through all its parts. They
invented fables also, after the manner of Plato, on the immortality of
the soul, punishments in Hades, and similar topics. Of the Śramanas the
most honourable were the Hylobioi. These, as their name imports, lived in
woods, where they subsisted on leaves and wild fruits. They were clothed
with garments made of the bark of trees, and abstained from commerce
with women and from wine. The kings held communication with them by
messengers, and through them worshipped the divinity. Next in honour to
the Hylobioi were the physicians, who cured diseases by diet rather than
by medicinal remedies, which were chiefly unguents and cataplasms. See
XV. i. 58-60.
Arrian, in the opening chapters of the seventh book of his _Anabasis_,
gives an account of Alexander’s dealings with the Gymnosophists of Taxila
which agrees in substance with that given by Strabo (XV. i. 61-65) based
on the authority both of Aristoboulos and Onesikritos, the latter of whom
was sent by Alexander to converse with the gymnosophists. For the details
see Biog. Appendix, _s.v._ Kalânos.
NOTE I_I_.—SUTTEE (Diod. Note 12).
But Diodôros, in a subsequent part of his history (xix. 33), relates that
the law had been enacted because of the great prevalence of the practice
of wives poisoning their husbands. In c. 34 he states that the two widows
of Kêteus, an Indian general who fell in the great battle in Gabienê
between Eumenes and Antigonos, contended for the honour of being burned
on the funeral pile of their husband, and that the younger was selected
for the distinction, because the elder, being at the time with child,
was precluded by law from immolating herself. Strabo says (XV. i. 62)
that Aristoboulos and other writers make mention of Indian wives burning
themselves voluntarily with their husbands.
From this it would appear that this cruel practice, known as _Suttee_
(Sansk. _satî_, “a devoted wife”), which was suppressed by the humanity
of the Indian Government in the days of Lord Bentinck, was one of
high antiquity, but Mr. R. C. Dutt, in his able and learned work on
_Civilisation in Ancient India_, assigns a much later date to its origin.
He says (vol. iii. 199) that the barbarous rite was introduced centuries
after Manu, whose _Institutes_, he thinks, were compiled within a century
or two before or after the Christian aera. In a subsequent passage (p.
332) he states that Suttee was originally a Scythian custom, and was
probably introduced into India by the Scythian invaders who poured into
India in the Buddhist age (from 242 B.C. to 500 A.D.), and formed ruling
Hindu races later on. There can be no doubt that Suttee was a Scythian
practice. Their kings were entombed with sacrifices both of beasts and of
human beings of both sexes, as we see from what Herodôtos relates in the
seventy-first chapter of his fourth book. Still the statement of Diodôros
shows that several centuries before the Skythian invasions of India took
place Suttee was an established institution among a race of the purest
Aryan descent such as were the Kathaians—a people whose name shows
they were Kshatriyas. The Hindus themselves believe that the custom
was of the very highest antiquity, and that a text of the _Rig-veda_
sanctioned its observance. It has been discovered, however, that the text
in question has been falsified and mistranslated, and that in point of
fact no mention is found of the custom in Sanskrit literature till the
Pauranik period, the beginning of which Mr. Dutt assigns to the sixth
century of our aera.
NOTE K_K_.—ANCIENT INDIAN COINS
[Illustration: FIG. 16.—ANTIMACHOS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 17.—AGATHOKLÈS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 18.—HELIOKLÊS.]
The following remarks on the ancient coinage of India are extracted from
two papers contributed by Mr. W. Theobald to the _Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal_, Nos. III. and IV. of 1890, under the title _Notes on
some of the Symbols found on the Punch-marked Coins of Hindustan_:—“The
punch-marked coins,” he says, “though presenting neither kings’ names,
dates, nor inscriptions of any sort, are nevertheless very interesting
not only from their being the earliest money coined in India, and of a
purely indigenous character, but from their being stamped with a number
of symbols, some of which we can with the utmost confidence declare to
have originated in distant lands and in the remotest antiquity. The
punch used to produce these coins differed from the ordinary dies which
subsequently came into use in that they covered only one of the many
symbols usually seen on their pieces. Some of these coins were round and
others of a rectangular form. The great bulk of these coins is silver
(but some copper, and others gold). Some coins are formed of a copper
blank thickly covered with silver before receiving the impression of the
punches, and this contemporary sophistication of the currency is found to
occur subsequently in various Indian coinages, in the Graeco-Bactrian of
the Panjâb, the Hindu kings of Cabul, etc.” Mr. Theobald thinks we may
regard these pieces as a portion of those very coins (or identical in all
respects) which the Brahman Chânakya, the adviser of Chandragupta, with
the view of raising resources, converted, by recoining each _Kahapana_
into eight, and amassed eighty kotis of _Kahapanas_ (or Kârshâpanas).
Mr. Theobald holds that the square coins, both silver and copper, struck
by the Greeks for their Indian possessions belong to no Greek national
type whatever, but are obviously a novelty adopted in imitation of an
indigenous currency already firmly established in the country. He adduces
by way of proof the testimony of Curtius, where he states that Taxiles
offered Alexander eighty talents of coined silver (_signati argenti_).
What other, he asks, except these punch-marked coins could these pieces
of coined silver have been? The name, he then adds, by which these coins
are spoken of in the Buddhist _Sutras_ about 200 B.C. was “purana” =
_old_, whence General Cunningham argues that the word _old_, as applied
to the indigenous _Karsha_, was used to distinguish it from the new and
more recent issues of the Greeks. Mr. Vincent A. Smith writes to the
same effect. He considers the artistic coins to be of Greek origin, but
holds that the idea of coining money, and the simple mechanical processes
for rude coins, were not borrowed from the Greeks. It is, he thinks,
impossible to prove that any given piece is older than Alexander, though
some primitive coins may be older. The oldest Indian coins to which a
date can be assigned are, in his opinion, those issued by Sôphytes, the
contemporary of Alexander. The general adoption of Greek, or Graeko-Roman
types of coinage, he assigns to the first century as a result of the
Indo-Skythian invasions. Roman coins, it is well known, are found in
all parts of India. In Indian writings the Roman _dênârius_ appears in
the form _dînâra_, and the Greek _drachmê_ (which was about equivalent
in value to the _denarius_) in the form _dramma_. The subject of the
Indo-Greek coinage is discussed in A. v. Sallet’s _Die Nachfolger
Alexanders_.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.—APOLLODOTOS.]
NOTE L_L_.—AN AŚÔKA INSCRIPTION
_Transliteration._— ...... yu Ichha shavabhu .... shayama
shamachaliyaṁ madava ti. Iyaṁ vu mu ...
Devânaṁ Piyeshâ ye dhaṁmavijaye she cha punâ ladhe Devânaṁ Pi
... cha
shaveshu cha ateshu a shashu pi yojanashateshu ata Atiyoge nâma
Yona lâjâ palaṁ châ tenâ
Aṁtiyogenâ chatâli 4 lajâne Tulamaye nâma Aṁtekine nâma Makâ nâ
ma Alikyashudale nâma, nichaṁ Choḍa-Paṁḍiyâ avam Taṁbapaṁniyâ
hevameva hevamevâ
Hidâlâjâ. Viśa-Vaji-Yona-Kaṁbijeshu Nâbhake Nabhapaṁtishu
Boja-Pitinikyeshu
Adha-Puladeshu shavatâ Devânaṁ Piyashâ dhaṁṁamânushathi
anuvataṁti.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.—AŚÔKA INSCRIPTION.]
_Translation._—The following is considered of the highest
importance by the God-beloved, namely Conquest by law; this
Conquest, however, is made by the God-beloved as well here (_in
his own kingdom_) as among all his neighbours, even as far as
six hundred yojanas (_leagues_), where the King of the Yonas
(_Greeks_), Antiyoka by name, dwells; and beyond this Antiyoka
where the four kings, Turamaya by name, Aṁtikina by name,
Maka by name, Alikasudara by name (dwell farther away) in the
south, where the Chodas and Paindas (_Pandyas_) (dwell), as
far as Tambapanini (_Ceylon_) (where) the Hida king (dwells).
Among the Viśas, the Vajris (_Vrijis_), the Yonas (_Greeks_),
the Kamboyas (_Kâbulîs_), in Nâbhaka of the Nâbhitis, among
the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Puladas
(_Pulindas_), the teaching of the law of the God-beloved is
universally followed.
This remarkable edict is found inscribed at four different places:
Shahbâzgarhi in Yusufzai, Mânsahra in Hazâra of the Panjâb, Kâlsi above
Dehra Dûn, and Girnâr in Kathiawâr. In the first two places the character
employed is the Karoshtri, that is, the Baktrian Pali, and in the other
two the Indian Pali. It is the Kâlsi inscription which is copied in the
illustration. By the God-beloved (Piyeshâ or Piyadasi) is meant Aśôka
himself. The Grecian kings named in the inscription have already been
identified (p. 52), with the exception of Alikyashudale, who is taken
to be Alexander, King of Epeiros. _v._ Senart’s _Les Inscriptions de
Piyadasi_ and _Epigraphia Indica_, vol. ii.
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
ABISARES is called by Arrian the King of the Indian Mountaineers, and
may perhaps be not improperly described as the King of Kâśmîr. His name
is derived from that of his kingdom, _Abhisâra_, which designated the
mountainous country to the east of the Indus now known as _Hazâra_, a
name in which some traces of the old seem to survive. After the fall
of Mazaga, he sent troops across the Indus to aid the inhabitants in
resisting Alexander. He sent embassies, however, to the conqueror both
before and after the defeat of Pôros, whom he inclined to succour.
Alexander allowed him to retain his kingdom, and when he died appointed
his son to succeed him, as we learn from Curtius X. i.
AGGRAMMES.—_See_ Xandrames.
ALKETAS was the brother of Perdikkas, who, after Alexander’s death,
assumed the regency of the empire. He was the son of Orontes, a
Macedonian of the province of Orestis. He is first mentioned by Arrian
as commander of one of the brigades which Alexander, towards the close
of his Baktrian campaigns, despatched under Krateros into the country of
the Paratakenians, who still held out against him. He is next mentioned
in connection with the siege of Mazaga and Ora. When Alexander crossed
the Hydaspês to encounter Pôros, Alketas remained behind in the camp
with Krateros. After Alexander’s death Alketas supported the cause of
his brother, and by his orders put to death Kynanê, the half-sister of
Alexander—a cruel act which his own troops resented. When Perdikkas was
murdered in Egypt (321 B.C.) Alketas was at the time with Eumenes engaged
against Krateros. He afterwards, however, joined his forces to those of
Attalos; but being defeated in Pisidia, he slew himself to avoid falling
into the hands of Antigonos.
AMBIGER, supposed to be a corrupt reading for Ambi-regis.—_See_ under
Sambus.
AMYNTAS, the son of Nikolaös, was appointed satrap of Baktria in
succession to Artabazos, who resigned the office on the ground of his
advanced age. When Alexander left Baktria to invade India he left Amyntas
in the province with a force of 10,000 foot and 3500 horse.
ANDROKOTTOS.—_See_ Sandrokottos.
ANDROSTHENES, a native of Thasos, sailed with Nearchos, and was
afterwards sent by Alexander to explore the Persian Gulf. He wrote an
account of this voyage, and a work describing a coasting voyage to India.
ANTIGENES, an officer who served both under Philip and Alexander. In
340 B.C. he lost an eye at the siege of Perinthos. He was present in
the battle with Pôros, and the divisions of the phalanx which he led on
this occasion formed afterwards part of the large body of troops which
Krateros led through the country of the Arachotians and Zarangians into
Karmania. After the army reached Sousa he was for some time deprived of
his command for having advanced some fraudulent claim. After Alexander’s
death he obtained the satrapy of Sousiana. In the wars between the
generals he sided with Eumenes, whom he aided with the Argyraspids under
his command. When Eumenes was defeated in 316 B.C. Antigenes fell into
the hands of his enemy, Antigonos, who ordered him to be burned to death.
ANTIGONOS, called the One-eyed, was a Macedonian of Elimiôtis, and one
of the generals of Alexander, but did not accompany him into India, as
he had been appointed satrap of Phrygia. In the partition of the empire
he received Phrygia, Lykia, and Pamphylia, and eventually made himself
master of the whole of Asia Minor. He was slain in the battle of Ipsos
301 B.C. He was the father of Dêmêtrios Poliorkêtês, who founded a line
of Macedonian kings.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.—ANTIGONOS GONATAS.]
ANTIGONOS GONATAS was one of the kings to whom Aśôka sent Buddhist
missionaries. He was the son of Dêmêtrios Poliorkêtês, whom he
succeeded as king of Macedonia in the year 283 B.C. His reign extended
to forty-four years. His brother Antigonos Dôsôn reigned afterwards
over Macedonia for nine years, from 229 to 220 B.C., in succession to
Dêmêtrios II. the son of Gonatas.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.—ANTIGONOS DÔSÔN.]
ANTIOCHOS II., surnamed Theos, succeeded to the throne of Syria on the
death of his father Antiochos I., who was the son of the famous Seleukos
Nikator. During many years of his reign he was engaged in intermittent
hostilities with Ptolemy Philadelphos the king of Egypt, who wrested
from him Phoenicia and Hollow Syria. His power was further weakened
by the revolt of Arsakês, who established the Parthian empire (in 250
B.C.), and by the subsequent revolt of Theodotos, who made Baktria an
independent kingdom. He was one of the kings of the West to whom Buddhist
missionaries were sent by the Indian king Aśôka. His wife Laodikê caused
him to be murdered in B.C. 246.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.—ANTIOCHOS II.]
ANTIPATER.—This officer, who had great experience in war and civil
affairs under Philip, was left regent of Macedonia when Alexander set out
on his Asiatic expedition. Olympias, jealous of his power, was constantly
engaged in intrigues against him, while she annoyed her son by filling
her letters to him with complaints against his deputy. After the murder
of Perdikkas in Egypt, Antipater succeeded him in the regency of the
empire, and this he held till his death in 320 B.C.
APHRIKES, called Eryx by Curtius, was the same whom Arrian designates the
_brother of Assakênos_, the king of Mazaga. He was put to death by his
own followers.