But other things the Indians do which one cannot approve: for instance, that they eat always alone, and that they have no fixed hours when meals are to be taken by all in common, but each one eats when he feels inclined. The contrary custom would be better for the ends of social and civil life.
—Megasthenes, according to Strabo XV, i. 53-56, pp. 709-10.
The men who inhabit the Hindu-Kush have intercourse with the women in the open.
—Megasthenes, according to Strabo 15.1.56, also corroborated by Herodotus 3.101
The wives prostitute themselves unless they are compelled to be chaste.
—Megasthenes, according to Strabo 15.1.54
Zeus is said to have invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis all the gods except Eris (the goddess of discord). When she came later and was not admitted to the banquet, she threw an apple through the door, inscribed: To the Fairest One.
—Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 92 (The Judgement of Paris)
Indian women are of great modesty and cannot be seduced; they only yield themselves to men who gift them elephants; and the this is not regarded as a disgrace among the Indians, but rather it seems honourable for a woman to have her beauty valued at an elephant.
—Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri: Book VIII (Indica)
Nothing can stand against an arrow shot by an Indian archer, neither shield nor breastplate nor any strong armour.
—Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri: Book VIII (Indica)
Their horsemen have two javelins, like lances, and a small shield smaller than the infantry’s shields. The horses have no saddles, nor do they use Greek bits nor any like the Celtic bits. Instead, around the end of the horses’ mouths they have an untanned stitched rein fitted with fitted bronze or iron spikes (but somewhat blunted) on the inside. The rich people have ivory spikes. Within the mouth of the horses is a bit, like a spit, with reins attached at both ends. Then, when they tighten the reins, this bit controls the horse and the spikes attached to it prick the horse and force it to follow the rein.
—Megasthenes, according to Arrian’s Indica, 8.16
Alexander kept on sending others in succession; and last of all Meroes (Maurya) an Indian, because he ascertained that he was an old friend of Porus.
—Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri 5.18
Truth and virtue they hold alike in esteem. Hence they accord no special privileges to the old unless they possess superior wisdom.
—Megasthenes, according to Strabo XV, i. 53-56, pp. 709-10.
They are tall in stature, in fact the tallest in Asia, most of them being five cubits in height, or a little less. They are darker than other men, except the Ethiopians, and in war they are far the bravest of all the races of Asia.
—Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri 5.4
The Indians do not even use aliens as slaves, and much less a countryman of their own.
—Megasthenes, according to Arrian’s Indica, 10.
The philosophers’ services are employed privately by persons who wish to offer sacrifices or perform other sacred rites, and also publicly by the kings at what is called the Great Synod, wherein at the beginning of the new year all the philosophers are gathered together before the king at the gates, when any philosopher who may have committed any useful suggestion to writing, or observed any means for improving the crops and the cattle, or for promoting the public interests, declares it publicly.
—Megasthenes, according to Strabo XV, 1. 39-41, 46-49, pp. 703-4, 707.
Of the great officers of state, some have charge of the market, others of the city, others of the soldiers. Some superintend the rivers, measure the land, as is done in Egypt, and inspect the sluices by which water is let out from the main canals into their branches, so that everyone may have an equal supply of it.
The same persons have charge also of the huntsmen, and are entrusted with the power of rewarding or punishing them according to their deserts. They collect the taxes, and superintend the occupations connected with land, as those of the woodcutters, the carpenters, the blacksmiths, and the miners. They construct roads, and at every ten stadia set up a pillar to show the by-roads and distances.
—Megasthenes, according to Strabo XV, 1. 50-52, pp. 707-709.
Next to the city magistrates there is a third governing body, which directs military affairs. This also consists of six divisions, with five members to each.
One division is appointed to cooperate with the admiral of the fleet, another with the superintendent of the bullock-trains which are used for transporting engines of war, food for the soldiers, provender for the cattle, and other military requisites. They supply servants who beat the drum, and others who carry gongs; grooms also for the horses, and mechanists and their assistants.
The third division has charge of the foot-soldiers, the fourth of the horses, the fifth of the war-chariots, and the sixth of the elephants.
There are royal stables for the horses and elephants, and also a royal magazine for the arms, because the soldier has to return his arms to the magazine, and his horse and his elephant to the stables.
—Megasthenes, according to Strabo XV, 1. 50-52, pp. 707-709.
But of their cities it is said that the number is so great that it cannot be stated with precision, but that such cities as are situated on the banks of rivers or on the sea-coast are built of wood instead of brick, being meant to last only for a time, — so destructive are the heavy rains which pour down, and the rivers also when they overflow their banks and inundate the plains, — while those cities which stand on commanding situations and lofty eminences are built of brick and mud; that the greatest city in India is that which is called Palimbothra.
—Megasthenes, according to Arrian’s Indica, 10.
The greater part of the soil, moreover, is under irrigation, and consequently bears two crops in the course of the year … It is prolific, besides, in elephants, which are of monstrous bulk, as its soil supplies food in unsparing profusion, making these animals far to exceed in strength those that are bred in Libya …
The inhabitants, in like manner, having abundant means of subsistence, exceed in consequence the ordinary stature, and are distinguished by their proud bearing.
And while the soil bears on its surface all kinds of fruits which are known to cultivation, it has also underground numerous veins of all sorts of metals, for it contains much gold and silver, and copper and iron in no small quantity, and even tin and other metals, which are employed in making articles of use and ornament, as well as the implements and accoutrements of war.
—Megasthenes, according to Diodorus, 2.35—2.42.
Famine has never visited India, and there has never been a general scarcity in the supply of nourishing food. For:
there is a double rainfall in the course of each year; one in the winter season where the sowing of wheat takes place as in other countries, and the second at the time of the summer solstice, which is the proper season for sowing rice and bosporum and sesame and millet — the inhabitants of India almost always gather in two harvests annually, and even should one of the sowings prove more or less abortive they are always sure of the other crop
The fruits, moreover, of spontaneous growth, and the esculent roots which grow in marshy places and are of varied sweetness, afford abundant sustenance for man
But further, there are usages observed by the Indians which contribute to prevent the occurrence of famines among them: whereas among other nations it is usual, in the contests of war, to ravage the soil, and thus to reduce it to an uncultivated waste; among the Indians on the contrary, by whom husbandmen are regarded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging in their neighbourhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger, for the combatants on either side in waging the conflict make carnage of each other, but allow those engaged in husbandry to remain unmolested. Besides, they neither ravage the enemy’s land with fire, nor cut down its trees.
—Megasthenes, according to Diodorus, 2.35—2.42.
There are usages observed by the Indians which contribute to prevent the occurrence of famines among them: whereas among other nations it is usual, in the contests of war, to ravage the soil, and thus to reduce it to an uncultivated waste; among the Indians on the contrary, by whom husbandmen are regarded as a class that is sacred and inviolable, the tillers of the soil, even when battle is raging in their neighbourhood, are undisturbed by any sense of danger, for the combatants on either side in waging the conflict make carnage of each other, but allow those engaged in husbandry to remain unmolested. Besides, they neither ravage the enemy’s land with fire, nor cut down its trees.
—Megasthenes, according to Diodorus, 2.35—2.42.
