DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53502#0049
Introduction
41
boards of five appointed to command the forces of the
country would not to be a happy institution, as military
command must lie in the hands of a single person. Nor
does the A. ever refer to a plurality of commanders.
Megasthenes seems to have transferred the supposed
organization of the civil service to the military.
In some cases Megasthenes may have arbitrarily
assigned the institutions of other countries to India.
Thus his seven classes of the population may be an
imitation of the seven classes of the Egyptian people,
according to Herodotus, though the details differ. The
milestones may be a Persian institution. The philoso-
pher Plato in his idealistic work on the State may
have furnished or influenced some of the political
theories of Megasthenes. The sensational element is
represented by the winged serpents, one-horned hors-
es and long-lived elephants of Megasthenes, as also
by his assertions about the enormous size of the con-
tinent of India and the gigantic dimensions of the
ditch surrounding the capital of Pataliputra.
Megasthenes was unacquainted with the languages
and literature of India and his work, though earlier in
date, is far inferior in intrinsic value to the Itineraries
of the Chinese Pilgrims and to the great Arabian work
of Alberuni on India. It deserves to be noted,
therefore, that these compositions also contain several
interesting correspondences with the A. Thus the
incidental remarks of Hiuen Tsiang ( On Yuan
Chwang ) on the subjects of currency, caste, dues pay-
able at ferries, land tax and taxation in general, octroi
duties punishment, may be compared with the analo-
gous rules of the A. Even more striking analogies
than these may be traced in Alberuni’s great work
41
boards of five appointed to command the forces of the
country would not to be a happy institution, as military
command must lie in the hands of a single person. Nor
does the A. ever refer to a plurality of commanders.
Megasthenes seems to have transferred the supposed
organization of the civil service to the military.
In some cases Megasthenes may have arbitrarily
assigned the institutions of other countries to India.
Thus his seven classes of the population may be an
imitation of the seven classes of the Egyptian people,
according to Herodotus, though the details differ. The
milestones may be a Persian institution. The philoso-
pher Plato in his idealistic work on the State may
have furnished or influenced some of the political
theories of Megasthenes. The sensational element is
represented by the winged serpents, one-horned hors-
es and long-lived elephants of Megasthenes, as also
by his assertions about the enormous size of the con-
tinent of India and the gigantic dimensions of the
ditch surrounding the capital of Pataliputra.
Megasthenes was unacquainted with the languages
and literature of India and his work, though earlier in
date, is far inferior in intrinsic value to the Itineraries
of the Chinese Pilgrims and to the great Arabian work
of Alberuni on India. It deserves to be noted,
therefore, that these compositions also contain several
interesting correspondences with the A. Thus the
incidental remarks of Hiuen Tsiang ( On Yuan
Chwang ) on the subjects of currency, caste, dues pay-
able at ferries, land tax and taxation in general, octroi
duties punishment, may be compared with the analo-
gous rules of the A. Even more striking analogies
than these may be traced in Alberuni’s great work