# Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian/Frag. XLI.

Fragm. XLI.
Strab. XV. 1. 58-60,—pp. 711-714.
Of the Indian Philosophers.
(Fragm. XXIX. has preceded this.)
(58) Speaking of the philosophers, he (Megasthenês) says that such of them as live on the mountains are worshippers of Dionysos, showing as proofs that he had come among them the wild vine, which grows in their country only, and the ivy, and the laurel, and the myrtle, and the box-tree, and other evergreens, none of which are found beyond the Euphrates, except a few in parks, which it requires great care to preserve. They observe also certain customs which are Bacchanalian. Thus they dress in muslin, wear the turban, use perfumes, array themselves in garments dyed of bright colours; and their kings, when they appear in public, are preceded by the music of drums and gongs. But the philosophers who live on the plains worship Hêrakles. [These accounts are fabulous, and are impugned by many writers, especially what is said about the vine and wine. For the greater part of Armenia, and the whole of Mesopotamia and Media, onwards to Persia and Karmania, lie beyond the ​Euphrates, and throughout a great part of each of these countries good vines grow, and good wine is produced.]
(59) Megasthenês makes a different division of the philosophers, saying that they are of two kinds—one of which he calls the Brachmanes, and the other the Sarmanes. The Brachmanes are best esteemed, for they are more consistent in their opinions. From the time of their conception in the womb they are under the guardian care of learned men, who go to the mother and, under the pretence of using some incantations for the welfare of herself and her unborn babe, in reality give her prudent hints and counsels. The women who listen most willingly are thought to be the most fortunate in their children. After their birth the children are under the care of one person after another, and as ​they advance in age each succeeding master is more accomplished than his predecessor. The philosophers have their abode in a grove in front of the city within a moderate-sized enclosure. They live in a simple style, and lie on beds of rushes or (deer) skins. They abstain from animal food and sexual pleasures, and spend their time in listening to serious discourse, and in imparting their knowledge to such as will listen to them. The hearer is not allowed to speak, or even to cough, and much less to spit, and if he offends in any of these ways he is cast out from their society that very day, as being a mail who is wanting in self-restraint. After living in this manner for seven-and-thirty years, each individual retires to his own property, where he lives for the rest of his days in ease and security. They then array themselves in fine muslin, and wear a few trinkets of gold on their fingers and in their ears. They eat flesh, but not that of animals employed in labour. They abstain from hot and highly seasoned food. They marry as many wives as they please, with a view to have ​numerous children, for by having many wives greater advantages are enjoyed, and, since they have no slaves, they have more need to have children around them to attend to their wants.
The Brachmanes do not communicate a knowledge of philosophy to their wives, lest they should divulge any of the forbidden mysteries to the profane if they became depraved, or lest they should desert them if they became good philosophers: for no one who despises pleasure and pain, as well as life and death, wishes to be in subjection to another, but this is characteristic both of a good man and of a good woman.
Death is with them a very frequent subject of discourse. They regard this life as, so to speak, the time when the child within the womb becomes mature, and death as a birth into a real and happy life for the votaries of philosophy. On this account they undergo much discipline as a preparation for death. They consider nothing that befalls men to be either good or bad, to suppose otherwise being a dream-like illusion, else how could some be affected with sorrow, and others with pleasure, by the very same things, and how could the same things affect the same individuals at different times with these opposite emotions?
Their ideas abont physical phenomena, the same author tells us, are very crude, for they are better in their actions than in their reasonings, inasmuch as their belief is in great measure ​based upon fables; yet on many points their opinions coincide with those of the Greeks, for like them they say that the world had a beginning, and is liable to destruction, and is in shape spherical, and that the Deity who made it, and who governs it, is diffused through all its parts. They hold that various first principles operate in the universe, and that water was the principle employed in the making of the world. In addition to the four elements there is a fifth agency, from which the heaven and the stars were produced. The earth is placed in the centre of the universe. Concerning generation, and the nature of the soul, and many other subjects, they express views like those maintained by the Greeks. They wrap up their doctrines about immortality and future judgment, and kindred topics, in allegories, after the manner of Plato. Such are his statements regarding the Brachmanes.
(60) Of the Sarmanes he tells us that ​those who are held in most honour are called the Hylobioi. They live in the woods, where they subsist on leaves of trees and wild fruits, and wear garments made from the bark of trees. They abstain from sexual intercourse and from wine. They communicate with the kings, who consult them by messengers regarding the causes of things, and who through them worship and supplicate the deity. Next in honour to the Hylobioi are the physicians, since they are engaged in the study of the nature of man. They are simple in their habits, but do not live in the fields. Their food consists of rice and barley-meal, which they can always get for the mere asking, or receive from those who entertain them as guests in their houses. By their knowledge of pharmacy they can make marriages fruitful, and determine the sex of the offspring. They effect cures rather by regulating diet than by the use of medicines. The remedies most esteemed are ointments and plasters. All others they consider to be in a great measure pernicious in their nature. This class and the other class practise fortitude, both by undergoing active toil, and by the endurance of pain, so that they remain for a whole day motionless in one fixed attitude. ​ Besides these there are diviners and sorcerers, and adepts in the rites and customs relating to the dead, who go about begging both in villages and towns.
Even such of them as are of superior culture and refinement inculcate such superstitions regarding Hades as they consider favourable to piety and holiness of life. Women pursue philosophy with some of them, but abstain from sexual intercourse.
* ↑ "Since the word Σαρμᾶνας (the form used by Clemens of Alexandria) corresponds to the letter with the Sanskṛit word Śramaṇa (i.e. an ascetic), it is evident that the forms Γαρμᾶνας and Γερμᾶνας, which are found in all the MSS. of Strabo, are incorrect. The mistake need not surprise us, since the ΣΑ when closely written together differ little in form from the syllable ΓΑ. In the same way Clement's Άλλόβιοι must be changed into Strabo's Υλόβιοι, corresponding with the Sanskṛit Vamapṛastha—'the man of the first three castes who, after the term of his householdership has expired, has entered the third âśrama or order, and has proceeded (praṡtha) to a life in the woods (Vâna).'"—Schwanbeck, p. 46; H. H. Wilson, Gloss. "It is a capital question," he adds, "who the Sarmanæ were, some considering them to be Buddhists, and others denying them to be such. Weighty arguments are adduced on both sides, but the opinion of those seems to approach nearer the truth who contend that they were Buddhists."
* ↑ "A mistake (of the Greek writers) originates in their ignorance of the fourfold division of a Brâhmaṇ's life. Thus they speak of men who had been for many years sophists marrying and returning to common life (alluding probably to a student who, having completed the austerities of the first period, becomes a householder):" Elphinstone's History of India, p. 236, where it is also remarked that the writers erroneously prolong the period during which students listen to their instructors in silence and respect, making it extend in all cases to thirty-seven, which is the greatest age to which Manu (chap. III. sec. 1) permits it in any case to be protracted.
* ↑ Âkâśa, 'the ether or sky.'
* ↑ Schwanbeck argaes from.the distinct separation here made between the Brachmanes and the Sarmanes, as well as from the name Śramaṇa being especially applied to Bauddha teachers, that the latter are here meant. They are called Σαμαναῖοι by Bardesanes (ap. Porphyr. Abstin. IV. 17) and Alex. Polyhistor. (ap. Cyrill. contra Julian. IV. p. 133 E, ed. Paris, 1638). Conf. also Hieronym. ad Jovinian. II. (ed. Paris, 1706, T. II. pt. ii. p. 206). And this is just the Pali name Sammana, the equivalent of the Sanskrit Śramaṇa. Bohlen in De Buddhaismi origine et œtate definiendis sustains this view, bnt Lassen (Rhein. Mus. für Phil. I. 171 ff.) contends that the description agrees better with the Brâhmṇn ascetics. See Schwanbeck, p. 45ff. and Lassen, Ind. Alterth. (2nd ed). II. 705, or (1st ed.) II. 700.
* ↑ See note page 98
* ↑ It is indeed," says the same authority, "a remarkable circumstance that the religion, of Buddha should never have been expressly noticed by the Greek authors, though it had existed for two centuries before Alexander. The only explanation is that the appearance and manners of its followers were not so peculiar as to enable a foreigner to distinguish them from the mass of the people."
* ↑ "The habits of the physicians," Elphinstone remarks, seem to correspond with those of Brâtunans of the fourth stage."