# Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian/Cap. XV.

​XV. But the tiger the Indians regard as a much more powerful animal than the elephant. Nearchos tells us that he had seen the skin of a tiger, though the tiger itself he had not seen. The Indians, however, informed him that the tiger equals in size the largest horse, but that for swiftness and strength no other animal can be compared with it: for that the tiger, when it encounters the elephant, leaps up upon the head of the elephant and strangles it with ease; but that those animals which we ourselves see and call tigers are but jackals with spotted skins and larger than other jackals. In the same way with regard to ants also, Nearchos says that he had not himself seen a specimen of the sort which other writers declared to exist in India, though he had seen many skins of them which had been brought into the Makedonian camp. But Megasthenês avers that the tradition about the ants is strictly true,—that they are gold-diggers, not for the sake of the gold itself, but because by instinct they burrow holes in the earth to lie in, just as the tiny ants of our own country dig little holes for themselves, only those in India being larger than foxes make their burrows proportionately larger. But the ground is impregnated with gold, and the Indians thence obtain their gold. Now Megasthenês writes what he had heard from hearsay, and as I have no ex​acter information to give I willingly dismiss the subject of the ant. But about parrots Nearchos writes as if they were a new curiosity, and tells us that they are indigenous to India, and what-like they are, and that they speak with a human voice; but since I have myself seen many parrots, and know others who are acquainted with the bird, I will say nothing about it as if it were still unfamiliar. Nor will I say aught of the apes, either touching their size, or the beauty which distinguishes them in India, or the mode in which they are hunted, for I should only be stating what is well known, except perhaps the fact that they are beautiful. Regarding snakes, too, Nearchos tells us that they are caught in the country, being spotted, and nimble in their movements, and that one which Peitho the son of Antigenês caught measured about sixteen cubits, though the Indians allege that the largest snakes are much larger. But no cure of the bite of the Indian snake has been found out by any of the Greek physicians, though the Indians, it is certain, can cure those who have been bitten. And Nearchos adds this, that Alexander had all the most skilful of the Indians in the healing art collected around him, and had caused proclamation to be made throughout the camp that if ​any one were bitten he should repair to the royal tent; but these very same men were able to cure other diseases and pains also. With many bodily pains, however, the Indians are not afflicted, because in their country the seasons are genial. In the case of an attack of severe pain they consult the sophists, and these seemed to cure whatever diseases could be cured not without divine help.
XVI. The dress worn by the Indians is made of cotton, as Nearchos tells us,—cotton produced from those trees of which mention has already been made. But this cotton is either of a brighter white colour than any cotton found elsewhere, or the darkness of the Indian complexion makes their apparel look so much the whiter. They wear an under-garment of cotton which reaches below the knee halfway down to the ankles, and also an upper garment which they throw partly over their shoulders, and partly twist in folds round their head. The Indians wear ​ also earrings of ivory, but only such of them do this as are very wealthy, for all Indians do not wear them. Their beards, Nearchos tells us, they dye of one hue and another, according to taste. Some dye their white beards to make them look as white as possible, but others dye them blue; while some again prefer a red tint, some a purple, and others a rank green. Such Indians, he also says, as are thought anything of, use parasols as a screen from the heat. They wear shoes made of white leather, and these are elaborately trimmed, while the soles are variegated, and made of great thickness, to make the wearer seem so much the taller.
I proceed now to describe the mode in which the Indians equip themselves for war, premising that it is not to be regarded as the only one in vogue. The foot-soldiers carry a bow made of equal length with the man who bears it. This they rest upon the ground, and pressing against it with their left foot thus discharge the arrow, having drawn the string far backwards: for the shaft they use is little short of being three ​yards long, and there is nothing which can resist an Indian archer's shot,—neither shield nor breastplate, nor any stronger defence if such there be. In their left hand they carry bucklers made of undressed ox-hide, which are not so broad as those who carry them, but are about as long. Some are equipped with javelins instead of bows, but all wear a sword, which is broad in the blade, but not longer than three cubits; and this, when they engage in close fight (which they do with reluctance), they wield with both hands, to fetch down a lustier blow. The horsemen are equipped with two lances like the lances called saunia, and with a shorter buckler than that carried by the foot-soldiers. But they do not put saddles on their horses, nor do they curb them with bits like the bits in use among the Greeks or the Kelts, but they fit on round the extremity of the horse's mouth a circular piece of stitched raw ox-hide studded with pricks of iron or brass pointing inwards, but not very sharp: if a man is rich he uses pricks made of ivory. Within the horse's mouth is put an iron prong like a skewer, to which the reins are attached. When the rider, then, pulls the reins, the prong controls the horse, and the pricks which are attached to this prong goad the mouth, so that it cannot but obey the reins.
* ↑ Leopards are meant.
* ↑ See notes to pp. 94 and 96.
* ↑ Quis expedivit psittaco suum XAIRE.—Persius, Prol. to Sat. 1. 8.
* ↑ This is, unfortunately, one of the lost arts.
* ↑ That is, by the use of charms: see Strabo XV. i. 45.
* ↑ A slip on the part of Arrian, as no previous mention has been made of the cotton-tree.
* ↑ "The valuable properties of the cotton-wool produced from the cotton-shrub (Gossypium herbaceum) were early discovered. And we read in Rig-veda hymns of 'Day and Night' like 'two famous female weavers' intertwining the extended thread. . . . . . .Cotton in its manufactured state was new to the Greeks who accompanied Alexander the Great to India. They describe Hindus as clothed in garments made from wool which grows on trees. One cloth, they say, reaches to the middle of the leg, whilst another is folded round the shoulders. Hindus still dress in the fashion thus described, which is also alluded to in old Sanskrit literature. In the frescoes on the caves of Ajanta this costume is carefully represented . . . . The cloth which Nearchus speaks of as reaching to the middle of the leg is the Dhotî. It is from ⁠2+1/2⁠ to ⁠3+1/2⁠ yards long by 2 to 3 feet broad. . . . . . .It is a costume much resembling that of a Greek statue, and the only change observable within 3,000 years is, that the Dhotî may now be somewhat broader and longer."-Mrs. Manning's Ancient and Medieval India, vol. II. pp. 356-8.
* ↑ Perhaps some of these colours were but transition shades assumed by the dye before settling to its final hue. The readers of Warren's Ten Thousand a Year will remember the plight of the hero of the tale when having dyed his hair he found it, chameleon-like, changing from hue to hue. This custom is mentioned also by Strabo.