India as Seen by Megasthenes and Arrian (Part 1)
India’s ancient history is preserved in the Puranas and the great epics, but it is also witnessed by Megasthenes’ Indica (3rd century BCE), Arrian’s Indica (2nd century CE), and the edicts of Emperor Ashoka (3rd century BCE).
It is difficult to determine exactly when Manu’s Varna-Ashrama social order took shape, but the society that Megasthenes observed—and Arrian later described based on earlier accounts—was organized into seven occupational groups.
The first and smallest, yet most distinguished, consisted of Brahmins and Shramanas (ascetics and philosophers).
The second group comprised farmers, a humble class whose primary occupation was agriculture. They were exempt from military service so they could devote themselves entirely to cultivation.
The third group consisted of herdsmen and hunters, who led a nomadic life. They reared cattle and protected cultivated fields from wild animals, receiving grain in return for their services.
The fourth group was that of artisans and craftsmen, engaged in trade and manual work. They included blacksmiths, weapon-makers, shipbuilders, and numerous skilled craftsmen whose labour sustained the economy.
The fifth group comprised soldiers. They fought bravely during wars, but in peacetime they generally remained idle, their maintenance being entirely borne by the king. Whenever summoned, they simply reported for duty. The state supplied them with weapons, horses, and military equipment.
The sixth group consisted of overseers and inspectors, who supervised the functioning of the kingdom and reported directly to the king. Their role was to ensure that administration was carried out efficiently and honestly.
The seventh group included the king’s counsellors, revenue officers, judges, and senior administrators. These officials occupied the highest positions in government. They supervised markets, cities, and the military. Some regulated the use of river water for irrigation, while others measured agricultural land for taxation. They collected taxes, built roads, and erected distance markers every 2,000 yards (approximately one kos).
Urban administration was entrusted to six municipal boards, responsible for industries, hospitality for foreign visitors, registration of births and deaths, commerce, weights and measures, supervision of manufactured goods, and collection of a 10 percent sales tax. Tax evasion was punishable by death.
Municipal authorities also maintained public buildings, markets, ports, temples, and other civic infrastructure.
The military itself was divided into six departments, responsible respectively for defence, personnel, transport, supplies, cavalry, elephants, chariots, and weapons.
Hunters and those who captured and domesticated wild elephants appear to have occupied a relatively low social position, perhaps because of their semi-tribal way of life.
Marriage outside one’s own occupational community was prohibited, as was changing one’s profession. A person was not permitted to practise more than one occupation. Only philosophers—the Brahmins—were exempt from these restrictions.
Artisans enjoyed considerable respect. While many offences were punished by shaving the offender’s head, causing injury to the hands or eyes of a craftsman was considered a grave crime punishable by death.
Since sons naturally learned their fathers’ occupations from childhood, professions gradually became hereditary. Thus, occupational division evolved into a system of hereditary communities or castes, in which, apart from Brahmins, virtually no one was free to change his vocation.
Throughout India, different towns and regions were dominated by different tribal or community groups. It appears that some were indigenous communities, while others had settled from elsewhere and established local authority over time.
Thus, on one side stood the kingdom, with its organized settlements divided into seven occupational groups; on the other lived numerous forest and mountain tribes, distinguished by unusual physical and cultural characteristics.
Beyond the settled kingdoms, Megasthenes describes a number of remarkable tribes inhabiting the forests and mountains of India. Some of these observations may have been based on direct reports, while others clearly reflect the folklore and myths that circulated in the ancient world.
He writes that deep within the Himalayan caves and mountain huts lived a race of pygmies, barely 27 inches tall. Every spring they emerged carrying bows and arrows, riding on the backs of goats and sheep. Their annual task was to destroy the eggs and young of giant cranes, whose enormous size posed a constant threat to their survival. For nearly three months each year they carried out this campaign. Their huts, he says, were constructed from eggshells and the feathers of cranes.
According to his account, the average human lifespan in India was about forty years. Yet he also mentions a mountain tribe called the Pandorae, whose members were believed to live as long as two hundred years. Curiously, they were said to be born with white hair, which gradually turned black as they grew old.
Another tribe, called the Mandi, was reported to mature extraordinarily early. Girls were said to bear children from the age of seven and become old by forty.
Megasthenes also refers to tribes with dog-like faces who communicated by barking, others whose heels pointed forward and toes backward with eight toes on each foot, and still others who possessed no noses but only two breathing holes. One tribe, he claims, survived merely by smelling fragrant fruits rather than eating food. These last descriptions almost certainly originated from mythical traditions rather than actual observation.
He further records that in the eastern Himalayan region, over a stretch of nearly 3,000 stadia, lived a people called the Derdai, who collected gold dust from the soil excavated by giant ants said to be the size of foxes. This extraordinary tale later fascinated Greek and Roman writers for centuries.
The Philosophers: Brahmins and Shramanas
Among the seven social groups, the philosophers occupied the highest and most respected position. They were divided primarily into Brahmins and Shramanas, a distinction later confirmed by Emperor Ashoka’s inscriptions, which repeatedly speak of honouring both communities.
The education of a Brahmin child began even before birth. As soon as conception occurred, learned men instructed the expectant mother in proper conduct and sacred knowledge, believing that her thoughts and behaviour would influence the unborn child. A fortunate mother was one who received such guidance.
After birth, boys destined for Brahmin duties were sent to study under learned teachers in residential schools located outside towns—institutions resembling later gurukulas. Their education was simple and disciplined. They followed a vegetarian diet. Their teachers remained celibate, slept on grass or deer skins, and imparted knowledge orally. Students were expected to listen with complete concentration and without interruption.
This education continued for approximately thirty-seven years, after which they entered household life.
Unlike their austere student years, household life permitted adornment and prosperity. They wore rings on their fingers, earrings in their ears, ate meat, and often had more than one wife. Large families were considered a blessing because children provided valuable help in the household, where domestic servants were uncommon.
Megasthenes remarks that Brahmins generally did not engage in philosophical discussions with their wives.
Their constant awareness of mortality shaped their disciplined way of life. They regarded the world as transient, almost dreamlike, and considered preparation for death one of life’s greatest purposes. Since death was inevitable for everyone born into this world, one had to live accordingly.
Some ascetics, having attained complete detachment from worldly existence, voluntarily ended their lives by entering a funeral pyre while still alive. Such acts were regarded not as despair but as the final renunciation of the body.
Brahmins remained largely vegetarian and devoted much of their lives to the recitation of the Divine Name. They performed sacrifices and ritual offerings on behalf of kings and householders.
They believed in both God and the immortal soul. According to their philosophy, the Creator sends the soul into the world, where it becomes clothed in successive coverings. The first covering is intellect, the faculty of understanding. Over this comes the mind, the subtle body that links the intellect with the physical organs. The third covering is the physical body, through which the mind and intellect experience worldly life.
When the physical body perishes, the soul either enters another body or returns to its divine source.
God, they believed, is Light—not physical light like that of the sun or fire, but the Light of Knowledge, revealed through enlightened speech. The wisdom flowing from the words of a realized philosopher was itself regarded as a manifestation of the Divine.
Human life, in this understanding, is like that of a prisoner confined within three garments or coverings. One must wage an inner battle against the six enemies—lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride, and jealousy—and emerge victorious.
The purpose of life was therefore clear: remember the Divine through constant repetition of His Name, perform sacred duties, conquer one’s inner enemies, and when the body falls away, return to one’s eternal source. Just as a fish lifted from water catches sight of the sunlight, so too the liberated soul, freed from the body, beholds the radiant Supreme Being and merges into that Divine Light.
The Mountain Brahmins and the Worship of Dionysus
Megasthenes notes that the Brahmins living in the mountainous regions followed customs that the Greeks associated with Dionysus. Grapes were cultivated there, and wine—identified by the Greeks with their own Dionysian tradition, though perhaps comparable to the Vedic Soma in their interpretation—was prepared.
These Brahmins observed the customary Brahmanical way of life. They wore fine muslin garments, wrapped turbans around their heads, applied fragrant perfumes, and dressed in bright, colourful clothes. When their rulers appeared in public, drums and bells were sounded in ceremonial procession.
The Brahmins of the Plains
The Brahmins living in the plains, Megasthenes says, worshipped Heracles. Most historians identify this Greek “Heracles” with an Indian deity such as Krishna, Vishnu, or possibly Shiva, whom the Greeks interpreted through the lens of their own mythology.
Since Brahminhood was hereditary and they were regarded as custodians of sacred knowledge, later generations may have begun referring to them as Devas—those who embodied divine wisdom. Their spiritual role gradually elevated both their social status and religious authority.
Thus, the Greek references to Dionysus and Heracles probably reflect attempts to describe Indian forms of Shakti, Shaiva, Vaishnava, or Krishna worship using familiar Greek names.
The Shramanas
Unlike the Brahmins, the Shramanas generally lived away from towns and villages. Some went completely naked, while others wore garments made from tree bark.
Among them, the most highly respected were those whom Megasthenes calls the Hylobioi (“forest dwellers”), who may be compared with Indian siddhas or advanced ascetics.
They lived deep in forests, surviving on roots, fruits, wild plants, and water carried in their hands. Eating meat or food cooked over fire was strictly forbidden to them.
Kings frequently sought their advice, especially during times of natural calamities, political crises, or other extraordinary events. They were believed capable of performing rituals that could pacify divine wrath or avert misfortune.
Next in esteem came the physicians. They devoted themselves to studying human nature and discovering methods of healing. Living on alms, they subsisted mainly on rice and barley.
Megasthenes even claims that they possessed sufficient medical knowledge to determine the sex of an unborn child. Their treatments relied primarily on dietary regulation, fasting, and careful control of food, while medicines consisted mainly of ointments and medicinal plasters.
Women also sought knowledge from the Shramanas, although strict moral discipline was maintained and sexual relations were prohibited.
Among the Shramanas was one group that followed the teachings of the Buddha. Because of the Buddha’s extraordinary purity and noble conduct, they revered him as a divine teacher.
Greek Reflections on Indian Philosophy
Megasthenes makes an interesting observation. He writes that many of the philosophical ideas expressed by the Greek thinkers regarding nature were also held by the Brahmins of India and the Jews of Syria. This suggests that he perceived striking similarities between these ancient intellectual traditions.
Alexander and the Philosopher Dandamis
When Alexander the Great invaded India, military conquest was not his only ambition. As a disciple of Aristotle, he also wished to meet the celebrated philosophers of India and learn from them.
Greek tradition held that Alexander’s mythical ancestor Bacchus (Dionysus) had conquered India generations earlier. Now Alexander sought to surpass that legendary achievement—not merely by becoming a world conqueror, but also by discovering the deeper truths of life.
India was famous for its naked ascetics, the gymnosophists. Alexander wished to meet one of them.
After defeating King Porus, while advancing toward Taxila, he invited the renowned ascetic Dandamis (also called Dandami) to his camp.
Dandamis declined the invitation.
When Alexander’s messenger asked why, the sage replied:
“Alexander possesses nothing that I need. If I remain alive, this land of India provides me with sufficient air, water, and food. If I die, I shall be freed from this old body and attain a better and purer existence.”
He continued:
“Alexander himself must one day die. He may kill the body, but he cannot kill the soul. He is not God. God alone gives life and sustains it through air, water, and food.”
The philosopher added that however many lands Alexander conquered, there would still remain countless people who had never even heard his name.
These words deeply impressed Alexander.
He neither punished nor harmed the sage. Instead, he reflected upon what he had heard.
Whether or not this meeting alone changed the course of history, the Greek tradition remembers that Alexander soon abandoned his plans of advancing farther east toward the Ganges. His army, exhausted and unwilling to proceed, turned back.
The story closes with a timeless reflection:
“While he slept, he dreamed of conquering the world. When he finally awakened, it was time to depart from it.”
Thus ended the encounter between the world’s greatest conqueror and one who had conquered himself.
Very interesting 🎉🎉
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