Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian / being a translation of the fragments of the Indika of Megasthenês collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the first part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle ; with introduction, notes, and map of ancient India.

  • Megasthenes
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian / being a translation of the fragments of the Indika of Megasthenês collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the first part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle ; with introduction, notes, and map of ancient India. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    foreign king : for all other nations dread the overwhelming number and strength of these animals. 18 [Thus Alexander the Makedonian, after conquering all Asia, did not make war upon the Gangaridai,f as he did on all others; for when he had arrived with all his troops at the river Ganges, and had subdued all the other Indians, he abandoned as hopeless an invasion of the Gangaridai when he learned that they possessed four thousand elephants well trained and equipped for war.] 19Another river, about the same size as the Ganges, called the Indus, has its sources, like its rival, in the north, and falling into the ocean forms on its way the boundary of India ; in its passage through the vast stretch of level country it receives not a few tributary streams which are navigable, the most notable of them being the Hupanis, the Hudaspes, and the Akesines. Besides these rivers there are a great many others of every description, which permeate the country, and supply water for the nurture of garden vegetables and crops of all sorts. 20Now to account for the rivers being so numerous, and the supply of water so superabundant, the native philosophers and proficients in natural science advance the following reasons :—They t Conf. Lassen, Pentapot. 16. 21 Conf. Fragm. xxi. in Incl. Ant. vol. V. p. 88, c. vi. 2-3. i5.i9 (jonf> Fragm. xx. in Incl. Ant. vol. Y. p. 87, c. iv. 2-13.