Earliest Western Account of India + Caste System // 300 BC Megasthenes // Ancient Primary Source

India, which is in its shape quadrilateral, has its eastern as well as its western side bounded by the great sea. But on the northern side it is divided by Mount Hemadowa and that part of Scythia which is inhabited by those Scythians who are called the Sakai, while the fourth or western side is bounded by the river called the Indus, which is perhaps the largest of all the rivers in the world after the Nile. The extent of the whole country from east to west is said to be 28,000 stadia and from north to south 32,000. Being thus of such a vast extent it seems well nigh to embrace the whole of the northern tropic zone of the earth and in fact at the extreme point of India the sundial may frequently be observed to cast no shadow while the constellation of the bear is by night invisible. Consequently with this it is also stated that shadows there fall to the southward. It is said that India being of enormous size when taken as a whole is peopled by races both numerous and diverse of which not even one was originally of foreign descent but all were evidently indigenous and moreover that India neither received a colony from abroad nor sent out a colony to any other nation. The legends further inform us that in primitive times the inhabitants subsisted on such fruits as the earth yielded spontaneously as was the case with the Greeks and that in like manner as with them the arts and other appliances which improve human life were gradually invented. The whole population of India is divided into seven castes of which the first is formed by the collective body of the philosophers which in point of number is inferior to the other classes but in point of dignity preeminent overall for the philosophers being exempted from all public duties are neither the masters nor the servants of others they are however engaged by private persons to offer the sacrifices due in lifetime and to celebrate the obsequies of the dead for they are believed to be the most dear to the gods and to be the most conversant with matters pertaining to Hades. In requital of such services they receive valuable gifts and privileges to the people of India at large they also render great benefits when gathered together at the beginning of the year they forewarn the assembled multitudes about droughts and wet weather and also about propitious winds and diseases and other topics capable of profiting the heroes. 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The second cast consists of the husband's men who appear to be far more numerous than the others. Being moreover exempted from the fighting and other public services they devote the whole of their time to tillage nor would an enemy coming upon a husbandman at work on his land do him any harm. For men of this class being regarded as public benefactors are protected from all injury. The land thus remaining unravaged and producing heavy crops supplies the inhabitants with all that is requisite to make life very enjoyable. The husbandmen themselves with their wives and children live in the country and entirely avoid going to town. They pay a land tribute to the king because all India is the property of the crown and no private person is permitted to own land. The third cast consists of the shepherds and in general of all herdsmen who neither settle in towns or in villages but live in tents. By hunting and trapping they clear the country of noxious birds and wild beasts. As they apply themselves eagerly and assiduously to this pursuit they free India from the pests with which it abounds. All sorts of wild beasts and birds The fourth cast consists of the artisans. Of these some are armourers while others make the implements which husbandmen and others find useful in their different callings. This class is not only exempted from paying taxes but even receives maintenance from the royal exchequer. The fifth cast is the military. It is well organised and equipped for war, holds the second place in point of numbers and gives itself up to idleness and amusement in times of peace. The entire force, men at arms, war horses, war elephants and all are maintained at the king's expense. The sixth cast consists of the overseers. It is their province to enquire into and superintend all that goes on in India and make report to the king or where there is not a king to the magistrates. The seventh cast consists of the counsellors and assessors. It is the smallest cast looking to number but it is the most respected on account of the high character and wisdom of its members. For from their ranks the advisors of the king are taken and the treasurers of the state and the arbiters who settle disputes. The generals of the army also and the chief magistrates usually belong to this class. Such then are about the parts into which the body politic in India is divided. No one is allowed to marry out of his own caste or to exercise any calling or art except his own. For instance a soldier cannot become a husbandman or an artisan a philosopher. Among the Indians officers are appointed even for foreigners whose duty is to see that no foreigner is wronged. Should any of them lose his health they send physicians to attend him and take care of him otherwise and if he dies they bury him and deliver over such property as he leaves to his relatives. The judges also decide cases in which foreigners are concerned with the greatest care and come down sharply on those who take unfair advantage of them. India has many huge mountains which abound in fruit trees of every kind and many vast plains of great fertility more or less beautiful but all alike indissected by a multitude of rivers. The greater part of the soil moreover is under irrigation and consequently bears two crops in the course of the year. It teams at the same time with animals of all sorts, beasts of the field and fowls of the air of all different degrees of strength and size. There are monkeys, rollers of rocks which climb precipices whence they roll down stones upon their pursuers. It is also said that there exists in India a one-horned animal called by the natives the kartazan. It is of the size of a full-grown horse and has a crest and yellow hair soft as wool. It is furnished with very good legs and is very fleet. Its legs are jointless and formed like those of the elephant and it has a tail like a swine's. A horn sprouts out from between its eyebrows and this is not straight but curved into the most natural wreaths and is of a black colour. It is said to be extremely sharp this horn. The animal as I learn has a voice beyond all example loud ringing and dissonant. It allows other animals to approach it and is good-natured towards them. It is prolific besides in elephants which are of monstrous bulk as its soil supplies food in unsparing profusion making these animals far exceeding in strength than those that are bred in Libya. It results also that since they are caught in great numbers by the Indians and trained for war they are of great moment in turning the scale of victory. The inhabitants in like manner having abundant means of subsistence exceed in consequence the ordinary stature and are distinguished by their proud bearing. They are also found to be well skilled in the arts as might be expected of men who inhale a pure air and drink the very finest water and while the soil bears on its surface all kinds of fruits which are known to cultivation it has also underground numerous veins of all sorts of metals for it contains much gold and silver and copper and iron in no small quantity and even tin and other metals which are employed in making articles of use and ornament as well as the implements and accoutrements of war. The Indians all live frugally especially when in camp. They dislike a great undisciplined multitude and consequently they observe good order. Theft is of a very rare occurrence. Magasthenes says that those who were in the camp of Sandracotus wherein lay 400,000 men found that the thefts reported on any one day did not exceed the value of 200 drachmae and this among a people who have no written laws but are ignorant of writing and must therefore in all business of life trust to memory. They live nevertheless happily enough being simple in their manners and frugal. They never drink wine except at sacrifices. Their beverage is a liquor composed from rice instead of barley and their food is principally a rice pottage. The simplicity of their laws and their contracts is proved by the fact that they seldom go to law. They have no suits about pledges or deposits nor do they require either seals or witnesses but make their deposits and confide in each other. Their houses and property they generally leave unguarded. These things indicate that they possess good sober sense but other things they do which one cannot approve. For instance they always eat alone and that they have no fixed hours when meals are to be taken by all in common but each one eats when he feels inclined. The contrary custom would be better for the ends of social and civil life. Their favourite mode of exercising the body is by friction applied in various ways but especially by passing smooth ebony rollers over the skin. Their tombs are plain and the mounds raised over the dead lowly. In contrast to the general simplicity of their style they love finery and ornament. Their robes are gold and ornamented with precious stones and they wear also flowered garments made of the finest muslin. Attendants walking behind hold up umbrellas over them for they have a high regard for beauty and avail themselves of every device to improve their looks. Truth and virtue they hold alike in esteem hence they accord no special privileges to the old unless they possess superior wisdom. They marry many wives whom they buy from their parents giving in exchange a yoke of oxen. Some they marry hoping to find in them willing helpmates and others for pleasure and to fill their houses with children. The wives prostitute themselves unless they are compelled to be chased. No one wears a crown at a sacrifice or libation and they do not stab the victim but strangle it so that nothing is mutilated but only what is entire may be presented to the deity. The king departs for the chase in bacchanalian fashion. Crowds of women surround him and outside this circle spearmen are arranged. The road is marked off with ropes and it is death for man and woman alike to pass within the ropes. Men with drums and gongs lead the procession. The king hunts in the enclosures and shoots arrows from a platform. At his side stand two or three armed women. If he hunts in the open grounds he shoots from the back of an elephant. Of the women some are in chariots some are on horses and some even on elephants and they are equipped with weapons of every kind as if they are going on a campaign. These customs are very strange when compared with our own but the following are still more so. For Megasthenes states that the tribes inhabiting the Caucasus have intercourse with women in public and eat the bodies of their relatives but deviating into fables he says there are men five spans and even three spans in height some of whom want the nose having only two orifices above the mouth through which they breathe. According to Megasthenes on a mountain called Nulo there live men whose feet are turned backward and who have eight toes on each foot while on many of the mountains there lives a race of men heads like those of dogs who are clothed with the skin of wild beasts whose speech is barking and who being armed with claws live by hunting and fouling. He speaks also of a race living on the very confines of India on the east near the source of the Ganges the Astomi who have no mouth who cover the body which is all over hairy with the soft down found upon the leaves of trees and who live merely by breathing and the perfume inhaled by the nostrils they eat nothing and they drink nothing they require merely a variety of odors of roots and flowers and of wild apples.