Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian/Cap. XVI.

by Arrian

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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3] 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.

---

1. A slip on the part of Arrian, as no previous mention has been made of the cotton-tree.
2. "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.
3. 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.