Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian/Frag. XXV.
BOOK II.
According to Megasthenês the mean breadth (of the Ganges) is 100 stadia, and its least depth 20 fathoms. At the meeting of this river and another is situated Palibothra, a city eighty stadia in length and fifteen in breadth. It is of the shape of a parallelogram, and is girded with a wooden wall, pierced with loopholes for the discharge of arrows. It has a ditch in front for defence and for receiving the sewage of the city. The people in whose country this city is situated is the most distinguished in all India, and is called the Prasii. The king, in addition to his family name, must adopt the surname of Palibothros, as Sandrakottos, for instance, did, to whom Megasthenês was sent on an embassy. [This custom also prevails among the Parthians, for all are called Arsakai, though each has his own peculiar name, as Orodês, Phraatês, or some other.]
Then follow these words:-
All the country beyond the Hupanis is allowed to be very fertile, but little is accurately known regarding it. Partly from ignorance and the remoteness of its situation, every thing about it is exaggerated or represented as marvellous : for instance, there are the stories of the gold-digging ants, of animals and men of peculiar shapes, and possessing wonderful faculties; as the Sêres, who, they say, are so long-lived that they attain an age beyond that of two hundred years.[2] They mention also an aristocratical form of government consisting of five thousand councillors, each of whom furnishes the state with an elephant.
According to Megasthenês the largest tigers are found in the country of the Prasii, &c. (Cf. Fragm. XII.)
- ↑ Conf. Epit. 36.
- ↑ This was not the name of any particular nation, but was vaguely used to designate the inhabitants of the region producing silk, of which Sêr is the name in Chinese and in Japanese. The general opinion places this region (Sèrica) in Eastern Mongolia and the north-east of China, but it has also been sought for in Eastern Turkestin, in the Himalaya towards the sources of the Ganges, in Assam, and even in Pegu. The name is first met with in Ktêsias.