Megasthenes further states that the Indians did "not even use aliens as slaves, and much less a countryman of their own," that thefts were very rare among them, that their laws were administered from memory, and even that they were ignorant of the art of writing. We have the evidence of Nearchos, however, that writing was known in India in the Philosophic Period, and the statement of Megasthenes only shows that writing was in very little use, either in schools, where boys received their learning and their religious lessons by rote, or even in courts of justice, where the Dharma Sutras were administered by learned judges entirely from memory.
Arrian quotes a passage from Nearchos, and says that the Indians "wear an under-garment of cotton which reaches below the knee half-way down to the ankles, and also an upper garment which they throw partly over their shoulders and partly twist in folds round their head. They wear shoes made of white leather, and these are elaborately trimmed, while the soles are variegated, and made of great thickness." And the great mass of the "people of India live upon grain and are tillers of the soil, but we must except the hillmen, who eat the flesh of beasts of chase."
Our faithful guide Megasthenes also gives us an account of cultivation in Ancient India which, on the whole, corresponds with the system of cultivation prevalent at the present time. He speaks of a double rainfall in the year, considering the winter showers as a
