44 PLINY'S KATTTBAL HISTORY. [Book VI. 



one hundred stadia where it is but moderately wide, and 

 that it is nowhere less than twenty paces in depth. The 

 last nation situate on the banks of the Ganges is that of the 

 Gangarides 50 Calingae ; the city where their king dwells has 

 the name of Protalis. 51 



(19.) This king has sixty thousand foot-soldiers, one thousand 

 horse, and seven hundred elephants, always caparisoned ready 

 for battle. The people of the more civilized nations of India 

 are divided into several classes. 52 One of these classes tills 

 the earth, another attends to military affairs, others again 

 are occupied in mercantile pursuits, while the wisest and the 

 most wealthy among them have the management of the affairs 

 of state act as judges, and give counsel to the king. The 

 fifth class, 53 entirely devoting themselves to the pursuit of wis- 

 dom, which in these countries is almost held in the same venera- 

 tion as religion, always 54 end their life by a voluntary death 

 upon the lighted pile. In addition to these, there is a 

 class 55 in a half-savage state, and doomed to endless labour ; 

 by means of their exertions, all the classes previously men- 

 tioned are supported. It is their duty to hunt 56 the elephant, 

 and to tame him when captured ; for it is by the aid of these 

 animals that they plough ; by these animals they are conveyed 



50 The wide diffusion of the Calingae, and their close connection with the 

 Gangaridoe, are shown by the fact that Pliny here calls them " Calingae 

 Gangarides," and mentions the Modogalingse on a large island in the 

 Ganges, and the Maccocalingse on the upper course of that river. See note 

 43, p. 42. 



51 Called Parthalis in most of the editions. 



52 Or castes, as we call them. These institutions prevail equally at the 

 present day, and the divisions of the duties of the respective castes are 

 pretty much as Pliny states them to be, except that the husbandmen and 

 merchants form one class, called the Vaisya, the Brahmins being the ministers 

 of religion, the Kshatriya forming the warlike class, the Sudra consti- 

 tuting the menial or servant class. Pliny here represents the rulers and 

 councillors as forming a distinct class. Such, however, does not appear to 

 be the fact ; for we find that the sovereign is chosen from the Kshatriya or 

 military class, while from the Brahmins are selected the royal councillors, 

 judges, and magistrates of the country. 



53 He alludes to the Brahmins, who seem to have been called by the Greek 

 writers "Gymnosophists," or "naked wise men." The Brahmin Ca- 

 lanus is a memorable example of this kind of self-immolation. 



54 It is extremely doubtful if, even in his own day, Pliny was correct in 

 venturing upon so sweeping an assertion. 



bb The Sudra or menial caste. 



56 lie is incorrect here ; these duties devolve on the Vaisya class. 



