28 



ON HYGIENE IN 



Here is symbolized the first war by the Aryans against the 

 aboriginal or Turanian inhabitants of North- Western India. 

 The ordinary food of the Kshatriya of the Yedic Aryans, so 

 far from consisting of the simple diet of the rishis, was such 

 articles as roasted horse-flesh and venison dried in the sun ; 

 their beverages were fermented liquors and strong wine, or 

 rather spirits. 



4. Beverages. — There is no doubt the military classes 

 among the Vedic Aryans were immoderately given to drink. 

 Among the very earliest characteristics of the Kshatriyas, 

 was that " they revelled in fermented liquors,'' and probably 

 also in strong wine. The Marattas, as a preparation for 

 battle, not only made themselves intoxicated, but also 

 rendered their elephants so. But in those days excesses of 

 all kinds appear to have been the fashion of the time, not only 

 among the military, but also among the civil classes. 



5. Forts. — The hygienic rules regarding forts were dis- 

 tinctly laid down, albeit they were not what would now 

 be considered very complete. In the Ramayana the state- 

 ment occurs that such positions should be supplied with 

 weapons, money, grain, beasts, Brahmins, engines (artillery ?), 

 grass and water, the latter an important requirement as it 

 still is. Palibothra in the time of Sandracottus is given 

 as an example ; the history of that city being, it is 

 said, traceable back to the Indian Hercules, that is 

 Balakrishna, brother of Krishna Belus or Baldeo. That 

 fortress was of the shape of a parallelogram ; it was girded with 

 a wooden wall pierced with loop-holes for. the discharge of 

 arrows ; it had a ditch in front, probably communicating 

 with the river, for defence and for receiving the sewage of 

 the city. Such appears to have been the state of that place 

 from about 1000 B.C. to A.D. 600 when it was destroyed : 

 and, considering the succession of seasons and the present 

 conditions, meteorological and otherwise in Behar, little gift 



