44 
PLINTHS KATUEAL HISTORY. 
[Book VL 
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^^ Calingse ; the city where their king dwells has 
the name of Protalis.^^ 
(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. 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/^ entirely devoting themselves to the pursuit of wis- 
dom, which in these countries is almost held in the same venera- 
tion as religion, always^^ end their life by a voluntary death 
upon the lighted pile. In addition to these, there is a- 
class^^ 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^^ the elephant, 
and to tame him when captured ; for it is b}^ the aid of these 
animals that they plough ; by these animals they are conveyed 
^0 The wide diffusion of the Caliiigse, and their close connection with the 
Gangaridse, are shown by the fact that Pliny here calls them " Calingoe 
Gangarides," and mentions the Modogalingse on a large island in the 
Ganges, and the Maccocalingae on the upper course of that river. See note 
43, p. 42. 
5^ Called Parthalis in most of the editions. 
^- Or castes f 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. 
^3 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. 
It is extremely doubtful if, even in his own day, Pliny was correct in 
venturing upon so sweeping an assertion. 
The Sudra or menial caste. 
He is incorrect here ; these duties devolve on the Yaisya class. 
