________________
200
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1905.
I am persuaded that many more caves in India were not the dwelling places of quiet monts, but the residence of garikās and lenasobhikās and their lovers. The so-called Queen's Cave and that of Ganesa in Udayagiri are further undoubted examples, to the reliefs of which Jacobi has directed my attention they represent the doings of these ladies and gentlemen in a highly realistic way. The cave-theatre discovered by Bloch has, however, a special interest; it is arranged after the Greek pattern. .
The much-discussed question of the influence on the Indian theatre by the Greek has been pat in a new light by the researches of Reich and the possibility or rather the probability of & connection between the Indian drama and the antique Mime is hardly to be questioned, The existence of a Greek theatre on Indian ground would naturally be an important link in the chain of evidence, and we look forward with expectation to the detailed description which Bloch promises to give us in the Archeological Annual
ASOKA NOTES. BY VINCENT A. SMITH, M.A., 1.0.S. (Red.).
(Continued from Vol. XXXII. p. 366.)
IV. - Congular Officers in India and Greece, The civil and military institutions of the Maurya empire as described by ABóka in his edicts and by the Groek writers were essentially Indian, modified in some particulars by imitation of Persian practices. With one exception those institutions exbibit
o trace of Hellenic influence. The single exception is the appointment by Chandragapta Maurya of the officers called by Megasthenes astynomoi (dotvrópot), who were entrusted with the duty of looking after foreigners, and correspond exactly in some respects with the Greek proxenoi (apogévou). Although, of course, there is no direct proof that this exceptional institution was actually borrowed from the practice of the Greek states, the resemblance between the functions of the Maurya astyn omoi and those of the Hellenic promenoi is so close that it is difficult to avoid drawing the inference that in this one case the arrangements of Chandragupta were modelled on, or, at least, suggested by those of his Enropean friends. Readers of the Indian Antiquary will, perhaps, be interested in the details of the parallel,
The words of Megasthenes, as reported by Strabo (Bk. XV., Ch. 50-2; Schwanbeck, fragm. XXXIV.), are: -
"To d'apxóvrov oi pév ciow dyopavópol, ol 8'do turboi, of 8'in tavarpariativ .... ol 8'dotywópor εις έξ πεντάδας διήρηνται και οι μεν τα δημιουργικά σκοπούσιν οι δε ξενοδοχοϋσιν· και γάρ καταγωγής νέμουσι, και τοίς βίους παρακολουθούσι παρέδρους δόντες, και προπέμπουσαν και αυτούς και τα χρήματα rax atrolavorovocouvray Te istuchoûvras kaì drofarórras Eátrovi." This passage is translated by Mr. McCrindle as follows:- “Of the great officers of state, some have charge of the market, others of the city, others of the soldiers... Those who have charge of the city are divided into six bodies of five each. The members of the first look after everything relating to the industrial arts. Those of the second attend to the entertainment of foreigners. To these they assign lodgings, and they keep watch over their modes of life by means of those persons whom they give to them for assistants. They cort them on the way when they leave the country, or, in the event of their dying, forward their property to their relatives. They take oare of them when they are sick, and, if they dio, bury thom.”
The bodies, or boards, of fivo ench, into which the Municipal Commissioners were divided. wore obviously an adaptation of the Indian Panchdyal; but the duties of the spoond board were those of the Greek proxenoi, as will appear clearly from the following statements:
The institution of proxenia (po Eevia) was of high antiquity, being mentioned in an websic inscription at Corfu, commemorating a certain Mepekrater, who hold the office of
