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276 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA are natives of the country, and keep hovering about the king and wheeling round him, and vast though their numbers be, no Indian ever eats a parrot. The Brachmans honour them highly above all other birds-because the parrot alone can imitate human speech. Within the palace grounds are artificial ponds in which they keep fish of enormous size but quite tame. No one has permission to fish for these except the king's sons while yet in their boyhood. These youngsters amuse themselves while fishing in the unruffled sheet of water and learning how to sail their boats." I
The imperial palace probably stood close to the modern village of Kumrahār. The unearthing of the ruins of the Maurya pillar-hall and palace near Kumrahār, said to have been built on the model of the throne-room and palace of Darius at Persepolis, led Dr. Spooner to propound the theory that the Mauryas were Zoroastrians.3 Dr. Smith observed that the resemblance of the Maurya buildings with the Persian palace at Persepolis was not definitely established. Besides, as Professor Chanda observes, "Ethnologists do not recognize high class architecture as test of race, and in the opinion of experts the buildings of Dariug and Xerxes at Persepolis are not Persian in style, but are mainly dependent on Babylonian models and bear traces of the influence of
ot and Asia Minor." We learn from Strabo* that the king usually remained within the palace under the protection of female guards!
Gree
1 MoCrindle, Ancient India as described in Classical Literature, pp. 141-42. 2 Smith, The Oxford History of India p. 77. Macphail, Asoka. pp. 23-25.
3 J.R.A.S., 1915, pp. 63 ff, 405 ff. ; 4 H. & F.'s Tr., Vol. III, p. 106 ; cf. Smith, EHI., 3rd ed., p. 123.
5 The same writer tells us that these women were bought from their parents, In view of this statement it is rather surprising that Megasthenes is quoted as saying that none of the Indians employed slaves. Note also the story narrated by
