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XANDRAMES AND SANDRACOTTUS (2)
(Classical Accounts Re-examined) Prof. Upendranath Roy
[Continued from Page No. 29]
PALIBOTHRA and PRASII
Megasthenes, the ambassador of seleucus described the capital of SANDRACOTTUS in INDIKA. That is preserved in the works of ARRIAN and STRABO and quite reliable. ARRIAN says the following: "The greatest city In India is that which is called Palimbothra, in the dominions of the PRASIANS, where the streams of the ERANNOBOAS and the GANGES unite,-the GANGES being the greatest of all rivers, and the ERANNOBOAS being perhaps the third largest of Indian rivers. though geater than the greatest rivers elsewhere; but it is smaller than the Ganges where it falls into. Megasthenes says further of this city that the inhabited part of it stretched on either side to an extreme length of eighty Stadia, and that its breadth was 15 Stadia, and that a ditch encompassed it all around, which was six plethra in breadth and thirty cubits in depth, and that the wall was crowned with five hundred and seventy towers and had four and sixty gates." "126 It shows that (1) the capital was known as PALIMBOTHRA, (2) that the city was located in PRASII (PRACHI), the inhabitants of which were known as the PRASIANS (PRACHYAS), that the confluence of the GANGA and ERANNOBOAS lay in the dominions of PRACHI and (4) the river. Ganga was the greatest of the rivers and ERANNOBOAS was the third.
STRABO writes the following: "It is said that PALIBOTHRA lies at the confluence of the Ganges and the other river, a city eighty Stadia in length and 15 in breadth, in the shape of a parallelogram, and surrounded by a wooden wall that is perforated so that arrows can be shot through the holes; and that in front of the wall lies a trench used both for defence and as a receptacle of the sewage that flows from the city; and that the tribe of the people amongst whom the city is situated is called the Prasii and is far superior to all the rest; and that the reigning king must be surnamed after the city, being called PALIBOTHRUS in addition to his own family name, as for
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