195
within comparatively recent times was transferred to black pepper. Long pepper is mentioned by Pliny (XII, 7) as well as the Periplus.
The fruit is gathered when green, and is preserved by drying in the sun. The dried unripe fruit and the root have long been used in medicine.
50. Dachinabades. — This is the Sanscrit dakshinapathas, "'the way toward the south;” Prakrit dakkhinabadha: the modern Deccan.
50. Many populous nations. — An interesting account is given by T. C. Evans, Greek and Roman India , in the Anglo-American Magazine for 1901, pp. 294-306. His conclusion is that “the Greek invader found there an ancient and highly organized society, differing little in its usages and modes of living from those which exist at the present time; and although there are no means of verifying the conjecture, it is not unlikely that the population of the peninsula was as great in that period as in our own.” If this view is correct, India was the most populous region of the world at the time of the Periplus, as it was the most cultivated, the most active industrially and com- mercially, the richest in natural resources and production, the most highly organized socially, the most wretched in the poverty of its teeming millions, and the least powerful politically.
The great powers of India were the Kushan in the far northwest, the Saka in the Cambay country, the remains of the Maurya in the Ganges watershed, the Andhra in the Deccan, and the Chera, Pandya and Chola in the South. The economic status of the country made it impossible that any one of these should possess political force com- mensurate with its population, resources and industries. It was made up of village communities, which recognized the military power only so far as they were compelled to do so; and they were relatively unconcerned in dynastic changes, except to note the change in their oppressors.
For a contemporary account of the nations of India, see Pliny, VI, 21-3.
51. Paethana: Sanscrit, Pratisthana. This is the modern Paithan, on the Godaverl River (19° 28' N. , 75° 24' E. )..
According to the Imperial Gazetteer (XIX, 317), Paithan is one of the oldest cities in the Deccan. Asoka sent missionaries to the Petenikas, and inscriptions of the 2d century B. C. in the Pitalkhara caves refer to the king and merchants of Pratisthana. Ptolemy men- tions it as the capital of Pulumayi II, the Andhra king (138-170 A.D. ) ; but it was probably the capital of the western provinces, the seat of the Andhra monarchs having been in the eastern part of the kingdom, at Dhanyakataka, the modern Dharanikotta, on the Kistna river just above Amaravati (16° 34' N., 80° 22' E. ).
