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234 all succeeding periods. Religious knowledge was, however, forbidden to them.

It is evident that the seven castes described by Megasthenes are virtually the four castes spoken of above. His philosophers and counsellors were the Brahmans, those who engaged in religious study, and those who took employment under the state respectively. His husbandmen, shepherds, and artisans were the Vaisyas and Sudras, who engaged in cultivation, in pasture, and in manufacture. And his soldiers were the Kshatriyas; while his overseers were only special servants, spies of the king.

Megasthenes further subdivides the philosophers into Brahmans or householders, and Sramans or ascetics. Of the former he says that " the children are under the care of one person after another, and as they advance in age, each succeeding master is more accomplished than his predecessor. The philosophers have their abode in a grove in front of the city within a moderate-sized enclosure. They live in a simple style, and lie on beds of rushes or skins. They abstain from animal food and sensual pleasures, and spend their time listening to religious discourse and in imparting their knowledge to such as will listen to them. After living in this manner for seven and thirty years, each individual retires to his own property, where he lives for the rest of his days in ease and security. They then array themselves in fine muslin, and wear a few trinkets of gold on their fingers and in their ears. They eat flesh, but not that of animals employed in labour. They