Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/88

 60 ACCOUNT OF INDIA BY STEABO ans, we may adduce their different accounts of Kala- nos. They all agree that he accompanied Alexander and underwent a voluntary death by fire in his pres- ence, but they differ as to the manner and cause of his death. Some give the following account. Kalanos accom- panied the king, as the rehearser of his praises, beyond the boundaries of India, contrary to the common Indian custom; for the philosophers attend upon their kings and act as instructors in the worship of the gods, in the same manner as the Magi attend the Persian kings. When he fell sick at Pasargadai, being then attacked with disease for the first time in his life, he put himself to death at the age of seventy-three years, regardless of the entreaties of the king. A pyre was raised, and a gilded couch placed upon it. He lay down upon it, and covering himself up, was burned to death. Others say that a chamber was constructed of wood, which was filled with the leaves of trees, and a pyre being raised upon the roof, he was shut up in it, accord- ing to his directions, after the procession, with which he had been accompanied, had arrived at the spot. He threw himself upon the pyre and was consumed like a log of wood, together with the chamber. Megasthenes says that self-destruction is not a dogma of the philosophers, and that those who commit this act are accounted foolhardy; that some, who are harsh by nature, inflict wounds upon their bodies, or cast themselves down precipices; those who are im- patient of pain drown themselves; those who can en-