[256] See [Note Z], Indian Serpents.
[257] The Sanskrit name of the rhinoceros is Ganda, also Gandaka and Gandânga.
[258] This is the ficus Indica, commonly called the banyan-tree, because of the frequent use made of its shelter by traders who dealt in grain, called in India Banyans. Strabo (XV. i. 21) describes this tree from Onesikritos, who saw it growing in the country of Mousikanos. Pliny also (N. H. xii. 11) describes the tree and its fruit, adding that it grows chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Acesines (Chenâb); see also Theophrastos, De Plantis, iv. 5, and Arrian’s Indika, c. 11. Several English poets have made it the subject of their verse—Ben Jonson, Milton, Tickell, and Southey. Its stately stems rise in solemn grandeur like the basaltic pillars of Fingal’s Cave, and with the over-arching boughs form a vast and wondrous dome—
“Where as to shame the temples decked
By skill of earthly architect,
Nature herself, it seems, would raise
A minster to her Maker’s praise.”
[259] Ailianos (H. A. xii. 32) says that while the Indians knew the proper antidote against the bites of each kind of serpent, none of the Greek physicians had discovered any such antidote. See [Note Z], Indian Serpents.
[260] See [Note Aa], Indian Peacocks.
[261] This must be the town which Arrian calls Pimprama, distant a day’s march from Sangala. The accounts of the two historians are at variance, however, since Arrian says that the place surrendered without resistance.