GLIMPSE OF PALIMBOTHRA DURING 320 BC

GLIMPSE OF PALIMBOTHRA DURING 320 BC

-INDIKA of Megasthenes

This page will give an idea of how Palimbothra’s (Pataliputra) constructed during 320 BC:

As we all know most of the human settlement were on the banks of a river or on the sea coast. Most of the Indian cities were built on the banks of a river. They were constructed not of brick but of wood, this was due to the destructive rainfall, and also the rivers overflow their banks often. But, however there were cities built of brick and mud which stand in commanding situation and lofty eminences. The greatest city in India is that which is called Palimbothra, situated where the streams of the Erannoboas (presentday- Son) and the Ganges unite. Erannoboas perhaps the third largest river, that falls into Ganges.

Megasthenes says, the inhabited part of this city extend to a length of 8 stadia, and that its breadth was fifteen stadia. The city was surrounded by a ditch of breadth six plethra and thirty cubits in depth. The city had a fortified wall, which has 570 towers and 46 gates. Megasthenes gives a remarkable fact about India during the time that all the Indians are free and none of them are slave.