PANDAI

THE PANDAI (Pandi) tribe were a of long-lived tribe of Indian men with gigantic ears, eight fingers and toes, and white-hair covering their entire bodies which turned black with age.

Another tribe of large-eared men were the similarly named Panotioi of northern Europe.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Ctesias, Indica Fragment (from Photius, Myriobiblon 72) (Greek historian C4th B.C.) :
"In the mountains where the Indian reed grows there dwells a people about 30,000 in number. Their women only have children once in their life, which are born with beautiful teeth in the upper and lower jaw. Both male and female children have white hair, on the head and eyebrows. Up to the age of thirty the men have white hair all over the body; it then begins to turn black, and at the age of sixty it is quite black. Both men and women have eight fingers and eight toes. They are very warlike, and 5000 of them--bowmen and spearmen--accompany the king of India on his military expeditions. Their ears are so long that their arms are covered with them as far as the elbow, and also their backs, and one ear touches the other."

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7. 27 (trans. Rackham) (Roman encyclopedia C1st A.D.) :
"Ctesias [Greek historian C4th B.C.] says that a tribe among them [the Indians] called the Pandae, dwelling in the mountain valleys, live two hundred years, and have white hair in their youth that grows black in old age."

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7. 30 :
"Duris [Greek historian] says that some Indians . . . are entirely covered by their ears."

SOURCES

GREEK

• Ctesias, Indica - Greek History C5th B.C.

ROMAN

• Pliny the Elder, Natural History - Latin Encyclopedia C1st A.D.

BYZANTINE

• Photius, Myriobiblon - Byzantine Greek Scholar C9th A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.