[5]
Babylon in the same manner; and Susa, Ecbatana, Persepolis, and
Seleucia, all, one after the other, became deserted as sovereigns
changed their residence, and with it the seats of their public
establishments, which alone supported them. Thus Thebes became
deserted for Memphis, Memphis for Alexandria, and Alexandria for
Cairo, as the sovereigns of Egypt changed theirs; and thus it has
always been in India, where cities have been almost all founded on
the same bases--the residence of princes, and their public
establishments, civil, military, or ecclesiastical.
The city of Kanauj, on the Ganges, when conquered by Mahmud of
Ghazni,[6] is stated by the historians of the conqueror to have
contained a standing army of five hundred thousand infantry, with a
due proportion of cavalry and elephants, thirty thousand shops for
the sale of 'pan' alone, and sixty thousand families of opera
girls.[7] The 'pan' dealers and opera girls were part and parcel of
the court and its public establishments, and as much dependent on the
residence of the sovereign as the civil, military, and ecclesiastical
officers who ate their 'pan', and enjoyed their dancing and music;
and this great city no sooner ceased to be the residence of the
sovereign, the great proprietor of all the lands in the country, than
it became deserted.
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