![Maurya Empire, c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Maurya_Empire%2C_c.250_BCE.png)
''Indika'' (Greek: Ἰνδικά; Latin: ''Indica'') is an account of
Maurya
The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...
n India by the Greek writer
Megasthenes
Megasthenes ( ; grc, Μεγασθένης, c. 350 BCE– c. 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book '' Indica'', which is now lost, but has ...
. The original work is now lost, but its fragments have survived in later Greek and Latin works. The earliest of these works are those by
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...
,
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
(''
Geographica
The ''Geographica'' (Ancient Greek: Γεωγραφικά ''Geōgraphiká''), or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Ancient Greek, Greek and attributed to Strabo, an educated citizen ...
''),
Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
, and
Arrian
Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; la, Lucius Flavius Arrianus; )
was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period.
''The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best ...
(''
Indica'').
Reconstruction
Megasthenes' ''Indica'' can be reconstructed using the portions preserved by later writers as direct quotations or paraphrase. The parts that belonged to the original text can be identified from the later works based on similar content, vocabulary and phrasing, even when the content has not been explicitly attributed to Megasthenes.
Felix Jacoby
Felix Jacoby (; 19 March 1876 – 10 November 1959) was a German classicist and philologist. He is best known among classicists for his highly important work ''Fragmente der griechischen Historiker'', a collection of text fragments of ancient Gr ...
's ''
Fragmente der griechischen Historiker
''Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker'', commonly abbreviated ''FGrHist'' or ''FGrH'' (''Fragments of the Greek Historians''), is a collection by Felix Jacoby of the works of those ancient Greek historians whose works have been lost, but of ...
'' contains 36 pages of content traced to Megasthenes.
E. A. Schwanbeck traced several fragments to Megasthenes, and based on his collection,
John Watson McCrindle published a reconstructed version of ''Indica'' in 1887. However, this reconstruction is not universally accepted. Schwanbeck and McCrindle attributed several fragments in the writings of the 1st century BCE writer
Diodorus
Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...
to Megasthenes. However, Diodorus does not mention Megasthenes even once, unlike Strabo, who explicitly mentions Megasthenes as one of his sources. There are several differences between the accounts of Megasthenes and Diodorus: for example, Diodorus describes India as 28,000
stadia
Stadia may refer to:
* One of the plurals of stadium, along with "stadiums"
* The plural of stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance, which equals to 600 Greek feet (''podes'').
* Stadia (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey
* Stadi ...
(roughly 5,000 km, 3,000 miles) long from east to west; Megasthenes gives this number as 16,000 (3,000 km, 2,000 miles). Diodorus states that the Indus may be the world's largest river after the Nile; Megasthenes (as quoted by Arrian) states that the Ganges is much larger than the Nile. Historian R. C. Majumdar points out that the Fragments I and II attributed to Megasthenes in McCrindle's edition cannot originate from the same source, because Fragment I describes the Nile as larger than the Indus, while Fragment II describes the Indus as longer than the Nile and the Danube combined.
Schwanbeck's Fragment XXVII includes four paragraphs from Strabo, and Schwanbeck attributes these entire paragraphs to Megasthenes. However, Strabo cites Megasthenes as his source only for three isolated statements in three different paragraphs. It is likely that Strabo sourced the rest of the text from sources other than Megasthenes: that's why he attributes only three statements specifically to Megasthenes.
Another example is the earliest confirmed description of
Gandaridae, which appears in the writings of Diodorus. McCrindle believed that Diodorus' source for this description was the now-lost book of Megasthenes. However, according to A. B. Bosworth (1996), Diodorus obtained this information from
Hieronymus of Cardia Hieronymus of Cardia ( el, Ἱερώνυμος ὁ Καρδιανός, 354?–250 BC) was a Greek general and historian from Cardia in Thrace, and a contemporary of Alexander the Great (356–323 BC).
After the death of Alexander he followed the f ...
: Diodorus described the Ganges as 30 stadia (6 km, 4 miles) wide; it is well-attested by other sources that Megasthenes described the median or minimum width of the Ganges as 100 stadia (20 km, 12 miles).
India according to the reconstructed text
According to the text reconstructed by
J. W. McCrindle (1877) and Richard Stoneman (2022), Megasthenes' ''Indica'' describes India as follows:
Geography
India is a quadrilateral-shaped country, bounded by the
Great Sea in the east and the south,
Indus River
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
in the west, and Emodus mountain in the north ("Emodus" (or "Hemodus") refers to the
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Provinc ...
,
Pamir Pamir may refer to:
Geographical features
* Pamir Mountains, a mountain range in Central Asia
** Pamir-Alay, a mountain system in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, part of the Pamir Mountains
*A pamir (valley) is a high plateau or valley surro ...
, and the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
taken as a single mountain range; the word is derived from the Indian term ''Haimavata'', meaning "covered with snow".) Beyond the Emodus lies the
Sacae
The Saka (Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histori ...
-inhabited part of
Scythia
Scythia (Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe.
Hi ...
. Besides Scythia, the countries of
Bactria
Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
and
Ariana
Ariana was a general geographical term used by some Greek and Roman authors of the ancient period for a district of wide extent between Central Asia and the Indus River, comprising the eastern provinces of the Achaemenid Empire that covered the ...
border India. India's northern border reaches the extremities of the
Tauros. From
Ariana
Ariana was a general geographical term used by some Greek and Roman authors of the ancient period for a district of wide extent between Central Asia and the Indus River, comprising the eastern provinces of the Achaemenid Empire that covered the ...
to the Eastern Sea, it is bound by mountains that are called the Kaukasos by the Macedonians. The various native names for these mountains include
Parapamisos, Hemodus (or Emodus) and Himaos.
The area of India is said to span 28,000
stades from west to east, and 32,000 from north to south. Because of its large size, India is "thought to encompass a larger stretch of the sun's course in summer than any other part of the world". In many of the extreme points of India, a
gnomon
A gnomon (; ) is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The term is used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields.
History
A painted stick dating from 2300 BC that was excavated at the astronomical site of Taosi is the ol ...
of the sundial casts no shadow, and the Bears (
Ursa Major
Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...
and
Ursa Minor
Ursa Minor (Latin: 'Lesser Bear', contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation located in the far northern sky. As with the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, h ...
) are not visible at night. In the furthest parts, the
pole star
A pole star or polar star is a star, preferably bright, nearly aligned with the axis of a rotating astronomical body.
Currently, Earth's pole stars are Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris), a bright magnitude-2 star aligned approximately with its ...
is not visible, and it is said that the shadows incline to the south.
India has many large and navigable rivers, which rise in the northern mountains, and flow through the plains. Many of these rivers merge into the
Ganges
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
, which is 30 stadia wide at its source, and runs from north to south. The Ganges empties into the ocean that forms the southern boundary of
Gandaridae (Gangadarai). The country of Gandaridae has the highest number and the largest elephants in India, because of which other nations are afraid of its strength, and no foreign king has been able to conquer it. Even
Alexander of Macedon, who subdued all of Asia and defeated all the other Indians, refrained from making war against Gandaridae when he learned that they had 4,000 war elephants.
The
Indus
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
also runs from north to south, and empties into the ocean. It has several navigable tributaries, the most notable ones being Hypanis, the
Hydaspes
The Jhelum River (/dʒʰeːləm/) is a river in the northern Indian subcontinent. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, to the Pakistani-administered territory of Kashmir, and then ...
, and the Acesines. (According to a passage of Diodorus traced to Megasthenes, Indus is the world's largest river after Nile. However, according to Arrian, Megasthenes as well as other writers wrote that Ganges is much larger than Indus.)
One peculiar river is the
Sillas, which originates from a fountain of the same name. Everything cast into this river sinks down to the bottom – nothing floats in it. In addition, there are a large number of other rivers, supplying abundant water for agriculture. According to the native philosophers and natural scientists, this is because the bordering countries (Scythia, Bactria, and Ariana) are more elevated than India, so their waters run down to India.
History
![Mauryan remains of wooden palissade at Bulandi Bagh site of Pataliputra ASIEC 1912-13](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Mauryan_remains_of_wooden_palissade_at_Bulandi_Bagh_site_of_Pataliputra_ASIEC_1912-13.jpg)
In the primitive times, the Indians lived on fruits and wore clothes made of animal skin, just like the Greeks. The most learned Indian scholars say that
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
invaded India, and conquered it. When his army was unable to bear the excessive heat, he led his soldiers to the mountains called Meros for recovery; this led to the Greek legend about Dionysus being bred in his father's thigh (''meros'' in Greek). Dionysus taught Indians several things including how to grow plants, make wine and worship. He founded several large cities, introduced laws and established courts. For this reason, he was regarded as a deity by the Indians. He ruled entire India for 52 years, before dying of old age. His descendants ruled India for several generations, before being dethroned and replaced by democratic city-states.
The Indians who inhabit the hill country also claim that
Herakles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...
was one of them. Like the Greeks, they characterize him with the club and the lion's skin. According to them, Herakles was a powerful man who subjugated evil beasts. He had several sons and one daughter, who became rulers in different parts of his dominion. He founded several cities, the greatest of which was Palibothra (
Pataliputra
Pataliputra (IAST: ), adjacent to modern-day Patna, was a city in ancient India, originally built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE as a small fort () near the Ganges river.. Udayin laid the foundation of the city of Pataliputra at the ...
). Herakles built several places in this city, fortified it with water-filled trenches and settled a number of people in the city. His descendants ruled India for several generations, but never launched an expedition beyond India. After several years, the royal rule was replaced by democratic city states, although there existed a few kings when Alexander invaded India.
Fauna
India has a variety of animals, many of which are exceptionally large and strong. India has the highest number of domesticated elephants, and Indians hunt and
trained them for warfare. Because of availability of a great amount of food, the Indian elephants are the largest in the world, and stronger than the
Libyan elephants. The gestation period of the elephants ranges from 16 to 18 months, and the oldest of the elephants live up to 200 years.
Economy
The land of India produces every kind of metal suitable for adornment, military requipment and other use. It has a great amount of silver and gold, a substantial amount of bronze and iron, and also tin and other metals.
India's has several mountains with a variety of fruit trees. It also has many beautiful cultivated plains, which are irrigated by a large number of rivers. Most of the country is well-watered, and is able to produce
two crops a year, since rain falls in both summer and winter. The major crops include wheat (crop of Demeter), millet, many great-quality pulses, rice, a crop called ''bosporos'', fruits and other plants that are useful as food. At the time of summer solstice, the following crops are sown: rice, ''bosporos'',
sesame
Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cu ...
, and millet. During winter, wheat is sown, as in other countries.
No famines have ever occurred in India because of the following reasons:
* The Indians are always assured of at least one of the two seasonal crops; in most years, both crops succeed
* A number of remarkably sweet fruits grow in wild, and
roots
A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients.
Root or roots may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...
grow in marshy places
* The food plants grow in abundance in plains because of water from many rivers, the remarkably regular annual rain cycle, and the heat that ripens the roots in the marshes
* The Indian warriors regard those engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry as sacred. Unlike warriors in many other countries, they do not destroy farms or harm farm workers during wars. The warriors do not burn down the enemy lands with fire or cut down their trees.
Food and clothing
Indian beverage is a liquor composed from rice instead of barley. When the Indians are at supper, a table is placed before each person, this being like a tripod. There is placed upon it golden bowls, into which they first put rice, boiled as one would boil barley, and then they add many dainties prepared according to Indian receipts. Indian never drink wine except in sacrifice.
In contrast to the general simplicity of their style, they love finery and ornament. Their robes are worked in gold, and ornamented with precious stones, and they wear also flowered garments made of the finest muslin. Some have attendants walking behind hold up umbrellas over them: for they have a high regard for beauty, and avail themselves of every device to improve their looks.
Society
Because of its large size, India is inhabited by many diverse races, all of which are indigenous. India has no foreign colony, and Indians have not established any colonies outside India.
Like its animals, the humans of India are also "exceptional in stature and bulk" because of abundance of crops. They are also technically accomplished, because of pure air and clean water. They are well-skilled in art.
A law, prescribed by ancient Indian philosophers, bans slavery. The law treats everyone equally, but allows the property to be unevenly distributed.
The population of India is divided into 7 endogamous and hereditary castes:
#
Philosophers
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
#* Not numerous compared to other castes, but most prominent
#* Exempted from all public duties
#* Neither masters, nor servants
#* "believed to be most dear to the gods, and to be the most conversant with matters pertaining to
Hades
Hades (; grc-gre, ᾍδης, Háidēs; ), in the ancient Greek religion and myth, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also ...
"
#* Engaged by others to offer sacrifices and perform funerary rites, for which they received valuable gifts and privileges
#* At the beginning of the year, they make prophecies about droughts, rain storms, propitious winds, diseases and other topics. Based on these prophecies, the citizens and the rulers make adequate preparations. A philosopher whose prophecy fails receives strong criticism and has to observe silence for the rest of his life, but otherwise incurs no penalty.
# Farmers
#* Most numerous of all castes
#* Live in villages, and avoid visiting towns
#* Exempted from fighting and other public duties
#* Regarded as public benefactors, and protected from damage during wars, even by enemy warriors
#* Pay a land tribute to the ruler, the official land owner
#* In addition, they remit 1/4th of their produce to the state treasury
#
Herder
A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. ...
s
#* Live in tents, outside villages and towns
#* Hunt and trap crop-destroying birds and animals
#* involved in animal husbandry
#
Artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
s
#* Create weapons as well as tools for farmers and others
#* Exempted from paying taxes, and receive a maintenance from the state exchequer
#
Military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
#* Second most numerous among the castes
#* Well-organized and equipped for war
#* Indulge in amusements and idleness during peaceful times
#* Maintained at state expense, along with war horses and elephants
# Overseers
#* Carry out administrative tasks
#* Report to the king or (in states not ruled by kings) magistrates
# Councillors and Assessors
#* Composed of wise people with good character
#* Deliberate on public affairs; included the royal advisers, state treasurers, dispute arbitrators; the army generals and chief magistrates also usually belonged to this class.
#* Least numerous, but most respected
Philosophy
Megasthenes makes a different division of the philosophers, saying that they are of two kinds - one of which he calls the
Brachmanes, and the other the
Sarmanes. Of the Sarmanes he tells us that those who are held in most honour are called the Hylobioi (
Gymnosophist
Gymnosophists ( grc, γυμνοσοφισταί, ''gymnosophistaí'', i.e. "naked philosophers" or "naked wise men" (from Greek γυμνός ''gymnós'' "naked" and σοφία ''sophía'' "wisdom")) is the name given by the Greeks to certain anc ...
). Next in honour to the Hylobioi are the
physicians
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
, since they are engaged in the study of the nature of man. Besides these there are diviners and sorcerers. Women pursue philosophy with some of them.
Megasthenes also comments on the presence of
pre-Socratic
Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of thes ...
views among the Brahmans in India and Jews in Syria. Five centuries later Clement of Alexandria, in his
Stromateis, may have misunderstood Megasthenes to be responding to claims of Greek primacy by admitting Greek views of ''physics'' were preceded by those of Jews and Indians. Megasthenes, like
Numenius of Apamea
Numenius of Apamea ( grc-gre, Νουμήνιος ὁ ἐξ Ἀπαμείας, ''Noumēnios ho ex Apameias''; la, Numenius Apamensis) was a Greek philosopher, who lived in Apamea in Syria and Rome, and flourished during the latter half of the 2 ...
, was simply comparing the ideas of the different ancient cultures.
Administration
The foreigners are treated well. Special officers are appointed to ensure that no foreigner is harmed, and judges hand out harsh punishment to those who take unfair advantage of the foreigners. Sick foreigners are attended by physicians and taken care of. Foreigners who die in India are buried, and their property is delivered to their relatives.
Historical reliability
Later writers such as
Arrian
Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; la, Lucius Flavius Arrianus; )
was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period.
''The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best ...
,
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
,
Diodorus
Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...
, and
Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
refer to ''Indika'' in their works. Of these writers, Arrian speaks most highly of Megasthenes, while Strabo and Pliny treat him with less respect.
The first century Greek writer Strabo called both Megasthenes and his succeeding ambassador
Deimachus
Deimachus or Daimachus (; grc, Δηΐμαχος or Δαΐμαχος) was a Greek from Plataeae, who lived during the third-century BCE. He became an ambassador to the court of the Mauryan ruler Bindusara "Amitragatha" (son of Chandragupta Mau ...
liars, and stated that "no faith whatever" could be placed in their writings. The ''Indika'' contained numerous fantastical stories, such as those about tribes of people with no mouths, unicorns and other mythical animals, and
gold-digging ant
The gold-digging ant is a mythical insect described in classical and medieval bestiaries. They were dog- or fox-sized ants that dug up gold in sandy areas. Some versions of the ''Physiologus'' said they came from Ethiopia, while Herodotus claimed ...
s.
Strabo directly contradicted these descriptions, assuring his readers that Megasthenes' stories, along with his recounting of India’s founding by Hercules and Dionysus, were mythical with little to no basis in reality.
[Strabo, Geography, Book XV, Chapter 1] Despite such shortcomings, some authors believe that ''Indika'' is creditworthy, and is an important source of information about the contemporary Indian society, administration and other topics.
According to
Paul J. Kosmin Paul J. Kosmin (born 1984) is a historian of the Hellenistic period, the centuries after the conquests of Alexander the Great that saw the spread of Greek culture and language across the Eastern Mediterranean and western Asia. His main focus is the ...
, ''Indica'' served a legitimizing purpose for
Seleucus I
Seleucus I Nicator (; ; grc-gre, Σέλευκος Νικάτωρ , ) was a Macedonian Greek general who was an officer and successor ( ''diadochus'') of Alexander the Great. Seleucus was the founder of the eponymous Seleucid Empire. In the pow ...
and his actions in India. It depicts contemporary India as an unconquerable territory, arguing that Dionysus was able to conquer India, because before his invasion, India was a primitive rural society. Dionysus' urbanization of India makes India a powerful, impregnable nation. The later ruler — the
Indian Herakles — is presented as a native of India, despite similarities with the
Greek Heracles. This, according to Kosmin, is because now India is shown as unconquerable. Megasthenes emphasizes that no foreign army had been able to conquer India (since Dionysus) and Indians had not invaded a foreign country either. This representation of India as an isolated, invincible country is an attempt to vindicate Seleucus' peace treaty with the Indian emperor through which he abandoned territories he could never securely hold, stabilized the East, and obtained elephants with which he could turn his attention against his great western rival, Antigonus Monophthalmus.
Megasthenes states that there were no slaves in India,but the ''
Arthashastra
The ''Arthashastra'' ( sa, अर्थशास्त्रम्, ) is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy and military strategy. Kautilya, also identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, is ...
'' attests to the existence of slavery in contemporary India; Strabo also counters Megasthenes's claim based on a report from
Onesicritus
Onesicritus ( el, Ὀνησίκριτος; c. 360 BC – c. 290 BC), a Greek historical writer and Cynic philosopher, who accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns in Asia. He claimed to have been the commander of Alexander's fleet but w ...
. Historian Shireen Moosvi theorizes that slaves were outcastes, and were not considered members of the society at all. According to historian
Romila Thapar
Romila Thapar (born 30 November 1931) is an Indian historian. Her principal area of study is ancient India, a field in which she is pre-eminent. Quotr: "The pre-eminent interpreter of ancient Indian history today. ... " Thapar is a Professor ...
, the lack of sharp distinction between slaves and others in the Indian society (unlike the
Greek society
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
) may have confused Megasthenes: Indians did not use large-scale slavery as a means of production, and slaves in India could buy back their freedom or be released by their master.
Megasthenes mentions seven castes in India, while the Indian texts mention only four social classes (
varnas). According to Thapar, Megasthenes' categorization appears to be based on economic divisions rather than the social divisions; this is understandable because the varnas originated as economic divisions. Thapar also speculates that he wrote his account some years after his visit to India, and at this time, he "arrived at the number seven, forgetting the facts as given to him". Alternatively, it is possible that the later authors misquoted him, trying to find similarities with the Egyptian society, which according to
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
was divided into seven social classes.
Megasthenes claims that before Alexander, no foreign power had invaded or conquered Indians, with the exception of the mythical heroes Hercules and Dionysus. However, it is known from earlier sources – such as
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
and the inscriptions of
Darius the Great
Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...
– that the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...
included parts of north-western part of India (present-day Pakistan). It is possible that the Achaemenid control did not extend much beyond the Indus River, which Megasthenes considered to be the border of India. Another possibility is that Megasthenes intended to understate the power of the Achaemenid Empire, a rival of the Greeks.
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{{Authority control
Historiography of India
History books about India
3rd-century BC history books
Texts in Ionic Greek
Ancient Greek works
Works about legendary creatures