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| Megasthenes | |
|---|---|
| Μεγασθένης | |
| Died | c. 290 BCE |
| Occupation(s) | Historian and diplomat |
| Notable work | Indica |
Megasthenes (/mɪˈɡæsθɪniːz/ mi-GAS-thi-neez; Ancient Greek: Μεγασθένης, died c. 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, indologist, diplomat, ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book Indica, which is now lost, but has been partially reconstructed from literary fragments found in later authors that quoted his work. Megasthenes was the first person from the Western world to leave a written description of India.
Biography
While Megasthenes's account of India has survived in the later works, little is known about him as a person. He spent time at the court of Sibyrtius, who was a satrap of Arachosia under Antigonus I and then Seleucus I. Megasthenes was then an ambassador for Seleucid king Seleucus I Nicator and to the court of the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra (modern Patna). Dating for his journey to the Mauryan court is uncertain; Seleucus I reigned from 305 to 281 BCE for the loose range of years that Megasthenes' mission might have begun.
Assessment
Among the ancient writers, Arrian (2nd century CE) is the only one who speaks favorably of Megasthenes. Diodorus (1st century BCE) quotes Megasthenes while omitting some parts of his narratives. Other writers explicitly criticize Megasthenes:
- Eratosthenes (2nd century BCE) accuses Megasthenes of engaging in falsehood, although he apparently borrowed much of his content about India from Megasthenes.
- Strabo (1st century CE) calls Megasthenes a liar for writing fabulous stories about India; he also brands as liars the other earlier writers on India, including Deimachus, Onesicritus, Nearchus. According to Strabo, "no faith whatever can be placed in Deimachos and Megasthenes".
- Pliny the Elder (1st century CE) criticizes Megasthenes's description of the fabulous races of India, and his account of Herakles and Dionysus.
Modern scholars such as E. A. Schwanbeck, B. C. J. Timmer, and Truesdell Sparhawk Brown, have characterized Megasthenes as a generally reliable source of Indian history. Schwanbeck finds faults only with Megasthenes's description of the gods worshipped in India. Brown is more critical of Megasthenes, but notes that Megasthenes visited only a small part of India, and must have relied on others for his observations: some of these observations seem to be erroneous, but others cannot be ignored by modern researchers. Thus, although he was often misled by the erroneous information provided by others, his work remained the principal source of information about India to subsequent writers.
See also
References
- Patel., Aakar (8 August 2020). "Hercules lived here: Megasthenes's 'Indika'". The Hindu.
- Stoneman, R. The Greek Experience of India (Princeton, 2019), p129
- Roller, Duane W., "Megasthenes (715)", in: Brill’s New Jacoby, General Editor: Ian Worthington (Macquarie University). First published online: 2016
- ^ N. S. Kalota 1978, p. 26.
- ^ N. S. Kalota 1978, p. 27.
- ^ Allan Dahlaquist 1996, p. 27.
- Allan Dahlaquist 1996, p. 9.
- Allan Dahlaquist 1996, p. 29.
Bibliography
- Allan Dahlaquist (1996). Megasthenes and Indian Religion: A Study in Motives and Types. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-1323-6.
- N. S. Kalota (1978). India as Described by Megasthenes. Concept.
- Kosmin, Paul J. (2014), The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in Seleucid Empire, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-72882-0
- U. P. Arora (1982), "Plagiarism and prejudices in Megasthenes's Indica", Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 43, Indian History Congress: 171–180, JSTOR 44141228
- Kosmin, Paul J. (2013). "Apologetic Ethnography: Megasthenes' Indica and the Seleucid Elephant". In Eran Almagor, Joseph Skinner (ed.). Ancient Ethnography: New Approaches. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472537607.
Further reading
- Harry Falk (1982). Die sieben "Kasten" des Megasthenes (in German).
- Shri Ram Goyal (2001). India as Known to Kauṭilya and Megasthenes. Kusumanjali Book World.
- Stoneman, Richard (2017). "How the hoopoe got his crest: reflections on Megasthenes' stories of India". In Stoneman, Richard (ed.). Ancient Historiography on War and Empire. Oxbow Books. pp. 188–99. ISBN 978-1-78570-299-0. JSTOR j.ctt1kw2b3r.
- Stoneman, Richard (2019). The Greek experience of India: from Alexander to the Indo-Greeks. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University press. ISBN 978-0-691-15403-9.
External links
- Fragments of Indika, as reconstructed from later accounts
- Ancient India as described by Arrian based on accounts by Megasthenes
- Ancient Greek geographers
- Ancient Anatolian Greeks
- Hellenistic-era people
- Historians of India
- Greek Indologists
- Ancient Greek explorers
- Ancient Greek ambassadors
- Ancient Greece–Ancient India relations
- Explorers of India
- 4th-century BC Greek people
- 3rd-century BC Greek people
- 4th-century BC historians
- 3rd-century BC historians
- 4th-century BC geographers
- 3rd-century BC geographers
- Ancient explorers
- 4th-century BC births
- 3rd-century BC deaths