Discovery Of India By Greeks

SR No.: 269274
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong
Total Pages: 28
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 15

THE DISCOVERY OF INDIA BY THE GREEKS 129 Since 1846 when Schwanbeck edited the fragments of Megasthenes, he has been much studied by many classical and Indological scholars. The value of his information has been judged in different ways. I have mentioned already Miss Timmer's opinion which dates from 1930. One of the recent classical scholars who have studied 'The Reliability of Megasthenes' is Truesdell S. Brown 34 who arrives more or less at the same conclusions as Miss Timmer but who stresses the fact that Megasthenes has used Greek sources. A Russian Indologist who recently published several studies on the Mauryan empire and made much use of Megasthenes, G.M. Bongard-Levin, has the following remarks to make as to Megasthenes' reliability: ‘Megasthenes correctly described certain actually existing ancient Indian governmental and social institutions and succeeded in grasping the specific administrative features of the Mauryàn empire. This allows us to have greater confidence in other statements by Megasthenes that so far have no parallels in ancient Indian records. Further investigations will provide defence' for more than one assertion by Megasthenes 35. Let us take leave of Megasthenes on this optimistic note and hope that a comprehensive up-to-date study of him will be undertaken by competent Indological scholars.
Megasthenes is undoubtedly the most important classical writer on India. Other authors do not add very much of importance. One will find a good collection of the writings of classical authors in a book The Classical Accounts of India, published in 1960 by R. C. Majumdar with the
g together in one volume all the classical texts that throw any light on Indian history and culture. Majumdar has excluded the accounts of Ktesias and the stories of fabulous races, or of birds and animals and sundry other topics of this nature. However, by including only the useful classical texts, Majumdar has not enabled us to see the
34. AJPh, LXXVI, 1955, pp. 18-33.
35. G.M. Bongard-Levin, Megasthenes' 'Indica' and the Inscriptions of Asoka, Moscow, 1960, pp. 17–18; also published in Indian studies, Past and present, 1961, no. 3; cf. also his : Nekotorye osobennosti gosudarstvennogo ustrojstva imperii Maur'ev, Istoria i Kultura drevnej Indii, Moskva, 1963, pp. 18-19.