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APRIL, 1877.]
Dr. Goldstücker has also misunderstood the sense of the sttra प्रधानप्रत्ययार्थवचनमर्थस्यान्यप्रमाण
THE INDIKA OF MEGASTHENES.
which is thus explained in the Kaumudt: प्रत्ययार्थः प्रधानमित्येवंरूपं वचनमप्यशिष्यम् । कुतः | अर्थस्य i.e. "the saying that the sense of a termination is the principal sense of a word (and that that of the base is attributively joined to it) should not be taught. Why? Because the sense [of a word] is to be gathered from, or is established by, usage." We do not know whence Dr. Goldstücker brings in the idea of a compound and its "principal part" in his translation. We do not think it necessary to enter at greater length into the explanation of the sútra in this place.
THE FRAGMENTS OF THE INDIKA OF MEGASTHENES. Collected by Dr. E. A. Schwanbeck: Bonn, 1846.
TRANSLATED BY J. W. MCCRINDLE, M.A., GOVERNMENT COLLEGE, PATNA. INTRODUCTION.
India to the Ancient Greeks, even till a comparatively late period in their history, was all but a terra incognita. It is scarcely so much as mentioned by name in their greatest poets, whether epic, lyric, or dramatic. They did not, in fact, become distinctly aware of its existence till the time of the Persian wars. The first historian who speaks clearly of it is Hekataios of Miletos (B.c. 549486), and fuller accounts are preserved in Herodotos and in the remains of his contemporary Ktêsias, who having lived for some years in Persia as private physician to king Artaxerxes Mnemon, collected materials during his stay for a treatise on India, the first work on the subject written in the Greek language. His descriptions were, unfortunately, vitiated by a large intermixture of fable, and it was left to the followers of Alexander to give to the Western world for the first time fairly accurate accounts of the country and its inhabitants. The great conqueror, it is well known, carried men of learning with him to chronicle his achievements, and describe the countries to which he might carry his arms, and among his officers there were some who could wield the pen as well as the sword. Hence the expedition produced quite a crop of narratives and memoirs relating to India, such as those of Baeto, Diognetos, Nearchos, Onesikritos, Aristoboulos, and Kallisthenês. These works are all lost, but their substance is to be found condensed in Strabo, Plinius, and Arrianus. Subsequent to these writers were some others, who made considerable additions to the stock of information regarding India, as Dêimachos, who resided for a long time in Palibothra, whither he was sent on an embassy by Seleukos to Allitrocha
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We must here close our remarks; our space does not admit of a more lengthened notice, at least for the present. We hope our observations will be calmly and patiently attended to by European Sanskritists.... In several cases, though not in all native students of Sanskrit have a greater right to be listened to than Europeans. We are also desirous that these few remarks should not give pain to Dr. Goldstücker, who, especially by his articles on our religious difficulties published in the Westminster Review, has shown himself to be our decided friend, who sympathizes with our fallen condition, and is ready to help us by his friendly advice in our race towards a brighter future.
dês, the successor of Sandra kottos; as Patroklês, the admiral of Seleukos, who thought that India could be circumnavigated, and who is called by Strabo the least mendacious of all writers concerning India; as Timosthenês, admiral of the fleet of Ptolemaios Philadelphos, and author of a work on harbours; and, lastly, as Megasthenês, whose work on India was the principal source whence succeeding writers drew their accounts of the country. This work, which appears to have been entitled rà 'Ivoixà, no longer exists, but it has been so often abridged and quoted by the ancient writers that we have a fair knowledge of the nature and arrangement of its contents. Schwanbeck, with great industry and learning, has collected all the fragments that have been anywhere preserved, and has prefixed to the collection an Introduction in Latin, the contents of which he has exhibited under the following heads :I. De cognitione Indiæ, qualis ante Megasthenem apud Græcos fuerit.
II. De Megasthene :
1. De Indico Megasthenis itinere.
2. De Indicis Megasthenis, eorumque argumento. 3. De fide Megasthenis, auctoritate et pretio. III. De Scriptoribus eis qui post Megasthenem de Indiâ scripserint.
From this Introduction, and from another, written also in Latin, by C. Müller, the editor of the Geographi Græci Minores, the following extracts are translated.
Megasthenes was sent, as is well known, by Seleukos Nikator, on an embassy to Sandrakottos (Chandragupta), king of the Pra sii, whose capital was Palibothra. Our first extract (from Müller) throws light on the relations which existed between these two sovereigns, and also on the
