INDIAN HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Indika (Greek: ; Latin: Indica ) is an account of Mauryan India by the Greek writer Megasthenes. 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, Strabo (Geographica), Pliny, and Arrian (Indica).

Detailed explanation-2: -Megasthenes, an ambassador of a Greek king was in the court of Chandragupta Maurya who documented the life during that time in his book Indica.

Detailed explanation-3: -Megasthenes stayed in Pataliputra, the Mauryan Empire’s capital, and composed a book named ‘Indica’. He wrote about his impressions of the Mauryan Empire and their vast political arrangements in this book.

Detailed explanation-4: -Modern scholars such as E. A. Schwanbeck, B. C. J. Timmerhave characterized Megasthenes as a generally reliable source of Indian history.

Detailed explanation-5: -Megasthenes’s work, Indika, is available to us only through its quoted portions in other works but it is the best source for the India of 2, 300 years ago. Megasthenes describes India as a quadrilateral, with seas on both sides, many large rivers and huge mountains-a very accurate description of our country.