India (Herodotus)

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The inhabited world according to Herodotus

In

Asia Minor (western and central Turkey) were already part of the Achaemenid Empire since 546 BC and, thus, the Greeks and Indians came into contact with each other as subjects of the Empire.[1]

Background

According to Herodotus 4.44, Scylax of Caryanda, a Greek explorer sailed down the length of the Indus in the service of Darius. Hecataeus of Miletus, around 500 BC, wrote about the geography and peoples of "India", as did the Greek physician Ctesias. Most of these works have not survived in their original form but fragments are known through transmission by later writers. Not only individual Greeks, but also large groups of Greeks were forced to settle in Bactria (northern Afghanistan), who must have had prolonged contact with Indians. Herodotus's account is believed to be based on these accounts.[1]

Description

The Greeks (or Persians) were not aware of the geography of India (or Asia in general) east of the

Indus basin. Herodotus in 4.40 uses the term "India" for the Indus basin, and describes it as being on the eastern fringe of the inhabitable world,[2]

"As far as India, Asia is an inhabited land; but thereafter, all to the east is desolation, nor can anyone say what kind of land is there." (trans. A. D. Godley 1920)

But he knew of Indians (Hindwan) living beyond the Persian province of Hinduš (3.101):[3]

"These Indians dwell far away from the Persians southwards, and were no subjects of King Darius." (trans. A. D. Godley 1920)

In book 3 (3.89-97), Herodotus gives some account of the peoples of India; he describes them as being very diverse, and makes reference to their dietary habits, some eating

skin colour
.

"The tribes of Indians are numerous, and they do not all speak the same language—some are wandering tribes, others not. They who dwell in the marshes along the river live on raw fish, which they take in boats made of reeds, each formed out of a single joint. These Indians wear a dress of sedge, which they cut in the river and bruise; afterwards they weave it into mats, and wear it as we wear a breast-plate. Eastward of these Indians are another tribe, called
Caspatyrus, and the country of Pactyica; these people dwell northward of all the rest of the Indians, and follow nearly the same mode of life as the Bactrians. They are more warlike than any of the other tribes, and from them the men are sent forth who go to procure the gold. For it is in this part of India that the sandy desert lies. Here, in this desert, there live amid the sand great ants
, in size somewhat less than dogs, but bigger than foxes. [...]" (trans. Rawlinson)

In 3.38, Herodotus mentions the Indian tribe of the Callatiae for their practice of

Xerxes' army.[citation needed
]

As the western travellers went into the rest of the subcontinent through the original "India", the name was gradually extended to the inner regions. By the time of Alexander the Great, at least northern India up to the Ganges delta was known, the regions being referred to as Gangaridai (Ganges country) and Prasii/Prasioi (from Sanskrit prācya, the east), all included in "India".[3][4] After

Pandya country).[3]

By the 3rd century BC,

Indian Subcontinent). Eratosthenes was also the first Greek author to postulate an island Taprobane at the far south of India, later becoming a name of Sri Lanka. European knowledge of the geography of India did not become much better resolved until the end of Antiquity, and remained at this stage throughout the Middle Ages, only becoming more detailed with the beginning of the Age of Sail
in the 15th century.

See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

References

  1. ^ a b de Jong, The Discovery of India by the Greeks (1973), p. 116–117.
  2. ^ Mukherjee, Nationhood and Statehood in India (2001), pp. 3–4: 'The lower Indus country was thus the original "India" ('Indoi).'.
  3. ^ a b c Mukherjee, Nationhood and Statehood in India (2001), pp. 3–4.
  4. ^ Eggermont, Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan (1975), pp. 13–14: "Accordingly, having inquired of Phegeus what he needed to know, he learned that beyond the river there was a journey of 12 days through desert wastes and that then they came to the Ganges, the greatest river of all India, and that on its farther bank dwelt the races called Gangaridae and Prasii; that their king was Aggrammes and that he was blocking the roads with 20,000 cavalry and 200,000 infantry".

Bibliography

  • de Jong (1973), "The Discovery of India by the Greeks", Asiatische Studien, 27: 115–142
  • Eggermont, Pierre Herman Leonard (1975), Alexander's Campaigns in Sind and Baluchistan and the Siege of the Brahmin Town of Harmatelia, Peeters Publishers,
    ISBN 978-90-6186-037-2
  • ISBN 978-81-87498-26-1

External links
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