Ancient Historians of Ancient India



Ancient Historians of Ancient India

N.S. Gill
 Ancient / Classical History



Accompanying Alexander the Great when he advanced to the Indus Valley and confronted Porus and his elephants were men who wrote down what they saw. From then on, ancient India was no longer an unknown to the Greeks. It's not that no Westerner had gone that far east before, but it was rare. Most of what we know about the ancient Indus Valley civilization before the Macedonian invasion comes from the religious literature and archaeology. In terms of the religious literature, there is, notably, the Rig Veda, and in terms of archaeological finds, much has been learned from Harappa. But decent, if not entirely accurate, written history and geography of what is now India and Pakistan was available in the West from the time of Alexander the Great's conquests. Even before Alexander's invasion (327-324 B.C.) there were historical or quasi-historical accounts in Greece, and one of the Greek authors had even been to India.

The Ionian Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus, author of a description of the earth, wrote about India in about 500 B.C. A Skylax of Karyanda in Caria (512-486), who had actually been on the subcontinent, wrote a geographical account of an expedition following the Indus from its headwaters to its mouth [Source: Greeks in India Before Alexander]. The foremost of the ancient historical accounts of ancient India was the "father of history," the imaginative Herodotus. He was another Ionian Greek, from Halicarnassus, modern Bodrum, Turkey, home of the famous queen Artemisia who commanded a naval squadron, in 480, under the Persian king Xerxes, in the Greco-Persian Wars of the fifth century B.C. A passage from Book III of Herodotus's history describes the people of India:

"For in fact even if a man has come to old age they slay him and feast upon him; but very few of them come to be reckoned as old, for they kill every one who falls into sickness, before he reaches old age. Other Indians have on the contrary a manner of life as follows:--they neither kill any living thing nor do they sow any crops nor is it their custom to possess houses; but they feed on herbs, and they have a grain of the size of millet, in a sheath, which grows of itself from the ground; this they gather and boil with the sheath, and make it their food: and whenever any of them falls into sickness, he goes to the desert country and lies there, and none of them pay any attention either to one who is dead or to one who is sick."

Another Greek writer of Indian history was Ktesias of Knidos (405-397) who served as a doctor to a Persian king and met Indian officials while so employed. These sources do not provide us with even a reasonably accurate picture of ancient India. For that we need to look at the accounts provided by Alexander the Great's adventures on the Indian subcontinent.

Alexander didn't conquer very much of the Indian sub-continent, but he did reach the Indus River and defeated King Porus on the River Hydaspes. Many men accompanied Alexander, and wrote about him and the conquered lands. Some went to India with Alexander; others around the same time. For us, such men are important because they provided resources for later writers, not as historians in their own right. Ptolemy, of course, is important for other reasons, as well. [The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great As Described by Arrian Q. Curtius Diodoros Plutarch and Juston, by J. W. McCrindle (1893)] lists them:

1. Ptolemy, future ruler of Egypt as Ptolemy Soter and ancestor of Cleopatra.

2. Aristoboulos of Potidaia, (Kassandreia or Κασσάνδρεια).

3. Nearchos (born in Crete), fleet commander sent by Alexander to scout the coastline between the Indus River and the Persian Gulf. [See Early Sources for Ancient Indian History for information on Nearchos and Megasthenes.]

4. Onesikritos of Astypalaia or Aegina, who went with Nearchus and wrote a book about it and India.

"Shortly afterwards Nearchus and Onesicritus arrived, the men whom Alexander had instructed to proceed some way into the Ocean. They brought reports based partly on hearsay and partly on their own observation. There was an island lying at the mouth of the river, they said, which was rich in gold but without horses.... The sea was full of monsters, they claimed, brought in on the incoming tide, their bodies the size of large ships."

Curtius Rufus, Histories of Alexander the Great, Book 10 By Quintus Curtius Rufus, J. E. Atkinson, John Yardley

5. Eumenes of Kardia, Alexander's secretary, wrote an Ephemerides.

6. Chares of Mitylene, wrote about Alexander's private life.

7. Kallisthenes of Olynthos.

8. Kleitarchos (Clitarchus) of Rhodes, wrote a life of Alexander.

9. Androsthenes of Thasos wrote a Paraplus.

10. Polykleitos of Larissa, wrote a history of Alexander with geographical details.

11. Kyrsilos of Pharsalos.

12. Anaximenes of Lampsakos.

13. Diognetos measured and recorded the distances of Alexander's marches.

14. Archelaos, a geographer.

I5. Amyntas, wrote about Alexander's Stathmoi, i.e. stages or halting-places.

16. Patrokles, a writer on geography.

17. Megasthenes, wrote an Indika and is probably the most valuable of these writers, followed by Strabo, Arrian, Pliny the Elder, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and Justinus.

18. Deimachos, author of a work on India in two books.

19. Diodotos of Erythrai, wrote an Ephemerides, and may have been in India.

These primary sources are available to us through secondary sources, ancient Greek and Roman historians inlcuding Strabo, Orosius, and the elder Pliny, but especially:

1. Arrian of Nicomedia

2. Quintus Curtius Rufus

3. Diodorus Siculus

4. Plutarch and

5. Justin

Another ancient account of India comes from:

Marcus Junianus Justinus on the Indian Subcontinent

Name: Justinus Frontinus or Marcus Junianus Justinus


Dates: Unknown. He wrote after Trogus who lived at the time of Augustus


Birthplace: Unknown.

Justinus Frontinus or Marcus Junianus Justinus, who is known as Justin, wrote an epitome (abridged version) of an enormous work called Historiae philippicae et totius mundi origines et terrae situs, by the Augustan era historian Pompeius Trogus. It is on the topic of Macedonian history, or, as Trogus calls it, "Philippic history," as in Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. Justin's epitome is called Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV. The epitome contains details on the first historical Indian emperor, Chandragupta (Sandrakottos, Androkottos), who ruled 322-298 B.C., and founded of the Mauryan Dynasty, according to Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, by Radhakumud Mookerji (1966).

The following passage from Justin (Trogus) is about the battle between Alexander the Great and the Indian king whom the Greeks called Porus, who lost to the Macedonian despite his impressive stock of terrifying war elephants. Porus, after surrendering to Alexander, became his ally.

"There was one of the kings of India, named Porus, equally distinguished for strength of body and vigour of mind, who, hearing of the fame of Alexander, had been for some time before preparing for war against his arrival. Coming to battle with him, accordingly, he directed his soldiers to attack the rest of the Macedonians, but desired that their king should be reserved as an antagonist for himself. Nor did Alexander decline the contest; but his horse being wounded in the first shock, he fell headlong to the ground, and was saved by his guards gathering round him. Porus, covered with a number of wounds, was made prisoner, and was so grieved at being defeated, that when his life was granted him by the enemy, he would neither take food nor suffer his wounds to be dressed, and was scarcely at last prevailed upon to consent to live. Alexander, from respect to his valour, sent him back in safety to his kingdom. Here he founded two cities, one called Nicaea, and the other, from the name of his horse, Bucephale."

Justinus - Epitome

[The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great As Described by Arrian Q. Curtius Diodoros Plutarch and Justin, by J. W. McCrindle (1893)]

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