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Old Tamil Cahkam literature and the so-called Cankam period1. Herman Tieken

1. Instituut Kern University of Leiden, The Netherlands

Abstract

The reconstruction of the early history of Tamilnadu has been based mainly on the so- called Cankam poetry. This poetry is

generally taken to provide descriptions of Tamilnadu by contemporary poets during the period before the rise of the Pallavas and theintroduction of Sanskrit culture in the South. However, the argument is basically circular, that is to say, Cankam poetry is datedbefore the Pallavas because it does not mention the Pallavas and describes a purely indigenous culture which is hardly touched by

Sanskrit culture. In the present article it will be argued that Cankam poetry does not describe a contemporary soci ety or the poets'own culture, but a society from the past, or life in small, primitive villages which are far removed from the poets' own cosmopolitanmilieu. This means that Cankam poetry is to be dated after the period it describes. On closer consideration, we appear to be dealing

with certain literary genres borrowed from the North Indian Kvya tradition, more in particular with compositions which are typicallynot written in Sanskrit but in Prkrit or Apabhrama. In Cankam literature, the regional Tamil language has been assigned the role ofa Prkrit. This use of Tamil we otherwise meet in the inscriptions of the Pntiyas of the eighth or ninth century and only in the

inscriptions of that dynasty. This suggests that Cankam poetry was composed by the same poets who were responsible for theVelvikudi and Dalavaypuram inscriptions of the Pntiyas. As such, it is no longer possible to use this poetry for the reconstruction ofthe early history of Tamilnadu. On the other hand, Cankam poetry does supply interesting material for the study of the cultural

politics of a newly arisen regional dynasty in eighth-century South India.

Volume 26 - Issue 14 :: Jul. 04-17,

2009

INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE

from the publishers of THE HINDU

Conte

nts

HERITAGE

Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions are the onlyrecord of old Tamil

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN

Interview with scholar Iravatham Mahadevan.

R. RAGU

Iravatham Mahadevan: "It is a tragedy that cave

inscriptions are being vandalised."


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IRAVATHAM MAHADEVAN, an administrator-turned-scholar,has done acclaimed work on the Tamil-Brahmi and Indus

scripts. His Early Tamil Epigraphy (From the Earliest Timesto the Sixth Century A.D.), which was published in 2003, is

the fruit of 40 years of dedicated work on Tamil-Brahmiinscriptions. His earlier workCorpus of Tamil-Brahmi

inscriptions created a wave of exploration for Tamil-Brahmi

inscriptions. Mahadevan received the Jawaharlal NehruFellowship in 1970 for research on the Indus script and wasawarded the National Fellowship of the Indian Council of

Historical Research in 1992 for his work on Tamil-Brahmiinscriptions. He has also authored The Indus Script: Texts,

Concordance and Tables. He received the Padma Shri thisyear. Excerpts from an interview Mahadevan

gaveFrontline on Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions and their placein history:

Tamil-Brahmi sites near Madurai are facing

destruction owing to granite quarrying in the hills in

which they are found. The Jaina sculptures and beds

situated adjacent to these are being vandalised. What

is the relevance of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in Indian

history?

Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions are important not only in the

history of Tamil Nadu and the rest of South India but for thewhole country. They have many unique distinctions. They

are the oldest writings in any Dravidian language. They arealso the oldest Jaina inscriptions in India. I believe that the

Mankulam Tamil-Brahmi inscription of [Pandyan king]Nedunchezhiyan is older than the Karavela inscription at

Udayagiri in Orissa.

Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions are the only record of the old

Tamil, the one prior to Sangam poetry. Many Tamil-Brahmiinscriptions are important landmarks in our history. For

example, the inscriptions of Nedunchezhiyan at Mankulam,

the Irumporai inscriptions at Pugalur near Karur and theJambai inscription of Adhiyaman Neduman Anji link the

Sangam age with the Tamil-Brahmi age. It is the Jambaiinscription that prove that the Satyaputo mentioned by

Asoka was none other than the Adhiyaman dynasty, whichruled from Tagadur, modern Dharmapuri.

Recently, Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions have been found onhero stones in the upper Vaigai valley near megalithic

graves, thus providing a link, for the first time, between themegalithic and the early historical periods of Tamil Nadu.

The Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions occurring on coins, rings,potsherds and seals add another dimension to the history of

Tamil Nadu. For example, the Pandyan coin of Peruvazhuthior the silver portrait coins of Cheras. There are also

numerous gold, silver and bronze rings of merchants andnoblemen from the prosperous trading town of Karur of theSangam age. Again, recently, excavations at Pattanam in

Kerala have brought to light the remains of the ancient andfamous Sangam age port of Musiri, known as Muziris to the

classical historians of the West. These facts demonstrate theimportance of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions to our history.

It is, therefore, a great tragedy that the cave inscriptions ofTamil-Brahmi and Jaina sculptures [and beds] are being

systematically vandalised by ignorant tourists and destroyed


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by granite quarries. It is impossible to stop quarrying

because of vested interests and the money power and themuscle power at their disposal. Already, in my lifetime,

many Tamil-Brahmi cave inscriptions have been lost or havebeen damaged severely. I understand from scholars

undertaking recent field work that the destruction is nowproceeding much faster. It is sad that the public are

indifferent [to this], and the State government and the

Central government are helpless to stop this wantondestruction of our cultural heritage. Perhaps all the Tamil-Brahmi cave inscriptions will disappear within a decade.

The only consolation I have is that a serious attempt torecord whatever remains by means of video photography

and digitisation has been made by the classical Tamil projectauthorities. In Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the Earliest

Times to the Sixth Century A.D., I had anticipated this

disastrous development and I had pleaded for greaterawareness of our cultural heritage and more purposeful

steps for their conservation. What I did not expect was thatthe destruction would be so swift and so colossal. I can only

shed tears at whatever has been lost as, frankly, I am nothopeful that whatever remains will be saved.

Do you think there has been a dereliction of duty on

the part of the Archaeological Survey of India and the

Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department?

Tamil-Brahmi inscription at Kongarpuliyankulam near

Madurai.

I do not think that the ASI or the Tamil Nadu ArchaeologyDepartment has been effective in preventing the vandalismand destruction. I think that part of the problem is that the

ASI and the Archaeology Department are headed by IAS

officers who come and go at short intervals. They are notscholars and have little interest in the academic andintellectual work of the department under them. It is time

the government of India and the State governmentrecruited scholars of international repute by invitation to

head the ASI and the State Archaeology Department for afixed tenure.

Personally, I think it is also tragic that the original

estampages of thousands of inscriptions from Tamil Naduare stored in the Epigraphy Branch of the ASI in Mysore, out


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of reach for researchers in the State. Originally, the office of

the Government Epigraphist was at Udhagamandalam. Sincethe vast majority of inscriptions are in Tamil and in Tamil

Nadu, the Epigraphy Branch of the ASI should haveremained in Tamil Nadu. The State government did nothing

to retain the office in Tamil Nadu. We can at least think ofdigitising the ink impressions available in Mysore and store

them in Chennai, Tiruchi and Madurai for easy access to

local scholars. There is very little coordination between theArchaeology Department and the universities, especially inTamil Nadu. A recent, glaring example is that the ASI, while

excavating at Adichanallur, claimed to have discovered aTamil-Brahmi pottery inscription of antiquity. But no

epigraphist from Tamil Nadu outside the ArchaeologyDepartment was allowed access to it. I am now told that the

inscription never existed or has disappeared. There is noother recorded instance of Tamil-Brahmi inscription being

found but erased owing to exposure to atmosphere if thatindeed is the case.

What steps should be taken to protect the Tamil-

Brahmi sites?

Just as sand quarrying is destroying the water wealth,granite quarrying is destroying the cultural wealth of Tamil

Nadu. I am not hopeful, considering the money involved,that anything can be done to stop the destruction in either

case in the near future. To tell you the truth, I dont believeanything will be done.

The small Jaina community in Tamil Nadu is unhappy thatthe ancient Jaina cave inscriptions are being destroyed but

they are powerless to stop it as the number of Jainas in theState is so small that they do not command enough votes

You have pricked my conscience.

Herodotus is considered by many to be the father of historical studies

in the Western tradition. His history of the war between the Persian

Empire and the Greek city-states was written about 430 BC. The

following excerpt is a description of India.

Chronologies

Hellenic Greece

III.98: The way in which the Indians get the plentiful supply of gold whichenables them to furnish year by year so vast an amount of gold-dust to thekind is the following: Eastward of India lies a tract which is entirely sand.

Indeed of all the inhabitants of Asia, concerning whom anything certain isknown, the Indians dwell the nearest to the east, and the rising of the sun.Beyond them the whole country is desert on account of the sand. The tribes ofIndians are numerous, and they do not all speak the same language--someare wandering tribes, others not. They who dwell in the marshes along theriver live on raw fish, which they take in boats made of reeds, each formed outof a single joint. These Indians wear a dress of sedge, which they cut in the


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river and bruise; afterwards they weave it into mats, and wear it as we wear abreast-plate.

III.99: Eastward of these Indians are another tribe, called Padaeans, who arewanderers, and live on raw flesh. This tribe is said to have the following

customs: If one of their number be ill, man or woman, they take the sickperson, and if he be a man, the men of his acquaintance proceed to put him todeath, because, they say, his flesh would be spoilt for them if he pined andwasted away with sickness. The man protests he is not ill in the least; but hisfriends will not accept his denial--in spite of all he can say, they kill him, andfeast themselves on his body. So also if a woman be sick, the women, whoare her friends, take her and do with her exactly the same as the men. If oneof them reaches to old age, about which there is seldom any question, ascommonly before that time they have had some disease or other, and so havebeen put to death--but if a man, notwithstanding, comes to be old, then theyoffer him in sacrifice to their gods, and afterwards eat his flesh.

III.100: There is another set of Indians whose customs are very different. Theyrefuse to put any live animal to death, they sow no corn, and have nodwelling-houses. Vegetables are their only food. There is a plant which growswild in their country, bearing seed, about the size of millet-seed, in a calyx:their wont is to gather this seed and having boiled it, calyx and all, to use it forfood. If one of them is attacked with sickness, he goes forth into thewilderness, and lies down to die; no one has the least concern either for thesick or for the dead.

III.101:All the tribes which I have mentioned live together like the brutebeasts: they have also all the same tint of skin, which approaches that of theEthiopians. Their country is a long way from Persia towards the south, nor hadking Darius ever any authority over them.

III.102: Besides these, there are Indians of another tribe, who border on thecity of Caspatyrus, and the country of Pactyica; these people dwell northwardof all the rest of the Indians, and follow nearly the same mode of life as theBactrians. They are more warlike than any of the other tribes, and from themthe men are sent forth who go to procure the gold. For it is in this part of Indiathat the sandy desert lies. Here, in this desert, there live amid the sand greatants, in size somewhat less than dogs, but bigger than foxes. The Persianking has a number of them, which have been caught by the hunters in theland whereof we are speaking. Those ants make their dwellings under ground,and like the Hellene ants, which they very much resemble in shape, throw upsand-heaps as they burrow. Now the sand which they throw up is full of gold.


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The Indians, when they go into the desert to collect this sand, take threecamels and harness them together, a female in the middle and a male oneither side, in a leading-rein. The rider sits on the female, and they areparticular to choose for the purpose one that has but just dropped her young;for their female camels can run as fast as horses, while they bear burdens

very much better.

III.104: When the Indians therefore have thus equipped themselves they setoff in quest of the gold, calculating the time so that they may be engaged inseizing it during the most sultry part of the day, when the ants hidethemselves to escape the heat. The sun in those parts shines fiercest in themorning, not, as elsewhere, at noonday; the greatest heat is from the timewhen he has reached a certain height, until the hour at which the marketcloses. During this space he burns much more furiously than at midday inHellas, so that the men there are said at that time to drench themselves withwater. At noon his heat is much the same in India as in other countries, afterwhich, as the day declines, the warmth is only equal to that of the morning sunelsewhere. Towards evening the coolness increases, till about sunset itbecomes very cold.

III.105: When the Indians reach the place where the gold is, they fill their bagswith the sand, and ride away at their best speed: the ants, however, scentingthem, as the Persians say, rush forth in pursuit. Now these animals are, theydeclare, so swift, that there is nothing in the world like them, if it were not,therefore, that the Indians get a start while the ants are mustering, not a singlegold-gatherer could escape. During the flight the male camels, which are notso fleet as the females, grow tired, and begin to drag, first one, and then theother, but the females recollect the young which they have left behind, andnever give way or flag. Such, according to the Persians, is the manner inwhich the Indians get the greater part of their gold-- some is dug out of theearth, but of this the supply is more scanty.

III.106: It seems as if the extreme regions of the earth were blessed by naturewith the most excellent productions, just in the same way that Hellas enjoys aclimate more excellently tempered than any other country. In India, which, as Iobserved lately, is the furthest region of the inhabited world towards the east,all the four-footed beasts and the birds are very much bigger than those foundelsewhere, except only the horses, which are surpassed by the Median breedcalled the Nisaean. Gold too is produced there in vast abundance, some dugfrom the earth, some washed down by the rivers, some carried off in the modewhich I have but now described. And further, there are trees which grow wild


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there, the fruit whereof is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that ofsheep. The natives make their clothes of this tree-wool.

VII.65: The Indians wore cotton dresses, and carried bows of cane, andarrows also of cane with iron at the point. Such was the equipment of the

Indians, and they marched under the command of Pharnazathres the son ofArtabates.

VII.70. The Eastern Ethiopians---for two nations of this name served in thearmy--were marshaled with the Indians [probably those who currently speakthe Dravidian languageBrahui, who presently live in Pakistan, west of theIndus River--ed.]. They differed in nothing from the other Ethiopians, save intheir language, and the character of their hair. For the Eastern Ethiopianshave straight hair, while they of Libya are more woolly-haired than any otherpeople in the world. Their equipment was in most points like that of the

Indians, but they wore upon their heads the scalps of horses, with the earsand mane attached; the ears were made to stand upright, and the maneserved as a crest. For shields this people made use of the skins of cranes.

VII.86: The Medes, and Cissians, who had the same equipment as their foot-soldiers. The Indians, equipped as their footmen, but some on horseback andsome in chariots--the chariots drawn either by horses or by wild asses.

From: Herodotus, The History, George Rawlinson, trans., (New York: Dutton& Co., 1862). Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. StateFullerton. Prof. Arkenberg has modernized the text. The original e-text t is partof the Internet Ancient History Sourcebook. This Sourcebook is a collection ofpublic domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantinehistory. This version has been edited for classroom use.

Introduction and e-text copyright 2005 by David W.

[email protected]. All rights reserved.

Greeks in India Before AlexanderMay 23 2007 | Views 2065 | Comments (19) | Report Abuse

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Greece and India Before Alexander

In his speech at a banquet hosted in his honor by Greece President Karolos Papouliasand in his address atthe Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, on 26

April 2007, the President of the Indian Republic. Shri A. P. J. Abdul Kalam referred toexchanges between India and Greece that began well before Alexander's marchinto India in 326 BC. Let us take a look at what these exchanges were.

Pre-historic era

Were there Greeks in India before the advent of Alexander the Great? Was

Alexander the first Greek to conquer India?

The ancient Greek historians Pliny (VI..xxi.4-5), Solinus (52-5) and Arrian

(Indica, I. ix) all assert that Alexander was not the first Greek to invade and

conquer India. Their accounts are a mixture of myths and history; and it is not

easy to separate the one form the other.

According those historians, with some variations, Dionysus was the first Greek

King to invade India. And, an incredibly long period of 6451 years and 3

months separates Dionysus from Alexanders conquest of India. During that

interval about 153 0r 154 kings reined. Diodorus Siculus (60 30 BCE)

another historian mentions that there were three kings bearing the name

Dionysus separated by long periods of time. According to Diodorus it was the

first Dionysus, the eldest - Dionysus of India (Indos) who conquered

India.And, after his conquest he reigned over India for 52 years and died of

old age, thereafter his sons ruled in unbroken succession. Arrian (Indica, I.

vii) drawing from the book of the Greek Ambassador Magasthenes writes

Dionysus founded cities and gave laws to those cities and introduced the use

of wine among the Indians as he had done among the Greeks, and taught

them to sow land, himself supplying the seeds.It is also said Dionysus first

yoked oxen to the plough and furnished them with implements of agriculture,

and also made husbandmen of the Indians He also mentions lot of otherthings introduced by Dionysus.

Dr. Nagendra Singh in his monumental Encyclopedia of Hinduism (pages

1712-15) after a lengthy discussion surmises that Dionysus the eldest, the

Indos is the nearest equivalent to Prithu Vainya Prithu the son of Vena in

Indian mythology. Prithu is celebrated asAdiraja the first anointed monarch


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and the starter of royal dynasties. He is also the earliest among the monarchs

to be hailed as Chakravarthin who at the head of his army marched to every

part of the world. It was figuratively described that Prithu chased and

conquered the earth which was fleeing from him like a cow. He was Raja

daivyena sahasaKing with God-force. .It was after his name that the earth welive came to be known as Prithvi. The Atharva Veda( 8.10.24) credits Prithu

with introducing the art of ploughing; leveling the whole arable earth;

encouraging cultivation, cattle breeding, commerce; building of cities and

villages. Prithu is also said to have released the rapture of wine (Soma) from

the earth for the delight of the gods.

It appears Prithu the Indian monarch runs parallel to the Greek Dionysus theIndos. I hesitate to suggest that both refer to one and the same person.

In case the the claim of the Greek historians that Dionysus marched in to Indiaabout 6451 years before the time of Alexander is taken seriously , it thenthrows the whole chronology of the Indian history as it is now acepted into avortex.

[There are several other versions of the Dionysus legend. In one of the versions (Diodorus Library of History, Book III, 62-74) Dionysus is described as : The most ancient Dionysus was an Indian, and since his country, because of the excellentclimate, produced the vine in abundance without cultivation, he was the first to press out the clusters of grapes and to

devise the use of wine as a natural product, likewise to give the proper care to the figs and other fruits which grow upontrees, and, speaking generally, to devise whatever pertains to the harvesting and storing of these fruits. The sameDionysus is, furthermore, said to have worn a long beard, the reason for the report being that it is the custom among the

Indians to give great care, until their death, to the raising of a beard. .Furthermore, there are pointed out among theIndians even to this day the place where it came to pass that the god was born, as well as cities which bear his name in the

language of the natives; and many other notable testimonials to his birth among the Indians still survive, but it would be along task to write of them.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html

Another version of the legend mentions that Dionysus did not die in India. It says: Then he made a campaign into India,

whence he returned to Boeotia in the third year bringing with him a notable quantity of booty, and he was the first man

ever to celebrate a triumph seated on an Indian elephant..And the Boeotian and otherGreeks and the Thracians, in

memory of the campaign in India, have established sacrifices every other year to Dionysus.

http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4A.html

]

Lets now turn to the era of recorded history.

A.Sindhu Hindu _ India

2. Persia, in the ancient times, was the vital link between India and the Greeks of AsiaMinor . In the Avesta of Zoroaster, what we today call as India is named as HaptaHendu, the Avesthan for the Vedic Sapta Sindhavah the Land of Seven Rivers, that


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is, the five rivers of the Punjab along with the Sarasvati ( a river which has sincedisappeared) and the Indus. The word Sindhu not only referred to the river system butto the adjoining areas as well.

The name ofSindhu reached the Greeks in its Persian form Hindu (because of the

Persian etymology wherein every initial s is represented by h).The Persianterm Hindu became the Greek Indos/(plural indoi) since the Greeks could notpronounce "h" and had no proper "u". The Indos in due course acquired its Latin form -India . . Had the Sanskrit word Sindhu reached the Greeks directly, they might perhaps

have pronounced it as Sindus or Sindia.

B.The Great Persian Empire

3. King Cyrus, the founder of Persian Empire and of the Achaemenid dynasty (559-530B.C.), added to his territories the region of Gandhara, located mainly in the valeof Peshawar . By about 516 B.C., Darius son of Hystaspes annexed the Indus valleyand formed the twentieth satrapy of the Persian Empire . The annexed areas included

parts of Punjab . This became the twentieth satrapy, the richest and most populousSatrapy of the Persian Empire . In the inscription at Nakshie-Rustam(486.BCE) areference is made to the tributes paid to Darius by Hidush and others vassal suchas Ionians, Spartans, Bactrians, Parthians, and Medes.

4. Thus, the Indus region became the easternmost boundary of the vast PersianEmpire, which sprawled across all of western Asia to include, after 546 B.C., most of theGreek cities on the coast of Asia Minor. The skills and labor of all ofPersia 's subjects,Greeks included, were employed in imperial building projects. Many Greeks served asofficials or mercenaries in the various Achaemenid provinces. Indian troops formed acontingent of the Persian army that invaded Greece in 480 B.C. Indian troopers were

also a part of the army that faced Alexander at Gaugamela in 331 B.C.

The Greeks and Indians were together thrown into the vast Persian machinery. Therequirements of war, administration and commerce in the far-flung PersianEmpire provided numerous occasions for the Indians and Greeks to work together. Mostof such interactions may have been inconsequential; but it is likely some genuineexchanges of ideas might have taken place.

C.Scholars and Historians

-Hekataios and Herodotus

5. The term Indos(India) first appeared in Greek literature in about 5th century B.C. inthe works of Hekataios of Miletos (B.C. 549486) and Herodotus of Halikarnassos (484-425 B. C.), The word Inder orIndia, in Greek and in Persian, originally referred only tothe Indus region, which then was under the Persian Empire. Herodotus, however, usedthe term in a wider sense to denote the whole country and classical Greek usagefollowed his example.


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6. Long before Alexander's march into India, Greek writers, such as Hekataeos andHerodotus, possessed some information about India . This information however was notgained directly by visit to India or by study of its texts. Most of what the Greeks knewof India came to them by word of mouth, percolated through Persia , from its soldiers,merchants and officials in the Persian Empire. That perhaps explains why the earlyGreek writings of India look like a strange concoction of facts and fantasy. Hekataeosmentions the riverIndus, Herodotus speaks of the Gandarioirace, perhaps inhabitantsof the Peshawar valley, whose town was Kaspapyros( Peshawar ?). Herodotusmentions the name of one of the deities, worshipped in common by the Vedic Indiansand the Persian Zoroastrians, namely Mitra; but he takes Mitra for a female deity. Theknowledge so gained through Persia was also the source for those few Indian namesthat appear in the surviving remnants of Hekataios Geography(ca. 500 B.C.)Unfortunately, his work is now in fragments and it is nearly impossible to tell preciselywhat Hekataios did know about India . Like his predecessor,Herodotus also did notvisit India , but he was a tireless collector of anecdotes from many sources

-Ktesias (405-397 B.C.)

7. The last of those Greeks, before Alexander, who wrote about India, was Ktesias of Knidos.

He had a better access to information on India than his predecessors did. Ktesias was a

medical doctor by profession; he served for eight years (405-397 B.C.) as the personal

physician to the Persian king Artaxerxes Mnemon (404358 B.C.), son and successor of Darius


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II. . He did not claim he visited India . He may have had occasions to meet Indians or Persian

officials who served in the empire's Indian territories. Even from the vantage point of the Persian

court at Susa , India still seemed a strange and virtually unknown country. Upon his return

to Greece , Ktesias wrote a book called Persika, covering the entire history of the Near

East from its beginnings down to his own time, as well as a much smaller work called Indika,

about India .With respect to India , the information Ktesias has to offer is occasionally accurate,though more often exaggerated. He did take care, nonetheless, to distinguish between things he

had himself seen and the information he acquired by hearsay.

Both his works have disappeared; but there are a number of citations, together withextensive excerpts made by the Byzantine Photios - Patriarch ofConstantinople in the9th century.

8. What the early Greeks knew about India did not amount to much and it was notaccurate either. Nevertheless, the writings of Hekataios, Herodotus and Ktesias did notonly evoke some awareness of India 's existence among the educated Greek but alsoadded a very important chapter to cultural history ofIndia and Greece . Presumably,these histories had some effect on the Greek intellectual life. Herodotus explained inhis works how foreign contacts might produce a relativistic point of view.

D.Explorers and travelers.

9. The first Greeks to set foot in India were probably servants of the PersianAchaemenid Empire (550-330 B.C.) - that vast polity which touched upon Greek city-

states at its western extremity and India on the east. Most of the persons who made thetrip to India are unknown to us. They are the anonymous seamen, merchants andhangers-on who followed the sea-lanes from the Red Sea to the Malabar Coast(?).However, despite these rather extensive contacts, Hellenistic literature providesincredibly few accounts of such travels.

10. The first Greek who is supposed to have actually visited India and to have written anaccount of it was Skylaxof Karyanda in Karia. He lived before Herodotus, who tells thatDarius Hystargus (512486) led a naval expedition to prove the feasibility of a seapassage from the mouth of Indus to Persia . Under the command of Skylax, a fleetsailed from Punjab in the Gandhara country to the Ocean.

Skylax later wrote a book of geography titled Indika apparently a report of his expeditionthat set out to follow the Indus from its headwaters to its mouth.

Herodotus did not appear to have a high opinion of Skylax as a historian.

****


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11. Alexander's expedition to India was a landmark in the History of the region and itvastly increased the Greeks' knowledge of India . A number of his associates -Callisthenes, Onesikritos, Aristobulos, Nearchos, Ptolemaios - wrote about India ; theirworks remained standard sources on the country for centuries afterward. The pictureof India that Alexander's companions and successors presented to the Greek world,

helped historians to reconstruct events in ancient India , though partially. Greeksassociation with India has left a indelible mark on India s cultural, artistic and politicalhistory.

12. In comparison to Greek sources, the Indian sources are very scanty. There is hardlyany writing concerning the events of those times. While Alexander's invasionof India opened the way to further Indo-Greek relations, Indians do not appeared tohave entered the Greek world until nearly the Christian era. There is also no evidence ofIndian Ambassadors being in the courts of Egypt or Roman Empires, except in the

Ashokas edits where the emissaries to Syria ,Egypt , Macedonia and Libyaarementioned .

****

Source:

India and the Greek World;

A study in the transmission of culture

Sedlar, Jean W.

New Jersey, 1980

Encyclopedia of Hinduism (pages 1712-15) By Dr.Nagendra Singh

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