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Megasthenes (?e?as?????, ca. 350 BC - 290 BC) was a Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 traveller and geographer
Geographer

A geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical natural environment and human habitat .Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography....
. He was born in Asia Minor and became an ambassador of Seleucus I of Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
 to the court of Sandrocottus (Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya , sometimes known simply as Chandragupta , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in bringing together most of the Indian subcontinent....
) of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, in Pataliputra. However the exact date of his embassy is uncertain. Scholars place it before 288 BC, which was the date of Chandragupta's death.

Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
 explains that Megasthenes lived in Arachosia
Arachosia

Arachosia or Arachotae is the latinized form of Greek language name of an Achaemenid Empire and Seleucid Empire governorate in the eastern part of their respective empires, and that was inhabited by the Iranian peoples Arachosians or Arachoti ....
, with the satrap Sibyrtius
Sibyrtius

Sibyrtius was a Greeks officer from Crete in the service of Alexander the Great, who was appointed by him, on his return from History of India , governor of the province of Kerman Province....
, from where he visited India:
"Megasthenes lived with Sibyrtius, satrap of Arachosia, and often speaks of his visiting Sandracottus, the king of the Indians." Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
, Anabasis Alexandri
Anabasis Alexandri

Anabasis Alexandri, the Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian is the most important source on Alexander the Great.The Greek term wiktionary:anabasis referred to an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country....
 


We have more definite information regarding the parts of India which Megasthenes visited.






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Megasthenes (?e?as?????, ca. 350 BC - 290 BC) was a Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 traveller and geographer
Geographer

A geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical natural environment and human habitat .Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography....
. He was born in Asia Minor and became an ambassador of Seleucus I of Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
 to the court of Sandrocottus (Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya

Chandragupta Maurya , sometimes known simply as Chandragupta , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in bringing together most of the Indian subcontinent....
) of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, in Pataliputra. However the exact date of his embassy is uncertain. Scholars place it before 288 BC, which was the date of Chandragupta's death.

Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
 explains that Megasthenes lived in Arachosia
Arachosia

Arachosia or Arachotae is the latinized form of Greek language name of an Achaemenid Empire and Seleucid Empire governorate in the eastern part of their respective empires, and that was inhabited by the Iranian peoples Arachosians or Arachoti ....
, with the satrap Sibyrtius
Sibyrtius

Sibyrtius was a Greeks officer from Crete in the service of Alexander the Great, who was appointed by him, on his return from History of India , governor of the province of Kerman Province....
, from where he visited India:
"Megasthenes lived with Sibyrtius, satrap of Arachosia, and often speaks of his visiting Sandracottus, the king of the Indians." Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
, Anabasis Alexandri
Anabasis Alexandri

Anabasis Alexandri, the Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian is the most important source on Alexander the Great.The Greek term wiktionary:anabasis referred to an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country....
 


We have more definite information regarding the parts of India which Megasthenes visited. He entered the country through the district of the Pentapotamia of the rivers of which he gave a full account (thought to be the five affluents of the Indus
Indus River

File:Indian subcontinent CIA.pngThe Indus River is the longest river in Pakistan and the twenty-first largest river in the world, in terms of annual flow, on the Indian Subcontinent....
, forming the Punjab region
Punjab region

Punjab , also Panjab , is a region straddling the border between India and Pakistan. The "Five Rivers" are Beas River, Ravi River, Sutlej, Chenab and Jhelum River; all these are tributaries of the Indus river, Jhelum being the biggest one....
), and proceeded from there by the royal road to Pataliputra. There are accounts of Megasthenes having visited Madurai
Madurai

Madurai , is the oldest inhabited city in the Indian peninsula. It is a city in Indian state of Tamil Nadu and is a municipal corporation situated on the banks of the Vaigai River in Madurai district....
 (then, a bustling city and capital of Pandya Kingdom
Pandya Kingdom

'Pandyas' were fierce warriors who took part in the Kurukshetra War as per the epic Mahabharata. They were mentioned both in the epic Mahabharata and epic Ramayana....
), but appears not to have visited any other parts of India. His observations were recorded in Indika
Indika

Indika was a book written by Megasthenes , a Ancient Greece traveller and geographer who visited India during the third century BCE. The available copy of Indika is incomplete and only fragments of the entire work is available....
, a work that served as an important source to many later writers such as Strabo
Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
 and Arrian
Arrian

File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
. He describes such features as the Himalayas
Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
 and the island of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
. He also described India's caste
Caste

Castes are hereditary systems of wikt:occupation, endogamy, culture, social class, and political power, the assignment of individuals to places in the social hierarchy is determined by social group and culture....
 system.

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