Megasthenes

• Megasthenes (350-290 BCE) was a Greek Historian who was sent as an Envoy to Chandragupta Maurya in Patalipotra, India, by Seleucus I Nicator.
• He wrote a detailed book on India called the ‘Indica’ which is now lost.

‘Indica’

• A Lost Work of the Mauryan Empire in India.
• Referred to by Diodorus Siculus, Pliny the Elder, Strabo (Geographica) and Arrian, using the same name ‘Indica’.

Ctesias of Cnidus.

• Ctesias also wrote a work on India called ‘Indica’, which preceded the work by Megasthenes.
• He was Physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, brother of Cyrus the Younger, around 400 BCE.
• He also wrote ‘Persica’, a history of Persia and Assyria in 23 Books, a Work on Persian Taxation, and a Work on Rivers.