The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.39

v1.c26.39

Ctesias of Cnidus, a generation later than Herodotus, had exceptional opportunities for acquiring knowledge about India, since he resided for seventeen years (from 415 to 397 B.C.) at the Persian court as physician to the king Artaxerxes Mnēmōn¹. As a matter of fact his contribution seems to have been the most worthless of all those which went to make up the classical tradition. Ctesias apparently was a deliberate liar. Modern writers urge that some of his monstrosities—his dog-faced men², his pygmies and so on—can be paralleled by the statements in old Indian books. This shows that Ctesias was not above saving himself the trouble of fresh invention when statements sufficiently sensational were furnished him by others. Any parallel which can be proved between Ctesias and old-Indian tradition is, of course, interesting and exhibits the Greek as to that extent a borrower rather than as creatively mendacious, and, where we cannot prove a parallel, it is always possible that the statements of Ctesias may have been suggested by travellers' tales; but it is equally possible that he was drawing upon nothing but his imagination. One of his most monstrous animals, the creature as large as a lion, with a human face, which shoots stings out of the end of its tail, called in the Indian language, says Ctesias, *martikhora*—as a matter of fact the word is Persian—Ctesias affirms that he had himself seen, as one was sent as a present to the Persian king! This gives the measure of the man. No doubt, his wildest statements about the *fauna* and *flora* of India can, if sufficiently trimmed, be made to bear a sort of resemblance to something real³, but it seems ingenuity wasted to attempt to establish these connexions. The influence of Ctesias upon the Greek conception of India was probably great. It confirmed for ever in the West the idea that India was a land where nothing was impossible—a land of nightmare monsters and strange poisons, of gold and gems⁴.