The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.53

v1.c26.53

The books written by the companions of Alexander or derived from their accounts were supplemented in the third century by the books in which the European ambassadors sent by the Hellenistic kings to India⁵ told what they heard and saw. It is very odd that with such opportunities none of the ambassadors seems to have produced anything substantial except Megasthenes. Had Daïmachus or Dionysius given any fresh first-hand information of interest, we could not fail to have traced some of it in later writers. The statements quoted from Daïmachus, that there was a species of yellow pigeons in India which were brought as presents to the king⁶, and the notice of some peculiar-shaped sideboard¹, are a poor yield. On the other hand the book written by Megasthenes was the fullest account of India which the Greek world ever had. Only one other writer calls for mention, Patrocles, who held command in the eastern provinces of Irān under Seleucus I and Antiochus I. One does not gather that his book touched India except in so far as it dealt with the general dimensions of the countries of Asia. Patrocles, however, had access to official sources and what he did say of India seems to have been creditably near the truth².