Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s18.2

c9.s18.2

Megasthenes lived for some time with Sybyrtius, the Satrap of Arachosia, and from there Seleucus sent him out as ambassador to the court of Chandragupta, and he visited Chandragupta often during his stay at the capital; this was of course after the conclusion of the treaty of alliance between Chandragupta and Seleucus (305 B.C.).² Megasthenes evidently knew Kabul and the Panjab very well and travelled along the royal road from the frontier to the capital of the Mauryan empire. For his knowledge of the rest of India he depended on report. He wrote the *Indika*, a comprehensive work on India, apparently divided into four books describing the country, its soil, climate, animals and plants, its government and religion, the manners of the people and their arts. He sought to describe many things from the King's Court down to the remotest tribes. Many writers copied him assiduously in later times even as they cast aspersions on his veracity, as did Eratosthenes and Strabo.