The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c26.s1.87

c26.s1.87

Questions such as these have received widely divergent answers; but undoubtedly the general tendency of European scholars has been to exaggerate the hellenizing effects of Alexander's invasion and of the Indo-Greek rule on the north-western frontier. The most extreme 'Hellenist' view is that expressed by Herr Niese, who is convinced that all the later development of India depends indirectly upon the institutions of Alexander, and that Chandragupta Maurya recognized the suzerainty of Seleukos Nikator. Such notions are so plainly opposed to the evidence that they might be supposed to need no refutation, but they have been accepted to a certain extent by English writers of repute; who are, as already observed, inclined naturally to believe that India, like Europe and a large part of Asia, must have yielded to the subtle action of Hellenic ideas.