Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c5.77

c5.77

In the time of Antiochous I (283—261) and even earlier the friendly relation with the Mauryas continued. Athenaeus (1, 32, 18 D) has preserved the story of certain drugs sent as present by Candragupta I to Seleucus I and it is to the same writer (XIV, 67, 652 I and 653A) that we an anecdote of how Chandra-gupta's son Bindusāra wrote to Antiochus I requesting him to buy and send him some wine, figs and a sophist to teach him to argue. Antiochus replied sending the figs and wine but not the sophist who, he wrote, were not saleable. The intercourse was not only confined to these civilities. We know of Megasthenes' missions to the court of Chandragupta, and Daimachus of Plataea also went on mission or missions from Antiochus to Bindusāra. Pliny (His Nat, VI, 58) also speaks of a mission of certain Dionysius sent by Ptolemy Philadelphus (285—246 B.C.), which was sent probably to Bindusāra or Aśoka.⁵¹