Public Administration in Ancient India c4.24

c4.24

The earliest foreign travellers who left any accounts of their visits to India were the Greeks. Much of their writings consists merely of ‘travellers’ tales,’ and as such are useless. But Megasthenes, who was attached for several years as Ambassador to the Court of Chandragupta Maurya, was a very careful observer of facts and events which came under his direct notice, and although he perhaps lacked the faculty of critical judgment, his writings still remain one of the most important sources of our information regarding the condition of the country in the fourth century before Christ. The information derived from this source is supplemented by that obtained from the historians of Alexander’s Indian campaign.¹ Many Chinese pilgrims visited India during the period between the fourth and eighth centuries A.D., and the accounts left by them, especially those left by Fa Hian, Hiuen Tsiang,² and I-Tsing,³ are of very great use to people interested in the affairs of ancient India. Alberuni’s Tārīkh-i-Hind¹ is also useful as throwing some light on the state of the country on the eve of the Mahomedan conquest.