The Mauryan Polity c5.s3.t1.14

c5.s3.t1.14

According to Curtius² "the father of Xandrames had murdered the king, and under pretence of acting as guardian to his sons, got them into his power and put them to death; that after their extermination he begot the son who was then king, and who, more worthy of his father's condition than his own, was odious and contemptible to his subjects."³ Strabo like Arrian based his writings on those of Megasthenes, and his account is generally regarded as much less careful than others. Schwanbeck remarks: "Nay, Strabo in his eagerness to be interesting, has gone so far that the topography of India is almost entirely a blank in his pages."⁴ Suffice it to say that Ktesias is also liable to make inaccurate statements. In regard to the value of the records of these classical writers the estimate of Pliny seems to approach nearer the truth. He says⁵: "India was opened up to our knowledge . . . . even by other Greek writers, who, having resided with Indian kings—as for instance Megasthenes and Dionysius—