Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c14.27

c14.27

As Bevan points out: "It has been thought that we have in the *Sarmanes* of Megasthenes the first mention of Buddhists by Western writers. In the description, however, there is nothing distinctively Buddhist and the term *Śramaṇa* is used in Indian literature of non-Buddhist sects. If, therefore, the people to whom Megasthenes heard the term applied were Buddhists, he must have known so little about them that he could only describe them by features which were equally found in various sorts of Hindu holy men. His description applies to Brahmin ascetics rather than to Buddhists" [*Cambridge History*, I. 420].