The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c9.85

c9.85

Moreover the results of the early Greek invasion were embodied by Dicæarchus of Messana (about 320 b.c.) in a map that long remained a standard. Furthermore, Alexander did not allow his influence on the East to cease. He divided India into three satrapies,⁴ placing Greek governors over two of them and leaving a Hindu ruler in charge of the third, and in Bactriana, a part of Ariana or ancient Persia, he left governors; and in these the western civilization was long in evidence. Some of the Greek and Roman metrical and astronomical terms found their way, doubtless at this time, into the Sanskrit language.¹ Even as late as from the second to the fifth centuries a.d., Indian coins showed the Hellenic influence. The Hindu astronomical terminology reveals the same relationship to western thought, for Varāha-Mihira (6th century a.d.), a contemporary of Āryabhaṭa, entitled a work of his the *Bṛhat-Saṁhitā*, a literal translation of μ ε γ α′ λ η σ υ ν τ α ξ ι s of Ptolemy;² and in various ways is this interchange of ideas apparent.³ It could not have been at all unusual for the ancient Greeks to go to India, for Strabo lays down the route, saying that all who make the journey start from Ephesus and traverse Phrygia and Cappadocia before taking the direct road.⁴ The products of the East were always finding their way to the West, the Greeks getting their ginger⁵ from Malabar, as the Phœnicians had long before brought gold from Malacca.