India (Herodotus)

Background

Indians and Greeks were brought together under the Persian Achaemenid Empire by the middle of the 6th century BC. By the end of the century, the empire stretched from the Aegean coast of the Mediterranean to the Indus River. The Greek colonies in Asia Minor (western and central Turkey) were already part of the Achaemenid Empire since 546 BC and, thus, the Greeks and Indians came into contact with each other as subjects of the Empire.

According to Herodotus 4.44 the Greek explorer Scylax of Caryanda sailed down the length of the Indus in the service of Darius. Hecataeus of Miletus, around 500 BC, wrote about the geography and peoples of "India", as did the Greek physician Ctesias. Most of these works have not survived in their original form but fragments are known through transmission by later writers. Not only individual Greeks, but also large groups of Greeks were forced to settle in Bactria (northern Afghanistan), who must have had prolonged contact with Indians. Herodotus's account is believed to be based on these accounts.

Description

Geography

The Greeks (or Persians) were not aware of the geography of India (or Asia in general) east of the Indus basin. Herodotus in 4.40 uses the term "India" for the Indus basin, and describes it as being on the eastern fringe of the inhabitable world,

"As far as India, Asia is an inhabited land; but thereafter, all to the east is desolation, nor can anyone say what kind of land is there." (trans. A. D. Godley 1920)

But he knew of Indians (Hindwan) living beyond the Persian province of Hinduš (3.101):

"These Indians dwell far away from the Persians southwards, and were no subjects of King Darius." (trans. A. D. Godley 1920)

People

In book 3 (3.89-97), Herodotus gives some account of the peoples of India; he describes them as being very diverse, and makes reference to their dietary habits, some eating raw fish, others eating raw meat, and yet others practising vegetarianism. He also mentions their dark skin colour.

"The tribes of Indians are numerous, and they do not all speak the same language—some are wandering tribes, others not. They who dwell in the marshes along the river live on raw fish, which they take in boats made of reeds, each formed out of a single joint. These Indians wear a dress of sedge, which they cut in the river and bruise; afterwards they weave it into mats, and wear it as we wear a breast-plate. Eastward of these Indians are another tribe, called Padaeans, who are wanderers, and live on raw flesh. [...] There is another set of Indians whose customs are very different. They refuse to put any live animal to death, they sow no corn, and have no dwelling-houses. Vegetables are their only food. [...] All the tribes which I have mentioned live together like the brute beasts: they have also all the same tint of skin, which approaches that of the Ethiopians. [...] Besides these, there are Indians of another tribe, who border on the city of Caspatyrus, and the country of Pactyica; these people dwell northward of all the rest of the Indians, and follow nearly the same mode of life as the Bactrians. They are more warlike than any of the other tribes, and from them the men are sent forth who go to procure the gold. For it is in this part of India that the sandy desert lies. Here, in this desert, there live amid the sand great ants, in size somewhat less than dogs, but bigger than foxes. [...]" (trans. Rawlinson)

In 3.38, Herodotus mentions the Indian tribe of the Callatiae for their practice of funerary cannibalism; in a striking illustration of cultural relativism, he points out that this people is just as dismayed at the notion of the Greeks practising cremation as the Greeks are at that of eating their dead parents. In book 7 (7.65,70,86,187) and in 8.113 Herodotus describes the Indian infantry and cavalry employed in Xerxes' army.

Later developments

As the western travellers went into the rest of the subcontinent through the original "India", the name was gradually extended to the inner regions. By the time of Alexander the Great, at least northern India up to the Ganges delta was known, the regions being referred to as Gangaridai (Ganges country) and Prasii/Prasioi (from Sanskrit prācya, the east), all included in "India". After Megasthenes, a Bactrian Greek who spent several years in the court of Magadha, south India was also known, referred to as Pandaia (Pandya country).

By the 3rd century BC, Eratosthenes recognised "India" as terminating in a peninsula (reflecting a first grasp of the geography of the Indian subcontinent). Eratosthenes was also the first Greek author to postulate an island Taprobane at the far south of India, later becoming a name of Sri Lanka. European knowledge of the geography of India did not become much better resolved until the end of Antiquity, and remained at this stage throughout the Middle Ages, only becoming more detailed with the beginning of the Age of Sail in the 15th century.