Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian / being a translation of the fragments of the Indika of Megasthenês collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the first part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle ; with introduction, notes, and map of ancient India.

  • Megasthenes
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian / being a translation of the fragments of the Indika of Megasthenês collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the first part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle ; with introduction, notes, and map of ancient India. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    practical knowledge of such subjects, evidenced a.s it was bj his thinking that India lay between the autumnal equinox and the winter tropic, and by his contradicting the assertion of Me- gastlienes that in the southern parts of India the constellation of the Bear disappeared from view, and shadows fell in opposite directions, J—» phenomena which he assures us are never seen in India, thereby exhibiting the sheerest igno- rance. He does not agree in this opinion, but accuses Deimachos of ignorance for asserting that the Bears do nowhere in India disappear from sight, nor shadows fall in opposite direc- tions, as Megasthenes supposed. Fragm. X. Pliny, Hist. Nat. VI. 22. 6. Of the Setting of the Bear. Next [to the P r a si i] in the interior are the M o n e d e s and the Suari, to whom belongs Mount M a 1 e u s, on which shadows fall towards the north in winter, and in summer to the south, for six months alternately.§ The Bears, Baeton £ Conf. Diod. II. 35, Plin. Hist. Nat. VI. 22. 6. The wr ters of Alexander’s time who affirmed similar things were Nearchos and Onesikritos, and Baeto who exceeded all bounds. Conf. Lassen, Instit. Ling. Prac. Append, p. 2. •—Schwanb. p. 29. § “ The Man dab would seem to be the same people as the Monedes of Pliny, who with the Suari, occupied the inland country to the south of the Palibothri. As this is the exact position of the country of the Mundas and Suars, I think it quite certain that they must be the same race as the Monedes and Suari of Pliny. In another passage Pliny mentions the Mandei and Malli as occupying the country between the Calingse and the Ganges. Amongst the Malli there was a mountain named Mallus, which