Megasthenes was a Greek historian who lived from 350 B.C to 290 B.C, he served as an ambassador for Seleucus on his excursion to India and resided in the court of Chandragupta Maurya. During his stay in India, Megasthenes wrote about his accounts and observations of the geography, government, society, religion, and politics of Indian society which all culminated in his book, Indika. Today, the Indika’s whereabouts are unknown, however, fragments have been translated by various Greek authors. Megasthenes’ Indika depicts an idealistic India coupled with Greek mythology to draw linkage to many facets of Indian Society. His curiosity of these new people hones his critical and thoughtful gaze on India. While change is inevitable, Megasthenes’ Indika constitutes a wide range of sentiments when juxtaposed to the current state of Indian society. Megasthenes’ descriptions of Indian society provide a substantial overview of Indian civilization; however, the extent of his reliability is questionable as his reports hold many hasty generalizations and inabilities to differentiate between true aspects of Indian society or Greeks mythology.
Presumably, Megasthenes visit to India may have only exposed him to a limited view of Indian society being that he lived in the court of Chandragupta Maurya. As an outsider to this new world, Megasthenes makes claims of mere observations of his surroundings, by doing so committing a logical fallacy by making hasty generalizations. When describing the large elephants India possesses, Megasthenes makes a grandiose statement by contending that India has never been subjugated by another nation (Diodorus 33). Megasthenes is forming a general judgment inconsistent with factual information making his claim seem unreasonable. Megasthenes blithely disregards the objective truth that the Persians had dominion over the Indus Valley on the northern-western region of India at some point in history. It is as though Megasthenes does not want to accredit Persia for their conquest because the empire does not appeal to his Greek bias. Although Megasthenes confirmation bias may have misconstrued his conclusion, it is also important to acknowledge that as the only accounts of Megasthenes writings are translations, the authors may have reconstructed his work based on their writing styles and only included details to which they deemed of importance (Arora 310). As a result, a few of Megasthenes writings in the Indika foreground the significance of taking in new evidence with objectivity rather than subjectivity.
Throughout the Indika, Megasthenes holds onto an essence of Greek mythology which prompts the difficulty to discern where he expounds on Indian society or Greek legends. Megasthenes portrayals of the distinctive races of men like the Scyritæ who have snake-like legs and Astomi who are mouthless and do not ingest food, are cases of fables in the Indika where Megasthenes neglects distinguishing between the Indian reality and Greek fables. Whether knowingly or otherwise, Megasthenes characterizes these Indians in a barbaric-manner by making a presumption without basis of information from the native people. As a novice to Indian society, Megasthenes was perhaps adrift in this new unfamiliar country and could only interpret these observations through his existing notions. However, Megasthenes sagacity should not be neglected considering his motives for portraying India in such an exotic manner. To truly understand the context of Megasthenes writings, his audience must be accessed. As a representative to a foreign nation, Megasthenes’ Indika was most likely written to the cultural appeal of the Greek people. This may explain why Megasthenes writings had the tendency to attribute India’s development to the Greece. In an effort to maintain a flawless image to the Greek people, Megasthenes may likewise not have possessed a willingness to venture outside his comfort zone since he continually compared Indian Society with what he knew from the Greek. Megasthenes failure to make these crucial distinctions between Indians and Greeks reinforces preconceived stereotypes that may be held by the Greek society of this far-away land.