Megasthenes and his Indica - A Reconsideration

Рет қаралды 8,810

6 ай бұрын

Megasthenes, the Greek visitor to India, is the most well-known Greek who visited India. The famous work that he wrote, Indica, doesn't survive today, but the fragments of this work that we have today provide us great information about Ancient India. In this video, we look at some of the claims that is associated with Megasthenes and his Indica.
Reference:-
1. Megasthens' Indica, a new translation of Richard Stoneman
2. The Historical Setting of Megasthenes' Indica
3. Seleukos and Chandragupta in Justin XV by P Wheatley
4. The Greek Experience of India by Richard Stoneman
5. Alexander and the East by A B Bosworth
Credits:-
Inputs on the script by Pushkar Chaudhary.
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Maps Images used in the video are made by me and are subject to copyright.
Images are sourced from :-
commons.wikimedia.org/

Пікірлер: 53

@puneet90 6 ай бұрын

Alternatively, megasthanes' "visits" might be the reason of the treaty eventually being signed. Much like modern day geopolitical ground work done by diplomats before signing of a major intergovernmental MOU/treaty.

@shaileshkris 5 ай бұрын

Dude! Thanks for sharing the knowledge you have accumulated on the subject! Keep sharing more!

@drmpsinha6461 6 ай бұрын

Well researched! Every fact has been stated ,analysed critically and conclusion arrived at logically. Many many thanks for your scholarly explication.

@adwaitvedant3297 6 ай бұрын

Bhaiya i want to know about the wild claims and interpretation of Dr Ruchika sharma that 1) Nalanda was not destroyed by bakhtiyar khilji and probably she is indicating towards brahmins 2) ASI archeologist sanjay manjul is wrong about the sinauli chariot , and it is not at all chariot but bullock cart 3) shamanist instead of pashupati shiva in the harappan seal She is playing and manipulating many information related to archeological facts based on her political inclination.

@indranidutta1945 6 ай бұрын

Manipulation’s by neo- Buddhists and leftists will continue to be attempted but the truth is well entrenched. If you go to ayutthaya in Thailand or Ankit way in Kampuchea , the truth is overwhelming- both are Hindu places of orship but you will find the Buddha superimposed everywhere. By the way ayutthaya is the Thai equivalent of Ayodhya and the kings go by the name of Rama 1 etc. even today coronation of Thai kings is done by Brahmins. So ….

@Rakshita442 6 ай бұрын

Wo toh Buddhism ko Jainism se old manti hai balki historian aisa nahi sochte,wo bhi Neo Buddhist ka hi agenda chala Rahi hai jo jhuth pe tika hai.. Sanjay manjul ji ka ANI ki Smitha ji ke sath podcast hua hai archaeology ,sinauli pe bhi

@mayankjoon108 6 ай бұрын

Come here after watching your all podcasts on @waad . Amazing Sir 👏 Your new subscriber here ❤

@aryaputram 6 ай бұрын

Interesting also shed more light on Magadhan empires. Though irrelevant but I have seen your videos on Guptas but it seems like Samudragupta north western conquests are still uncovered here, I would like to drag your attention to Samudragupta's war with Persians and Samudragupta alliance with Kidara I against Shapur II (Kidara I asked Samudragupta's aid against Shapur II to regain his former possessions of Balkh which was conquered by Shapur I) and how Kidara I defeated him in two occasions with the help of Samudragupta's aid and then accepted his suzerainty by sending gifts and tributes.

@jitendramisra722 Ай бұрын

You are doing a wonderful job, God bless you 👍🙏👍🙏👍🙏

@contemporarymatters8106 3 ай бұрын

Nice analysis.

@shatabdabasu505 6 ай бұрын

I was also searching your take on dating of rigved with the context of saraswati river and BoghazKoi Inscription..

@sanjayshah7776 3 ай бұрын

Really excellent..... Your DEEP TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE of Greek-Indian history is explemplary. Frankly, many Western historians, who are very popular, do NOT possess your level of TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE on Western history

@animesh.shutterbug 6 ай бұрын

Bhaiya, please make video on cultural and Religious practices during ancient India.⛄ Like evolution of Vedic religion to Hinduism.

@CatastrophicDisease 6 ай бұрын

This is a fascinating topic. The evidence suggests that when the Vedic Indo-Iranians migrated into northwest India from modern Tajikistan, they adopted many of the “spiritual” aspects (including worship of Shiva, which doesn’t exist in the Indo-European pantheon) from the indigenous religion of the Harappan people, leading to proto-Hinduism and then later the Upanishads and Hinduism proper.

@shatabdabasu505 6 ай бұрын

Your podcasts are more interesting then this , Your free flowing talk was more helpful , It was like really doing archiolo with different narrative and sharp unbiased analysis killing all controversis for ever

@cvm1979 6 ай бұрын

Sir, vijaynagar Empire and Hyderabad ke bich kuchh sambandh tha kya? Please reply.

@shivamkushwaha7757 6 ай бұрын

Thank a lot! Could you make videos about south indian empire

@ayushkumarsingh3029 6 ай бұрын

Alexandria in Arachosia- Iskandher-Kandhara

@nitinsharma2089 4 ай бұрын

Jay do you think Greeks connected with India or even exist in india before Alexander

@vinayjoshi5788 Ай бұрын

No mention of caste system rather clues which supports caste system was not there at least up to that point

@ABHAY_DEV_ARYA 6 ай бұрын

❤

@Babybitch67 6 ай бұрын

Is it possible the chandragupta megasthebes is talking about is not from maurya vansha but from gupta vansh

@agniswar3 6 ай бұрын

No way! He was clearly a contemporary of Chandragupta Maurya and met him face to face.

@Babybitch67 6 ай бұрын

@@agniswar3 proof?

@agniswar3 6 ай бұрын

@@Babybitch67 Who were contemporary of Alexander? Mauryans or Guptas ? Think yourself.

@ayushkumarsingh3029 6 ай бұрын

@@Babybitch67Ashoka rock edicts 13 mention the names of 5 greek kings who ruled Middle East and balkans in mid 3 century bce

@anaesthete5592 6 ай бұрын

@@Babybitch67 do you mean the Nandas?

@ganeshwarsekhri2810 6 ай бұрын

Jai shree ram

@witchilich 6 ай бұрын

Ayodhya was just called Saketa during early Gupta Empire. Valmiki Ramayan is written in classical Sanskrit which is the modern version of Sanskrit based on grammer rules set by Panini in 5th century BC. Panini's Ashtadhyayi, Buddhist text Mahavastu, Samyutta Nikaya, Vinaya Pitaka and multiple Jain and Buddhist texts call it "Saketa". In the fifth century BC, Ajatashatru conquered Saketa. After which it passed through the Magadhan kings until finally becoming part of Mauryan Empire. Saketa is nowhere mentioned in the vedas. "Ayodhya" was first mentioned in Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa. Ramayan is neither a vedic nor a later vedic era text. It is written based on Panini's grammar rules, particulary very similar to later Gupta era texts. Kinda like how Mahabharat mentions hunas, tusharas(kushans) and other kingdoms that existed during Gupta period, and calls Arjuna "Partha Sarathi".

@tathagatquandaliusganesh1082 6 ай бұрын

@@witchilichtf megasthenes's raghuvamsa

@witchilich 6 ай бұрын

@@tathagatquandaliusganesh1082 was too focused on the video. my bad.

@Rakshita442 6 ай бұрын

Buddhist jataka story ghat jataka me ayodhya ko ayujjha nagar likha hai prakrit me,Buddhist text mahavansh me ayujjhapur likha hai,Jain text ayashyak churni me prakrit me ayojjha likha hai.. indian archaeology survey ke 1970-71 me brahmi me likha ek coin Mila hai 100 bce ka jaha pe brahmi script me prakrit me ayodhya ko ajudhe likha hai...

@witchilich 6 ай бұрын

@@Rakshita442 Mahavamsa is from 5th Century CE. Avashyaka-churni is dated between Samvat 593-693 CE. Xuanzang also mentions Ayodhaya. It was only during Skandagupta that the city was renamed to Ayodhya. All texts before that call it Saketa.

@shivanandams4562 6 ай бұрын

Hai

@MrNobody-op6sc 6 ай бұрын

First...

@rudrachavan4080 6 ай бұрын

2nd comment 😂❤

@Shubham-1999 6 ай бұрын

If he said porus is greater than chandragupt, how credible his account is ?!

@heathenfire 6 ай бұрын

Remember that what we know about chandragupta is what has come down to us through generations of glorification and romanticism. This hasn't happened to porus. I'm not saying that megasthanes is correct but he lived closer to both men than we do and he probably had a better sense of both their good and bad qualities. Of course a lot of this is subjective and there really isn't always a right and a wrong answer.

@Viraj911 6 ай бұрын

Arian said it

@ayushkumarsingh3029 6 ай бұрын

@@heathenfire plus porus was associated to Alexander the great

@agniswar3 6 ай бұрын

@@heathenfire Both of them were great. Porus fought Alexander with all his might to protect his kingdom, eventually gaining the praise from his enemy himself. On the otherhand Chandragupta founded the largest empire of his time and united most of India under one banner and even defeated Seleucus Nicator.

@heathenfire 6 ай бұрын

@@agniswar3 I agree. Both were great. I was responding to the original comment where @Shubham-1999 was saying that saying porus is greater than Alexander is not credible