Sources of Ancient History: Foreign accounts

                                                      FOREIGN SOURCES

Foreign Sources,the Roman and the Greek writers have written much about India and her People.These sources may be classified into three groups:1-Classical Sources

                            2-Chinese Sources

                            3-Muslim Sources

1-Classical Sources-Herodotus,Skylex and Ctesias were the early writers who wrote about India.Among these ,Herodotus and Ctesias got there knowledge about India through Persian,while Skylex was a navigator who was sent to India by the emperor Darius.Herodotus has vividly described the political condition of the north-west of India in his famous book Histories.

After these early Greek historians,who accompanied Alexander to India,were Nearchos Aristobulus,Onesciritus,Clitrchus etc.These writers have described Alexander's invasion.

The historians who came after Alexander's invasion,were Megasthenese,Dionysius and Deimanchos.The most important of these writers was Megasthenese who was an ambassador of Selucus at the court of Chandragupta Maurya of Patliputra.

2-Chinese Sources-The Chinese travelers who were greatly attracted by Buddhism started visiting India since 399 A.D and have left a good record of their experiences in their writings .Fa-hien was the first Chinese pilgim who visited in India since 399 A.D and remained here up to 413 A.D .In his account he was vividly described the political,social,economic and religious of India during the reign of Chandragupta II.

The most important of the chinese pilgrims was Yuan-Chawng or Hiuen-Tsang who visited India during the reign of Harsha Vardhan and travelled through the length and breadth of the country for 18 years i.e,from 626 to 644 A.D.he has given valuable information on the social,economic,religious and political conditions of India.He also known as the Prince of Pilgrims. Itsing who traveled in India from 671 to 695 A.D.But his accounts are mainly religious in chracter.

3-Muslim Sources-Tehqiqat-e-hind by Alberuni presents a beautiful accounts of Hindu manners,science and literature. Alberuni came to India with Mahmood of Ghazni and made himself well versed in Sanskrit and acquainted himself with hindu social and religious customs.In his book he has written about political condition of India as obtainable in the 10th and 11th centuries A.D.After Alberuni came the other Muslim writers like Ibn-batuta,Al-Masudi,Nizamuddin and Hasan Nizami.