The Classical Accounts of India: The Greek & Roman Accounts of Ancient India (An Old and Rare Book)

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Dr. R. C. Majumdar, the doyen of the Indian historians, strode like a colossus till the last days of his long and varied life. He started with ancient history, but startled the readers with his "Sepoy Mutiny" and "Freedom Struggle". The third edition of his "Corporate Life in Ancient India"- a fully updated account based on the latest volumes of "Epigraphia Indica" and other relevant material undertaken and published in his late seventies may easily be regarded as an example of meticulous research and hard work.

He pioneered the Indian historical probes into south-east Asian history and culture: Champa, Suvarnadvip, Inscriptions of Cam- bodge. An evalution of his work in this field has been attempted in the R. C. Mujumdar Felicitation Volume.

"History and Culture of the Indian People" dreamt of by K. M. Munshi was executed by Dr. Majumdar as the Editor in more than 10 hefty volumes and we know how hard a race it was for him to write out, compile, dovetail and distribute the credits to the contributors in his late eighties. He made it like so many other great books through which he will live on.

This compilation of the classical accounts, bearing on Indian history and culture, is primarily intended for those who wish to get all necessary information on the subject in a cheap and handy volume. Most of the English translations of the Classical writings on India are now either out of print, or form a very small part of a costly publication consisting of a large number of volumes. This book is therefore expected to remove a difficulty that has long been felt by students and scholars alike. I need not add here anything about the scope and object of the book which have been fully discussed in the Introduction. An exhaustive index of proper names has been added in order to facilitate reference to persons and places mentioned in the Classical writings. As the extracts have been derived from different sources, the pro- per names are written in both Greek and Latin systems. The nominative singular suffix-os, for Latin-us, and k for c are the chief features of Greek spelling. I am painfully aware of the many shortcomings of this book, and I can only crave the indulgence of the readers for a pioneer work of this kind.

I am deeply indebted to the Harvard University Press for kindly according permission to reproduce a number of extracts from the English Translation of The Geography of Strabo by Dr. H. L. Jones. I must also express my obligations to Sri Dipak Sen M.A., LL.B., for having prepared the Index-a laborious task- and Sri Bratindra Mukherji, M.A., for rendering help in various ways. In conclusion, I must add that but for the initiative and enthusiasm of Sri K. L. Mukhopadhyaya this book would never have seen the light of the day.

I. THE NATURE AND VALUE OF CLASSICAL ACCOUNTS.

Since the beginning of Indological studies the accounts pre- served in classical writings have formed a very valuable source of information. This was mainly due to the fact that there was no history of pre-Muslim India written by the ancient Indians themselves, and consequently very little was known of its political history. Although a mass of Indian literature belonging to the same period supplied a great deal of information on other aspects of history, its value was considerably lessened by two important factors. In the first place, this literature dealt mostly with religious or semi-religious topics and threw only a very dim light on secular affairs, specially political history. Secondly, its value, as it is, was considerably reduced by the fact that not even an approximate date could be assigned to the various literary sources. The classical accounts, on the other hand, were more concerned with topics other than religious, and the dates of almost all of them were known with a fair degree of accuracy.

Although more than a century has passed, the above statement in regard to this relative merit of classical accounts as a source of information for ancient Indian history still holds good It is true that archaeological discoveries have increased the quantity and value of Indian sources. But they do not render the classical accounts of less value to any extent, for the two do not, generally speaking, cover the same ground. In any case, the Indian literary sources have not substantially increased in value, and the importance of classical writings remains as great today as ever. Nevertheless some improvements are noticeable in both. A few more literary texts of great value have been discovered in India, and we now possess better editions and more accurate translations of the classical texts.