ABSTRACT

FOREIGN ACCOUNTS ON INDIAN HISTORY

The foreign accounts supplement the indigenous literature. The Greek writers mention
sandrokottas (identified with Chandragupta Maurya), a contemporary of Alexander. This has
served as the sheet-anchor in ancient Indian chronology, as we place the accession of
Chandragupta Maurya around 322 BC.

A precise account of interior India is first obtained from an account by Megasthenes, Seleucus
envoy to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, which has been preserved only in fragments
quoted by subsequent classical writers like Arrian, Starbo and Justin. These fragments, when
read together, furnish valuable information not only about the administration but also about
social classes and economic activities in the Mauryan period.

Greek and Roman accounts of the first and second centuries AD mention many Indian ports
and enumerate items of trade between India and Roman empire. The Periplus of the
Erythrean Sea (by an unknown author , AD 80115) and Ptolemys Geography (AD 150) both
written in Greek-provide valuable data for the study of ancient geography and commerce.
Plinys Naturalis Historia (first century AD) in Latin describes trade between India and Italy.

Chinese accounts have proved a valuable source for information on the Gupta period and the
years immediately following the end of Gupta rule. The Chinese travellers, Fahsien (Record of
the Buddhist World) and Hyuan -tsang (Buddhist Records of the Western World) who came
to India to visit Buddhist shrines and study Buddhism, describe the social, economic and
religious conditions of the country in the fourth-fifth and seventh centuries respectively.
Hwuilis Life of Hyuan-Tsang, and Itsings a record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India
and Malay Archipelago, which refers to Sri Gupta, are valuable for studying North India in the
7th century AD.

The accounts of Arabs such as merchant sulaiman who visited India during the of Bhoja 1 (died
at 107-0) who authored Tubaqat ul- Umam, a book on ancient Indian culture and science,
Shahriyar, Ibn Batuta and Ibn Nazim are valuable sources for the study of ancient Indian
History. In constructing the history of medieval and British periods, we are amply helped by
the various extent architectural remains, historical books, letters, diaries, etc.

PAVAN KUMAR

2017063

SECTION-B