Mégasthénès or Mégasthènes , towards 340 av. J. - C. - 282 av. J. - C., was born in Ionie, current the Turkey. Towards 300 av. J. - C., it was sent in embassy by Seleukos Nikator near the king Chandragupta Maurya of which the court was held with Pataliputra, current the Patna in the Bihar. There remained ten years in India.

He wrote the relation of his stay in a work named Indika , in four volumes, which was lost but that one knows by passages to which refer of other authors like Arrien or Diodore.

Mégasthénès makes mention in its work of the Himalayan chain, the Tibet and Sri Lanka. It describes also the religious practices and the system of the Caste S.

Indika was, during the Antiquité, an important source of knowledge concerning the Indian world.

See too

• foreign Travellers in India

External bond

• known fragments of Indika in '' English ''