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While Megasthenes's account of India has survived in the later works, little is known about him as a person. He spent time at the court of Sibyrtius, who was a satrap of Arachosia under Antigonus I and then Seleucus I. [2] Megasthenes was then an ambassador for Seleucid king Seleucus I Nicator and to the court of the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra (modern Patna).
Pataliputra (IAST: Pāṭaliputra), adjacent to modern-day Patna, Bihar, [1] was a city in ancient India, originally built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE, as a small fort (Pāṭaligrāma) near the Ganges river.
Megasthenes also comments on the presence of pre-Socratic views among the Brahmans in India and Jews in Syria. Five centuries later Clement of Alexandria, in his Stromateis , may have misunderstood Megasthenes to be responding to claims of Greek primacy by admitting Greek views of physics were preceded by those of Jews and Indians.
Megasthenes in particular was a notable Greek ambassador in the court of Chandragupta Maurya. [75] His book Indika is a major literary source for information about the Mauryan Empire. According to Arrian , ambassador Megasthenes (c. 350 – c. 290 BCE) lived in Arachosia and travelled to Pataliputra . [ 76 ]
Chandragupta Maurya had a whole army of officials overseeing the maintenance of this road as told by the Greek diplomat Megasthenes who spent fifteen years at the Mauryan court. Constructed in eight stages, this road is said to have connected the cities of Purushapura , Takshashila , Hastinapura , Kanyakubja , Prayag , Patliputra and Tamralipta ...
In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta, and later Deimakos to his son Bindusara, at the Mauryan court at Pataliputra (modern Patna in Bihar state). Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandragupta's reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus.
Megasthenes sent detailed reports on Indian religions, which were circulated and quoted throughout the Classical world for centuries: [23] Megasthenes makes a different division of the philosophers, saying that they are of two kinds, one of which he calls the Brachmanes , and the other the Sarmanes ...
The name Patliputra (Devanagari: पाटलिपुत्र ) is composed of two words, Patali and Putraka (king). [3] The name Patliputra was given by Ajatashatru, a king of the ancient Indian state of Magadh, who created a fort in Pataligrama near the River Ganga in 490 BCE and later, King Ajatashatru shifted his capital to Patliputra.