“GERMAN TRAVELLERS TO INDIA”

FINAL DRAFT SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE COURSE

TITLED-

LEGAL HISTORY

SUBMITTED TO- SUBMITTED BY-

DR.PRIYADARSHINI NAME: SANKALP YASH

COURSE: B.A. L.L.B (Hons.)

FACULTY OF INDIA HISTORY ROLL NO- 1969

SEMESTER- 1st

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

NYAYA NAGAR, MITHAPUR, PATNA

`

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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the work which is submitted for the fulfilment of the courseof
B.A.L.L.B (Hons.) at Chanakya National Law University, Patna under the supervision of
Dr.SP Singh is an authentic record of my work. In this project I took help from othr sources. I
have not submitted this work elsewhere.
I am fully responsible for the contents of my project report.

Sign:
Semester- 1st
Year -1st

Sankalp yash vardhan

Roll- 196

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my faculty DR.PRIYA DARSHINI

who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic- “GREEK
TRAVELLERS TOINDIA ” which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to
know about different nuances associated with this topic of our Indian polity. Secondly I
would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this project
within the limited time frame

Sankalp yash vardhan

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 1. INTRODUCTION

The exploits of Alexander the Great in India and the deeds of the other famous Greeks that
followed him are well known. Among those famous Greeks who travelled to India , there
were Kings, Generals, Diplomats, Philosophers, Historians and a whole tribe of soldiers.
Many of whom have written about India and their life in India .

1.1 Apart from these, some other ancient Greeks traveled to India either as individuals or in
small groups. They were mostly sailors and explorers. Some of them took the land route
while many others sailed to India . The principal interest of their travel was not conquest but
trade. Only a small number of these explorers have left behind a record of their travels
detailing, among other things, the sea route they took, ports they sailed into, the commodities
they traded and their impression of the strange country, its strange people, their customs etc.
However, in most other cases the details have come down to us indirectly, through the
writings of historians who gathered tales from sailors, merchants etc. who might have
accompanied the voyages; or from other sources that are not now extant. The life and work
of, what we may call, these other ancient Greeks is not common knowledge, except in
History circles. Let us look at a few of them.

2. Before going into that, a mention has to be made of two

other ancient Greeks-Skylab of Karana in Kara and
Pyrrhus the Sceptic- both of whom do not fall in the above
category.

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2.1 Skylax :

Skylax, the first Greek to set foot in India, lived before Herodotus, who tells that the Persian
Emperor Darius Hystargus (512–486) led a naval expedition to prove the feasibility of a sea
passage from the mouth of Indus to Persia . Under the command of Skylax, a fleet sailed
from Punjab in the Gandhara country to the Ocean. Continuing, Skylax followed the coast
and explored the gulf of Oman and the south-eastern side of the Arabic Peninsula . In thirty
months, he circumnavigated Saudi Arabia and reached Mediterranean through the channels
of Nile and Isthmus of Suez . Skylax later wrote a book of geography titled Indika apparently
a report of his expedition that set out to follow the Indus from its headwaters to its mouth.

(Source: J.W.Sedler – India and Greek world)

2.2 . Pyrrhon of Elis (365-275 B. C.) :

Pyrrhon is one of the earliest Greek philosophers likely to have had a direct contact
with India . According to Diogenes Laertios (second cent. A. D.) , the ancient historian of
philosophy, Pyrrhon was at first a painter and his works were seen in the gymnasium at Elis .
Later Pyrrho took to philosophy influenced by the works of Democritus(c.400BC). He
studied philosophy with a teacher of the school of Megara (Magerian dialectics) and then
with Anaxarchus (340BC), the pupil of Democritus.

2.2.1. Pyrrhon was one of the philosophers who traveled with Alexander the Great on his
expedition to India . He apparently met some Indian philosophers during his stay in India .
His experiences in India may have had some effect on him because on his return to India he
preferred to live in solitude and in poverty. Yet, he was highly honored by the Elians and the
Athenians, who conferred upon him the rights of citizenship. He did not put his ideas into
writing. His ideas have survived only through fragmentary citations in later authors and
mainly through the writings of his pupil Timon of Philus. Timon admired his teacher for his
modesty and his tranquil way of life.

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Pyrrhon is regarded the first skeptic philosopher and the inspiration for a school of thought
known as Pyrrhonism founded by Aenesidemus(of third skeptic school) in first century B.C.

(Source: Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition)

3. Patrokles:

The 3rd century B. C. has been rather kind to historians. A good number of reports of Greeks
who traveled to India during this period have come down to us, as compared to the later
periods. During this period, the rulers of Persia and Greece sent their emissaries to India . It is
said, an officer named Petrokles (c.280 BC) visited India and returned with some useful
geographic information. However, nothing much is known about Patrols.

3.1. Pliny, the historian, in his Naturalism Historian VI 36 mentions Patrols. He attributes the
statement, that the Caspian Sea is as long as the Black sea to Patrols. He also mentions that
Aristobulus [who accompanied Alexander the Great] stated that the Oxus is easy to navigate
and that large quantities of Indian merchandise are conveyed by it to the Hyrcanian [Caspian]
Sea and then transferred into Albania by the Cyrus and through the adjoining countries to the
Euxine [Black Sea]. Pliny, then, adds a remark to the effect that Aristobulus and Eratosthenes
-(276-194BC- the Greek mathematician known to have calculated the Earth’s circumference
and to have drawn the map of the world) - borrowed this idea from Patrokles. This is
Eratosthenes’s map. India is on your right hand side.

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3.2. Patrokles’s name appears four times in the fragments of Megasthenes’s Indika. On all
those occasions, it was in connection with measuring the size of India , the length (breadth?)
of India and distance of places in India from the south sea. Patrokles, on each occasion differs
from the measurements calculated by Megasthenes, Eratosthenes and by Deimachos (envoy
to the court of king Bindusara). Hipparchos (the Greek astronomer who drew up the first
catalog of the stars) remarks that two competent authorities’ viz. Deimachos and
Megasthenes opposed Patrokles; and that even Eratosthenes discredited the calculations of
Patrokles.

3.3. Evidently, Patrokles along with Eratosthenes and Hipparchos visited India and he had
some knowledge of India . All these were highly eminent persons. Obviously, the Greeks, in
those times, valued their relation with India .

4. Eudoxos of Kyzikos (Eudoxus of Cynics ) :

The later half of the first century and the period thereafter in the second century BC did not
witness frequent contacts between India and the Greek world because the land route was

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blocked by the Parthian empire (successor to the Seleukids). As regards the sea route via
the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean , the sea captains had not yet learned to utilize the
monsoon trade winds and had forgotten the route found by Skylax. There was, however,
some improvement in the traffic following the movement of the Bacterian kings into
the Indus valley. This rendered the land route less dangerous.

4.1. The beginning of the second century saw an upsurge in the sea travel
between Egypt and India . This continued until the third century. It all began with the voyage
undertaken by one Eudoxos of Kyzikos

4.2. By all accounts, Eudoxos of Kyzikos was a remarkable person. He was a highly cultured
sea captain who was described as a geographer, fighter, diplomat and intrepid trader and one
who explored uncharted lands beyond the Mediterranean . He left behind the story of his
expedition from Egypt to India . He is the hero of popular novels and films.

4.3. Eudoxus (c.130BC) was born in Cyzicus an ancient town of Mysia in Asia Minor ,
situated on the shore side of the present peninsula of Kapu-Dagh (Arctonnesus). Nothing
much is known about Eudoxus’early life. There are some references to his unhappy married
life and to a series of voyages across the Indian Ocean seeking wealth for his family shipping
concerns.

4.4. According to Strabo (64BC to 24 AD -a Greek historian), quoting Posidonius (135BC to

51 BC -a Greek philosopher and historian), while Eudoxus was in Alexandria , he met a
nearly dead shipwrecked Indian rescued from the Red Sea shore. After the seaman recovered
and learnt a smattering of Greek, he informed that he was the sole survivor of a ship that
sailed from India . Eudoxus was exited with this piece of news and thereafter convinced the
Egyptian king Ptolemy VIII (Physkon) to sponsor an expedition to India , with the rescued
Indian seaman as the guide. Eudoxus set sail in 118 BC from Berenice Harbor with the Indian
as the guide. The voyage after having reached Muzuris in South India , Kerala , located
below Calicut , returned to Egypt after 70 days. Eudoxus returned with a rich cargo of

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precious stones and aromatics. Ptolemy VIII promptly confiscated the cargo. Ptolemy VIII,
not long after, died in 116BC; bequeathing Kyrenaika to his illegitimate son Ptolemy Apion
and Egypt to Kleopatra III's son with herself acting as the regent.

4.5. Posidonius recounts that the second voyage of Eudoxus to India came about in 116 BC at
the command of Kleopatra III because she was desirous of procuring more precious gems and
perfumes from India . The second voyage was, however, not as smooth as the first one. On
his return voyage, Eudoxus was blown off-course and stranded on a shore
below Ethiopia (perhaps below Cape Guardafui , Somalia ). After a series of misadventures,
Eudoxus finally returned, with his precious cargo, to Egypt in around 114 BC. By which time
Ptolemy IX had become the pharaoh. Yet again Eudoxus met with the same fate when the
Pharaoh Ptolemy IX confiscated the cargo just as his father did earlier.

4.6. What followed thereafter was a most wonderful adventure story. Eudoxus intending to
embark on a third voyage to India by circumnavigating Africa ( Alexandria ) built a big ship.
As a true showman, he gave wide publicity to the voyage, put music girls on board along
with physicians and artisans, and set sail to India in great style. Because of a number of
mishaps on the way, Eudoxus abandoned the voyage to India and eventually landed
in Cadiz in what is now Spain . Strabo remarks that Eudoxus was always attended by good
fortune.

4.7. Long after Eudoxus voyage Ptolemy XII (80 to 51 BC) created a special post
titled Commander of the Red and Indian Seas to organize and encourage trade with India .
The best-known occupant of this office was Callimachus the epistrategos, who was the
Commander between 78 BC and 51 BC.

4.8. Pliny complained that the Indian luxury trade was depleting the Roman treasury to the
extent of 50 million sesterces annually. The Roman Senate even contemplated banning the
use of Indian cotton in the clothing Toga that Roman citizens wore, because it was too
expensive to import. Evidently, the trade with India was flourishing.

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Incidentally, the captain of Eudoxus of Cyzicus’ship that sailed to India , according to some,
was Hippalus. Who was this Hippalus?Was he real?

5. Hippalus :

The contents of the book titled Periplous of the Erythraean Sea ("Circumnavigation of the
Erythrean i.e., Red Sea"), written in around 75 to 90 AD by an unknown author presumed to
be a Greek merchant sailor, indicates, the author had access to first-hand information about
the ports in western India .The book mentions a series of ports along the Indian coast,
including Muziris (Pattanam?), Colchi (Kochi?), Poduca, and Sopatma. The book is narrated
on a navigation itinerary basis, stopping at every point (a ‘port of call’) to enumerate
merchandises, details about the local routes of trade, information about the natural
environment, the political establishment, and the cultural and religious affairs and/or traits of
the port in question. According to M.S. Megalomanias, a scholar, judging by the language of
the text one could say Greek was not the mother tongue of the author. Most probably, he was
an Alexandrian Egyptian captain and merchant who voyaged these seas and had intimate
knowledge of the areas mentioned in the text.

5.1.The book also records the accomplishment of a certain Hippalus who, it says, understood
the patterns of the Indian monsoons and discovered a sea-route from the Red Sea to Southern

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India . The book also makes a special references the port of Kodanganallur (anglicised
to Cranganore, and also known as Miseries or Hinkle), in present day Kerala on India 's West
coast. Pliny refers to this port as premium emporium Indiae.

5.2. There are two issues concerning Hippalus that are debated (a) the Sea route from the Red
Sea to the Indian ports were already known to the earlier Greeks. Hippalus did not discover
them; and (b) Hippalus was not a real person and that the term was coined to represent a
system of trade winds or to the sea/sea route.

5.3.As regards the first issue, we know that Skylab as far back as in fifth century BC traced a
sea route to and out of the Red Sea . Further, as recorded in Arian’s India ( 21, 1), Searches, a
Macedonian General and a friend of Alexander, commanded a fleet to carry the men back
from India to Persia and Mesopotamia . It is said, he was the first to realize the importance of
the monsoon winds for sailing in that region, he, therefore waited for the commencement of
the northeast monsoon to begin the voyage from India .After his conquest, Alexander sent out
voyages of exploration to Arabia and the Caspian Sea but he died soon thereafter. (Apart
from this ,the Arabians and Indians must, of course, have known and made use of the
monsoon winds for centuries.)

Perhaps, because these events were too far back in time, they were either forgotten or lost in
antiquity.

5.4. The other issue, which questions the existence of Hippalus, is a little more debatable. To
start with, Pliny (79AD) does not mention him ; and in Ptolemy (c.168AD), Hippalus is the
name of a sea. The French historian Andre Tchernia explains that Plenty’s contention was
because in the earlier times, the name of the wind was written as Hiatus and it was only in the
Roman times the spelling Hippalus came into use . Some historians, therefore, wonder if
Hippalus were to be a real person, then it is strange that his exploits were hardly known to the
succeeding generations

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5.5. Regardless of the view one might take on the above issue, the fact is that after the first
century there was an upsurge in the sea traffic between Greece/Egypt and India . This was
mainly on account of the drastic reduction in the time and the risks involved in sailing to
India .The sailors setting out of Egypt ,now, went from the Red Sea to India over open sea ,
instead of hugging to the African coast as had been the practice till then. This made it
possible to sail confidently for days without sight of land. The new route was shorter and free
from the Arabian pirates. The Greek sailors also introduced a new shipping calendar and
planned their voyages accordingly. These practices soon turned the Egypt-India sector into a
major sea route and the Greek merchants sailed further crossing the Bay of Bengal on to
the Southeast Asia region. Naturally, the trade between Egypt and Southern India flourished
during this period. “Previously, not twenty vessels ... dared to peep outside the straits...but
now, great fleets are sent as far as India and the extremities of Ethiopia, from which the most
valuable cargoes are brought to Egypt and thence sent forth again to other regions.' ; so runs
Strobes oft-quoted remark (Strabo, 17.1.13. [798]). Emperor Tiberius (42BC to 16AD), was
however concerned over Rome 's increasingly adverse balance of payments. He complained,
"The ladies and their baubles are transferring our money to foreigners".

5.6. The key to this success story was the Greeks’ coming to understand the phenomenon of
monsoon, the Indian monsoon. What is this monsoon? Let us see.

Monsoon is an anglicized form of Mausum, an Arabic/Hinditerm meaning weather or season.

It is specially refers to the heavy rainy season that commences in June, dies away in
September, each year, and is very vital to the climate, the economy and to the life on Indian
subcontinent.

The south-west monsoon is born off the Madagascar coast to Somalia due to a high-pressure
area .The wind direction at this point is south-easterly. The moisture-laden winds from this
high-pressure area around Madagascar travel northwards to Somalia . As soon as they cross
the equator, south-easterlies turn right to assume south direction.

It is in Somalia that south-west monsoon assumes its true character. It becomes a jet stream

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by May. That jet drives the south-west monsoon from Somalia to India . The Jet streams are
relatively strong winds concentrated within a narrow stream in the atmosphere. The Somali
jet-stream helps the south-west monsoon gain force and hence it hits the Indian subcontinent
with great force

5.6.1. The two key ingredients needed to create a successful monsoon in India are a hot land
mass and a cooler ocean. In India , for instance, the landmass of the Great Thar Desert , the
adjoining areas of north and central India , in addition to the Deccan plateau absorb much
heat from the sun during the summer months; while the temperatures over the Indian
Occasion remain comparatively lower.

Since the Indian Ocean is bound on the north by a large land mass, the effects of “differential
heating" are intense. The air mass over the subcontinent, consequently, heats up, expands,
and rises up in to the air. This causes a low-pressure area over the northern and central Indian
subcontinent. To fill up this void, the cooler, heavier and moisture-laden winds from
the Indian Ocean rush on to the subcontinent. The damp, chilly layer that hangs
Over India will be as thick as three miles.

As the cool air arrives, the winds also shift. During the dry season, the winds blow offshore -

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from land to sea. Then, as the monsoon begins, the winds blow onshore - from sea to land.
This phenomenon perhaps explains why the early Arabs named the monsoon "Mausin," or
"the season of winds." The southwest Monsoon generally begins around the middle of June
and lasts until September.

5.7. The real impotence of this phenomenon to the Greek/Egyptian sailors was that in the
Indian winters the winds blow from the Sea on to the subcontinent; While in the Indian dry
season, the winds reverse and blow from land to the sea. The Greeks could, therefore, sail
into India during the Indian winter and sail back to Egypt during the Indian summer; thus
taking advantage of favourable winds on both occasions .This rendered the sea crossing a
lot easier and faster than before. It is said, Hippalus set out in August sailing into the
wide Arabian Sea directly towards the Malabar Coast . Further, Dr. Lionel Caisson in
his recent translation and commentary on “The Perilous Maris Erythraemia," says the ships
left Egypt in July to take advantage of strong winds out of the north in the Red Sea and while
returning, the ships usually departed in December or January to catch a favourable shift in
winds.

5.8. Dr Lionel Caisson says , a round trip to India covered about 3,500 miles. Dr. Caisson, in
his another book Rome's Trade with the East: the Sea voyage to Africa and India, says that in
those times the ships could make between four to six knots with fair wind. Accordingly, the
mariners of those days could do about 100 miles per day, if they sailed through the night.
That means to say the voyage from Egypt to Malabar might have taken about three weeks or
a little less. According to Pliny, Eudoxus voyage to India and back took seventy days. In one-
step, voyages were reduced from months to weeks, and profits soared.

5.9.One of the fallouts of Greeks’ increased trade with Southern India was, the perspective
they gained of India ’s geography. The Greek geographers till then thought the Indian coast
stretched from West to East. Now they could recognize the North _ South direction
of India ’s West coast and its projection into the Indian Ocean .

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5.10. Finally, Hippalus, real or otherwise, continues to hog the limelight. A crater on the
moon is named after him .He is also a prominent character in Sprague de camp’s
bestseller The Golden Wind.

6. Plantains (c.180 to 200AD) :

Very little information is available about Plantains’ early life. It is said, to start with, he was a
stoic philosopher. He later became a Christian. He established, in 180 AD, the
famous Catechetical School in Alexandria (which later became the
first Christian University ) to teach the beliefs and the philosophy of the new religion. He is
regarded as the teacher of Clement of Alexandria , the first member of
the Church of Alexandria . Clement called him “Sicilian bee” while Plantains called himself
“teacher of gentiles”. He is believed to be the author of the well-known Letter to
Diognetus or at least of its conclusion.

6.1. Because of his zeal and learning, Plantains was sent as a missionary to Malabar Coast, in
South India, to preach Christianity. The Church in Kerala believes that Plantains while
in India came across Matthew's Gospel in Aramaic.

7.Frumentios of Tyros:

Frumentios in his childhood accompanied his uncle to India on what seems to have been a
tourists' trip, but remained there for many years as the household superintendent under an
Indian king. On his return to Alexandria , he was appointed Bishop of India in the year 336,
and presumably returned to India to spread the Christian gospel.

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7.1. Interestingly, the Ethiopian Christian tradition states that a certain Frumenty’s of Tyros
was in Ethiopia in around 360 AD. While on a visit to India , he along with his brother
Aedeses of the Äthiopiern was imprisoned but was later released and appointed as teacher to
the prince. He preached Christianity while in India . On return to Alexandria , he was
appointed Bishop of Ethiopia and was called “Apostle Abyssinians”.

Were they both talking about the same person?

8.Theophilos:
According to Philostorgios (c.368 to 433AD)who is described as late antique church
historian, the Roman Emperor Constantine (fourth century AD) dispatched a certain
Theophanous to India to preach Christianity and that while in India he found some Christian
followers of the Apostle Bartholomew. There is also a tradition that says Theophanous
visited India and Maldives in AD 354, Mar. However, the details of his life are unknown and
what little is known is disputed.

8.1.It is believed he came from one of the islands near Somalia . There is also an opinion that
his travels were in connection with to trade and politics and were not related to religion.

Philip Mayerson in his essay A Confusion of Indies: Asian India and African India in the
Byzantine Sources , says that after the fourth century the term India came to be applied rather
loosely to refer to the subcontinent India , Axum/Ethiopia or even to South Arabia and
this has lead to much confusion. Mr. Myerson says, Theophanous was not sent to India but
was sent to perform missionary work among Home rites in Arabia Felix.

9. (Indian voyager):

He was a Greek traveler and Geographer who lived in Alexandria during the first half of the
sixth century. He was a contemporary of Emperor Justinian I .He came from a family of
traders and in his early years was trained to become a merchant. His business took him to

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various regions around Egypt . He voyaged in the Mediterranean , the Red Sea , and
the Persian Gulf . The farthest he traveled was to the Cape Guardafui . He gathered
information about these and other surrounding regions. It is not certain that he actually
visited India .

9.1. The sub title "Indicopleustes" meaning "Indian voyager” stuck to him perhaps because in
those days the entire region of Arabian Sea , the Red Sea and its sublets fell under the broad
name Indian Ocean .

9.2. In his later years (ca. 540), he became a monk and entered the monastery of Raithu on
the peninsula Sinai. In around 550AD, he wrote a richly illustrated twelve volume
monumental work titled Christine Topography. One copy of the manuscript is in
the Vatican Library while the other is in the Laurentian Library of Florence . A feature of the
book is the cosmology the author projects. According to that, the earth is flat and heavens are
in the shape of box with a curved lid. Cosmos aimed to disprove the pre-Christian
geographers who asserted the earth was spherical in shape.

9.3. If the cosmology is set aside, the book is an interesting and reliable guide to the world
that has since disappeared.

In the words of Philip Meyerson , Christian Topography is the work of an

anonymous Alexandrian merchant and an aspiring theologist who centuries later was given
the name Cosmos and soubriquet of Indicopleustes although he never visited India .

It is sad that the Greek/Egypt trade with India collapsed after third century AD. The fall of
the Roman Empire , and the succeeding dark ages brought instability to Western Europe and
caused a near collapse of the trade network leading to a massive contraction of interregional
trade. The Greek/Egypt and India trade was one of its early causalities.

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10. CONCLUSION

This project intends to study about the Greek travellers and their invasion in India in the
advent of these foreign invaders and the duration of their stay in our country is the main
subject of this project.

It is said that the Greek/Egypt trade with India collaborating with the third century A.D. and
the account of these have been enshrined in this project.

10. BIBLIOGAPHY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmas_Indicopleustes
(Source: J.W.Sedler – India and Greek world)
(http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/timelines/topics/means_of_transportation.htm#rem1
3

http://mailman.geo.uu.nl/pipermail/maphist/2002-July/000840.html)

Sources: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/monsoon/html/body_make.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon

http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/rome.html )
(Source : http://evansexperientialism.freewebspace.com/oleary04.htm

(Source: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/arrian-bookVIII-India.html )
http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/docs/history/primarydocs/Foreign_Views/Greek
Roman/Megasthenes-Indika.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

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http://www.pothos.org/alexander.asp?paraID=73&keyword_id=13&title=Kleitarch
os

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