Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents ix
3. List of Illustrations xi
4. Preface and Acknowledgements xv
5. Abbreviations and Conventions xvii
6. Prologue: The Moon at Noon 1
7. Part I. First Impressions
8. 1. Writing a Book about India 5
9. 2. Alexander in India 36
10. 3. Heracles and Dionysus 80
11. 4. The Natural History of India 99
12. Part II. Megasthenes’ Description of India
13. 5. Introducing Megasthenes 129
14. 6. Megasthenes’ Book 177
15. 7. Geography and Ancient History 186
16. 8. Culture and Society 198
17. 9. The Question of Utopia 238
18. 10. Megasthenes on the Natural World 254
19. Part III. Interactions
20. 11. The Indian Philosophers and the Greeks 289
21. 12. Two Hundred Years of Debate: Greek and Indian Thought 332
22. 13. The Trojan Elephant: Two Hundred Years of Co-existence from the Death of Alexander to the Death of Menander, 323 to 135 BCE 375
23. 14. Bending the Bow: Kṛṣṇa, Arjuna, Rāma, Odysseus 405
24. 15. Greeks and the Art of India 427
25. 16. Apollonius of Tyana and Hellenistic Taxila 461
26. Appendix: Concordance of the Fragments of Megasthenes 479
27. Bibliography 481
28. Index 511