Ancient Geography of India

Ancient Geography of India

The first text in Greek devoted entirely to India was written by Ctesias in the fourth century BC. Only fragments of it survive. Yet he was probably the most widely quoted author on India, although Aristotletreated him with contempt. However, soon after Aristotle drew upon Ctesias’ writings, as did Plato,Xenophon and Plutarch. From all these account India became a happy land, a kind of utopia. Pliny (AD 24-79) put forth the age-old notion that India covered one-third of the surface of the earth. Indian kings from Father Tiber to Alexander had reigned 6451 years and three months.

Anaximander of Miletus, born in 610 BC, was the first Greek to draw a map of the earth. It was shown there that the earth was shaped like two half moons of land. The one on the north was Europe and the southern one consisted of Asia and Africa. Together these two half moons enclosed an inland sea – theMediterranean, truly meaning the middle (medi) of the land (terra). Herodotus drew upon such an authority of the past and put forth his idea of the inhabited world – oikoumene. His notion of the earth was an oblong one, running from west to east. This was divided into three continents – Europe, Asia and Libya. He inform in one place in his writings that the boundaries of Europe were unknown and there was not a man who could say whether any sea girdled it round either to the north or to the east. He thought the farthest settled land in this world reached out to the Persian province of Punjab. Aristotle added that between the Pillars of Hercules (modern Gibraltar) and India there was nothing but ocean.

World Map of Herodotus

This was the sum of knowledge when Alexander began his conquests from Macedon, the tiny kingdom in distant Greece. With all the details given by the advanced parties through marches before the great expedition began across Europe, Alexander believed India to be a peninsula of no great depth, which just jutted eastward to the sea, and which on its northern flank was bordered by the chain of mountains. North of this, at no great distance beyond the River Jaxartes was the ocean. To Alexander India meant the land of the Indus River. Whether that mighty river was the source of the Nile or whether it flowed into the ocean was beyond his interest. He must have questioned the local interpreters on arrival with his vast army on the other side of the Indus. Most of the local people did not even know the meaning of the term ocean.
   
Ptolemy (AD 90–168) was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet. His second book is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. In it he says that the true shape of India, the most striking feature of the land, is the acute angle formed by the meeting of the two coasts of the peninsula in a single coastline running almost straight from the mouth of the Indus to the mouth of the Ganga River.
   
Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang AD 602 – 664) was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator who described the interaction between China and India in the early Tang period. The same division of five provinces – Five Indies – continue in his description of the land he travelled. He packs together the shape of India to a half moon with the diameter or broad side to the north and the narrow end to the south. This is not unlike the configuration of India in Ptolemy’s Geography; yet much more accurate. In fact the Chinese pilgrim author brings in a touch of humour when he says rather wryly that the people’s faces are the same shape as the country – narrow downward and broad on the top.

source : encyclopedia

References

• Alexander Cunningham. The Ancient Geography of India. Adamant Media Corporation, 2003.

By: সাদমান On 11:24 AM

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Amazon

Definition

In Greek mythology, the Amazons were a race of warlike women noted for their courage and pride who lived at the outer limits of the known world, sometimes specifically mentioned as the city of Themiskyra on the Black Sea. Their queen was Hippolyta and although Homer tells us they were ‘the equal of men’, they fought and lost separate battles against three Greek heroes:Hercules, Theseus and Bellerophon. Scenes from these battles were popular in Greek art, especially on pottery and in monumental sculpture adorning some of the most important buildings in the Greek world.

In mythology, the Amazons were daughters of Ares, the god of war. They were a women-only society where men were welcomed only for breeding purposes and all male infants were killed. In legend, the Amazons burnt off their right breast in order to better use a bow and throw a spear, indeed, the word amazon may signify ‘breastless’. Interestingly though, Amazons are not depicted in Greek art with a missing breast. They are most often depicted wearing hoplite armour and frequently ride a horse. The most common weapon is the bow and spear but there are also examples where Amazons carry axes.

The first meeting between Greeks and Amazons was when Hercules was sent by Eurystheus, the king ofMycenae, Tiryns and Argos on one of his celebrated twelve labours, this time to fetch the girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyta. The girdle was given by her father Ares and the task was set by Eurystheus precisely because it was an impossibly dangerous endeavour. In some versions of the story Hercules goes alone but in other accounts he first assembles an army led by the finest Greek warriors, including Theseus. In some versions, the taking of the girdle turned out to be rather easier than expected when Hippolyta willingly handed it over but in other versions, Hera - always against Hercules because he was the fruit of her husband’s illicit affair with Alkmene - stirred up the Amazons to give the Greek hero and his army a hot reception. Fine fighters though the Amazons were, they were no match for the invincible Hercules who took the girdle back to Eurystheus. Intriguingly, our earliest depictions of the story in pottery predate the literary sources for the tale by two centuries and they sometimes show Hercules fighting an Amazon named Andromache or Andromeda and in none is a belt ever depicted. This is, once again, evidence that the oral myths were more complicated and varied than the literary versions that have survived. A more definite plot element is that during this expedition Theseus fell in love with and abducted (or eloped with) the Amazon Antiope, an action which would lead to a second encounter between Greeks and Amazons.   

Hercules fighting Amazons was represented in sculpture on the frieze of the Treasury of the Athenians atDelphi (490 BCE), on the Temple of Apollo at Bassae, on the Hephaisteion of Athens (449 BCE) and on metopes on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (470-456 BCE). The throne of the cult statue of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, was also decorated with scenes from this famous myth.

Theseus eventually became the ruler of Athens but the Amazons had not forgotten the loss of one of their members and so launched an expedition to rescue Antiope. Theseus defeated the barbarian invaders but during the battle, Antiope was killed. Theseus abducting Antiope is the subject of the pediment from the Temple of Apollo at Eretria (c. 510 BCE) and on the metopes of The Treasury of the Athenians at Delphi. 

Bellerophon was involved in a third meeting between Greeks and Amazons. He was another hero who had to perform impossible tasks in service to a king. This time Proitos, king of Argos, outraged at (false) accusations from his wife that Bellerophon had attacked her, the king sent the hero to serve Iobates. It was he who set the hero the task of killing the Chimera - a fantastic creature which was a fire-breathing mix of lion, snake and goat - and when Bellerophon managed that feat he was told to go off and fight the Amazons. Naturally, the Greek hero won the day and was even made heir to Iobates’ kingdom in Lycia on his victorious return.

A fourth and final meeting with Amazons came towards the end of the Trojan War. In the Epic Cycle we are told that the Amazon Penthesilea aided the Trojans but was killed in battle by Achilles. In some accounts Achilles fell in love with his victim when he removed her helmet and the scene is captured on a celebrated black-figure vase by Exekias (c. 540 BCE).

More general Amazonomachies (battles with Amazons) were present on the shield of the cult statue ofAthena Parthenos in the Parthenon (438 BCE), on the west pediment of the Temple of Asklepios atEpidaurus (395-375 BCE), on the Temple of Athena Nike on the Athenian Acropolis (c. 425-420 BCE), on the Tholos of Delphi (380-370 BCE) and on the Temple of Ares in the Athens agora. The oldest depiction of a warrior fighting an Amazon is on a terracotta votive shield from 700 BCE. Hercules fighting Amazons is the hero’s second most popular labour depicted on Greek black-figure pottery (after the Nemean lion) with almost 400 surviving examples. Amazons fighting unnamed warriors were common throughout the 6th and 5th centuries both on black and red-figure pottery.

In particular, during the 5th century BCE in Athens, these mythological battles with Amazons came to represent contemporary events, i.e. the battles between Greeks and the invading Persian Armies of Darius at Marathon (490 BCE), Xerxes at Salamis and the Persian attack on Athens itself in 480 BCE. In this sense, Amazons came to represent barbarous foreigners; indeed depictions of Amazons on pottery in this period are shown actually dressed in Persian costume. Public buildings and their accompanying sculpture were, without doubt, an important method of mass communication and depictions of heroes fighting Amazons reminded ordinary people that the political leaders had successfully defended Greek culture against the threat of foreign, and in Greek eyes less civilized, invaders.

By: সাদমান On 7:55 PM

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