gems, ancient trade, commerce, India, philology, geography

The Indica of Megasthenes is justly renowned as the earliest Western eyewitness account of the Gangetic plain and includes a record of his diplomatic encounter with Chandragupta, founder of the Mauryan Empire. The traditional interpretation holds that this meeting occurred in 304/3 BCE, during the height of Chandragupta’s power, with Megasthenes serving as Seleucus Nicator’s envoy during negotiations that led to the famous exchange of territories for war elephants prior to the Battle of Ipsus. However, the author of this passage argues that Megasthenes’ mission actually occurred a decade earlier, around 320–318 BCE, when the Mauryan Empire had not yet consolidated power. During this earlier period, India remained a fragmented landscape of independent tribes and minor principalities. Although Chandragupta on the Ganges and Porus on the Indus were dominant regional figures, neither yet held supremacy over the subcontinent.