The first notice of India by the ancient authors is given by Herodotus : Prior to the invasion of that country by Darius Hystaspes, the Persian monarch sent Scylax of Caryandra to trace the course of the Indus, and ascertain the place where it discharged itself into the sea. From his account, Herodotus was supplied with his knowledge of India, but it evidently does not extend beyond the sandy tract which lies cast of the Indus and south of the Punjab.
.The conquests of Alexander supply us with the next step in the progressive.geography of this country ; he is generally supposed to have crossed the Indus at Attock ; but Major Wilford is of opinion that lie crossed at the ferry of Torbeilam, a few miles to the south of Attock : from the cast side of the Indus, he advanced to the Ace sines or Chunaub, which he crossed, and also the Hy draotes or Rauvy. After this he deviated from the direct road leading to the Ganges, and advanced in a south westerly route to Sangala ; from this place he turned again to the east, and reached the Hyphasis Beyah. This was the limit of his march ; and consequently the inform ation which Arrian and other historians afford reespect ing India, derived from his victories, does not extend be yond this tract of country ; that is, about 200 miles across the Punjab, or the modern province of Lahore, and the countries which, on his return, Alexander traversed from Multan to the sea.
Our first knowledge of the Ganges is derived from Me gasthencs, who was sent ambassador by Scleucus to Chan dragupta or Sandracottus, king of the Prasii : the capital of this kingdom was Palebrotha, generally supposed to be Patna, on the south side of the Ganges, in latitude 25° 37', and longitude 85° 15'. In this city Megasthenes resided three years, and as he kept a journal of what he saw and heard regarding India during his residence, it may be sup posed that his information added very much to the know ledge which the ancients possessed of India. Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Arrian, and Pliny, seem to have derived all the accounts which they gave of India from Megas thencs. All these authors lay down the proportional di mensions of this country with tolerable accuracy. Accord ing to Diodorus, the breadth is seven-eighths of the length. Arrian's geography of India is principally confined to the northern parts, which had been visited by Alexander and Megasthenes : he gives a tolerably accurate account of most of the rivers which flow into the Indus and Ganges; and the extent of India, which he derived from Megas thenes, is as near the truth, according to Mr Rennel, as that which we assigned it 60 years ago. Pliny was evi
dently acquainted with the form of the Peninsula, from the measures which he gives along the coasts between the mouths of the Ganges and the Indus. One of the most important ancient records of this country is to be found in the map and description of Ptolemy. In some respects this author is very minute and accurate ; but in other respects he is most grossly erroneous : though he lived 60 years after Pliny, he describes the peninsula of India as stretching from the gulf of Cambay from east to west, instead of extending from north to south. This is the more extraordinary, not only because he had access to the comparatively accurate information respecting India, recorded by Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Pliny, but be cause he himself traces, with great minuteness, the sea coast, specifies the most remarkable places on it, and as signs the latitude and longitude of each from Cape Co morin to the mouth of the Ganges. Hence it would ap pear, that his general account of the form of India was expressly contradicted by his detailed description of the country. To Ptolemy also we arc indebted for the enume ration and relative position of the different mouths of the Ganges; and for a curious delineation of various roads used by the traders to China, across the north of Hin dostan. The geography oT this pal t of Hindustan is also greatly illustrated by the description given by Pliny, Dm nysius Peliegetes, Ptolemy, and the Peutingerian tables of the famous royal or Nysszean road. This was made with great care, and at the end of every Indian itinerary measure a small column was erected. The first part it corresponds with the route pursued by Alexander from the Indus to the Hyphasis ; the remainder led to Pale brotha : its whole length was nearly 1500 miles. This road has been illustrated with considerable learning, but not always with the soundest judgment, by Major Wil ford.