Talk:India (Herodotus)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the India (Herodotus) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Greece

	Greece portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Greece, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Greece on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GreeceWikipedia:WikiProject GreeceTemplate:WikiProject GreeceGreek articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

India: History Low‑importance

	India portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject India, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of India-related topics. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page.IndiaWikipedia:WikiProject IndiaTemplate:WikiProject IndiaIndia articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by the Indian history workgroup (assessed as Mid-importance).
	This article was last assessed in January 2015.

Pakistan Low‑importance

	Pakistan portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Pakistan, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Pakistan on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PakistanWikipedia:WikiProject PakistanTemplate:WikiProject PakistanPakistan articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Ancient Greek geography?

The lead of this article starts off by making claims about "ancient Greek geography" in general. It is an unreasonable generalisation from Herotodus, whose knowledge was quite limited to the Achaemenid Empire. But knowledge grew pretty rapidly. For example:

Strabo (XV 1.10) writes, on the basis of the work by Eratosthenes, that immediately prior to the time of the Indian campaigns by Alexander of Macedonia, the River Indus served as the border between India to the east and (Persian) Ariane to the west.^[1]

So there was India beyond the Indus.

The writings of Alexander's companions, as quoted in late texts suggest that by the time of his invasion of India in 327 BC, "India" ('Indoi) included at least a great part of the northern section of the subcontinent stretching from an area to the west of the Indus to the land of the Gangaridai (to be placed in the lower deltaic region of West Bengal and perhaps parts of coastal Bangladesh).^[2]

Why the term "India" got extended from the Indus to the subcontinent beyond it is a question that has hardly received any attention.

Anyway, I will be making some edits to clarify these points. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 08:51, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I would also like to register, with some admiration, this fine edit by an IP editor, which cleanly punctures the claim that Herodotus was talking about "India" at all. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 09:17, 19 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Dandamaev, M. A. (1989), A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire, BRILL, p. 147, ISBN 90-04-09172-6
^ * Mukherjee, Bratindra Nath (2001), Nationhood and Statehood in India: A historical survey, Regency Publications, pp. 3–4, ISBN 978-81-87498-26-1

[1] Dandamaev, M. A. (1989), A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire, BRILL, p. 147, ISBN 90-04-09172-6

[2] * Mukherjee, Bratindra Nath (2001), Nationhood and Statehood in India: A historical survey, Regency Publications, pp. 3–4, ISBN 978-81-87498-26-1

[1]

[2]