Herodotus and India - Scylax of Caryanda sails the Indus River, Gold-digging Ants and other tales 

Herodotus has always been my favourite historian. He may well lack the reliability of Thucydides or Livy but he's such a wonderful storyteller. Recently subscribed to your channel and love it.

The oldest mention of Greeks in Indian history is in the Yuga Purana, a Hindu text that was written sometime between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE. The text refers to the Greeks as "Yavanas" and says that they invaded India during the Kali Yuga, the current epoch of time in Hindu cosmology. The Yuga Purana is not the only Indian text that mentions the Yavanas. The Mahabharata, an epic poem that was written sometime between the 4th and 6th centuries BCE, also refers to them. In the Mahabharata, the Yavanas are described as a powerful and wealthy people who came from the West. The Greeks first came into contact with India in the 4th century BCE, when Alexander the Great invaded the subcontinent. After Alexander's death, his generals carved up his empire and one of them, Seleucus I Nicator, took control of the eastern provinces, including Bactria. Bactria was located in what is now Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and it was here that a Greek-speaking culture developed. In the 2nd century BCE, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom collapsed and a number of Greek kingdoms emerged in the Indian subcontinent. These kingdoms, collectively known as the Indo-Greek Kingdom, lasted for over 200 years. During this time, there was a great deal of cultural exchange between the Greeks and Indians. The Greeks introduced their language, art, and architecture to India, while the Indians introduced their religion, philosophy, and mathematics to the Greeks. The Indo-Greek Kingdom eventually collapsed in the 1st century BCE, but the legacy of the Greeks in India continued. The Indian words for "mathematics" and "geometry" are derived from Greek words, and many Indian architectural features, such as the dome and the arch, were introduced by the Greeks. The oldest mention of Greeks in Indian history is a testament to the long and lasting relationship between these two cultures. The Greeks and Indians exchanged ideas, goods, and people for centuries, and their mutual influence can still be seen today.

I think the Paktyins mentioned by Herodotus were the same as Pectyans of Later Greeks. Ie. The Pakhtuns of north west Pakistan and nearby Afghanistan

Thank you for the work that you do !! I am fascinated by ancient history especially Persian history this channel is one of the best on RU-vid!!

The closing landscape shot was breathtaking.

Both ants and burrowing mammals do dig up earth that contains things from below including gold nuggets and archaeological artifacts, more then one lost site have been found that way. I think Herodotus got the original story wrong between the first telling of the story and when it reached him. It was probably ants *and* mammals larger then foxes but smaller then dogs in the original story. Some of Herodotus stories are just weird and make no sense but I think this one is kinda true and it is just the wording that is wrong. As for Scylax, it is harder to sat what was going on since H probably had access to Scylax story, either in writing or from someone that was on the trip. It is possible they just screwed up a bit with the directions since they didn't have a compass or that something similar to the ants were going on and they first traveled east on a river to India and then took the Indus river, hard to say. But since other sources mentions Scylax I think he probably did do the journey.

i love your channel, thanks 🙏

I have often wondered how the world would be were a lot of Herodotus’ fantastical elements in his history were true. I haven’t read his work in many years and forgot about the giant ants but, aside from the obvious reasons for not want ants that big in the world, how cool would that be?! It is even more amazing to think of the Greek and Persian explorers going into parts unknown with naught but these stories to guide them through the unknown. How cool would it have been to have been on one of those expeditions!

Love seeing this covered!

When you quoted the report of Skylax having followed the river to the east and then circumnavigated the land in order to return, I first thought that he accidentally traveled along the Ganges without noticing. But your explanation makes more sense. Such a voyage would probably have taken longer than just two and a half years.

Personally I believe the ants digging gold story. It's not so far fetched to think that the ant's activity could help move gold into concentrations which made following the ants the same as following the gold.

I think you might also be interested of another Greek explorer named Pytheas.

Excellent work! Great to see you representing your homeland, well.

great video

👍👍👍Reading Herodotus is always a good choice!!

A follow up video on Megasthenes and his experience in India would be cool.

Why retreat to the world of fantasy by reading The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter when Herodotus Histories is Even more facinating and educational.

The elephant in the thumbnail looks pretty cool ngl

Great story.

Greeks were so inaccurate about Israel that I can't believe they could be accurate about India

Title of video caught me by surprise. I was like HUH?!

very good

cool! the rains in cali were said on the news to have washed the gold out n into the lower streams. cy u still planning a vid on Alexender the great? Daniel 10:20 king james version

I love these sorts of ancient documents about magical distant lands lol. Thank you very much for another excellent video. God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ :)

Can you do a video on the Kuru Kingdom please

would love to see a video on indo aryans and their beliefs and how they impacted zoroastrianism and hinduism .

A little offtopic here, it is about this neo-assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who said in one of your quotations that he has examined strange text from pre-flood era, which indicates that there assumably were texts from antediluvian civilizations...

Reading a lot of Herodotus... for your third intermediate period video? :p

Iv heard some people claim that some mathematical and philosophical transfer might have also taken place from Indian universities. However I haven't come across any primary sources of that yet.

is there any episode coming about the nabateans?

Am I crazy or would a TV series are based on Herodotus or later Ibn Batuta (probably butchered spelling) be an amazing show that could easily go a decade?

Eeeey it's new Cy! Hail βασιλεύς!

Can you do a video on the tablet found in pre Alexandria writen in Aramaic and greek. Just to point tha Jesus could have read it and also Socrates. And that it was writen by a buddist king. Ashoka And that embassy that imolated himself. Definitely strange that it is not more talked abou 😮

....resembling that of bacteria and the most warlike of the Indians.... That is very interesting.

That there is no earlier preserved greek sources on india written before herodotus does not equal that the greeks did not have knowledge about india before that time

Herodotus has great stories about all kinds of unbelievable people---some with no noses, some with no mouths, no ears, etc. There's usually a translation problem from his writings or he misunderstood what he was hearing. How many times do we hear in English stories from someone that defy belief or are simply lies. We have google, et al to discover (we hope) the truth. Herodotus had no access to any other source than the person telling the story.

This India was not the nowadays India, but just Pakistan and a little bit more, along the Indus River.

Strabo's Geography Book 15 .44 How to lure away those gold digging ants, the "myrmeces", ..with "the flesh of wild beasts". Also .69 "..some say the gold ants have wings". Great chapter. Also on how to tame wild elephants...🪄🐘

Did skylax have a lazy brother named snorelax?

Caspian Sea and Pakistan? Why do people expect place names to stay the same over thousands of years?

Wool made in trees? I've seen goats in trees. Herodotus must have never visited Greece as he was such the traveler.

Solomons fleets traded with Kerala

0:41 "thus herodotus's histories contains the earliest preserved account of India from Antiquity " - you are of course dissing Indian writings, aren't you?

Sanskrit word for greeks is 'yavana'...almost all indian language have same word for greek people

Couln't Paktyikan simply have been Paktia?

binod

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Allajbayırrımha?!??!?!?’bömb

well the whole fireants the size of small dogs bringing up gold from the sand, has pretty mush been debunked, so we know Herodetus isn't a very reliable historian

😢 how can you equate history of Indus River(Pakistan) with modern day republic of India It’s like saying Romanians were Romans 😂

Unfortunately, however interesting your narrative, I had to abandon it because the constant drumming noise wrecks my nerves.

paktyike is likely Pakistan. When you read something that comes from a second or third-hand description, you have to be able to figure out if the name is correct or if it was misremembered, mistranscribed or mistranslated.

It would have been a hoot to go with Herodotus on this trip, if only to see how a Greek would have covered this journey to a land so far away from the homeland. Not the most reliable historian but I always found his writing to be entertaining.