[Ancient History] Information Sources for Ancient India

Indian Literary Sources :

Source	Author	Language	Date	Notes
Veda Samhitas	Various	Sanskrit	1st m. BCE	Gives account of life of people in addition to philosophy, religion etc
Arthashastra	Chanakya	Sanskrit	4th c. BCE	Covers Mauryan period under Chandragupta Maurya Treatise on statecraft, economy and military strategy
Sangam literature	Various	Tamil	c. 600 BCE – 300 CE	Primarily Dealt with everyday themes

Foreign Literary Sources :

Source	Author	Language	Date	Notes
Indika	Megasthenes	Greek	4th c. BCE	Ambassador of Seleucus I to court of Chandragupta Maurya Used by later writers Strabo and Arrian Describes geography, politics, various kingdoms, caste system
Indica	Arrian	Greek	1st c. CE	Considered one of most important sources about India Covers travel of Alexander’s officer Nearchus from India to Babylon Covers geography, esp. Indus and Ganges Describes social structure Describes seven castes, physical appearance, absence of slavery Used Indika (Megasthenes) as source
Geographica	Strabo	Greek	1st c. CE	Descriptive history of people and places all over the world Consists of 17 volumes of material
	Fa-Hien	Chinese	Around 400 CE	Travelled to India/Ceylon to obtain Buddhist scriptures

Epigraphical Sources:

Note that more than 55% of epigraphical inscriptions in India are in Tamil

Inscription	Location	Attributed to (date)	Notes
Indus valley inscriptions	IVC	c. 2600 – 1900 BCE	Indus script remains undeciphered
Edicts of Asoka	All over India	Asoka 3rd c. BCE	In Praktrit, Sanskrit, Greek
Heliodorus pillar	Besnagar (Madhya Pradesh)	c. 110 BCE	In Sanskrit (Brahmi) Dedicated by Heliodorus to god Vasudeva Heliodorus was the Ambassador of Indo-Greek king Antialcidas to court of Sunga king Bhagabhadra Describes relationship b/w Sungas and Indo-Greeks
Hathigumpha incription	Udayagiri (Orissa)	Kharavela (Kalinga) (150 BCE)	In Prakrit (Brahmi script) Main source of info about Kharavela Mentions conflict with Demetrius Mentions conflict with Uttarapatha
Rabatak inscription	Rabatak (Afghanistan)	Kanishka 127-151 CE	In Bactrian (Greek script) Describes Kushan dynasty
Halmidi inscription	Halmidi (Karnataka)	c. 450 CE	Oldest inscription in Kannada (Brahmi script)