Indica (Arrian)

Alexander the Great in battle against the Persian King Darius (Pompejan mosaic, probably after a lost painting from the 3rd century BCE, not from Indica by Arrian.)

Indica (Ancient Greek: Ἰνδική Indikḗ) is the name of a short military history about interior Asia, particularly India, written by Arrian in the 2nd century CE. The subject of the book is the expedition of Alexander the Great that occurred between 336 and 323 BCE, about 450 years before Arrian.[1] The book mainly tells the story of Alexander's officer Nearchus' voyage from India to the Persian Gulf after Alexander the Great's conquest of the Indus Valley. However, much of the importance of the work comes from Arrian's in-depth asides describing the history, geography, and culture of Ancient India. Arrian wrote his Indica in the Ionic dialect, taking Herodotus for his literary mode.

Arrian was born in 86 CE, did not visit the Indian subcontinent, and the book is based on a variety of legends and texts known to Arrian, such as the Indica by Megasthenes. Arrian also wrote a companion text, Anabasis. Of all ancient Greek records available about Alexander and interior Asia, Arrian's texts are considered most authoritative.[1]

  1. ^ a b Arrian; Martin Hammond (Translator); John Atkinson (Translator) (2013). Alexander the Great: The Anabasis and the Indica. Oxford University Press. pp. xi–xiv. ISBN 978-0-19-958724-7. {{cite book}}: |author2= has generic name (help)