Pliny: Voyages from and to India

Ancient India portrays a unique value of recorded facts. From supreme navigators to flawless voyages, the unheard-of love of justice is clear in the hearts of the brave. The construction of the cities, to which they took so much pride in, amazed all who witnessed and continues to astonish all who appreciate the beauty of the workmanship and pride that these people possessed.

C. 17 (l9). He (M. Varro) adds that under the direction of Pompey it was ascertained that it is seven days' journey from India to the river Iachrus, which flows into the Oxus, and that people have been conveyed from the Oxus through the Caspian into the Cyrus, and that Indian merchandise can be brought by land to Phasis in Pontus in five days at most.

BOOK II. c. 67 (67). The same Nepos, when speaking of the northern circumnavigation, relates that to Q. Metellus Celer the colleague of Afranius in the consulship, but then a proconsul in Gaul, a present was given by the King of the Suevi consisting of some Indians who, sailing from India for the purpose of commerce, had been driven by storms into Germany.

BOOK VI. c. 23 (26). The journal of the voyage of Onesikritus and Nearchus has neither the names of the stations nor the distances set down in it; and first of all it is not sufficiently explained where and near what river Xylenopolis was--a city founded by Alexander and that from which his expedition started when it left India. Still, the following places mentioned by them are worthy of notice--the town of Arbis, founded by Nearchus in the course of the voyage, and the river Arbis, which is navigable and opposite which lies an island at a distance of 70 stadia; Alexandria built by Leonnatus by Alexander's orders in the territories of this people; Argenuus with a convenient harbour; the river Tonberos, which is navigable, and around its banks the Pasirae; then come the Ichthyophagi. . . . In after times it was considered an undeniable fact that the voyage from Syagrus, a cape in Arabia, reckoned at 1335 miles, can be performed by aid of a west wind which is there called Hippalus. The age that followed pointed out a shorter route that was also safer by making the voyage from the same cape to Sigerus, a seaport of India; and for a long time this route was followed until one still shorter was discovered by a merchant, and India was brought nearer us through the love of gain. So then at the present day voyages are made to India every year; and companies of archers are carried on board because the Indian seas are infested by pirates. . . . If the wind called Hippalus be blowing, Muziris, the nearest mart of India, can be reached in forty days. It is not a desirable place of call, pirates being in the neighbourhood who occupy a place called Nitrias, and besides it is not well supplied with wares for traffic. Ships besides anchor at a great distance from the shore, and the cargoes have to be landed and shipped by employing boats. At the time I was writing this Caelobothras was the sovereign of that country. Another more convenient harbour of the nation is Neacyndon which is called Becare. There Pandion used to reign, dwelling at a great distance from the mart, in a town in the interior of the country called Modura. The district from which pepper is carried down to Becare in canoes is called Cottonara. None of these names of nations, ports, and cities are to be found in any of the former writers--from which it appears that the names (stations) of the places are changed. Travellers sail back from India in the beginning of the Egyptian month Tybis--our December--or at all events before the 6th day of the Egyptian month Mechir, that is before the Ides of January. In this way they can go and return the same year. They sail from India with a south-east wind, and on entering the Red Sea catch the south-west or south.

BOOK XI. c. 3 (2). In the Indian Sea are very many and very large living creatures. Among them whales, each 240 feet long and half as broad, and sharks 200 cubits long; and as the Indian locust measures 4 cubits, so the eels in the river Ganges are each 300 feet long.

From: McCrindle, J. W. Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature. Westminster: Archibald Constable, 1901, 110-112.