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Fragmentary Sources Shape Chandragupta
- Chandragupta Maurya founded the Mauryan Empire from an obscure background using limited, fragmentary sources for reconstruction.
- Historians must combine Greek accounts and South Asian religious texts to piece together his life cautiously.
Two Biased Source Worlds
- Sources divide into Greco-Roman accounts and diverse South Asian religious texts, each with biases.
- Treat religious narratives as colored by sectarian aims and Greek reports as selective ethnography.
Magasthenes: The Ambassdor Who Wrote India
- Magasthenes was likely the first Greek ambassador to the Mauryan court and wrote the lost Indica.
- Later authors preserved fragments, making his work our key non-Indian testimony of Mauryan India.