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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Determine the veracity of Megasthenes’ descriptions of Indian society & economy with the help of other contemporary evidences.

  • UPSC 1994
  • Mauryan Empire

Megasthenes, the Greek envoy sent by Seleucus I Nicator to the court of Chandragupta Maurya around 302 BC, left behind in his Indica the single most detailed outsider's portrait of Mauryan India. The text survives only as scattered fragments embedded in later Greek and Latin writers, so testing its veracity is not a simple exercise…

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • The Lost Indica and Its Reconstruction
  • Megasthenes on Indian Society
  • Megasthenes on the Economy
  • Testing the Veracity: Cross-Examining the Evidence
  • The Seven-Caste Confusion
  • The Myth of No Slavery
  • …and 3 more sections, with a conclusion

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