Krishna was born in Mathura, which is located on the banks of the Yamuna River, and he also belonged to the Shurasena tribe, a branch of the Yadu dynasty. The parallels are quite remarkable, indeed. Some scholars have suggested that the Hercules mentioned by Megasthenes is the Indian deity Krishna, who is widely worshipped across India.

The daughter’s name was Pandaea, and the land where she was born, and over which Heracles placed her as ruler, was named Pandaea after her.” Many male children, but only one daughter was born to him in India, for he married many women. This Hercules, as Megasthenes asserts, and the Indians themselves assure us, uses the same habit with the Theban Hercules. He is particularly worshipped by the Suraseni (Shurasena), who have two great cities, Methora (Mathura) and Cleisoborus (Surapura), and the navigable river Jobares (Yamuna), passes through their territories. “The Hercules who penetrated so far, the Indians tell us, was a native of their country. Although, the original work of Megasthenes is no longer available, later Greek historians such as Arrian and Diodorus Siculus have referred to Indica in their works, from where we can gather snippets of some very important observations made by Megasthenes regarding the presence of Hercules in India.Īrrian (c.86 AD – 160 AD) also wrote a book called Indica, in which he drew from Megasthenes’s earlier work of the same name.

During his stay in India, Megasthenes compiled the book Indica – a commentary on the geography, social traditions, and religious customs of India. He was sent as an ambassador by Seleucus Nicatorof the Seleucid dynasty, with whom Chandragupta Maurya had entered into a treaty and matrimonial alliance. Sometime around c.305 BC, the Greek geographer and explorer Megasthenes arrived at the court of the Indian emperor Chandragupta Maurya at Pataliputra (modern Patna). Hercules and Balarama: The Symbolic and Historical Connections

Balarama pdf 2019