Geography

​All India is well-watered by rivers, some of them uniting into the two largest, the Indus and the Ganges, and others emptying into the sea by their own mouths. They all have their sources in the Caucasus and flow first towards the south, then some of them keep the same direction of flow, especially those that join the Indus, while others turn towards the east, just as the Ganges River also does. Now this river, having descended from the mountainous country, when it reaches the plains, turns towards the east and flowing past Palibothra, the greatest city, proceeds to the sea in this region and makes a single outlet, being the largest of the rivers in India. On the other hand, the Indus empties by two mouths into the southern sea, encompassing the country called Patalene, which is similar to the Delta of Egypt. From the evaporation of so many rivers and from the Etesian winds, as Eratosthenes says, India is watered by the summer rains, and the plains become like lakes. Now, during these rains, flax and millet are sown, and in addition to these, sesame, rice, and bosmoron; while in the winter season, wheat, barley, pulse, and other edible fruits of which we are ignorant are sown. Almost the same things grow in India as in Ethiopia and Egypt, and the Indian rivers also produce the other animals of those in Egypt except the hippopotamus, though Onesicritus says that even hippopotamuses are found there. As for the people, those of the south are like the Ethiopians in color, but in countenance and hair they are like the rest (for they do not have woolly hair, owing to the humidity of the air), while those of the north are like the Egyptians.

​And they say that Taprobane is an island in the open sea, lying at a distance of seven days’ sail towards the south from the southernmost parts of India, those near the Coniaci, its length being about five thousand stadia towards Ethiopia; and that it also has elephants.

​Such are the statements of Eratosthenes. But if the statements of others also are added, in case they make any further accurate details, they will give shape to our description. For instance, concerning Taprobane, Onesicritus says that its size is five thousand stadia, without distinguishing length or breadth, and that it is distant from the mainland a voyage of twenty days, but that the ships are poor sailors, being wretchedly fitted with sails and constructed without internal ribs on both sides. And he says that there are also other islands between it and India, but that Taprobane is the southernmost. Amphibious sea-monsters are found around it, some resembling oxen, some horses, and others other land animals.

​And Nearchus, concerning the deposition of soil by the rivers, adduces such examples as this: that the plains of the Hermus, the Caÿster, the Maeander, and the Caïcus are spoken of in a similar way, because the silt carried onto the plains increases them, or rather produces them, being brought down from the mountains, as much of it as is fertile and soft; and that the rivers bring this down, so that the plains are, as it were, the offspring of these rivers, and it is well said that the plains belong to them. This is the same as what was said by Herodotus of the Nile and the land along it, that it is the gift of the river; and for this reason Nearchus says that the Nile was also correctly called by the same name as Egypt.