{"title":"《论自然界》","authors":"R. Stoneman","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv3znwg5.16","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses Megasthenes' accounts of India's natural world. For example, his account of the elephant implies their importance to kings: in fact, their prominence in India coincides with the rise of kingship. The terrain in which elephants can thrive is almost the inverse of that suitable for horses: their habitat is jungle, which can be anything from dense forest to open scrub with trees. Nowadays this kind of habitat is found in the more easterly parts of India, but in Alexander's time even the Punjab was thickly forested. The Mahābhārata describes the forests around Delhi (Indraprastha), and even Abu'l Fazl, in the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar, speaks of rhinos, tigers and elephants roaming in this region.","PeriodicalId":202547,"journal":{"name":"The Greek Experience of India","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2019-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Megasthenes on the Natural World\",\"authors\":\"R. Stoneman\",\"doi\":\"10.2307/j.ctv3znwg5.16\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"This chapter discusses Megasthenes' accounts of India's natural world. For example, his account of the elephant implies their importance to kings: in fact, their prominence in India coincides with the rise of kingship. The terrain in which elephants can thrive is almost the inverse of that suitable for horses: their habitat is jungle, which can be anything from dense forest to open scrub with trees. Nowadays this kind of habitat is found in the more easterly parts of India, but in Alexander's time even the Punjab was thickly forested. The Mahābhārata describes the forests around Delhi (Indraprastha), and even Abu'l Fazl, in the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar, speaks of rhinos, tigers and elephants roaming in this region.\",\"PeriodicalId\":202547,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"The Greek Experience of India\",\"volume\":\"30 1\",\"pages\":\"0\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.0000,\"publicationDate\":\"2019-02-05\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"The Greek Experience of India\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv3znwg5.16\",\"RegionNum\":0,\"RegionCategory\":null,\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"\",\"JCRName\":\"\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Greek Experience of India","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv3znwg5.16","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter discusses Megasthenes' accounts of India's natural world. For example, his account of the elephant implies their importance to kings: in fact, their prominence in India coincides with the rise of kingship. The terrain in which elephants can thrive is almost the inverse of that suitable for horses: their habitat is jungle, which can be anything from dense forest to open scrub with trees. Nowadays this kind of habitat is found in the more easterly parts of India, but in Alexander's time even the Punjab was thickly forested. The Mahābhārata describes the forests around Delhi (Indraprastha), and even Abu'l Fazl, in the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar, speaks of rhinos, tigers and elephants roaming in this region.