Fictitious and Apocryphal Reports concerning India
Summary
In 'Lassen on Fictitious and Apocryphal Reports concerning India,' the author translates and annotates a section of Christian Lassen’s Indische Alterthumskunde (1858) that critiques classical Greek accounts of India. Lassen distinguishes between two categories of Greek stories: poetic fictions, such as the epics that describe Dionysos’s mythical conquest of India, and apocryphal legends attached to Alexander the Great. He argues that early references to Dionysos’s Indian campaign may derive from Megasthenes, but later poets like Nonnos embellished the tale with fanciful battles and invented Indian kings such as Deriades. The article notes that these Greek authors lacked authentic Indian traditions and instead borrowed from their own mythology, portraying India as a land of marvels to display their poetic ingenuity. Lassen highlights errors and exaggerations in these texts—such as claims that Kashmiris were famed for their swiftness—and warns that such stories reveal more about Greek imagination than Indian history.
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Conclusion
The translated extract concludes that classical Greek epics and legends offer unreliable information about India. By analysing the Dionysian and Alexandrian legends, Lassen shows that their authors projected Greek myths onto an exotic landscape rather than preserving genuine Indian traditions. The article encourages readers to approach such sources critically and to distinguish between imaginative literature and historical evidence when reconstructing India’s past.