Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/15

 INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR In this volume I have endeavoured to present a picture of India as it appeared to foreign travellers who visited it at different periods in its history. Greek, Latin, Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English sources have been drawn upon, since these are the historic nations which have come into direct or indirect contact with India. Among classical writers Strabo was given a prefer- ence, both for particular merits of his own and because his description of India includes the reports of his countrymen, Megasthenes, Onesikritos, and others, who accompanied Alexander the Great on his invading march into the land of the Indus. In the second chap- ter, in which the story of the practice of widow-burning, from the earliest ages to the time of its abolition, is told, space has been found for several Latin allusions, besides the Greek, Moslem, and European references to this ancient custom. The third chapter will be found to prove that the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Hiuan Tsang, was not only a pious devotee of India's broader creed, but also a keen observer and careful recorder of what he saw in the land of the faith that he loved. For the earlier Moslem period I have chosen a selection