Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian/Frag. IX.
Fragm. IX.
Strabo, II. i. 19,-p. 76.
Of the setting of the Bear, and shadows falling in contrary directions.[1]
Again, be [Eratosthenes] wished to show the ignorance of Dêimachos, and his want of a practical knowledge of such subjects, evidenced as it was by his thinking that India lay between the autumnal equinox and the winter tropic, and by his contradicting the assertion of Megasthenes that in the southern parts of India the constellation of the Bear disappeared from view, and shadows fell in opposite directions,[2]—phenomena which he assures us are never seen in India, thereby exhibiting the sheerest ignorance. He does not agree in this opinion, but accuses Dêimachos of ignorance for asserting that the Bears do nowhere in India disappear from sight, nor shadows fall in opposite directions, as Megasthenês supposed.