Account of foreign travellers in understanding Indian history: 

(i) many foreign travellers visited ancient India. They came either as ambassadors or travellers or to seek religious knowledge from time to time. They have left behind an account of the things they saw.

(ii) Megasthenes was a Greek Ambassador who visited during Chandragupta Mauryan. He wrote a book, Indika. Its original text is lost but parts of it have been preserved in fragments quoted by subsequent Greek writers. When read together, these fragments furnish valuable information not only about the administration but also social classes and economic activities of the Mauryan period.

(iii) Greek and Roman accounts of the first and second centuries mention many Indian ports and commodities of trade between India and the Roman Empire. The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea and Ptolemy’s Geography, both written in Greek, provide precious data in this regard.

(iv) Many Chinese travellers visited ancient India. Fa-hsien and Hsuan Tsang were two most important travellers. Both of them were Buddhist and came to this country mainly to visit the Buddhist shrines and to study Buddhism. Fahsien who visited India in the fifth century AD describes the conditions in India in the age of Guptas whereas Hsuan Tsang presents a similar account of India in the seventh century during the time of king Harshavardhana. Hsuan Tsang also describes in detail the glory of Nalanda University (Bihar) during his time.