From the time of the Greek invasion in fourth century BC, India has been written about extensively by those travelling through the country. Each account has added to the narrative of the subcontinent's people and places.

Gulliver's Travels explores lands and customs unknown to its narrator. Yet through his parody, author Jonathan Swift also pokes fun at assumptions in travelogues. While the author assumes one's own normalcy, the 'other' is either fantastic or beastly. Early descriptions of India too, such as those during the Greek invasion, are replete with fanciful description. Memoirs and fantasy seam together in Nearchus' travelogue about his journey to India with Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. The inhabitants of "Indika" are uncanny creatures, described in a manner not much different from Gulliver recounting his travels. Nearchus' chronicles, which have survived through the historian Arrian's accounts, reveal the other-worldly creatures of India.