Rene,

All this is very interesting indeed. If you have references, these information would be even more valuable for follow up study.

Sukhi [Pali: May you be happy!]

Piya

--- rsalm <rjs@...> wrote:

> There was little known about the East in Greek and Roman times, and
> what was written contained much fantastic material. But I don't
> think it can all be dismissed. I've studied this for some time from
> both the Christian and the Buddhist viewpoints, and have found that
> there were some interesting and historically-documented contacts, as
> well as doctrinal resemblances between groups, etc. I need to work
> this up more seriously some day, and hope to. For now, I offer this
> post, which is a selection of material. I ignore nebulous
> connections such as possible Pythagorean and Orphic connections with
> India. We must first deal with the conquests of Alexander the Great,
> the missionaries sent by Asoka in III BCE, and ongoing trade routes,
> each of which created lasting impressions in the West. Some points
> to be considered follow.
>
> -- About 400 BCE, Ctesias was a Greek physician held prisoner by the
> Persian court. He wrote 'Indica' in Greek (only fragments have
> survived), but he never visited India. This is our earliest Western
> writing about India.
> -- 323 BCE, Alexander the Great conquers NW India. In his entourage
> was Pyrrho of Elis, who upon returning home founded the influential
> (and much maligned) Greek philosophical school of skepticism. There
> are close connections between Pyrrho's thought and Indian logic. As
> A. Frenkian writes, "Pyrrho's total abstention from assertion uses
> that typically Indian mode of argument, the so-called quadrilemma...
> We must not say about any one thing (1) that it is, or (2) that it
> is not, or (3) that it is and is not, or (4) that it neither is nor
> is not." (We are of course familiar with this formula from the
> Buddhist scriptures.) Pyrrho's thought survives through his pupils.
> One scholar (E. Flintoff) writes that "what is most stiking [in
> comparing Buddhist and Pyrrhonian thought] is that in both
> philosophies antinomial argument is used to produce a transformation
> inside human consciousness in which the world as usually experienced
> is suddenly seen as somehow unreal, as what the Indians would call
> *maya*. A cessation of all conceptualization (Gk: epokhe) takes
> place which leads on to a cessation of all speech (aphasia) which
> leads in turn to a cessation of all troubledness (ataraxia, nirvana,
> moksa)." Pyrrhonism had great influence on Platonism.
>
> -- Ca. 300 BCE. Megathenes was sent as Greek (Seleucid) ambassador
> to the founder of the Mauryan dynasty, Chandragupta. He may have
> spent as much as ten years in India, and wrote "Indica," which
> survives in quotes and a short recension (by Photius).
>
> -- Ca. 250 BCE. The Buddhist king Asoka Maurya erects pillars
> throughout his kingdom and sends missionaries to foreign parts, as
> much as "six hundred yoyanas away [ = 4,200 miles] where the Greek
> king Antiochos rules, beyond there where the four kings named
> Ptolemy, Antigonos, Magas and Alexander rule." (Rock Edict 13). The
> king of Egypt who received Buddhist missionaries would have been
> Ptolemy II Philadelphus (d. 246 BCE), or possibly Ptolemy III
> Euergetes (d. 221). Ptolemy II is known to have sent embassies to
> India. His capital, Alexandria, served as the main trade and export
> center. Like his father (who was himself a scholar-general and built
> the famous library), Ptolemy II made the city a leading center of
> the arts and sciences. H. Heinen writes that he "displayed a vivid
> interest in Greek as well as in Egyptian religion, paid visits to
> the sanctuaries in the countryside, and spent large sums erecting
> temples... Throughout the whole Mediterranean world the King
> acquired a reputation for being a generous patron of poets and
> scholars... The age of Ptolemy II coincided with the apex of
> Hellenistic civilization; its vigour and glamour were a result of
> the still fresh forces of Greek leadership in the eastern
> Mediterranean... A prudent and enlightened ruler, [Ptolemy II] found
> his strength in dipolmatic ability and his satisfaction in a vast
> curiosity of mind."
>
> -- Ca. 117 BCE. Ptolemy VIII sponsors the first completed sea voyage
> to India via the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, beginning Egypt's
> interest in the spice trade.
>
> -- 31 BCE. Zarmaros, a Brahmin priest, caused general astonishment
> by publicly burning himself to death in an Athens square. Emperor
> Augustus was present, having just been initiated (with Zarmaros)
> into the Eleusinian mysteries. It is possible that Zarmaros was
> acting as an ambassador to the Roman emperor from king "Poros" of
> India. According to Philostratus, the brahmin's contempt for death
> impelled Apollonius of Tyana to travel to India in I CE.
>
> -- Ca. 40 CE. Philo, the wealthy Jewish philosopher from Alexandria,
> writes: "Among the Indians there is the class of the gymnosophists
> (naked philosophers) who, in addition to natural philosophy, take
> great pains in the study of moral science also and thus make their
> whole existence a sort of lesson in virtue." He continues about
> Calanus, an Indian gymnosophist from the days of Alexander the
> Great. Philo is also our only source of information about the
> Therapeutae. This group of peaceful renunciants left their
> possessions to their children and lived in a monastic setting near
> Alexandria. Both males and females were admitted, but lived
> separately. They considered wealth a great waste of time, wished to
> be free from all influence of passion, and served "a living God who
> is superior to the good, more simple than the one, and more ancient
> than the unit." They spent their time in meditation, seeking out the
> "secret meaning of nature." Philo's own writings also reflect these
> ideas. He also wrote extensively about the Essenes, who have much in
> common with the Therapeuts.
>
>
>
> -- Ca. 80 CE. Josephus, the Jewish general, writes of the Indian
> contempt for death (see Zarmaros, above): in a final speech at
> Masada (Wars 7.8.7), the rebel leader Eleazar successfully exhorts
> the hopelessly besieged Jews to commit mass suicide.
>
>
>
> -- Ca. 50 CE? The Apostle Thomas is reputed to have gone to India
> where he was martyred.
>
> This appears to be an influence from West to East, but it also
> reflects an underlying complementarity of views, for Thomasine
> theology is gnostic (salvation through enlightenment) and encratite
> (control of the passions), whereas Pauline theology is neither. The
> Thomas Christians of Kerala today claim to go back to Thomas, though
> they have become more mainstream in their doctrines.
>
>
>
> -- Ca. 150 CE. Pantaenus goes to India, according to Eusebius (Hist.
> 5.10). He finds that the gospel had already been preached in India,
> returns to Alexandria, founds the famous Catechetical School, and
> becomes Clement of Alexandria's teacher.
>
>
>
> -- Ca. 200 CE. Clement of Alexandria alludes to India several times
> in his writings. He writes: "There are two classes, some of them
> called Sarmanae and others called Brahmins. And those of the
> Sarmanae who are called Hylobii neither inhabit cities, nor have
> roofs over them, but are clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts,
> and drink water in their hands. Like those called Encratites in the
> present day, they know not marriage nor begetting of children."
> [Strom. 1.71.5] ("Hylobii" < Gk. hylobios, "living in the woods," is
> a literal translation of Skt. vaanaprastha, the forest-dweller- the
> third of four Hindu life-stages/ashramas, before sannyaasa). In
> another place, Clement distinguishes between Brahmins and "holy men"
> who "go naked throughout their entire life. They seek for the truth,
> and predict the future, and reverence a certain pyramid under which,
> they think, lie the bones of a certain god." The 'pyramid' must be a
> garbled reference to the stupa under which lie holy relics.
>
>
>
> -- Ca. 220 CE. Bardaisan (Bardesanes) of Edessa in Syria
> distinguishes between Brahmins and "Samanaeans," and is the first to
> give a rough description that is probably of the Buddhist
> upasampadaa. He tells us that a candidate for entry to the order
> goes to the village or city leaders and makes a declaration to give
> up all his property. After having his body shaved, he receives a
> robe and, leaving his wife and children, joins the community. "They
> live outside the city, passing the day in discussion about sacred
> matters. They have temples and sacred precincts where appointed
> stewards receive from the king the necessaries of life for the
> community. The provision is of rice and bread, fruit and
> vegetables... They are all unmarried and without property." If this
> is a description of Buddhism, it shows an established dependence of
> the order on civic patronage, with special places, appointed
> stewards, and royal support.
>
>
>
> I think this is enough for one post. If someone has other
> information, I would be interested, and if anyone wants references,
> please don't hesitate to let me know.
>
>
>
> In metta,
>
> Rene
>
> rjs@...
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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