Dear Rene,

Thank you for this very informative summary of connections. I was,
however, surprised not to see any mention of the supposed link between
the Greek king Menander and King Milinda of the Milindapa~nha. Any
thoughts?

With metta,
John

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "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]