Re: The Buddha's racial appearance

Not only Lamotte but all serious historians know about
the presence of the Greeks in NW India. Just type
"Greeks in India" in Google and you will find
thousands of references to books on that well known
fact. After converting to Buddhism, among other things
because they were outcast for orthodox Hindus, they
authored the first statues of the Buddha (Gandhara
Art). Some mixed with the local population. Others
settled in Bactriane (present day Northern
Afghanistan) and founded a Greek state there.

About the probable common origins of the Indo-Aryan,
the Iranians, Scythes, Russians and most European
(except the Basques and Etruscans) the evidences are
not archeological but linguistic. Most Iranians and
Indian professional conversant in the field,
overcoming an originally nationalistic reaction to the
evidences, adhere now in a way or an other to the
indo-european theory.

It is well documented in Iranian, Indian Vedic,
Sanskrit and Secular litterature that before the
Buddha gave the term a moral meaning, "Arya" had among
others a ethnic connotation.

With Metta

J.Huynen

--- joseph <jothiko@...> wrote:

> Hello friends.
> It seems the best understanding of these questions
> is found directly in the Tipitaka
> a) the Ariyan race:
> there is absolutely no reference to an Aryan `race'
> but only as an
> adjective denoting a noble person of spiritual
> attainment and
> understanding, starting from the acquisition of
> `Right view' as a
> stream-entrer.
> According to an Indian archeologist friend, there is
> no
> Real evidence of any Aryan Invasion' although it is
> a popular theme.
>
> The obvious enough presence of a fairer complexion
> among north Indian
> May be a result of local climate (India stretches
> quite a distance,
> north south)
>
> or, (another wild speculation) the mixing of
> Greeks. E.LaMotte
> (history of Buddhism) claims that at the first few
> centuries (a.c.)
> there were a large number of them in the gangatic
> planes, one may
> well wonder where have they all gone…
>
> b) the castes:
> In a few references to the `ancient Brahmins' the
> Blessed one
> asserts a positive tradition; he also asserts the
> valid existence of
> the four castes
>
> .these are based upon natural distinctions and human
> tendencies, as
> we might naturally say of some one `he's a born
> merchant' etc…
> even in present day India most people are contented
> to live within
> their caste world.
>
> But off course there is much to criticize, and The
> Buddha does so
> more than once,
> Against the way the caste system is held up (as
> hereditary)
> And the pride or abuse that accompanies
>
> The caste differences are about one-pointed ness and
> perseverance,
> which are the
> Characteristics of the Kshatria, (mostly politics,
> military and
> agriculture)
> While the Brahmins tend to involve themselves in
> several parallel
> but different activities
> At the same time.(this , if I remember correctly,
> from R. Svoboda)
>
> There where former Buddhas from both castes.
>
> The point to make, never redundant,
> probably . both these `well known observations'
> are infer/superiority complexes enacted
>
> Metta
> Jothiko
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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