Dr Uday Dokras

The Greco Indian Kingdoms

Dr Uday Dokras PhD Stockholm

As Alexander marched deeper into the East, distance alone presented him with a
serious problem: how was he to remain in touch with the Greek world left behind? A
physical link was vital as his army drew supplies and reinforcement from Greece and,

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of course, Macedonia. He had to be sure he was never cut off. He thought of a unique
plan.

He went on planting military colonies and cities in strategic places. At those places

Alexander left Greek mercenaries and Macedonian veterans who were no longer
involved in active campaign. Besides keeping the supply routes open, those
settlements served the purpose of dominating the countryside around them.
Alexander's cities and colonies became powerful instruments in the spread of
Hellenism throughout the East. Plutarch says:

Having founded over 70 cities among barbarian peoples and having planted Greek
magistracies in Asia, Alexander overcame its wild and savage way of life.

Immigration followed Alexander, and for 75-100 years after Alexander's death, Greek
colonists were invited to settle in their realms. 250 new  colonies were set up in the
Mediterranean world.

Ay Khanoum. On a hunting trip in the 1960s, the Afghan Khan Gholam

Serwar Nasher discovered ancient artifacts of Ai Khanom and
invited Princeton archaeologist Daniel Schlumberger with his team to examine
Ai-Khanoum. It was soon found to be the historical Alexandria on the Oxus,
also possibly later named Arukratiya or Eucratidia, one of the primary cities of
the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Some of those artifacts were displayed in Europe
and USA museums in 2004. The site was subsequently excavated through
archaeological work by a French Archaeological Delegation in
Afghanistan (DAFA) mission under Paul Bernard [fr] between 1964 and 1978,.
This city was situated on the borders of Russia and Afghanistan and not far

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from China, the city was mostly Greek. It had the typical Greek trappings of
a gymnasium, a choice of temples, and administration buildings. It was not,
however, purely Greek. It also contained an oriental temple and artistic
remains that showed that the Greeks and the natives had already embraced
aspects of each other's religions. One of the most curious discoveries was a
long inscription written in Greek verse by Clearchus, a pupil of Aristotle. The
inscription, carved in stone, was put up in a public place for all to see.
Clearchus had simply copied the precepts of famous Greeks. The inscription
was philosophy for the common people, a contribution to popular culture. It provided
the Greeks with a link to their faraway homeland. It was also an easy way to make at
least some of Greek culture available to residents.

Plate found at Ai-Khanoum with Cybele on a chariot drawn by a lion, with a crescent moon and star in the background.

Alexander's settlement of Greek colonists and culture in the east resulted in a new
Hellenistic culture, aspects of which were evident until the mid-15th century CE. The
overall result of Alexander's settlements and those of his successors was the spread of
Hellenism as far east as India. Throughout the Hellenistic period, Greeks and
Easterners became familiar with and adapted themselves to each other's customs,
religions, and ways of life. Although Greek culture did not entirely conquer the East, it
gave the East a vehicle of expression that linked it to the West. Hellenism became a
common bond among the East, peninsular Greece, and the western Mediterranean.
This pre-existing cultural bond was later to prove quite valuable to Rome, itself

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strongly influenced by Hellenism in its efforts to impose a comparable political unity

on the known world.

Trade in the Hellenic World

In many respects the Hellenistic city resembled a modern city. It was a cultural centre
with theatres, temples, and libraries. It was a seat of learning, home of poets, writers,
teachers, and artists. It was a place where people could find amusement. The
Hellenistic city was also an economic centre that provided a ready market for grain
and produce raised in the surrounding countryside. The city was an emporium, scene
of trade and manufacturing. In short, the Hellenistic city offered cultural and
economic opportunities but did not foster a sense of united, integrated
enterprise.The Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties traded to India, Arabia, and sub-
Saharan Africa. Overland trade with India and Arabia by caravan which dealt in
luxury goods.

The northern route to Dura on the Euphrates River were essential to the caravan trade
through the plateau of Iran, from which trade routes stretched to the south and still
farther cast to China. Commerce from the East arrived in Egypt and at the excellent
harbours of Palestine, Phoenicia, and Syria. From these ports goods flowed to
Greece, Italy, and Spain.

Hellenistic Trade Routes, 300 BCE/ Jan van der Crabben (CC BY-NC-SA)

Over the caravan routes travelled luxury goods that were light, rare, and expensive. In
time these luxury items became more of a necessity than a luxury. In part this
development was the result of an increased volume of trade. In the prosperity of the
period more people could afford to buy gold, silver, ivory, precious stones, spices, and
a host of other easily transportable goods. Perhaps the most prominent goods in terms

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of volume were tea and silk. Indeed, the trade in silk gave the major route the name
"Silk Road", for not only was this route prominent in antiquity, but it was used until
early modern times. In return the Greeks and Macedonians sent east manufactured
goods, especially metal weapons, cloth, wine, and olive oil.These caravan routes
became far more prominent in the Hellenistic period. Business customs developed and
became standardized, so that merchants from different nationalities communicated in
a way understandable to all of them.

The Heliodorus pillar, commissioned by Indo-Greek ambassador Heliodorus, is the first known

inscription related to Vaishnavism in India. Heliodurus was one of the earliest recorded Indo-
Greek converts to Hinduism.

Bhagavata cult

The Heliodorus pillar is a stone column that was erected around 113 BC in

central India in Vidisha near modern Besnagar, by Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador of
the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas to the court of the Shunga king Bhagabhadra. The
pillar originally supported a statue of Garuda. In the dedication, the Indo-Greek
ambassador explains he is a devotee of "Vāsudeva, the God of Gods". Historically, it is
the first known inscription related to the Bhagavata cult in India.

Era of the Indo-Greek kingdom
There was a succession of more than thirty Hellenistic kings, often in conflict with
each other, from 180 BC to around 10 CE. This era is known as the Indo-
Greek kingdom in the pages of history. The kingdom was founded when the Greco-
Bactrian King Demetrius invaded India in 180 BCE, ultimately creating an entity
which seceded from the powerful Greco-Bactrian kingdom centred in Bactria (today's
northern Afghanistan). Since the term "Indo-Greek Kingdom" loosely described a
number of various dynastic polities, it had several capitals, but the city of Taxila in
modern Pakistan was probably among the earliest seats of local Hellenic rulers,
though cities like Pushkalavati and Sagala (apparently the largest of such residences)
would house a number of dynasties in their times.
During the two centuries of their rule, the Indo-Greek kings combined the Greek and
Indian languages and symbols, as seen on their coins, and blended ancient
Greek, Hindu and Buddhist religious practices, as seen in the archaeological remains

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of their cities and in the indications of their support of Buddhism. The Indo-Greek
kings seem to have achieved a level of cultural syncretism with no equivalent in
history, the consequences of which are still felt today, particularly through the
diffusion and influence of Greco-Buddhist art.
According to Indian sources, Greek ("Yavana") troops seem to have
assisted Chandragupta Maurya in toppling the Nanda Dynasty and founding
the Mauryan Empire. By around 312 BCE Chandragupta had established his rule in
large parts of the north-western Indian territories as well.
In 303 BCE, Seleucus-I led an army to the Indus, where he encountered
Chandragupta. Chandragupta and Seleucus finally concluded an alliance. Seleucus
gave him his daughter in marriage, ceded the territories of Arachosia (modern
Kandahar), Herat, Kabul and Makran. He in turn received from Chandragupta
500 war elephant which he used decisively at the Battle of Ipsus.
The peace treaty, and "an intermarriage agreement" (Epigamia, Greek: Επιγαμια),
meaning either a dynastic marriage or an agreement for intermarriage between Indians
and Greeks was a remarkable first feat in this campaign

The Empire of Alexander the Great

Buddhist expansion in Asia: Mahayana Buddhism first entered the Chinese
Empire (Han dynasty) through Silk Road during the Kushan Era. The overland
and maritime "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what
scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism".

Greco-Buddhism, or Graeco-Buddhism, is the

cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which
developed between the fourth century BCE and the fifth century CE
in Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan and Tajikistan) and
the Gandhara (modern-day Pakistan). It was a cultural consequence of a long
chain of interactions begun by Greek forays into India (which originally meant
the Indus region alone, not the rest of South Asia) from the time of Alexander
the Great. The Macedonian satraps were then conquered by the Mauryan
Empire, under the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryan Emperor
Ashoka would convert to Buddhism and spread the religious philosophy
throughout his domain, as recorded in the Edicts of Ashoka.

Following the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, Greco-Buddhism continued to

flourish under the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Indo-Greek Kingdoms,
and Kushan Empire. Mahayana Buddhism was spread
from Sanchi and Mathura in India into Gandhara and then Central
Asia during the Mauryan Era, where it became the most prevalent branch of
Buddhism in Central Asia. Mahayana Buddhism was later transmitted through
the Silk Road into the Han Dynasty during the Kushan era under the reign of
Emperor Kanishka.

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History of Buddhism
The Indo-Greek Kingdoms in 100 BCE.

The introduction of Hellenistic Greece started when Alexander the

Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire and further regions of Central Asia in
334 BCE. Alexander would then venture into Punjab (land of five rivers), which
was conquered by Darius the Great before him. Alexander crossed
the Indus and Jhelum River when defeating Porus and appointing him as a
satrap following the Battle of the Hydaspes. Alexander's army would mutiny
and retreat along the Beas River when confronted by the Nanda Empire, thus
wouldn't conquer Punjab entirely.
Alexander founded several cities in his new territories in the areas of the Amu
Darya and Bactria, and Greek settlements further extended to the Khyber
Pass, Gandhara (see Taxila), and the Punjab. Following Alexander's death on
June 10, 323 BCE, the Diadochi or "successors" founded their own kingdoms.
General Seleucus set up the Seleucid Empire in Anatolia and Central Asia and
extended as far as India.
The Mauryan Empire, founded by Chandragupta Maurya, would first conquer
the Nanda Empire. Chandragupta would then defeat the Seleucid Empire
during the Seleucid-Mauryan War. This resulted in the transfer of the
Macedonian satraps in the Indus Valley and Gandhara to the Mauryan Empire.
Furthermore, a marriage alliance was enacted which granted Seleucus's
daughter as Chandragupta's wife for diplomatic relations. The conflict
additionally led to the transfer of 500 war elephants to the Seleucid Empire
from the Mauryan Empire, presumably as expenses of lives lost and damages
sustained.
The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka established the largest Indian empire. Following
the destructive Kalinga War, Ashoka converted to Buddhism. Abandoning an
expansionist agenda, Ashoka would adopt humanitarian reformation in place.

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As ascribed in the Edicts of Ashoka, the Emperor spread Dharma as Buddhism

throughout his empire. Ashoka claims to have converted many, including the
Greek populations within his realm to Buddhism:
Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the
Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras, and the Palidas,
everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma.

The decline and overthrow of the Mauryans by the Shunga Empire, and of the
revolt of Bactria in the Seleucid Empire led to the formation of the Greco-
Bactrian Kingdom (250–125 BCE). The Greco-Bactrians were followed by
the Indo-Greek Kingdom (180  BCE – CE 10). Even though the region was
conquered by the Indo-Scythians and the Kushan Empire (1st–3rd centuries
CE), Buddhism continued to thrive.
Buddhism in India was a major religion for centuries until a major Hindu
revival from around the 5th century, with remaining strongholds such
as Bengal largely ended during the Islamic invasions of India.

Cities
According to Ptolemy, Greek cities were founded by the Greco-Bactrians in
northern India. Menander established his capital
in Sagala (modern Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan) one of the centers of the
blossoming Buddhist culture.[19] A large Greek city built by Demetrius and
rebuilt by Menander has been excavated at the archaeological site
of Sirkap near Taxila, where Buddhist stupas were standing side-by-side
with Hindu and Greek temples, indicating religious tolerance and syncretism.

Hellenistic influence on Indian art

The length of the Greek presence in Central Asia and northern India provided
opportunities for interaction, not only on the artistic but also on the religious
plane.
Alexander the Great in Bactria and India (331–325 BCE)

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The Hellenistic Pataliputra capital, discovered in Pataliputra, capital of the Maurya

Empire, dated to the 3rd century BC RIGHT "Victory coin" of Alexander the Great,
minted in Babylon c. 322 BCE, following his campaigns in India.
Obverse: Alexander being crowned by Nike.
Reverse: Alexander attacking King Porus on his elephant.
Silver. British Museum.

When Alexander invaded Bactria and Gandhara, these areas may already have

been under Sramanic influence, likely Buddhist and Jain. According to a
legend preserved in the Pali Canon, two merchant brothers
from Kamsabhoga in Bactria, Tapassu and Bhallika, visited Gautama Buddha
and became his disciples. The legend states that they then returned home and
spread the Buddha's teaching.
In 326 BCE, Alexander conquered the Northern region of India. King Ambhi of
Taxila, known as Taxiles, surrendered his city, a notable Buddhist center, to
Alexander. Alexander fought an epic battle against King Porus of Pauravas in
Punjab, the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BCE.
Mauryan empire (322–183 BC)
The Indian emperor Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Maurya Empire,
reconquered around 322  BC the northwest Indian territory that had been lost
to Alexander the Great. However, contacts were kept with his Greco-Iranian
neighbors in the Seleucid Empire. Emperor Seleucus I Nicator came to a
marital agreement as part of a peace treaty and several Greeks, such as the
historian Megasthenes, resided at the Mauryan court.
Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka embraced the Buddhist faith and became a
great proselytizer in the line of the traditional Pali canon of Theravada

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Buddhism, insisting on non-violence to humans and animals (ahimsa), and

general precepts regulating the life of laypeople.
According to the Edicts of Ashoka, set in stone, some of them written in
Greek[9] and some in Aramaic, the official language of the Achaemenids, he sent
Buddhist emissaries to the Greek lands in Asia and as far as the
Mediterranean. The edicts name each of the rulers of the Hellenistic period:
The conquest by Dharma has been won here, on the borders, and even six
hundred yojanas [4,000 miles] away, where the Greek
king Antiochos (Antiyoga) rules, and beyond there where the four kings
named Ptolemy (Turamaya), Antigonos (Antikini), Magas (Maka)
and Alexander (Alikasu[n]dara) rule, likewise in the south among the Cholas,
the Pandyas, and as far as Tamraparni.

Ashoka also claims he converted to Buddhism Greek populations within his

realm:
Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the
Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas,
everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dharma.

Finally, some of the emissaries of Ashoka, such as the famous Dharmaraksita,

are described in Pali sources as leading Greek ("Yona") Buddhist monks active
in Buddhist proselytism (the Mahavamsa, XII), founding the
eponymous Dharmaguptaka school of Buddhism.
Greek presence in Bactria (325–125 BC)

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The Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum (c. 300–145 BC) was located at the

doorstep of India.

Alexander had established in Bactria several cities (Ai-Khanoum, Bagram) and

an administration that were to last more than two centuries under the Seleucid
Empire and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, all the time in direct contact with
Indian territory. The Greeks sent ambassadors to the court of the Maurya
Empire, such as the historian Megasthenes under Chandragupta Maurya, and
later Deimachus under his son Bindusara, who reported extensively on the
civilization of the Indians. Megasthenes sent detailed reports on Indian
religions, which were circulated and quoted throughout the Classical world for
centuries:
Megasthenes makes a different division of the philosophers, saying that they
are of two kinds, one of which he calls the Brachmanes, and the other
the Sarmanes..." Strabo XV. 1. 58-60.

The Greco-Bactrians maintained a strong Hellenistic culture at the door of

India during the rule of the Maurya Empire in India, as exemplified by the
archaeological site of Ai-Khanoum. When the Maurya Empire was toppled by

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the Shunga Empire around 180 BC, the Greco-Bactrians expanded into India,

where they established the Indo-Greek Kingdom, under which Buddhism was
able to flourish.

Indo-Greek Kingdom and Buddhism (180 BC – AD 10

Greek Gods and the "Wheel of the Law" or Dharmachakra: Left: Zeus holding Nike, who

hands a victory wreath over a Dharmachakra (coin of Menander II). Right: Divinity
wearing chlamys and petasus pushing a Dharmachakra, with legend "He who sets in
motion the Wheel of the Law" (Tillya Tepe Buddhist coin).

Indo-Greek Kingdom
The Greco-Bactrians conquered parts of North India from 180 BC, whence they
are known as the Indo-Greeks. They controlled various areas of the northern
Indian territory until AD 10.
Buddhism prospered under the Indo-Greek kings, and it has been suggested
that their invasion of India was intended to protect the Buddhist faith from the
religious persecutions of the Shungas (185–73 BC), who had overthrown the
Mauryans. Zarmanochegas was a śramana (possibly, but not necessarily a
Buddhist) who, according to ancient historians such as Strabo, Cassius
Dio and Nicolaus of Damascus traveled to Athens while Augustus (died AD 14)
was ruling the Roman Empire.
Coinage
The coins of the Indo-Greek king Menander I (reigned 160–135 BC), found
from Afghanistan to central India, bear the inscription "Saviour King
Menander" in Greek on the front. Several Indo-Greek kings after Menander,
such as Zoilos I, Strato I, Heliokles II, Theophilos, Peukolaos, Menander
II and Archebius display on their coins the title "Maharajasa Dharmika" (lit.
"King of the Dharma") in Prakrit written in Kharoshthi.
Some of the coins of Menander I and Menander II incorporate the Buddhist
symbol of the eight-spoked wheel, associated with the Greek symbols of victory,
either the palm of victory, or the victory wreath handed over by the
goddess Nike. According to the Milinda Pañha, at the end of his reign

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Menander I became a Buddhist arhat,  a fact also echoed by Plutarch, who

explains that his relics were shared and enshrined.

A coin of Menander I (r.160–135 BC) with a dharmacakra and a palm.

The ubiquitous symbol of the elephant in Indo-Greek coinage may also have
been associated with Buddhism, as suggested by the parallel between coins
of Antialcidas and Menander II, where the elephant in the coins of Antialcidas
holds the same relationship to Zeus and Nike as the Buddhist wheel on the
coins of Menander II. When the Zoroastrian Indo-Parthian Kingdom invaded
North India in the 1st century AD, they adopted a large part of the symbolism
of Indo-Greek coinage, but refrained from ever using the elephant, suggesting
that its meaning was not merely geographical.( See Pic to RIGHT above)

Finally, after the reign of Menander I, several Indo-Greek rulers, such

as Amyntas Nikator, Nicias, Peukolaos, Hermaeus, Hippostratos and Menander
II, depicted themselves or their Greek deities forming with the right hand a
benediction gesture identical to the Buddhist vitarka mudra (thumb and index
joined together, with other fingers extended), which in Buddhism signifies the
transmission of Buddha's teaching.
Scriptures
Evidence of direct religious interaction between Greek and Buddhist thought
during the period include the Milinda Pañha or "Questions of Menander", a
Pali-language discourse in the Platonic style held between Menander I and the
Buddhist monk Nagasena. The Mahavamsa, chapter 29, records that during
Menander's reign, a Greek thera (elder monk) named Mahadharmaraksita led
30,000 Buddhist monks from "the Greek city of Alexandria"
(possibly Alexandria on the Caucasus, around 150 kilometres (93 mi) north of
today's Kabul in Afghanistan), to Sri Lanka for the dedication of a stupa,
indicating that Buddhism flourished in Menander's territory and that Greeks
took a very active part in it.

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According to the Mahavamsa, the Ruwanwelisaya  in Anuradhapura,  Sri Lanka, was

dedicated by a 30,000-strong  Yona delegation from  Alexandria on the
Caucasus  around 130 BC.
Several Buddhist dedications by Greeks in India are recorded, such as that of
the Greek meridarch (civil governor of a province) named Theodorus, describing
in Kharosthi how he enshrined relics of the Buddha. The inscriptions were
found on a vase inside a stupa, dated to the reign of Menander or one of his
successors in the 1st century BC. [21] Finally, Buddhist tradition recognizes
Menander as one of the great benefactors of the faith, together with Ashoka
and Kanishka the Great.
Buddhist manuscripts in cursive Greek have been found in Afghanistan,
praising various Buddhas and including mentions of the Mahayana figure of
"Lokesvararaja Buddha" (λωγοασφαροραζοβοδδο). These manuscripts have been
dated later than the 2nd century AD.

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Kushan empire (1st–3rd century AD)

The Kushan Empire, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi, settled
in Bactria around 125 BC, displacing the Greco-Bactrians and invading the
northern parts of Pakistan and India from around AD 1. By that time they had
already been in contact with Greek culture and the Indo-Greek kingdoms for
more than a century. They used the Greek script to write their language, as
exemplified by their coins and their adoption of the Greek alphabet.

The Butkara stupa was reinforced and decorated from the Indo-Greek period on .

The Kushan King Kanishka, who honored Zoroastrian, Greek and Brahmanic
deities as well as the Buddha and was famous for his religious syncretism,
convened the Fourth Buddhist council around 100 in Kashmir in order to
redact the Sarvastivadin canon. Some of Kanishka's coins bear the earliest

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representations of the Buddha on a coin (around 120), in Hellenistic style and

with the word "Boddo" in Greek script.

Science History Images/Alamy

The Battle of the Hydaspes, in what is now Punjab, between the troops of Alexander the Great and the Indian king Porus, 326
BC; illustration from the Faits du Grand Alexandre, circa 1470

“They Came, They Saw, but India Conquered,” wrote the historian A.K.
Narain in 1957, characterizing the effects of the Greek penetration into “India”
(the ancient name included what is today Pakistan and sometimes easternmost
Afghanistan). He referred not only to Alexander the Great’s invasion of the
Indus Valley in 327 BC—the first large-scale encounter between Greek and
Indic civilizations—but also to the era that followed, when Hellenic rump
kingdoms ruled by strongmen rose and fell in northwest India and Bactria, its
neighbor to the west. The presence in the region of these Hellenic states, and
their occasional forays further east, created a zone of Greco-Indian contact,
influence, and exchange, as well as occasional conflict, stretching from Central
Asia to the Ganges. Richard Stoneman, in The Greek Experience of India, says
that the influence began with Alexander  and lasting for 3 centuries .
Several Greek.philosophers Pyrrho, Anaxarchus,and Onesicritus accompanied
Alexander in his eastern campaigns. During the 18 months they were in India,
they were able to interact with Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism,
generally described as gymnosophists ("naked philosophers").
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/04/09/what-did-india-learn-from-the-greeks/

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Pyrrhonism and Buddhism

Pyrrho returned to Greece and founded Pyrrhonism, considered by modern
scholars as the first Western school of skepticism. The Greek
biographer Diogenes Laërtius explained that Pyrrho's equanimity and
detachment from the world were acquired in India.Pyrrho was directly
influenced by Buddhism in developing his philosophy, which is based on
Pyrrho's interpretation of the Buddhist three marks of existence

Cynicism
Another of these philosophers, Onesicritus, a Cynic, is said by Strabo to have
learnt in India the following precepts: "That nothing that happens to a man is
bad or good, opinions being merely dreams. ... That the best philosophy [is]
that which liberates the mind from [both] pleasure and grief".Cynicism,
particularly the Cynic Peregrinus Proteus was further influenced by the tales of
the gymnosophists, particularly the examples set by Kalanos, Dandamis,
and Zarmanochegas.

Cyrenaicism
The Cyrenaic philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene, from the city
of Cyrene where Magas of Cyrene ruled, is thought by some to have been
influenced by the teachings of Ashoka's Buddhist missionaries.

Greco-Buddhist art
Numerous works of Greco-Buddhist art display the intermixing of Greek and
Buddhist influences in such creation centers as Gandhara. The subject matter
of Gandharan art was definitely Buddhist, while most motifs were of Western
Asiatic or Hellenistic origin.
Anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha

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An aniconic representation of Mara's assault on the Buddha, 2nd century AD, Amaravathi

village, Guntur district, India.

Although there is still some debate, the first anthropomorphic representations

of the Buddha himself are often considered a result of the Greco-Buddhist
interaction. Before this innovation, Buddhist art was "aniconic": the Buddha
was only represented through his symbols (an empty throne, the Bodhi
Tree, Buddha footprints, the Dharmachakra).
This reluctance towards anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha, and
the sophisticated development of aniconic symbols to avoid it (even in narrative
scenes where other human figures would appear), seem to be connected to one
of the Buddha's sayings reported in the Digha Nikaya that discouraged
representations of himself after the extinction of his body.
Probably not feeling bound by these restrictions, and because of "their cult of
form, the Greeks were the first to attempt a sculptural representation of the
Buddha". In many parts of the Ancient World, the Greeks did
develop syncretic divinities, that could become a common religious focus for
populations with different traditions: a well-known example is Serapis,
introduced by Ptolemy I Soter in Egypt, who combined aspects of Greek and
Egyptian Gods. In India as well, it was only natural for the Greeks to create a
single common divinity by combining the image of a Greek god-king (Apollo, or
possibly the deified founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, Demetrius I of
Bactria), with the traditional physical characteristics of the Buddha.

Standing Buddha, Gandhara, 1st century AD./ Herculean depiction of Vajrapani (right),

as the protector of the Buddha, 2nd century AD Gandhara, British Museum
Many of the stylistic elements in the representations of the Buddha point to
Greek influence: himation, the contrapposto stance of the upright figures, such
as the 1st–2nd century Gandhara standing Buddhas, the stylized curly hair
and ushnisha apparently derived from the style of the Apollo
Belvedere (330 BC) and the measured quality of the faces, all rendered with
strong artistic realism. A large quantity of sculptures combining Buddhist and
purely Hellenistic styles and iconography were excavated at the modern site
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of Hadda, Afghanistan. The curly hair of Buddha is described in the famous list
of the physical characteristics of the Buddha in the Buddhist sutras. The hair
with curls turning to the right is first described in the Pāli canon; we find the
same description in the Dāsāṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā
Greek artists were most probably the authors of these early representations of
the Buddha, in particular the standing statues, which display "a realistic
treatment of the folds and on some even a hint of modelled volume that
characterizes the best Greek work. This is Classical or Hellenistic Greek, not
archaizing Greek transmitted by Persia or Bactria, nor distinctively Roman."
The Greek stylistic influence on the representation of the Buddha, through its
idealistic realism, also permitted a very accessible, understandable and
attractive visualization of the ultimate state of enlightenment described by
Buddhism, allowing it to reach a wider audience:
During the following centuries, this anthropomorphic representation of the
Buddha defined the canon of Buddhist art, but progressively evolved to
incorporate more Indian and Asian elements.
Hellenized Buddhist pantheon

A Buddhist coin of Kanishka I, with legend ΒΟΔΔΟ "Boddo" (=the Buddha) in

Greek script on the reverse.

Several other Buddhist deities may have been influenced by Greek gods. For
example, Heracles with a lion-skin, the protector deity of Demetrius I of
Bactria, "served as an artistic model for Vajrapani, a protector of the Buddha".
[33][34]
 In Japan, this expression further translated into the wrath-filled and
muscular Niō guardian gods of the Buddha, standing today at the entrance of
many Buddhist temples.
According to Katsumi Tanabe, professor at Chūō University, Japan, besides
Vajrapani, Greek influence also appears in several other gods of the Mahayana
pantheon such as the Japanese Fūjin, inspired from the Greek
divinity Boreas through the Greco-Buddhist Wardo, or the mother
deity Hariti inspired by Tyche.
In addition, forms such as garland-bearing cherubs, vine scrolls, and such
semihuman creatures as the centaur and triton, are part of the repertory of
Hellenistic art introduced by Greco-Roman artists in the service of the Kushan
court.

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Silk Road transmission of Buddhism,  Greco-Buddhist monasticism,

and  Dayuan

Blue-eyed Central Asian monk teaching East-Asian monk. A fresco from

the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, dated to the 9th or 10th century (Kara-
Khoja Kingdom).

Greek monks played a direct role in the upper hierarchy of Buddhism, and in
its early dissemination. During the rule (165–135 BC) of the Greco-
Bactrian King Menander I (Pali: "Milinda"), Mahadharmaraksita (literally
translated as 'Great Teacher/Preserver of the Dharma') was "a Greek
(Pali: Yona, lit. Ionian) Buddhist head monk," according to
the Mahavamsa (Chap. XXIX), who led 30,000 Buddhist monks from "the
Greek city of Alasandra" (Alexandria of the Caucasus, around 150 km north of
today's Kabul in Afghanistan), to Sri Lanka for the dedication of the Great
Stupa in Anuradhapura. Dharmaraksita (Sanskrit), or Dhammarakkhita (Pali)
(translation: Protected by the Dharma), was one of the missionaries sent by
the Mauryan emperor Ashoka to proselytize the Buddhist faith. He is described
as being a Greek (Pali: "Yona", lit. "Ionian") in the Mahavamsa, and his
activities are indicative of the strength of the Hellenistic Greek involvement
during the formative centuries of Buddhism. Indeed, Menander I was famously
converted to Buddhism by Nagasena, who was a student of the Greek Buddhist
monk Dharmaraksita. Menander is said to have reached enlightenment as
an arhat under Nagasena's guidance and is recorded as a great patron of
Buddhism. The dialogue of the Greek King Menander I (Pali "Milinda") with the
monk Nagasena comprises the Pali Buddhist work known as the Milinda
Panha.
Buddhist monks from the region of Gandhara in Pakistan , where Greco-
Buddhism was most influential, later played a key role in the development and
the transmission of Buddhist ideas in the direction of northern Asia. Greco-
Buddhist Kushan monks such as Lokaksema (c. AD 178) travelled to the
Chinese capital of Loyang, where they became the first translators of Buddhist
scriptures into Chinese.[36] Central Asian and East Asian Buddhist monks

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appear to have maintained strong exchanges until around the 10th century, as
indicated by the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves frescos from the Tarim
Basin. In legend too Bodhidharma, the founder of Chán-Buddhism, which later
became Zen, and the legendary originator of the physical training of
the Shaolin monks that led to the creation of Shaolin Kung Fu, is described as
a Buddhist monk from Central Asia in the first Chinese references to him (Yan
Xuan-Zhi in 547).[37] Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a
rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian, and he is
referred as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" ( 碧 眼 胡 ; Bìyǎn hú) in Chinese Chan
texts. In 485, according to the 7th century Chinese historical treatise Liang
Shu, five monks from Gandhara travelled to the country of Fusang ("The
country of the extreme East" beyond the sea, probably eastern Japan), where
they introduced Buddhism:
"Fusang is located to the east of China, 20,000 li [1,500 km] east of the state
of Da Han (itself east of the state of Wa in modern Kyūshū, Japan). (...) In
former times, the people of Fusang knew nothing of the Buddhist religion, but
in the second year of Da Ming of the Song dynasty [AD 485], five monks from
Kipin (Kabul region of Gandhara) travelled by ship to Fusang. They propagated
Buddhist doctrine, circulated scriptures and drawings, and advised the people
to relinquish worldly attachments. As a result the customs of Fusang
changed." (Chinese: "扶桑在大漢國東二萬餘里,地在中國之東(...)其俗舊無佛法,宋大明
二年,罽賓國嘗有比丘五人游行至其國,流通佛法,經像,教令出家,風 俗遂改.")

Two half-brothers from Gandhara, Asanga and Vasubandhu (4th century),

created the Yogacara or "Mind-only" school of Mahayana Buddhism, which
through one of its major texts, the Lankavatara Sutra, became a founding
block of Mahayana, and particularly Zen, philosophy.
Greco-Buddhism in the West

Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription (Greek and Aramaic) 3rd century BC by

Indian Buddhist King Ashoka. This edict advocates the adoption of "godliness"
using the Greek term Eusebeia for Dharma. Kabul Museum.

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Intense westward physical exchange at that time along the Silk Road is

confirmed by the Roman craze for silk from the 1st century BC to the point
that the Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on
economic and moral grounds. This is attested by at least three
authors: Strabo (64/63 BC – c. AD 24), Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC – AD 65),
and Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79). The aforementioned Strabo and Plutarch (c. 
45–125) also wrote about Indo-Greek Buddhist king Menander, confirming that
information about the Indo-Greek Buddhists was circulating throughout the
Hellenistic world.
Zarmanochegas (Zarmarus) (Ζαρμανοχηγὰς) was a monk of
the Sramana tradition (possibly, but not necessarily a Buddhist) who,
according to ancient historians such as Strabo and Dio Cassius, met Nicholas
of Damascus in Antioch while Augustus (died AD 14) was ruling the Roman
Empire, and shortly thereafter proceeded to Athens where he burnt himself to
death. His story and tomb in Athens were well-known over a century
later. Plutarch (died AD 120) in his Life of Alexander, after discussing the self-
immolation of Calanus of India (Kalanos) witnessed by Alexander writes: "The
same thing was done long after by another Indian who came with Caesar to
Athens, where they still show you 'the Indian's Monument,'" referring to
Zarmanochegas' tomb in Roman Athens.
Another century later the Christian church father Clement of Alexandria (died
215) mentioned Buddha by name in his Stromata (Bk I, Ch XV): "The
Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian
philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanæ
and others Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanæ 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. Some,
too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha (Βούττα) whom, on account of
his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours."
Indian gravestones from the Ptolemaic period have been found in Alexandria in
Egypt. The presence of Buddhists in Alexandria at this time is important, since
"It was later in this very place that some of the most active centers of
Christianity were established".
The pre-Christian monastic order of the Therapeutae is possibly a deformation
of the Pāli word "Theravāda",[43] a form of Buddhism, and the movement may
have "almost entirely drawn (its) inspiration from the teaching and practices of
Buddhist asceticism".[42] They may even have been descendants of Asoka's
emissaries to the West.[44] While Philo of Alexandria's description of the
doctrines and practices of the Therapeutae leaves great ambiguity about what
religion they are associated with, analysis by religious scholar Ullrich R.
Kleinhempel indicates that the most likely religion the Therapeutae practiced
was Buddhism.

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Buddhism and Christianity

Queen Māyā's white elephant dream, and the conception of the

Buddha. Gandhara, 2nd–3rd century AD.

Although the philosophical systems of Buddhism and Christianity have evolved

in rather different ways, the moral precepts advocated by Buddhism from the
time of Ashoka through his edicts do have some similarities with the Christian
moral precepts developed more than two centuries later: respect for life, respect
for the weak, rejection of violence, pardon to sinners, tolerance.
One theory is that these similarities may indicate the propagation of Buddhist
ideals into the Western World, with the Greeks acting as intermediaries and
religious syncretists.
"Scholars have often considered the possibility that Buddhism influenced the
early development of Christianity. They have drawn attention to many parallels
concerning the births, lives, doctrines, and deaths of the Buddha and Jesus"
(Bentley, Old World Encounters).

The story of the birth of the Buddha was well known in the West, and possibly
influenced the story of the birth of Jesus: Saint Jerome (4th century) mentions
the birth of the Buddha, who he says "was born from the side of a virgin," [  and
the influential early Christian church father Clement of Alexandria (died 215)
mentioned Buddha (Βούττα) in his Stromata (Bk I, Ch XV). [40] The legend of
Christian saints Barlaam and Josaphat draws on the life of the Buddha.

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