The Curious Capitals of the Greeks in India Greco-Buddhist Art and

Culture

Dr Uday Dokras
Michael Grant calls Alexandria a curious capital because it never quite seemed to
belong to Egypt. It was linked to the rest of the country by the Nile River, but people
still spoke of travelling from Alexandria to Egypt, or from Egypt to Alexandria. The
explanation for this might lie in the fact that Alexander the Great never intended the
city to become just the capital of Egypt. He chose the location to become the capital
of his empire. Alexander wasn't only building Egypt's new centre, but a
commercially-oriented Greek metropolis.Indo Greek Kingdoms or in the alternative
Grecian Indianized Kingdoms were to follow the same route as Alexandria. Other
cities dotted the landscape of Alexander’s conquests- they were the real curious ones.

Alexander the Great founded, substantially re-established or renamed numerous

towns and cities. Below are some of these cities (with present-day locations):
Modern Bulgaria

 Alexandropolis Maedica
Modern Turkey

 Alexandria Troas, modern Dalyan

 Alexandria by the Latmus, possibly Alinda
 Alexandria near Issus; İskenderun preserves the name, but probably not the
exact site.
 Smyrna. According to the legend, after Alexander hunted on the Mount Pagus,
he slept under a plane tree at the sanctuary of Nemesis. While he was sleeping, the
goddess appeared and told him to found a city there and move into it the
Smyrnaeans from the "old" city. The Smyrnaeans sent ambassadors to the oracle
at Clarus to ask about this, and after the response from the oracle they decided to
move to the "new" Smyrna.[2]
Modern Syria

 Nikephorion, present day Raqqa. Isidore of Charax, in the Parthian Stations,

wrote that it was a Greek city founded by Alexander the Great.[3][4]
Modern Egypt

 Alexandria
Modern Iraq

 Iskandariya, Iraq.
 Alexandria in Susiana, later Charax Spasinu
 Alexandria of Mygdonia, probably in the area of Erbil[5]

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Modern Iran

 Alexandria Asiana, possibly Eskandari-ye Baraftab and Nesar-e Eskandari

 Alexandria Carmania, near Soghan Rural District
 Alexandria Susia or Alexandropolis,[6] modern Mashhad
Modern Tajikistan

 Alexandria Eschate, at or close to modern Khujand

Modern Uzbekistan

 Six cities north of the Oxus, one of which may be Termez

Modern Turkmenistan

 Alexandria in Margiana, formerly Merv

Modern Afghanistan

 Alexandria Ariana, now Herat

 Alexandria Prophthasia, perhaps Farah, Afghanistan
 Alexandria Arachosia, now Kandahar
 Alexandria in the Caucasus, now Bagram
 Alexandria on the Oxus or Alexandria Oxiana, probably Ai-Khanoum
 Alexandria in Opiania, Ghazni
 Nikaia or Nicaea, at or near Jalalabad
Modern Pakistan

 Arigaeum, modern Nawagai, Bajaur

 Nicaea, somewhere in modern Punjab
 Alexandria Bucephalous (Bucephala), somewhere in modern Punjab
 Alexandria on the Indus, possibly Uch, and another town on the Indus.
 Patala, unknown, possibly near Hyderabad, Sindh
 Xylinepolis, unknown, possibly near Hyderabad, Sindh
 Alexandria in Orietai near Rhambacia, possibly Bela, Pakistan.
 Alexandria, possibly near modern Multan.[5]
 Alexandria, founded beside the old Indian town of Patala at the mouth of the
Indus river at Regio Patalis.
Modern India

 Alexandria on the Hyphasis; In Punjab, India on the western bank of the Beas

(Hyphasis) river

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 ALEXANDER’s EXPEDITIONS

Date Event

April 334 B.C. Departure of the expedition from Amphipolis (Greece)

May 334 Troy (Turkey)―Troades, capital city

Battle of the Granicus River (Biga Çay, near Dimetoka,

May 334 Turkey)―Hellespontine Phrygia (capital city Dascylium (Ergili), captured
by Parmenion)

Jun 334 Sardes(near Salihli, Turkey)―Lydia, capital city

Jun 334 Ephesus (Turkey)―Ionia

Jul 334 Siege of Miletus (Turkey)―Ionia, capital city

Sep 334 Siege of Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey)―Caria, capital city

? Lycia (Turkey)―Lycia (capital city Xanthos)

Dec 334 Phaselis (near Kemer, Turkey)―Pamphylia

? Termessos (Turkey)―Pamphylia

Jan 333 Perge (modern Murtina, near Aksu, Turkey)―Pamphylia, capital city

? Aspendos (near Serik, Turkey)―Pamphylia

? Side (near Manavgat, Turkey)―Pamphylia

3
? Kelainai (near Dinar, Turkey)―Pisidia (capital city Sagalassos)

Apr 333 Gordion (Yassihöyük, near Polatli, Turkey)―Great Phrygia, capital city

? Ankyra (Ankara, Turkey)―Cappadocia (capital city Comana (Kayseri))

? Cilician Gates (Turkey)―Cilicia

Sep 333 Cydnos River (Tarsus Çayi River, Turkey )―Cilicia

Sep 333 Tarsus (Turkey)―Cilicia, capital city

Oct 333 Soli (Mezetlu, west of Mersin, Turkey)―Cilicia

Nov 333 Battle of Issus, Pinarus River (Payas River, near Dörtyol, Turkey)―Cilicia

Nov 333 Alexandretta or Alexandria near Issus (Iskenderun, Turkey)―Cilicia

Aradus Island (Arwad, 3 km off the Syrian coastal town of Tartus,

Dec 333
Syria)―Phoenicia(Syria)

Jan 332 Byblos (40 km north of Beirut, Lebanon)―Phoenicia (Syria)

Jan 332 Sidon (Lebanon)―Phoenicia (Syria)

Jan-July 332 Siege of Tyre (Lebanon)―Phoenicia (Syria)

? Damascus (Syria)―Syria, capital city

??? Jerusalem (Israel)―Syria

4
Sep 332 Siege of Gaza (Palestine)―Syria

Dec 332 Pelusium (Port Said, Egypt)―Egypt

Jan 331 Memphis (Egypt)―Egypt, capital city

Jan 331 Alexandria (Egypt)―Egypt

Feb 331 Siwa, oracle (Egypt)―Egypt

May 331 Tyre (Lebanon)―Phoenicia (Syria)

? Damascus (Syria)―Syria

? Alep (Syria)―Syria

Jul 331 Thapsacus (Tipsah) (Dibsi Faray, Euphrates River, Syria)―Mesopotamia

Jul 331 Harran (Turkey)―Mesopotamia

Jul 331 Edessa or Urhai (Urfa, Turkey)―Mesopotamia

Jul 331 Tigris River (Iraq)―Mesopotamia

Oct 331 Battle of Gaugamela (Tel Gomel, Iraq)―Mesopotamia

Oct 331 Arbela (Arbil/Irbil, Iraq)―Mesopotamia (ancient Assyria), capital city

Oct 331 Babylon (on the Euphrates, Iraq)―Babylonia, capital city

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Dec 331 Susa (Iran)―Susiana (Elam), capital city

Battle of the Persian Gate (Darvazeh-ye Fars, northeast of Yasuj,

?
Iran)―Persia

Jan 330 Persepolis (Iran)―Persia, capital city

? Pasargadae (plain of Morghab, Iran)―Persia

Deh Bid Pass (Zagros Range) to modern Yazd and Esfahan,

Jun 330
Iran―Persia/Media

Jun 330 Ecbatana (Hamadan, Iran)―Media, capital city

Jun 330 Rhagae (Rey, Iran)―Media

Caspian Gates (between

Jun 330 modern Eyvanakey and Aradan or Tehran and Semnan, Iran,
Media/Parthia border)―Media/Parthia

Alexander's detour from modern Semnan to the Dasht-e-Kavir

Jul 330
desert (Iran)―Parthia 

Thara (near Ahuan, between Semnan and Qusheh, Iran) where the Persian
Jul 330
king Darius III was killed―Parthia

Jul 330 Hecatompylos (Shahrud, Iran)―Parthia, capital city

Jul 330 Zadracarta―Hyrcania, largest city

Aug 330 Hyrcanian campaign (Caspian Sea/Elburz Range, Iran)―Hyrcania

Sep 330 Susia (Tus, near Mashhad, Iran)―Parthia

6
 Nisa-Alexandroupolis (Bagir Village, 18 km southwest
?
of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan)???―Parthia

Sep 330 Artacoana, Alexandria in Aria (Herat, Afghanistan)―Aria, capital city

Phrada, Alexandria Prophthasia (Farah, Afghanistan)―Drangiana, capital

Oct 330
city

Dec 330 Alexandria in Arachosia (Kandahar, Afghanistan)―Arachosia, capital city

Winter 329 Alexandria (Ghazni, Afghanistan)―Arachosia

Apr 329 Ortospana, Kabura (Kabul, Afghanistan)―Gandara

Apr 329 Cophen River (Kabul River, Afghanistan)―Gandara

Kapisa, Alexandria in the Caucasus (Bagram near Charikar,

Apr 329
Afghanistan)―Gandara, capital city

Paropamisus (Hindu Kush, Afghanistan) (Paropamisus is the western part

May 329
of Gandara)―Gandara

Khawak Pass (leading from Badakhshan to Panjshir valley, 100 km

May 329
northeast of Kabul, Afghanistan)―Gandara

May 329 Drapsaca (Konduz/Kondoz or Qonduz/Qondoz, Afghanistan)―Bactria

May 329 Bactra (Balkh, near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan)―Bactria, capital city

May 329 Oxus River (Gozan, (Amudar'ja River, Afghanistan/Uzbekistan border)

7
May 329 Alexandria Tarmita (Termez/Termiz, Uzbekistan)―Sogdia (or Transoxiana)

Nautaca (Uzunkir, near Shakhrisabz, between Samarkand and

Jun 329
Karshi, Uzbekistan)―Sogdia

Jun 329 Maracanda (Samarkand, Uzbekistan)―Sogdia, capital city

Jaxartes River (Syrdar'ya River) and Fergana

Jul 329
Valley (Uzbekistan/Tajikistan/Kyrgyzstan)―Sogdia

Fergana Valley with 7 Achaemenid cities-fortresses, among

Jul 329 which Cyropolis or Cyreschata/Kurushkatha (Uroteppa,
Tajikistan)―Sogdia

Alexandria Eschate (Leninabad, Khodzent, Khudzhand or Hudzand,

Jul 329
Tajikistan)―Sogdia

Sogdians and Scythians Massagetes (Spitamenes' revolt) (north of Jaxartes

Oct 329
River)

Nov 329 Maracanda (Samarkand, Uzbekistan)―Sogdia

Nov 329 Tribactra (Bukhara, Uzbekistan)―Sogdia

Nov 329 Bactra (Balkh, near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan)―Bactria

Alexandria Oxiane/on the Oxus (perhaps Ai Khanum/Ay Khanom???)

Spring 328 (confluence of the Amudar'ja and Kowkcheh rivers, near Deshitiqala
(Badakhshan region), northern frontier of Afghanistan )―Bactria

? Alexandria in Margiana (Mary/Merv, Turkmenistan) (founded

8
 by Craterus and refounded by Antiochus I and called
Antiochia)―Margiana, capital city

Summer/Autumn Sogdian campaigns and attack of the Sogdian settlements in the

328 Gissarskiy (or Hissar) Range (Pamiro-Alai region, Tajikistan)―Sogdia

Nautaca (Uzunkir, near Shakhrisabz, between Samarkand and Karshi,

Dec 328
Uzbekistan)―Sogdia

Sogdian Rock o Rock of Sisimithres (where Oxyartes and Roxana were)

Mar 327
(Gissarskiy (or Hissar) Range, Pamiro-Alai region, Tajikistan)―Sogdia

Spring 327 Bactra (Balkh, near Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan)―Bactria

Kapisa, Alexandria in the Caucasus (Bagram near Charikar,

Spring 327
Afghanistan)―Gandara, capital city

? Cophen River (Kabul River, Afghanistan/Pakistan)―Gandara

Sep 327 Passo Khyber/Khyber Pass (Afghanistan/Pakistan)―Gandara

Peucelaotis (Charsadda, north of Peshawar, at the Kabul River, Pakistan),

Autumn 327
occupied by Perdiccas and Hephaestion―Gandara, Pakistan

Arigaeum (Arigaion), capital city of the Aspasians (Nawagai, Pakistan),

Autumn 327
Alexander campaign against Aspasians and Guraei―Gandara, Pakistan

Massaca/Massaga, capital city of the Assacenes (Alexander campaign)

Autumn 327 (Wuch near Chakdara, lower Swat (Soastus) valley, Pakistan)―Gandara,
Pakistan

Autumn 327 Bazira (Bir-Kot/Barikot, lower Swat valley, Pakistan)―Gandara, Pakistan

Autumn 327 Ora (Ude-Gram/Odigram, lower Swat valley, Pakistan)―Gandara, Pakistan

9
Autumn 327 Shang-La Pass, Pakistan (4300m)―Gandara, Pakistan

Aornus Rock (Pir-Sar or Pir Sarai, 1600m, at the Indus River,

Autumn 327
Pakistan)―Pakistan

Winter 326 Modern Hund, Pakistan (the two Macedonian armies reunited)-Pakistan

Alexander's detour to Nysa (legend: founded by Dionysius)

Mar 326 (near Jalalabad, at the river Chitral or Kunar (Euas) in eastern
Afghanistan)―Gandara, Pakistan

Taxila (Takshaçila, 20 km west from Islamabad, Pakistan)―Pakistan,

Spring 326
capital city

Battle of Hydaspes River against Porus (modern Jhelum,

Jul 326
Pakistan)―Eastern Punjab (kingdom of Porus, Pauravas)

Alexandria Nicaea (west bank of Jhelum, Haranpur???, Pakistan)―Eastern

Jul 326
Punjab

Alexandria Bucephala (east bank of Jhelum, Haranpur???,

Jul 326
Pakistan)―Eastern Punjab

Acesines River (Chenab, Pakistan) (crossing between Gujrat and Sialkot,

Aug 326
Pakistan)―Eastern Punjab

Aug 326 Hydraotes River (Ravi, Pakistan)―Eastern Punjab

Sangala (near Amritsar, India) (siege against the Mallians)―Eastern

Aug 326
Punjab

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 Hyphasis River (Bias/Beas, India) (the easternmost border of Alexander's
31 Aug 326
expedition, mutiny of the army)―Eastern Punjab

Alexandria on the Hyphasis (west bank, eastern border of Alexander's

Sep 326
empire, near Amritsar, India)―Eastern Punjab

Return to Hydaspes River (modern Jhelum, Pakistan), Nicaea and

Sep 326
Bucephala (Pakistan)―Eastern Punjab

Nov 326 Departure of the fleet at the Hydaspes River (Pakistan)―Eastern Punjab

Nov-Dec 326 Mallians and Oxydracae campaign (Pakistan)―Eastern Punjab

Nov-Dec 326 Town of the Brahmans (Harmatelia???, Pakistan)―Eastern Punjab

Siege of Multan (capital city of the Mallians (Malava)), Pakistan (where

Nov-Dec 326
Alexander was seriously wounded by an arrow)―Eastern Punjab

Alexandria on the Indus (at the confluence of Indus and Chenab) (Uch,

Nov-Dec 326
Pakistan) (Alexandria of Opiane???)―Eastern Punjab

Campaigns against the kingdoms of Musicanus (modern Alor, Pakistan)

Dec 326
and Sambus (modern Sehwan, Pakistan)―Sind (capital city Thatta)

Dec 326 Patala (modern Hyderabad???, Pakistan)―Sindh

Expedition of Craterus from Patala to Hormuz: Patala, Bolan Pass,

Jul-Dec 325 between Sibi and Quetta (Pakistan), Kandahar (Afghanistan), Hamun
Lake, Hormuz (Bandare Abbas) (Iran)

Aug-Dec 325 The return of Alexander: Patala-Hormuz (with Hephaestion)

Aug 325 Arabius River (Hab River, crossing near modern Karachi, Pakistan)―Sind

11
? Arabitians and Oreitans campaigns, Pakistan―Gedrosia

Autumn 325 Alexandria Rhambacia (Bela, Pakistan)―Gedrosia

Alexandria in Makarene (120 km west of Karachi, area of Hab River,

?
Pakistan)

Autumn 325 Gedrosian Desert (Baluchistan (Makran), Pakistan/Iran)―Gedrosia

Nov 325 Pura (Bampur, Iran)―Gedrosia, capital city

Alexandria in Carmania (Golashkerd, Iran)―Carmania (capital city

Dec 325
Harmozia/Hormuz)

Expedition of Nearchus from Patala to Hormuz: Patala, Karachi, Hab

Sep-Dec 325 River, Sonmiani Bay, Ormara, Pasni, Gwadar, Jask, Strait of Hormuz,
Hormuz (Bandar Abbas) (Iran)

Dec 325 The reuniting at Hormuz―Carmania

Jan-Feb 324 The return of Alexander from Hormuz to Susa:

Pasargad (plain of Morghab, Iran) (visit to the tomb of Cyrus the

Jan 324
Great)―Persia [1]

Feb 324 Persepolis (Iran)―Persia

Feb 324 Susa (Iran)―Susiana (Elam), capital city

The return of Hephaestion and Craterus along the coastline

Jan-Feb 324
of Carmania and Persia (from Hormuz to Susa)

Jan-Feb 324 The return of Nearchus from Hormuz to Susa: Hormuz, Qeshm

12
 Island, Mond River, Karun River, Susa

Mar 324 The marriages of Susa (Iran)

? Persian Gulf, Mouth of the Tigris (Iraq/Iran)―Susiana

Alexandria in Susiana or Alexandria of Characene, later Alexandria

Spring 324
Antiocheia), Karka (Charax, near Al Qurnah, Iraq)―Susiana

Mutiny of the army at Opis (east bank of the Tigris, not far from the
Spring 324
confluence of Tigris and Diyala rivers, south of Baghdad, Iraq)―Babylonia

Summer 324 Ecbatana (Hamadan, Iran)―Media, capital city

Oct 324 Death of Hephaestion in Ecbatana (Hamadan, Iran)―Media

Cossaeans campaign (Loristan/Luristan, Zagros Range,
Winter 323
Iran)―Media/Babylonia

Spring 323 Babylon (on the Euphrates, Iraq)―Babylonia, capital city

10 or 11 June 323
Death of Alexander in Babylon (Iraq)―Babylonia
B.C.

Pre- Alexander contacts: Long before the arrival of Alexander the Great on
India's north-western border, there are references in early
Indian literature calling the Greeks Yavanas. Pāṇini, an
ancient Sanskrit grammarian, was acquainted with the word yavana in his
composition. Katyaanaa explains the term yavanānī as the script of
the Yavanas. Nothing much is known about Pāṇini's life, not even the century
he lived in. The scholarly mainstream favours 4th century BCE. Pāṇini's
grammar, known as Ashtadhyayi , meaning eight chapters, defines classical
Sanskrit, so that Pāṇini by definition lived at the end of the Vedic period: An
important hint for the dating of Pāṇini is the occurrence of the
word yavanānī (in 4.1.49, either "Greek woman", or "Greek script"). It is

13
unlikely there would have been first-hand knowledge of Greeks in Gandhara
before the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 330s BCE, but it is likely
that the name was known via the Old Persian word yauna, so that the
occurrence of yavanānī taken in isolation allows for as early as 520 BC, i.e. the
time of Darius the Great's conquests in India.

Katyayana (3rd century BCE) was Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and

Vedic priest who lived in ancient India. He explains the term yavanānī as the
script of the Yavanas. He takes the same line as above that the Old Persian
term yauna became Sanskrtised to name all Greeks. In fact, this word appears
in the Mahabharata.

The Empire of Alexander the Great

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, of course, Macedonia. He had to be sure he

14
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.Their military
significance apart, Alexander's cities and colonies became powerful
instruments in the spread of Hellenism throughout the East. Plutarch
described Alexander's achievements:

Having founded over 70 cities among barbarian peoples and having planted
reek magistracies in Asia, Alexander overcame its wild and savage way of life.
Alexander had indeed opened the East to an enormous wave of immigration,
and his successors continued his policy by inviting Greek colonists to settle in
their realms. For seventy-five years after Alexander's death, Greek immigrants
poured into the East. At least 250 new Hellenistic colonies were set up.
The Mediterranean world had seen no comparable movement of peoples since
the days of Archilochus (680 - 645 BCE) when wave after wave of Greeks had
turned the Mediterranean basin into a Greek-speaking region.

One concrete and almost exotic example of these trends comes from the newly
discovered Hellenistic city of Ay Khanoum. Situated on the borders of Russia
and Afghanistan and not far 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.

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 strongly

15
influenced by Hellenism in its efforts to impose a comparable political unity on
the known world.

Hellenization is a term coined by the German historian Johann Gustav

Droysen to denote the spread of Greek language, culture, and population into
the former Persian Empire after Alexander's conquest. That this export took
place is certain, and can be seen in the great Hellenistic cities such
as Alexandria in Egypt (one of around twenty towns founded by
Alexander), Antioch in modern Syria and Seleucia south of modern Baghdad.
However, just how widespread and deeply permeating this was, and to what
extent it was a conscious policy, is debatable. Alexander's successors openly
rejected such policies after his death.

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 as far afield as India, Arabia, and

sub-Saharan Africa. Overland trade with India and Arabia was conducted by
caravan and was largely in the hands of Easterners. The caravan trade never
dealt in bulk items or essential commodities; only luxury goods could be
transported in this very expensive fashion. Once the goods reached the
Hellenistic monarchies, Greek merchants took a hand in the trade.

16
Essential to the caravan trade from the Mediterranean to Afghanistan and
India were the northern route to Dura on the Euphrates River and the
southern route through Arabia. The desert of Arabia may seem at first unlikely
and inhospitable terrain for a line of commerce, but to the east of it lay 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. The backbone of this caravan trade was the camel -
shaggy, ill-tempered, but durable.

Hellenistic Trade Routes, 300 BCE

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 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.

Although these caravan routes can trace their origins to earlier times, they
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.

17
Innovative years on the borders of India

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 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

18
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.

Megasthenes, first Greek ambassador

Megasthenes (350 – 290 BCE) was a Greek ethnographer in the Hellenistic

period, author of the work Indica. He was born in Asia Minor (modern
day Turkey) and became an ambassador of Seleucus I to the court of
Sandrocottus, who possibly was Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra (modern
Patna in Bihar state), India. However the exact date of his embassy is
uncertain. Scholars place it before 288 BCE, the date of Chandragupta's death.

At the start of the Indica, Megasthenes talks about the older Indians who knew
about the prehistoric arrival of Dionysus and Hercules in India. This story was
quite popular amongst the Greeks during the Alexandrian period. He describes
geographical features of India, such as the Himalayas and the island of Sri
Lanka.

19
Especially important are his comments on the religions of the Indians. He
mentions the devotees of Hercules (Shiva) and Dionysus (Krishna or Indra), but
he does not write a word on Buddhists, something that gives ground to the
theory that Buddhism was not widely spread in India before the reign
of Asoka (269 BCE to 232 BCE).

Indica served as an important source to many later writers such as Strabo

and Arrian. The 1st century BCE Greek historian Apollodorus, quoted by
Strabo, affirms that the Bactrian Greeks, led by Demetrius I and Menander,
conquered India and occupied a larger territory than the Macedonians under
Alexander the Great, going beyond the Hyphasis (modern Beas River) towards
the Himalayas.

The Indo-Greek kingdom was Hellenistic kingdom, covering various parts of the
North West regions of south Asia (particularly Midern Afghanistan and
Pakistan) during the last two centuries (BC) and was ruled by more than thirty
kings( W. W. Tarn. Hellenism in Bacria and India. Journal of Hellenic Studies,
Vol. 22 (1902), pp. 268– 293). he Kingdom founded when the Greco-Bactrian
king Dematerius invaded the Subcontinent early in 2nd century B.C. The
Greeks in South Asia was eventually divided from the Grace-o-Bactrian
centered in Bacteria (now it‟s the border between Afghanistan and Uzbikstan)
but they could not established a united Greek rule in India. The most famous

20
Indo-Greek ruler was Manender , he had his capital at Sakala( modern Sialkot)
in the province of Punjab. The expression of Indo-Greek kingdom loosely
describes, a number of various dynastic polities, traditionally associated with a
number of regional capitals like Pasklawati (modern Peshawer) and Segala.
Other potential centers are only hinted at, for instance , Petolemi ‟s book
Geoghraphia and the nomenclature of later kings suggest that a certain
Theophila in the south of the IndoGreek sphere of influence may have been a
straple or royal seat at one time. ( Thomas Mecvilley, The Shape of Ancient
Thought: Comparetive studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies, Skyshore
publishing, New York, 2001, p. 337.) Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled
Graeco-Buddhism, refers to the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture
and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BCE and the 5th
century CE in the area covered by the Indian sub-continent, and modern
Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western border regions of modern India. It
was a cultural consequence of a long chain of interactions begun by Greek
forays into India from the time of Alexander the Great, carried further by the
establishment of Indo-Greek rule in the area for some centuries, and extended
during flourishing of the Hellenized empire of the Kushans. Greco-Buddhism
influenced the artistic, and perhaps the spiritual development of Buddhism,
particularly Mahayana Buddhism, representing one of the two main branches
of Buddhism; which was then adopted in Central and Northeastern Asia, from
the 1st century CE, later spreading to China, Korea and Japan.

HISTORICAL.OUTLINE

The interaction between Hellenistic Greece and Buddhism started when

Alexander the Great conquered the Achaemenid Empire and further regions of
Central Asia in 334 BCE, crossing the Indus and Jhelum rivers, and going as
far as the Beas, thus establishing direct contact with India.

Alexander founded several cities in his new territories in the areas of the Oxus
and Bactria, and Greek settlements further extended to the Khyber Pass,
Gandhara (see Taxila), and the Punjab. These regions correspond to a unique
geographical passageway between the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush
mountains through which most of the interaction between India and Central
Asia took place, generating intense cultural exchange and trade.

Following Alexander's death on June 10, 323 BCE, the Diadochoi (successors)
founded their own kingdoms in Asia Minor and Central Asia. General Seleucus
set up the Seleucid Kingdom, which extended as far as India. Later, the
Eastern part of the Seleucid Kingdom broke away to form the Greco-Bactrian
Kingdom (3rd–2nd century BCE), followed by the Indo-Greek Kingdom (2nd–1st
century BCE), and later the Kushan Empire (1st–3rd century CE).

The interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures operated over several centuries

21
until it ended in the 5th century CE with the invasions of the White Huns, and
later.the.expansion.of.Islam.

RELIGIOUS.INTERACTIONS

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)

When Alexander invaded the Bactrian and Gandharan regions, these areas
may already have been under Buddhist or Jain influence. According to a legend
preserved in Pali, the language of the Theravada canon, two merchant brothers
from Bactria, named Tapassu and Bhallika, visited the Buddha and became
his disciples.In 326 BCE, Alexander conquered India. King Ambhi, ruler of
Taxila, surrendered his city, a notable center of Buddhist faith, to Alexander.
Alexander fought an epic battle against Porus, a ruler of a region in the Punjab
in the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BCE.

Several philosophers, such as Pyrrho, Anaxarchus and Onesicritus, are said to

have been selected by Alexander to accompany him in his eastern campaigns.
The legend states that they then returned to Bactria and spread the Buddha's
message. The Indian emperor Chandragupta, founder of the Mauryan dynasty,
re-conquered around 322 BCE the northwest Indian territory that had been
lost to Alexander the Great. However, contacts were kept with his Greco-

22
Iranian neighbours in the Seleucid Empire. Seleucid king Seleucus I came to a
marital agreement as part of a peace treaty, and several Greeks, such as the
historian Megasthenes, resided at the Mauryan court.

Fighting Darius
Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka embraced the Buddhist faith and became a
great proselytizer in the line of the traditional Pali canon of Theravada
Buddhism, insisting on non-violence to humans and animals (ahimsa), and
general precepts regulating the life of lay people.

According to the Edicts of Ashoka, set in stone, some of them written in Greek
and some in Achemenid script, 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 Hellenic world at the time:

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.

(Rock Edict Nb.13)

Ashoka also claims he converted to Buddhism Greek populations within his

realm:

The Greek presence in Bactria (325 to 125 BCE)

Alexander had established in Bactria several cities (Ai-Khanoum, Begram) and
an administration that were to last more than two centuries under the
Seleucids and the Greco-Bactrians, all the time in direct contact with Indian
territory. The Greeks sent ambassadors to the court of the Mauryan empire,
23
such as the historian Megasthenes under Chandragupta Maurya, and later
Deimakos 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:

The Indo-Greek kingdom and Buddhism (180 BCE –10 CE)

The Greco-Bactrians conquered parts of northern India from 180 BCE, whence
they are known as the Indo-Greeks. They controlled various areas of the
northern Indian territory until 10 CE.

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 new Indian dynasty of the Sungas (185–73 BCE)
which had overthrown the Mauryans.

Cities- According to Ptolemy, Greek cities were founded by the Greco-Bactrians

in northern India. Menander established his capital in Sagala, today's Sialkot
in Punjab, one of the centers of the blossoming Buddhist culture (Milinda
Panha, Chap. I). 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.

Scriptures- Evidence of direct religious interaction between Greek and

Buddhist thought during the period include the Milinda Panha, a Buddhist
discourse in the platonic style, held between king Menander and the Buddhist
monk Nagasena.

Also the Mahavamsa (Chap. XXIX) records that during Menander's reign, "a
Greek ("Yona") Buddhist head monk" named Mahadharmaraksita (literally
translated as 'Great Teacher/Preserver of the Dharma') led 30,000 Buddhist
monks from "the Greek city of Alexandria" (possibly Alexandria-of-the-
Caucasus, around 150 km 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.

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 Kharoshthi 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 his
successors in the 1st century BCE (Tarn, p391):

24
"Theudorena meridarkhena pratithavida ime sarira sakamunisa bhagavato
bahu-jana-stitiye":
"The meridarch Theodorus has enshrined relics of Lord Shakyamuni, for the
welfare of the mass of the people"
(Swāt relic vase inscription of the Meridarkh Theodoros)

Finally, Buddhist tradition recognizes Menander as one of the great benefactors

of the faith, together with Asoka and Kanishka.

Buddhist manuscripts in cursive Greek have been found in Afghanistan,

praising various Buddhas and including mentions of the Mahayana Lokesvara-
raja Buddha (λωγοασφαροραζοβοδδο). These manuscripts have been dated later
than the 2nd century CE. (Nicholas Sims-Williams, "A Bactrian Buddhist
Manuscript").

Some elements of the Mahayana movement may have begun around the 1st
century BCE in northwestern India, at the time and place of these interactions.
According to most scholars, the main sutras of Mahayana were written after
100 BCE, when sectarian conflicts arose among Nikaya Buddhist sects
regarding the humanity or super-humanity of the Buddha and questions of
metaphysical essentialism, on which Greek thought may have had some
influence: "It may have been a Greek-influenced and Greek-carried form of
Buddhism that passed north and east along the Silk Road".

The Kushan empire (1st–3rd century CE)

The Kushans, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi confederation settled in
Bactria since around 125 BCE when they displaced the Greco-Bactrians,
invaded the northern parts of Pakistan and India from around 1 CE.

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 absorption of Greek historical and mythological culture is
suggested by Kushan sculptures representing Dionysiac scenes or even the
story of the Trojan horse and it is probable that Greek communities remained
under Kushan rule.

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 CE in Kashmir in order to
redact the Sarvastivadin canon. Some of Kanishka's coins bear the earliest
representations of the Buddha on a coin (around 120 CE), in Hellenistic style

25
 and with the word "Boddo" in Greek script. Kanishka also had the original
Gandhari vernacular, or Prakrit, Mahayana Buddhist texts translated into the
high literary language of Sanskrit, "a turning point in the evolution of the
Buddhist literary canon".

ARTISTIC INFLUENCES

Numerous works of Greco-Buddhist art display the intermixing of Greek and

Buddhist influences, around such creation centers as Gandhara. The subject
matter of Gandharan art was definitely Buddhist, while most motifs were of
Western Asiatic or Hellenistic origin.

The anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha

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,
the Buddha's footprints, the Dharma wheel). 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 the syncretic God Sarapis,
introduced by Ptolemy I in Egypt, which 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 (The Sun-
God Apollo, or possibly the deified founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom,
Demetrius), with the traditional attributes of the Buddha.

Many of the stylistic elements in the representations of the Buddha point to

Greek influence: the Greco-Roman toga-like wavy robe covering both shoulders
(more exactly, its lighter version, the Greek himation), the contrapposto stance
of the upright figures (see: 1st–2nd century Gandhara standing Buddhas), the
stylicized Mediterranean curly hair and topknot (ushnisha) apparently derived
from the style of the Belvedere Apollo (330 BCE), and the measured quality of
the faces, all rendered with strong artistic realism (See: Greek art). A large
quantity of sculptures combining Buddhist and purely Hellenistic styles and

26
iconography were excavated at the Gandharan site of Hadda. The 'curly hair' of
Buddha is described in the famous list of 32 external characteristics of a Great
Being (mahapurusa) that we find all along the Buddhist sutras. The curly hair,
with the curls turning to the right is first described in the Pali canon; we find
the same description in e.g. the "Dasasahasrika Prajnaparamita".

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 reach a wider audience and 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.

A Hellenized Buddhist pantheon

Several other Buddhist deities may have been influenced by Greek gods. For
example, Herakles with a lion-skin (the protector deity of Demetrius I) "served
as an artistic model for Vajrapani, a protector of the Buddha". 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 (in

"Alexander the Great. East-West cultural contact from Greece to Japan"),
besides Vajrapani, Greek influence also appears in several other gods of the
Mahayana pantheon, such as the Japanese Wind God Fūjin inspired from the
Greek 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

semi-human 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.

GRECO-BUDDHISM AND THE RISE OF THE MAHAYANA

The geographical, cultural and historical context of the rise of Mahayana

Buddhism during the 1st century BCE in northwestern India, all point to
intense multi-cultural influences. According to Richard Foltz "Key formative

27
influences on the early development of the Mahayana and Pure Land
movements, which became so much part of East Asian civilization, are to be
sought in Buddhism's earlier encounters along the Silk Road". As Mahayana
Buddhism emerged, it received "influences from popular Hindu devotional cults
(bhakti), Persian and Greco-Roman theologies which filtered into India from the
northwest" (Tom Lowenstein, p63).

Conceptual influences

Mahayana is an inclusive faith characterized by the adoption of new texts, in

addition to the traditional Sūtra Piṭaka of the Early Buddhist schools, and a
shift in the understanding of Buddhism. It goes beyond the śrāvaka ideal of the
release from suffering, and the Nirvāṇa of the arhats, to elevate the Buddha to
a God-like status, and to create a pantheon of quasi-divine bodhisattvas
devoting themselves to personal excellence, ultimate knowledge and the
salvation of humanity. These concepts, together with the sophisticated
philosophical system of the Mahayana faith, may have been influenced by the
interaction of Greek and Buddhist thought:

The Buddha as an idealized man-god

The Buddha was elevated to a man-god status, represented in idealized human

form: "One might regard the classical influence as including the general idea of
representing a man-god in this purely human form, which was of course well
familiar in the West, and it is very likely that the example of westerners'
treatment of their gods was indeed an important factor in the innovation... The
Buddha, the man-god, is in many ways far more like a Greek god than any
other eastern deity, no less for the narrative cycle of his story and appearance
of his standing figure than for his humanity".

The supra-mundane understanding of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas may have

been a consequence of the Greek’s tendency to deify their rulers in the wake of
Alexander’s reign: "The god-king concept brought by Alexander (...) may have
fed into the developing bodhisattva concept, which involved the portrayal of the
Buddha in Gandharan art with the face of the sun god, Apollo" (McEvilley, "The
Shape of Ancient Thought").

The Bodhisattva as a Universal ideal of excellence

Lamotte (1954) controversially suggests (though countered by Conze (1973)

and others) that Greek influence was present in the definition of the
Bodhisattva ideal in the oldest Mahayana text, the "Perfection of Wisdom" or
prajñā pāramitā literature, that developed between the 1st century BCE and
the 1st century CE. These texts in particular redefine Buddhism around the

28
universal Bodhisattva ideal, and its six central virtues of generosity, morality,
patience, effort, meditation and, first and foremost, wisdom.

Philosophical influences

The close association between Greeks and Buddhism probably led to

exchanges on the philosophical plane as well. Many of the early Mahayana
theories of reality and knowledge can be related to Greek philosophical schools
of thought. Mahayana Buddhism has been described as the "form of Buddhism
which (regardless of how Hinduized its later forms became) seems to have
originated in the Greco-Buddhist communities of India, through a conflation of
the Greek Democritean-Sophistic-Skeptical tradition with the rudimentary and
unformalized empirical and skeptical elements already present in early
Buddhism" (McEvilly, "The Shape of Ancient Thought", p503).

- In the Prajnaparamita, the rejection of the reality of passing phenomena as

"empty, false and fleeting" can also be found in Greek Pyrrhonism.
- The perception of ultimate reality was, for the Cynics as well as for the
Madhyamakas and Zen teachers after them, only accessible through a non-
conceptual and non-verbal approach (Greek Phronesis), which alone allowed to
get rid of ordinary conceptions.
- The mental attitude of equanimity and dispassionate outlook in front of events
was also characteristic of the Cynics and Stoics, who called it "Apatheia".
- Nagarjuna's dialectic developed in the Madhyamaka can be paralleled to the
Greek dialectical tradition.

Cynicism, Madhyamaka and Zen

Numerous parallels exist between the Greek philosophy of the Cynics and,
several centuries later, the Buddhist philosophy of the Madhyamika and Zen.
The Cynics denied the relevancy of human conventions and opinions (described
as typhos, literally "smoke" or "mist", a metaphor for "illusion" or "error"),
including verbal expressions, in favor of the raw experience of reality. They
stressed the independence from externals to achieve happiness ("Happiness is
not pleasure, for which we need external, but virtue, which is complete without
external" 3rd epistole of Crates). Similarly the Prajnaparamita, precursor of the
Madhyamika, explained that all things are like foam, or bubbles, "empty, false,
and fleeting", and that "only the negation of all views can lead to
enlightenment" (Nāgārjuna, MK XIII.8). In order to evade the world of illusion,
the Cynics recommended the discipline and struggle ("askēsis kai machē") of
philosophy, the practice of "autarkia" (self-rule), and a lifestyle exemplified by
Diogenes, which, like Buddhist monks, renounced earthly possessions. These
conceptions, in combination with the idea of "philanthropia" (universal loving
kindness, of which Crates, the student of Diogenes, was the best proponent),

29
are strikingly reminiscent of Buddhist Prajna (wisdom) and Karuṇā
(compassion).

Greco-Persian cosmological influences See my paper on Micro and macro cosmos

in Greek and Hindu thoughts.

A popular figure in Greco-Buddhist art, the future Buddha Maitreya,( see Pic to
LEFT below) has sometimes been linked to the Iranian yazata (Zoroastrian
divinity) Miθra who was also adopted as a figure in a Greco-Roman syncretistic
cult under the name of Mithras. Maitreya is the fifth Buddha of the present
world-age, who will appear at some undefined future epoch. According to
Richard Foltz, he "echoes the qualities of the Zoroastrian Saoshyant and the
Christian Messiah". However, in character and function, Maitreya does not
much resemble either Mitra, Miθra or Mithras; his name is more obviously
derived from the Sanskrit maitrī "kindliness", equivalent to Pali mettā; the Pali
(and probably older) form of his name, Metteyya, does not closely resemble the
name Miθra.

with his
The Buddha Amitābha (PIC TO RIGHT )(literally meaning "infinite radiance")
paradisiacal "Pure Land" in the West, according to Foltz, "seems to be

30
understood as the Iranian god of light, equated with the sun". This view is
however not in accordance with the view taken of Amitābha by present-day
Pure Land Buddhists, in which Amitābha is neither "equated with the sun"
nor, strictly speaking, a god.

INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCES IN ASIA

Through art and religion, the influence of Greco-Buddhism on the cultural

make-up of East Asian countries, especially China, Korea and Japan, may have
extended further into the intellectual area.

At the same time as Greco-Buddhist art and Mahayana schools of thought

such as Dhyāna were transmitted to East Asia, central concepts of Hellenic
culture such as virtue, excellence or quality may have been adopted by the
cultures of Korea and Japan after a long diffusion among the Hellenized cities
of Central Asia, to become a key part of their warrior and work ethics.

GRECO-BUDDHISM AND THE WEST

In the direction of the West, the Greco-Buddhist syncretism may also have had
some formative influence on the religions of the Mediterranean Basin.

Exchanges

Intense westward physical exchange at that time along the Silk Road is
confirmed by the Roman craze for silk from the 1st century BCE 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 significant
authors:

- Strabo (64/ 63 BCE–c. 24 CE).

- Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BCE–65 CE).
- Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE).

The aforementioned Strabo and Plutarch (c. 45–125 CE) wrote about king
Menander, confirming that information was circulating throughout the
Hellenistic world.

Astronomy & astrology

Vedanga Jyotisha is dated to around 135 BCE. It is an Indian text on Jyotisha

(astrology and astronomy), compiled by Lagadha. The text is the earliest
groundwork in India to the Vedanga discipline of Jyotisha. The text describes
rules for tracking the motions of the sun and the moon in horoscopic astrology
and advanced astronomical knowledge. Next to this compilation, one of the

31
earliest Indian writings on astronomy and astrology, titled the Yavanajataka or
"The Saying of the Greeks", is a translation from Greek to Sanskrit made by
"Yavanesvara" ("Lord of the Greeks") in 149–150 CE under the rule of the
Western Kshatrapa King Rudrakarman I. The Yavanajataka contains
instructions on calculating astrological charts (horoscopes) from the time and
place of one's birth. Astrology flourished in the Hellenistic world (particularly
Alexandria) and the Yavanajataka reflects astrological techniques developed in
the Greek-speaking world. Various astronomical and mathematical methods,
such as the calculation of the 'horoskopos' (the zodiac sign on the eastern
horizon), were used in the service of astrology.

Another set of treatises, the Paulisa Siddhanta and the Romaka Siddhantas,
are attributed to later Greco-Roman influence in India. The Paulisa Siddhanta
has been tentatively identified with the works of Paulus Alexandrinus, who
wrote a well-known astrological hand-book.

Indian astronomy is widely acknowledged to be influenced by the Alexandrian

school, and its technical nomenclature is essentially Greek: "The Yavanas are
barbarians, yet the science of astronomy originated with them and for this they
must be reverenced like gods", this is a comment in Brihat-Samhita by the
mathematician Varahamihira. Several other Indian texts show appreciation for
the scientific knowledge of the Yavana Greeks.

Spur on Indian & Greek thought & religion

The impact of the Indo-Greeks on Indian thought and religion is unknown.

Scholars believe that Mahāyāna Buddhism as a distinct movement began
around the 1st century BCE in the North-western Indian subcontinent,
corresponding to the time and place of Indo-Greek flowering.

The Mahāyāna tradition is the larger of the two major traditions of Buddhism
existing today, the other being that of the Theravāda school. According to the
teachings of Mahāyāna traditions, "Mahāyāna" also refers to the path of
seeking complete enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, also
called "Bodhisattvayāna", or the "Bodhisattva Vehicle. Among the earliest and
most important references to the term Mahāyāna are those that occur in the
Lotus Sūtra dating between the 1st century BC and the 1st century CE. Seishi
Karashima has suggested that the term first used in an earlier Gandhāri
Prakrit version of the Lotus Sūtra was not the term mahāyāna but the Prakrit
word mahājāna in the sense of mahājñāna (great knowing). At a later stage
when the early Prakrit word was converted into Sanskrit, this mahājāna, being
phonetically ambivalent, was mistakenly converted into mahāyāna, possibly
due to what may have been a double meaning

Intense multi-cultural influences have indeed been suggested in the

appearance of Mahāyāna. According to Richard Foltz, "Key formative influences
32
on the early development of the Mahāyāna and Pure Land movements, which
became so much part of East Asian civilization, are to be sought in Buddhism's
earlier encounters along the Silk Road". As Mahāyāna Buddhism emerged, it
received "influences from popular Hindu devotional cults (bhakti), Persian and
Greco-Roman theologies which filtered into India from the northwest".

Many of the early Mahāyāna theories of reality and knowledge can be related to
Greek philosophical schools of thought: Mahāyāna Buddhism has been
described as "the form of Buddhism which (regardless of how Hinduized its
later forms became) seems to have originated in the Greco-Buddhist
communities of India, through a conflation of the Greek Democritean-
Sophistic-Skeptical tradition with the rudimentary and unformulated empirical
and sceptical elements already present in early Buddhism". However, this view
can hardly explain the origin of the bodhisattva ideal, already delineated in the
Aagamas, which also already contained a well developed theory of selflessness
(anaatman) and emptiness (shunyaata), none of these essential Mahāyāna
tenets being traceable to Greek roots.

1.  2.

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3. 

4.  5.

34
6. 

7.   8. 

35
9. 

10.

11.

36
12.

13.

14. 15.

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1. The Buddha, in Greco-Buddhist style, 1st-2nd century CE, Gandhara (Modern
eastern Afghanistan).
2. Gandhara Buddha, 1st-2nd century CE.
3. Hellenistic culture in the Indian subcontinent: Greek clothes, amphoras, wine and
music (Detail from Chakhil-i-Ghoundi stupa, Hadda, Gandhara, 1st century CE).
4. Vitarka Mudra gestures on Indo-Greek coinage. Top: Divinities Tyche and Zeus.
Bottom: Depiction of Indo-Greek kings Nicias and Menander II.
5. An aniconic representation of Mara's assault on the Buddha, 2nd century CE,
Amaravati, India.
6. Herculean depiction of Vajrapani (right), as the protector of the Buddha, 2nd
century CE Gandhara, British Museum.
7. Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, eastern Afghanistan, 1st century
CE.
8. The Bodhisattva Maitreya, 2nd century, Gandhara.
9. The Buddhist gods Pancika (left) and Hariti (right), 3rd century, Takht-i Bahi,
Gandhara, British Museum.
10. The Buddha, flanked by Herakles/ Vajrapani and Tyche/ Hariti.
11. Gandhara frieze with devotees, holding plantain leaves, in purely Hellenistic style,
inside Corinthian columns, 1st-2nd century CE. Buner, Swat, Pakistan. Victoria and
Albert Museum.
12. An early Mahayana Buddhist triad. From left to right, a Kushan devotee, the
Bodhisattva Maitreya, the Buddha, the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, and a Buddhist
monk. 2nd-3rd century CE, Gandhara.
13. Greek scroll supported by Indian Yaksas, Amaravati, 3rd century CE.
14. A Buddha in Kamakura (1252), reminiscent of Greco-Buddhist influences.
15. Gandhara Poseidon (Ancient Orient Museum)

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