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Exchange of knowledge among ancient kingdoms

My Dear Gauri,

It is usually said that the Macedonian prince Alexander was a great conqueror. He is always referred to as Alexander the Great, which he indeed was. He was stopped short on the plains of Punjab by King Porus who was, however, defeated. The story goes that when the defeated King Porus was brought to Alexander and asked how he should be treated, he replied: ‘Like a king’ – and that is how he was treated. Alexander did not rule over India. The greatest rulers India then had were Chandragupta Maurya, his son Bindusara and his grandson Ashoka. It is Ashoka who is truly great, greater even than Alexander. In the first place Ashoka’s empire extended some 3000km from Afghanistan to the mouth of the Ganga. In the second place Ashoka’s object was not to conquer (though he fought a bloody war against the Kalingas) but to establish a “world peace” and prevent the repetition of other wars. How many kings and emperors have felt that way, ever? Ashoka, therefore stands out.  Ashoka became a confirmed Buddhist and his non-violence was to have a profound effect on the Brahminism as then practiced. Alexander’s invasion had no impact of significance to India, but the Greeks who came with him might have learnt something from India.

There is plenty of evidence to indicate that the Greeks might have learnt Indian philosophy independently. Pythagoras (remember the Pythagoras theorem?) travelled widely and, according to his biographer, studied “even the Brahmanas”. According to a distinguished scholar, H.G. Rawlinson, “almost all the theories, religious, philosophical and mathematical, taught by the Pythagoreans, were known in India in the 6th Century B.C”. That is some food for thought. Many Indian concepts like Karma, transmigration of the soul and so on are to be found in Greek writings such as those of Plato. Rawlinson says that the Seventh Book of Plato’s Republic “reminds one of the Vedanta doctrine of maya of illusion.”

As early as 25 B.C. there was a lot of commerce between India and the West including both Greece and Rome. There are records of Indian rajas sending ambassador to Rome. The Indian ambassadors took with them strange presents like tigers and pythons and one ambassador even took with him an armless boy who could shoot arrows with his toes! One embassy leader was monk called Zarmanochegas (Sramanacharya) who took from his South Indian King a letter written in Greek on Vellum. Fancy a South Indian king sending a message in Greek! In fact, there was a brisk trade between South India and Rome.

Actually, Indian philosophy was acquiring a growing reputation in Asia Minor and Egypt. Apollonius of Tyana (A.D.50) came to Taxila (Takshashila) to study under Brahmin teachers. Buddhist jataka tales spread to Europe. You would be interested to know, Gauri, that in Jataka 78, the Buddha feeds his 5000 brethren with single cake which had been put in his begging bowl and even after he had fed them all, there was so much left that it had to be thrown away! There is a parallel to this in Christian legend where Christ fed “the multitudes” with only a handful of fish! There is a happy way legends travel from one country to another. Besides, you must have heard of Kamadhenu, the cow which granted all boons and the akshaya patra, the vessel that never went empty; for much of European learning before Christ, India was the source. According to Rawlinson, it is possible that the rosary, the veneration of relics, and the exaggerated form of asceticism which were a striking feature during Alexander’s time may be traced to Indian sources.

Of course it was not Europe that always borrowed ideas from India. India also borrowed ideas from Greece. There was a lively exchange of ideas between these two areas. One of the principal Sanskrit astronomical treatises is the Roamaka Siddhanta is based on the works of Paul of Alexandria. But then the West borrowed Hindu numerals which travelled from India to Greece and from there to Arabia and are now called Arabic numerals.

Similarly, stories from the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesa travelled from India westward. So did Sukasaptati (Seventy Tales of a Parrot) which was translated into Persian under the name Tutinamah. Numerous fairy tales to be found in Grim or Hans Christian Anderson about the magic mirror, the seven leagued boots, etc., have been traced to Indian sources. The story of Buddha’s renunciation as told in the Lalita Vistara has been repeated in Greek and Arabic and from them in a number of European languages. There is so much India has to be proud of.

In my next letter I shall tell you about India’s influence on China and Japan.

Your loving 

Ajja