The Greeks In India

An exploration of how the Greeks reacted to and interacted with India from the third to first centuries BCE. When the Greeks and Macedonians in Alexander's army reached India in 326 BCE, they entered a new and strange world. They knew a few legends and travelers' tales, but their categories of thought were inadequate to encompass what they witnessed. The plants were unrecognizable, their properties unknown. The customs of the people were various and puzzling. While Alexander's conquest was brief, ending with his death in 323 BCE, the Greeks would settle in the Indian region for the next two centuries, forging an era of productive interactions between the two cultures. The Greek Experience of India explores the various ways that the Greeks reacted to and constructed life in India during this fruitful period. From observations about botany and mythology to social customs, Richard Stoneman examines the surviving evidence of those who traveled to India. Most particularly, he offers a full and valuable look at Megasthenes, ambassador of the Seleucid king Seleucus to Chandragupta Maurya, and provides a detailed discussion of Megasthenes's now-fragmentary book Indica. Stoneman considers the art, literature, and philosophy of the Indo-Greek kingdom and how cultural influences crossed in both directions, with the Greeks introducing their writing, coinage, and sculptural and architectural forms, while Greek craftsmen learned to work with new materials such as ivory and stucco and to probe the ideas of Buddhists and other ascetics.

Illustrations: 56 B/W Illustrations and 1 Map Description: This book relates to the history of the ideological presence of the Greeks in India. Unlike the previous works, which have been focused on particular historical periods, the present study aims to present the literary and religio-philosophic character of the Greeks in India as they interact with the Indians and the Indian culture from the earliest times to the present. It includes prehistoric, mythical and the first historically attested accounts of contact, a critical review of the Oriental Origin theory and travels of the Greek Philosophers who are commonly thought to have visited or to have been influenced by India, the meeting of Alexander with the Indian Gymnosophists, the inter-religious contacts that took place between the two peoples during the reign of the Indo-Greek kingdoms in Bactria and the Medieval Ages, and a critical study of the identity of the Yavanas as they occur in Indian texts and inscriptions. The book provides further information on the life and work of the first and foremost Greek Indologist Demetrios Galanos, a record of Indological studies in Greece, and reviews on the works made by contemporary Greek scholars and diplomatic representatives in India.

A landmark study of the Greek kingdoms of Bactria and India that treats them as Hellenistic states.

Written by a highly regarded scholar in the field, this book represents the first published study on the Greek kingdoms of Bactria and India that treats them as Hellenistic states. Referring to classical Western and Indian sources, as well as numismatics, the author gives a multi-faceted account of their dynastic rule and conquest. The book begins with an overview of the Seleucid settlement, providing a background to the relations between Greeks and Asiatics after the death of Alexander the Great. Covering the period from 206 to 145 BCE, the book analyses the reigns of Euthydemus I, Demetrius I and Menander I, and explains how they accomplished Alexander’s dream of co-operation instead of domination in the eastern provinces. Tarn’s work examines this little-discussed topic, and presents it to the reader in a clear and accessible style, making this a great scholarly contribution that remains unsurpassed in breadth and depth. The second edition, originally published in 1951, includes an Addendum explaining the further discoveries since the work was first published in 1938.

Where did the Aryans come from originally? Did they invade India? Or were they actually Indian invaders who colonized Greece? In India in Greece, E. Pococke explores the theory that the Aryans may have originally travelled from India to Greece, colonized the latter and influenced the culture there. Centuries later, they came back to India. Covering topics as diverse as the sources of the Hellenic Race, the colonization of Egypt and Palestine, the wars of the Grand Lama and the Bud'hist propaganda in Greece, the author tries to show that at some point in history, India and Greece were closely associated.

Explains for the first time the genesis and early form of both Indian and Greek philosophy, and their striking similarities.

This volume provides a thorough conspectus of the field of Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek studies, mixing theoretical and historical surveys with critical and thought-provoking case studies in archaeology, history, literature and art. The chapters from this international group of experts showcase innovative methodologies, such as archaeological GIS, as well as providing accessible explanations of specialist techniques such as die studies of coins, and important theoretical perspectives, including postcolonial approaches to the Greeks in India. Chapters cover the region’s archaeology, written and numismatic sources, and a history of scholarship of the subject, as well as culture, identity and interactions with neighbouring empires, including India and China. The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World is the go-to reference work on the field, and fulfils a serious need for an accessible, but also thorough and critically-informed, volume on the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms. It provides an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the Hellenistic East.

From the sixth century BCE onwards there occurred a revolution in thought, with novel ideas such as such as that understanding the inner self is both vital for human well-being and central to understanding the universe. This intellectual transformation is sometimes called the beginning of philosophy. And it occurred - independently it seems - in both India and Greece, but not in the vast Persian Empire that divided them. How was this possible? This is a puzzle that has never been solved. This volume brings together Hellenists and Indologists representing a variety of perspectives on the similarities and differences between the two cultures, and on how to explain them. It offers a collaborative contribution to the burgeoning interest in the Axial Age and will be of interest to anyone intrigued by the big questions inspired by the ancient world.