By Dr. Dimitrios Vassiliadis
Megasthenes (early 3rd century B.C.), who served for 10 years as ambassador of the Seleucid king Nikator at the court of Chandragupta Maurya, describes in detail in his book titled 'Indica' the existing Brahmanic and Sramanian traditions of India, without making any specific reference to Buddha and his followers. This fact suggests that Buddhism was still a relatively unknown and geographically limited religion at the time of Megasthenes.
Two generations later, Buddhism began its transformation into a world religion under the strong patronage of Emperor Ashoka (c. 304-232 BCE), who made it the official religion of the Maurya Empire. During his reign, the spread of Buddhism seems to have reached the southern regions of Afghanistan, which became part of his empire. This is confirmed by the testimony of Chinese pilgrims who recorded the existence of the first Buddhist monuments (stūpa-s) in the Jalalabad region of Afghanistan.
Territories of the Maurya Empire conceptualized as core areas or linear networks separated by large autonomous regions
Ashoka grew up in a society that was in close contact with the Greeks ("Yavana" and "Yona" in Sanskrit). British historians Sir William Tarn and George Woodcock even suggest that he may have been half or a quarter Greek, since Seleucus Nikator's daughter Helena was married to Ashoka's grandfather Chandragupta and she could have married none other than the emperor himself or his son and Ashoka's father Bindusara.
In history, a number of Greeks became vassals of the expanding Maurya Empire, especially after the signing of the peace treaty between Seleucus and Chandragupta, which ceded much of the eastern territories of the Seleucid Empire to the Indians.
Megasthenes in Chandragupta's palace, depicting Seleucus' daughter Helen seated next to the Indian emperor.
Greek mercenaries seem to have been used by the Indian kings during this period, as suggested by references in the Indian epics to the participation of Yavana armies in their civil wars. Several Greek craftsmen, physicians, astrologers, and merchants settled in the great commercial centers of India, and the Maurya emperors received Greek ambassadors in their palaces.
The influence of Greek sculpture will be particularly evident three centuries later in the Greek Buddhist sculptures of Gandhara and Mathura, but there is nothing to suggest that Greek sculptors and architects were active in India much earlier. The development of stone sculpture, which was hardly used in India before the time of Ashoka, can be attributed to some extent to the Greeks. The lions on Ashoka's pillars, for example, resemble the lions erected by the Macedonians as victory monuments. Greek art was well known to the Indians, as Greek statues with lamps were used as decoration by the Sakyas at Kapilavastu, the home of Gautama Buddha.
Pillar of Ashoka and the Leon of Amphipolis.
The close relationship of the Greeks with the Mauryas is also evidenced by the rock carvings of Ashoka. A bilingual inscription in Greek and Aramaic unearthed during excavations in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1958 indicates that the Greeks who settled there were well aware of Ashoka's dharmic (moral and religious) instructions. The Greek portion of the inscription contains the edict attributed to Asoka, which forbids his subjects to harm all living beings.
Similar proclamations showing Ashoka's compassionate attitude and relationship with the Greeks are found in other inscriptions. In the second inscription, the Yona king Antiochus (Antiyako Yona Raja) is mentioned by name. In the fifth and ninth inscriptions, the Yonas are mentioned as subjects of the king who were devoted to Dharma (Buddhism). The 13th rock inscription declares that there is no place except that of the Yonas where the orders of Brahmins and Sramanas do not exist. At the end of the same inscription, we read that the king's rule was extended to various populations, including the Yonas.
Bilingual inscription of Ashoka in Greek and Aramaic
The Dharma teachings prevailed everywhere. Even in the lands where Ashoka's emissaries did not go, the people who had heard of the practices and teachings of the Dharma followed it and would continue to do so in the future. The names of the Greek kings are mentioned in connection with the spread of the Dharma within King Ashoka's territory and all its boundaries, extending to six hundred yojanas (one yojana equals 12-15 kilometers), where the Greek king Antiyako Yona Raja(Antiochus II ' God of Syria, 260-246 BC) ruled and even further, where four other kings reign-Tulamaye (Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt, 283-246 BC), Aṅtekine (Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia 278-239 BC), Makā (Magus of Cyrene, 300-250 BC), and Alikyașudale (Alexander of Epirus or Corinth, 272-258 BC).
From the above descriptions we can conclude that Ashoka, like his predecessors, received ambassadors from the Greek kingdoms at his court and that he sent his own ambassadors to them. However, there is no Greek literature from this period that attests to the arrival of these ambassador-missionaries. Buddha and Buddhism are unknown in Greek texts until the early Christian period. The name Buddha is first mentioned in Greek literature by the Christian writer Clement of Alexandria (154-222 AD).
Inscription of Ashoka in Greek (Kandahar, Afghanistan)
References to missionaries sent to spread the principles of the Dharma in foreign nations, including the Yonas, are found only in Indian inscriptions and ancient Buddhist texts such as the Dīpavaṁsa and Mahāvaṁsa in Sri Lanka. This suggests that the appeal of Buddhism to a considerable number of Greeks took place within the Indian subcontinent and did not extend beyond it. Most Greeks living under Indian influence embraced Buddhism, and to some extent their contribution to the doctrinal, ritual, and esthetic metamorphosis of Buddhism from anthropocentric Theravada to metaphysical Mahayana was significant.
Buddha and Zeus holding thunderbolt (Vajrapani) in Gandhara Greco-Buddhist art.
The Greek-Indian kingdoms continued to issue coins with representations of the Greek pantheon. But there were also indirect and direct influences through trade, military campaigns, and travelers that later extended to the great cosmopolitan centers of Damascus and Alexandria and influenced the worldview of Neoplatonism and the asceticism of the Jewish and early Christian religious communities.
*Dr. Dimitrios Vassiliadis is Director and Professor of Sanskrit, Indian Philosophy, History and Culture at the Center for Indian and Greek-Indian Studies in Athens and Professor of Hindi at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the College of Athens. He has authored several studies on Indological and Greek-Indian topics, including the books "Greeks and Buddhism - An Intercultural Encounter" (Athens, 2016) and "The Greeks in India - A Review of Philosophical Understanding" (New Delhi, 2000) ), published in English.
