Indian and Greek interactions

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What do the listers think about the interactions between

Greek and Indian philosophies discussed in a recent book?:

McEvilley, Thomas,

The shape of ancient thought : comparative studies of

Greek and Indian philosophies

New York : Allworth Press : School of Visual Arts, c2002.

 

Has any Sanskritist/Indologist review appeared anywhere?

 

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Dravidian koGku/kokku (> skt. zaGkha) & Greek word, konkhos

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The root of Sanskrit word, 'zaGkha' (conch) can be found

in Dravidian words, such as Tamil 'koGku'/'kokku'. koGku is related

with kOTu 'coil, curve', kavaTi 'cowrie'. kOTu is the conch

shell (Cf. NaRRiNai uses 'veN kOTu' white

conch). Tamils use 'kOTTunURu' (kOTu + nURu) for 'conch line'.

kOTu and kavaTi/kavaLi mean 'curve, coil, horn' etc.,

kavaTi, (pronounced as kavaDi), is english cowrie shell.

Another semantically related word for conch is

koGku 'curve, hill' etc., in tamil.

Drav. koGku is the likely root for Skt. zaGkha.

INDOLOGY/message/1571

 

See Dr. Piotr Gasiorowski in the IE list on the

possibility of konkhos in Greek as an Eastern loan:

cybalist/message/9494

 

Ancient Sumerians imported the zaGkha shells from India:

cybalist/message/9634

 

The Greek konkhos/kokhlos may be ultimately related

to words like tamil koGku/kokku 'curve, coil, hill' etc.,

Another related word with the same root, "curving" is

for herons: tamil kokku, telugu koGga 'heron'.

 

Interestingly, in the Minoan palaces 4 quatrz-hard

rhytons have been found, and Near Eastern parallels

exist. Whether these ultimately are related to

Indian zaGkha, and its importance in Indian culture?

Two other relations between East and West:

a) The Pythagoras theorem has

been discovered in agnicayana ritual few

centuries earlier than Greek attestations, and

historians of Science are now sure that both

Greek and Vedic geometry have a common origin -

Most likely, the pre-Socratic philosophers heard

of it in Turkey region the Indian mathematics.

and b) The Gorgons, their tilaka-like marks,

the Perseus-Gorgon legend have an "oriental"

relation ultimately going to Indian sources.

(A. David Napier's books and 2001 paper)

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan