[world-vedic] INDIA AND GREECE

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INDIA AND GREECE

BY sushama_l (AT) hotmail (DOT) com

Indian civilization is

distinctive for its antiquity

and continuity. Apart from its own vitality, the continuity of Indian

civilization is largely due to its ability to adapt to alien ideas,

harmonize

contradictions and mould new thought patterns. Her constant contacts

with the

outside world also gave India the opportunity to contribute to other

civilizations. Whilst other ancient civilizations have long ceased to

exist,

Indian civilization has continued to grow despite revolutionary

changes. The

ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia have not survived.

But in

India today, Hindus seek inspiration from concepts similar to those

originally

advanced by their ancestors.

Jawarharlal Nehru says in his book The

Discovery of

India, " Till recently many European thinkers imagined that

everything

that was worthwhile had its origins in Greece or Rome. Sir Henry Maine

has said

somewhere that except the blind forces of nature, nothing moves in this

world

which is not originally Greek."

However, Indian contacts with the Western world date back to

prehistoric times.

Trade relations, preceded by the migration of peoples, inevitably

developed into

cultural relations. This view is not only amply supported by both

philological

and archaeological evidence, but by a vast body of corroborative

literary

evidence as well: Vedic literature and the Jatakas, Jewish chronicles,

and the

accounts of Greek historians all suggest contact between India and the

West.

Taxila was a great center of commerce and learning. " Crowds of

eager

scholars flowed to it for instruction in the three Vedas and in the

eighteen

branches of knowledge." Tradition affirms that the great epic, the

Mahabharata, was first recited in the city." ( An Advance History

of India,

R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychanduri p.64) Buddha is reputed to have studied

in

Taxila. Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy owe their origin to Indian

thought

and spirituality.

12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Indian

Thought and the West

mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Dr.

S. Radhakrishnan, has said, "

The

Europeans are apt to imagine that before the great Greek thinkers,

Socrates,

Plato, and Aristotle, there was a crude confusion of thought, a sort of

chaos

without form and void. Such a view becomes almost a provincialism when

we

realize that systems of thought which influenced countless millions of

human

beings had been elaborated by people who never heard the names of the

Greek

thinkers."

There has been too much

inclination among Western

writers to idealize the Greeks and their civilization, and they have

tended to

discover too much of the contemporary world in the Greek past. In fact

almost

everything was traced to ancient Greece. In all that concerned

intellectual

activity and even faith, modern civilization was considered to be an

overgrown

colony of Hellas. The obvious Greek failings, their shortcomings and the

unhealthy features of their civilization, was rationalized and

romanticized.

Modern research, however,

has marred

this comforting image and is helping to put Greek culture into its

proper

historical perspective showing that, like any other culture, it

inherited

something from preceding civilizations, profited from the progress of

its

neighboring cultures ( like India and Persia) and, in turn, bequeathed

much to

later generations.

Gods of

heaven

It is significant to note

that

although the Indians and Greeks (Yavanas) had come from the same

Indo-European

stock, they met as strangers in the sixth century B.C. Persian Empire.

Soon,

however, the cousins became associates in a a common cultural

enterprise.

Similarities in language, associated by similarities in religious

beliefs,

indicate that these two peoples must have either been in close contact

at some

early period or have had a common origin, even though neither had any

recollection of those times.

For example, the gods of heaven

(Varuna - Ouranos;

Dyaus - Zeus ) and the dawn (Ushas - Aurora) were common to the Greeks

and

Indians. The most prominent characteristics of the gods of both races

was their

power of regulating the order of nature and banishing evil. The Olympian

religion of the Greeks and Vedic beliefs had a common background. The

Greek

concept of logos was very close to the vedic Vac, which

corresponds to the Latin Vox.

net/veda2.jpg" align="left" hspace="12" vspace="12" width="180" height="185">In a passage of the Rig

Veda, Vac is praised as a divine

being. Vac is

omnipotent, moves amongst divine beings, and carries the great gods,

Mitra,

Varuna, Indra and Agni, within itself. The doctrine of Vac teaches that

"all gods live from Vac, also all demi-gods, animals and people.

Vac is the

eternal being, it is the first-born of the eternal law, mother of the

Vedas and

navel of immortality." Vedic Aryans attached such great importance

to the

spoken word that one who could not correctly pronounce Sanskrit was

called barbar

(meaning stammering).

The Greek barbaroi had the same meaning. There is

also a striking similarity between the social life described in the

Homeric

poems- the Illiad and Odyssey- and that found in the Vedas. Homeric

gods, like

the heroes who believed in them, often rode in the horse driven

chariots. Horse-chariotry

was a feature of the life of the Indo-European people. The Homeric idea

of a

language of the gods is also found in Sanskrit, Greek, Old Norse, and

Hittite

literatures. Some scholars, like

Fiske, have even asserted that

elements of the

Trojan war story are to be found in the war between the bright deities,

and the

night demons as described in the Rig Veda. It is clear from Homer that

even they

used articles of Indian merchandise which were known by names of Indian

origin,

such as Kassiteros (Sanskrit, Kastira), elephas (Sanskrit, ibha), and

ivory.

Indian

Philosophy

By contrast, philosophical

thought in

India in the sixth century B.C. had become quite mature. It had reached

a stage

which could have been arrived at only after long and arduous

philosophical

quest. Jainism and Buddhism, the latter enormously influential in

Indian and

neighboring cultures, had emerged by this time. But even before their

advent,

the philosophical reflections of the early Upanishads

(900-600 B.C.) had set forth the

fundamental

concepts of Hindu thought which have continued to dominate the Indian

mind.

It is perhaps necessary

to point

out that there has often been a wide divergence between Indian and

Western

interpretations of Indian thought. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy once even

declared that a true

account to Hinduism may be given in a categorical denial of most of the

interpretation that have been made by Westerners or Western-trained

Indians.

net/upanishads5.jpg" align="left" hspace="12" vspace="12" width="286"

height="133">The tradition of Indian philosophic

thought is as complex as it is long. The complexities of Indian

philosophy have

arisen through centuries of deep reflection on the many aspects of human

experience, and, in the search for some reality behind the external

world,

various methods have been restored to ranging from experimental to the

purely

speculative. It is the oldest philosophical tradition in the world is

to be

traced in the ancient Vedas. Although the religious and philosophical

spirit of

India emerges distinctly in the Rig Veda, the Upanishads are its most

brilliant

exposition, for the Vedic civilization was naturalistic and utilitarian,

although it did not exclude the cosmological and religious

speculation.

Older than Plato or

Confucius, the

Upanishads are the most ancient philosophical works and contain the

mature

wisdom of India's intellectual and spiritual attainment. They have

inspired not

only the orthodox system of Indian thought but also the so-called

heterodox

schools such as Buddhism. In profundity of thought and beauty of style,

they

have rarely been surpassed not only in Indian thought but in the

Western and

Chinese philosophical traditions as well.

The Upanishads have greatly

influenced Indian culture throughout history and have also found

enthusiastic

admirers abroad. Schopenhauer was almost lyrical about them. Max

Muller said: " The Upanishads are

the ....

sources of .....the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human

speculation

seems to me to have reached its very acme." The Upanishads

are

saturated with the spirit of inquiry, intellectual analysis, and a

passion for

seeking the truth.

net/sadhu.jpg" align="left" hspace="12" vspace="12" width="279"

height="411">India, is the home of philosophy.

Certainly India is a country where philosophy has always been very

popular and

influential. An American scholar has stated that teachers of philosophy

in India

were as numerous as merchants in Babylonia. The sages have always been

heroes of

the Indians. If philosophy did emerge in India earlier than in Greece,

and if

the two countries were in close contact soon after this

emergence, it is

not unlikely that Indian thought had some influence on Greek

philosophy.

Indian Inspiration of

Pythagoras

The similarity between the

theory of

Thales, that water is the material cause of all things, and the Vedic

idea of

primeval waters as the origin of the universe, was first pointed out by

Richard

Garbe. The resemblances, too, between

the teachings of Pythagoras (ca. 582-506

B.C.) and Indian philosophy are striking. It was Sir William

Jones, the founder

of comparative philology, who first pointed out the pointed out the

similarities

between Indian and Pythagorean beliefs. Later, other scholars such as

Colebrooke,

Garbe, and Winternitz also testified

to the Indian inspiration of Pythagoras.

12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Orphic

religion, Pythagorean philosophy, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism and several

others not

so well-known have been influenced by the Samkhya-Vedanta thought of

India. In

pre-Christian centuries Persia served as a middle ground between India,

and

Greece. It is known that Indian archers with their long bows, one end

of which

was planted in the ground, fought in Darius's war against Greece.

Brahmins and

Buddhists were in Greece before Socrates. Later Alexandria became a

great center

of commerce and learning, where Buddhists and Brahmins congregated and

where

Neo-Platonism was born. The great astronomical observatory at

Ujjayini (now

Ujjain) in central India was linked to Alexandria in

Egypt.

mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">The

essence of Socratic and Platonic philosophy has remained unintelligible

in the

West because of lack of insight into Indian thought. Plato's view of

Reality is

the same as that of the Upanishads. His method of attaining knowledge

of the

Good is that of Vedanta. In the Phaedo, Plato describes silent

meditation

as withdrawal of the senses from their objects and as stilling the

processes of

mind.

mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">The

Greek theoria of the Pythagoreans, of Socrates and Plato, from which the

world 'theater' comes is the vision or darshana of the

Upanishads.

Plato

mentions that philosophic wisdom can only be communicated directly from

a

teacher to disciple, like lighting one lamp by another. The Timaeus

indicates after the manner of the Upanishads that the receiver of

philosophic

truth must be a fit person - fit by character and not by reason of

intellect

alone. Platonic thought is so un-Greek in the sense in which Greek

thought is

generally taken, namely, purely rationalism, that some philosopher,

such as Nietzsche, have called it " un-Hellenic."

mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">According

to Voltaire, "

The Greeks, before the time of

Pythagoras, traveled into India for

instruction. The signs of the seven planets and of the seven metals are

still

almost all over the earth, such as the Indians invented: the Arabians

were

obliged to adopt their cyphers." (The Philosophy of History, p. 527).

Pythagoras

was particularly influenced by Indian philosophy. Professor

R. G. Rawlinson remarks that,

"almost all the

theories, religious, philosophical, and mathematical, taught by the

Pythagorians

were known in India in the sixth century B.C."

mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Even

Aristotle, the great rationalist and empiricist, upheld so strongly by

teachers

of philosophy in the West, is not fully understood. Aristotle speaks of

intellect in the same sense as do the Upanishads- intellect which is not

thinking logically but which grasps truth immediately. The Indian term

for

intellect is buddhi, the purest understanding.

The thought of Plotinus is Hindu.

Eusebius in his biography of Socrates,

relates

an incident recorded in the fourth century B.C. in which Socrates met a

Brahmin

in the agora or the market place. The Brahmin asked Socrates what he

was doing.

Socrates replied that he was questioning people in order to understand

man. At

this, the Brahmin laughed and asked how one could understand man

without knowing

God.

12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">The

Socrates conception of freedom and virtue is that of the Upanishads.

Socrates

defined virtue as knowledge. Virtue is character, the realization of

the essence

of man. Know thyself, which is exactly the same as the Upanisadic

command, Atmanam

biddhi. In the Gita, knowledge or wisdom is defined as character.

Virtue,

comes from the Vedic word vira (hero, man).

mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">Greek

philosophy began in Asia Minor and Greek writers refer to the travels of

Pythagoras, and others, to the East to gain wisdom. According to his biographer

Iamblichus, "Pythagoras traveled widely, studying the esoteric

teachings of

the Egyptians, Assyrians, and even Brahmins." According to Gomprez,

"It is not too much to assume that the curious Greek who was a

contemporary

of Buddha, and it may be of Zoraster, too, would have acquired a more

or less

exact knowledge of the East, in the age of intellectual fermentation,

through

the medium of Persia."

net/vishnu_on_ananta.jpg" align="left" hspace="12" vspace="12" width="188"

height="200">Vivekananda said that Samhkya was the

basis of the philosophy of the whole world. " There is no

philosophy in the

world that was not indebted to Kapila. (Kapila is the founder of the

Sankhya

philosophy). Krishna says in the Gita that, among the perfected sages,

he is

Kapila. Pythagoras came to India and studied his philosophy and that

was the

beginning of the philosophy of the Greeks. Later it formed the

Alexandrian

school, and still later the Gnostic."

It is believed that the

Dravidians

from India went to Egypt and laid the foundation of its civilization

there. the

Egyptians themselves had the tradition that they originally came from

the South,

from a land called Punt,

which an historian of the West, Dr.

H.R. Hall,

thought referred to some part of India.

The Indus Valley

civilization is,

according to Sir John Marshall who was in charge of the excavations,

the oldest

of all civilizations unearthed (c. 4000 B.C.) It is older than the

Sumerian and

it is believed by many that the latter was a branch of the

former.

Some people called the

Brahui who

dwell in Baluchistan which is at present a part of Pakistan, still

speak the

Dravidian language. It is likely that their ancestors were the people

who sailed

across the narrow waters at the entrance of the Persian Gulf to Oman

and then to

Aden along the southern littoral of Arabia, crossing over to Africa at

the

narrow strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, near Somaliland and proceeding north

along the

Nile Valley.

"We hear of Arabian

trade with

Egypt as far back as 2743 B.C. probably as ancient as was the trade with

India." (Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. 4 p.

157).

Both upon archaeological

and

historical grounds, India is the mother of civilizations.

Material skill and

spiritual ideas spread from the Indus valley to Nineveh and Babylon, to

the

entire Middle East, to the Nile Valley and thence to Greece and

Rome.

Did You Know?

Iron with

Mettle

Ancient India developed advanced

metallurgical technology that mad it possible to cast a remarkable iron

pillar,

dating to about 300 B.C.E. Still standing today in Delhi. This solid

shaft of

wrought iron is about 24 feet high and 16 inches in diameter. It has

been

exposed to weather and pollution since its erection, yet shows minimal

corrosion, a technology lost to current ironmakers. Even with today's

advances,

only four foundries in the world could make this piece and none were

able to

keep it rust-free.

The earliest known metal expert (some 2,200 years ago) Rishi

Pantanjali. His book Loha Shastra, "metal manual" describes

in detail

metal preparation.

sushama_l (AT) hotmail (DOT) com