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Greece Greek Grecian : By 327-26 BCE, Greece & India had been in more or less close contact with each other. The philosophy of Pythagoras, who taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, was derived from the Sāṅkhya system of Indian philosophy. There are records to show that an Indian philosopher met Socrates (469-399 BC) at Athens & had philosophical discussions with him. Plato (427-347 BC) was familiar with the characteristic Indian philosophical doctrine of Karma. Hellenic rulers & statesmen listened with respectful attention to Indian sages. The school of Greek philosophy expounded by the Eleatics & by the Thales could have originated only in close contact between Indian & Greek philosophers of the pre-Alexandrine period (see Mauryas). ― Chandragupta received Megāsthenes as an ambassador of Macedonia. His son Bindusāra was eager to secure the services of a Greek sophist but the laws of that country didn’t permit him. Bindusāra’s son Ashoka’s Hellenistic contemporaries were Antiochos (II of Theos of Syria, c.261-246 BC), Ptolemy (II, Philadelphos of Egypt, 285-247 BC), Magas (of Cyrene, c.300-258 BC), & Alexander (of Epirus, 272-239 BC, or, as some say, of Corinth, 252-244 BC). He established friendly relations with the Greek kings of Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, & Epirus. The Mauryans spent large sums also on irrigation works of public utility. The most famous of these works of the early Maurya period is the Sudarshana lake of Kāṭhiāwād, constructed by Pushyagupta the Vaishya, an officer of Chandragupta, & provided by supplemental channels by the Greek Tushāspa in the days of Asoka. Indeed there were so many Greeks amongst his subjects in Afghanistan that Aśoka issued for their edification a bilingual inscription in Greek & Aramaic which has been found near the city renamed Qandahar by its Islamic conquerors. Ashōka also established philanthropic institutions in the realms of some if these princes; & Buddhism doubtless made some progress in western Asia & influenced later sects like the Manicheans. Classical Greek writers bear testimony to the activity & daring of the Indian navigators. One writer narrates how, in the reign of Euergetes II (145-116 BC) in Egypt, an Indian was brought to the king by his coast guard. They reported that they had found him in a ship alone & half dead. He spoke a language which they could not understand. He was taught the Greek tongue & then he related how he had started from the coast of Bharuch in bay of Khambhāt, but lost his course & reached Egypt alone. All his companions had perished from hunger. If he were restored to his country he would point out to those sent with him the route by sea to India. One of those sent with the Indian was Eudoxus of Cyzicus who brought back with him aromatics & precious stones. Another writer relates that a present was given by the king of Suevi (Surat?) to a pro-consul of Gaul though a group of Indians who, sailing from India for the purpose of commerce, had been driven by the storms into Germany. During the Mauryan-Scythian era, 325 BC to 3rd century CE, India was in intimate contact with the Graeco-Roman world. Ambassadors were exchanged, & Indian philosophers, traders & adventurers were to be found in the intellectual circles of Athens & in the markets of Alexandria. There was a considerable body of foreign residents, some of whom undoubtedly traders, in Pātaliputra whose affairs were looked after by a special board of municipal commissioners. Sweet wines & dried figs of the West were eagerly sought by a Maurya king in the 3rd century BC. In the 1st century AD presents for the king Bharuch, which was one of the greatest marts in the East, included costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing & the choicest ointments. The Westerners on their part imported articles of luxury including the fine muslins of the lower Gangetic region. Pliny bears testimony to the vast sums of money sent to India in payment for these commodities. ― It was during this period that the Greeks in India came into close cultural contact with Indians & as a result many of them were converted not only to Buddhism but also to Hinduism. Menander became a Buddhist. In the 2nd century BC, Heliodoros, son of Diya (Dion) & a native of Takshashilā then ruled by the Bactrian Antialkidas, was sent as its ambassador to the court of the Śuṅga king Kāshiputra Bhagabhadra of Vidisha where he converted to Vaishnavism & set up a Garūda-dwaja (monolithic pillar) in honour of Sri Krishna as Vāsudeva, Lord of the Gods. All this is recorded on the pillar which also shows Heliodoros was well-versed in the Bhāgwata Purāṇa. Some time after the death of Ashōka north-western India was conquered by Greeks who ruled up to its conquest by the Kushāns in 1st century CE. It was also during this period that the Gāndhāran School of Art. The Greeks in India gave in art & coinage & took in philosophy, religion, mathematics & other sciences. Greek meridarchs (titles of high officers) are mentioned in Kharoshṭhī (Persian) inscriptions as establishing Buddhist relics & Vihāras. Indian cultural influence on the Greeks of Egypt has been traced in the Oxyrhynchus papyri. With the fall of the Mauryas…the Greeks of Syria & Bactria renewed their incursions. The Greek king, Antiochos of Syria, penetrated into the Gāndhāra valley & established a powerful kingdom in Gāndhāra & other places. His son followed it up by conquest of Śākala (north-central Punjab) & lower Sindhu valley. A later king Menander who apparently belonged to the house of Demetrios (son of Euthydemos, king of Bactria) besieged Sāketa (identified with modern Sialkot) in Madhya-deśa & is said crossed beyond the river Beas, & Madhyamikā near Chittor, & threatened Pātaliputra itself. In c.185 BC, the last of the Mauryas, Bŗihadratha, having proved incapable of stemming these incursions, was deposed by his commander in chief, Pushyamitra who inaugurated a new dynasty ruling Magadha. The Pushyamitras were succeeded in the north by the Guptās who inaugurated the great Gupta Empire. In the 1st century AD trade between India & the West was greatly facilitated when the pilot Hippalus, living in Egypt, discovered how to lay his course straight across the ocean along the coasts of the Red Sea & the Arabian Sea, & recorded a minute account of his experiences in a book called The Periplus of the Erytharean Sea. We learn from this book that there was active trade between India & the western countries. There were important harbours on the coast such as Barbarike, Barygaza, Muziris, Nelcynda, Bakarai, Korkai, & Puhar, & ships built & fitted up by Indians sailed from these ports with their merchandise which consisted, among other things, of pearls, precious stones, spices, unguents, & fine cotton cloths called muslins. ― We also learn from Hippalus’ The Periplus of the Erytharean Sea that Indians settled in some islands of Socotra had a colony of Indian merchants. The account of the Periplus is supplemented by later writers. Pliny, e.g., complains that for the purchase of luxurious articles Rome pays every year a million sesterces to India. The statement of Pliny is corroborated by the actual discovery of a large number of Roman coins in India. This is further proved by the missions sent to Roman emperors. The trade with Rome & other western countries was carried through the important port of Alexandria where goods carried by sea up the Red Sea were transported either by land or by boats through the canals of the Nile. There was also a land route which ran through Persia & along the shores of the Caspian, to Syria & Asia Minor. This route became familiar after the invasion of Alexander. Both the land & the sea routes came under the control of the Arabs when they rose to power in the 7th century AD. [S. Bhattacharya: 405-06; Advanced History of India, R.C. Majumdar et al: 98, 107-14, 129-31, 202-04, 135-36, 393]