India and Greece

8/16/2019 India and Greece

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A Tribute to Hinduism - India and Greece

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Indian civilization is distinctive for its antiquity and continuity. Apart from its own vitality, the continuof Indian civilization is largely due to its ability to adapt to alien ideas, harmonize contradictions andmould new thought patterns. Her constant contacts with the outside world also gave India theopportunity to contribute to other civilizations. Whilst other ancient civilizations have long ceased toexist, Indian civilization has continued to grow despite revolutionary changes. The ancient culturesEgypt, Mesopotamia and Persia have not survived. But in India today, Hindus seek inspiration fromconcepts similar to those originally advanced by their ancestors.

Jawaharlal 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 hsaid 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 notonly 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 theaccounts of Greek historians all suggest contact between India and the West. Taxila was a greatcenter of commerce and learning. "Crowds of eager scholars flowed to it for instruction in the threeVedas and in the eighteen branches of knowledge." Tradition affirms that the great epic, theMahabharata, 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 philosop



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owe their origin to Indian thought and spirituality.

Alexander's raid, which was so significant to Western historians, seemed to have entirely escapedthe attention of Sanskrit authors. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing to distinguish hisraid in Indian history. Jawaharlal Nehru says, " From a military point of view his invasion, was a miaffair. It was more of a raid across the border, and not a very successful raid at that."

Indian Thought and the West

Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, has said,

"The Europeans are apt to imagine that before thegreat Greek thinkers, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle,there was a crude confusion of thought, a sort of chaos without form and void. Such a view becomesalmost a provincialism when we realize that systemsthought which influenced countless millions of humbeings had been elaborated by people who never heard the names of the Greek thinkers."

(source: Eastern Religions & Western Thought - By S

Radhakrishnan p. 350).

There has been too much inclination among Westernwriters to idealize the Greeks and their civilization, and thave tended to discover too much of the contemporaryworld in the Greek past. In fact almost everything wastraced to ancient Greece. In all that concerned intellectuactivity and even faith, modern civilization was considereto be an overgrown colony of Hellas. The obvious Greekfailings, their shortcomings and the unhealthy features o

their civilization, was rationalized and romanticized.

In the words of Sir Charles Eliot, who affirms that "it is clearly absurd for Europe as a whole topose as a qualified instructor in humanity and civilization. He writes: "If Europeans have ansuperiority over Asiatics it lies in practical science, finance and administration, not inphilosophy, thought or art. Their gifts are authority and power to organize; in other respecttheir superiority is imaginary."

(source: Hinduism and Buddhism, volume I (1920), pp. xcvi and xcviii )

Modern research, however, has marred this comforting image and is helping to put Greek culture iits proper historical perspective showing that, like any other culture, it inherited something frompreceding civilizations, profited from the progress of its neighboring cultures (like India and Persia)and, in turn, bequeathed much to later generations.



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We are not completely in the dark on the question of Indiainfluence on Greece. Speaking of ascetic practices in theWest, Professor Sir Flinders Patrie (1853-1942) Britisharchaeologist and Egyptologist, author of Egypt and Isra

(1911) observes:

" The presence of a large body of Indian troops in thePersian army in Greece in 480 B.C. shows how far west t

Indian connections were carried; and the discovery of modeled heads of Indians at Memphis, of about the fifthcentury B.C. shows that Indians were living there for tradHence there is no difficulty in regarding India as the sourcof the entirely new ideal of asceticism in the West."

(source: Eastern Religions & Western Thought - By S.

Radhakrishnan p. 150).

Gods of heaven

It is significant to note that although the Indians and Greeks (Yavanas) had come from the sameIndo-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 languagassociated by similarities in religious beliefs, indicate that these two peoples must have either beenclose contact at some early period or have had a common origin, even though neither had anyrecollection of those times.

For examplethe godsheaven(Varuna Ouranos

Dyaus -Zeus ) athe dawn(Ushas -

Aurora)werecommonthe GreeandIndians.The mosprominen

characteristics of the gods of both races was their power of regulating the order of nature andbanishing 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.

Both Greeks and Romans habitually tried to understand the religions of India by trying to fit them afar as possible into Greco-Roman categories. Deities in particular were spoken of, not in Indian buGreek terms and called by Greek names. Thus Shiva was identified as 'Dionysos', and Hare Krishas ' Hercules'.



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In a passage of the Rig Veda, Vac is praised as a divinebeing. Vac is omnipotent, moves amongst divine beings, ancarries the great gods, Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Agni, withinitself. The doctrine of Vac teaches that "all gods live from Vaalso all demi-gods, animals and people. Vac is the eternalbeing, it is the first-born of the eternal law, mother of theVedas and navel of immortality." Vedic Aryans attached sucgreat importance to the spoken word that one who could nocorrectly pronounce Sanskrit was called barbar (meaningstammering).

The Greek barbaroi had the same meaning. The briskintercourse between India and Greece is attested by the facthat a special rule was inserted in the great grammar of Panto distinguish three feminine forms of yavana: a Greek womwas yavani, the curtain was yavanika, and the Greek scriptwas yavanani. 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. Somescholars, like Fiske, have even asserted that elements of the Trojan war story are to be found in thwar between the bright deities, and the night demons as described in the Rig Veda. It is clear fromHomer that even they used articles of Indian merchandise which were known by names of Indianorigin, such as Kassiteros (Sanskrit, Kastira), elephas (Sanskrit, ibha), and ivory.

Alain Danielou (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy,religion, history and arts of India, remarks that: "the Greeks were always speaking of India as thesacred territory of Dionysus and historians working under Alexander the Greek clearly mentionschronicles of the Puranas as sources of the myth of Dionysus." He quotes Clement of Alexandriawho admitted that "we the Greeks have stolen from the Barbarians their philosophy."

Alexander's Insignificant Raid

Alexander is supposed to have invaded the Punjab in 326 B.C. Every schoolbois taught and is expected to know, that he invaded India's Northwest. Strangethis event, so significant to Western historians, seemed to have entirelyescaped the attention of Sanskrit authors. Nowhere did Sir WilliamJones, (1746-1794),who came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court atCalcutta and pioneered Sanskrit studies, find any mention of Greeks or any sigof Greek influence.

(source: India Discovered - By John Keay p. 33).

British historian Vincent A. Smith, conservatively appraised the impact of Alexander's invasion as follows:

"The Greek influence never penetrated deeply (into the Indic civilization)...On the other hanthe West learned something from India in consequence of the communications opened up bAlexander's adventure. Our knowledge of the facts is so scanty and fragmentary that it is difficultmake any positive assertions with confidence, but it is safe to say that the influence of Buddhist ideon Christian doctrine may be traced in the Gnostic forms of Christianity, if not elsewhere. The notioof Indian philosophy and religion which filtered into the Roman empire flowed through channelsopened by Alexander."(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg



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Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 252-253).

According to Indian historian Dr. R. C. Majumdar , " The invasion of Alexander has been recorded in minute details by the greek historians whonaturally felt elated at the progress of their hero over unknown lands andseas. From the Indian point of view, there was nothing to distinguish hraid in Indian history. It can hardly be called a great military success as thonly military achievement to his credit were the conquest of petty tribes and

States by installments. He never approached even within a measurabledistance of what may be called the citadel of Indian military strength, and thexertions he had to make against Poros, the ruler of a small district betweethe Jhelum and the Chenab, do not certainly favor the hypothesis that hewould have found it an easy task to subdue the mighty Nanda empire."

According to Paul Masson-Oursel and others, "The importance of this Indian campaign of Alexander has been exaggerated. It had no decisive influence on the destinies of India, for iresults were short-lived.

H. G. Rawlinson, refers to the invasion, " had no immediate effect, and passed off like countlessother invasions, leaving the country almost undisturbed."

Vincent A. Smith " India remained unchanged. She was never Hellenised. She continued tolive her life of splendid isolation, and forgot the passing of the Macedonian storm. No Indianauthor, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain, makes even the faintest illusion to Alexander or his deeds(Source: Ancient India - By V. D. Mahajan 1994. published by S. Chand & Company New Delhi. 265-268)

Jawaharlal Nehru in his book Discovery of India says, " From a military point of view his invasion,was a minor affair. It was more of a raid across the border, and not a very successful raid at that." met with such stout resistance from a border chieftain that the contemplated advance into the hearof India had to be reconsidered. If a small ruler on the frontier could fight thus, what of the larger anmore powerful kingdom further south? Probably this was the main reason why his army refused to

march further and insisted on returning."(source Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru p. 114-115)



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Another myth is propagated by the Western historians that Alexander wasnoble and kind king, he had great respects for brave and courageous men,and so on. The truth is other-wise. He was neither a noble man nor did hhave a heart of gold. He had meted out very cruel and harsh treatmento his earlier enemies. Basus of Bactria fought tooth and nail withAlexander to defend the freedom of his motherland. When he wasbrought before Alexander as a prisoner, Alexander ordered his servanto whip him and then cut off his nose and ears. He then killed him. MaPersian generals were killed by him.

The murder of Kalasthenese, nephew of Aristotle, was committed byAlexander because he criticised Alexander for foolishly imitating thePersian emperors. Alexander also murdered his friend Clytus in angeHis father's trusted lieutenant Parmenian was also murdered byAlexander. The Indian soldiers who were returning from Masanga wermost atrociously murdered by Alexander in the dead of night. Theseexploits do not prove Alexander's kindness and greatness, but only a

ordinary emperor driven by the zeal of expanding his empire.

(Source: Alexander, the Ordinary - By Prof. Dinesh Agarwal http://www.itihaas.com/ancient/1.html )

The religious scripture of ancient Iranians was the Avesta. The Avestaavailable today is only a fraction of what existed thousands of years ago.When Alexander captured Iran (Persia) in 326 B. C. after a bloody warhe destroyed each copy of the Avesta available. After return of politicalstability Persian priests tried to salvage the Avesta and much had to bewritten from memory. Another cruel legacy of Alexander.(source: Vedic Physics - By Raja Ram Mohan Roy p. 8)

Marshal Zhukov,

the famous Russian commander in World War II, said at

the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun, a few years back, that India haddefeated Alexander

Indian Philosophy

By contrast, philosophical thought in India in the sixth century B.C. had become quite mature. It hareached a stage which could have been arrived at only after long and arduous philosophical questJainism and Buddhism, the latter enormously influential in Indian and neighboring cultures, hademerged by this time. But even before their advent, the philosophical reflections of the earlyUpanishads (900-600 B.C.) had set forth the fundamental concepts of Hindu thought which havecontinued to dominate the Indian mind.

It is perhaps necessary to point out that there has often been a wide divergence betweenIndian and Western interpretations of Indian thought. Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy once

even declared that a true account to Hinduism may be given in a categorical denial of most the interpretation that have been made by Westerners or Western-trained Indians.



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The tradition of Indian philosophic thougis as complex as it is long. Thecomplexities of Indian philosophy havearisen through centuries of deep reflecton the many aspects of humanexperience, and, in the search for somereality behind the external world, varioumethods have been restored to rangingfrom experimental to the purelyspeculative. It is the oldest philosophicatradition in the world is to be traced in thancient Vedas. Although the religious aphilosophical spirit of India emerges

distinctly in the Rig Veda, the Upanishads are its most brilliant exposition, for the Vedic civilizationwas naturalistic and utilitarian, although it did not exclude the cosmological and religious speculatio

Older than Plato or Confucius, the Upanishads are the most ancient philosophical works and contathe mature wisdom of India's intellectual and spiritual attainment. They have inspired not only theorthodox 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 thougbut in the Western and Chinese philosophical traditions as well.

The Upanishads have greatly influenced Indian culture throughout history and have also foundenthusiastic admirers abroad. Schopenhauer was almost lyrical about them. Max Muller said: " TUpanishads are the .... sources of .....the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human speculatioseems to me to have reached its very acme." The Upanishads are saturated with the spirit of inquintellectual analysis, and a passion for seeking the truth.




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India, is the home of philosophy. CertainlIndia is a country where philosophy hasalways been very popular and influential.

An American scholar has stated thatteachers of philosophy in India were asnumerous as merchants in Babylonia. Thsages have always been heroes of theIndians. If philosophy did emerge in Indiaearlier than in Greece, and if the twocountries were in close contact soon aftethis emergence, it is not unlikely that Indithought had some influence on Greekphilosophy.

Indian Inspiration of Pythagoras

The similarity between the theory of Thalthat water is the material cause of all thinand the Vedic idea of primeval waters asthe origin of the universe, was first pointeout by Richard Garbe. The resemblancetoo, between the teachings of Pythagora(ca. 582-506 B.C.) and Indian philosophyare striking. It was Sir William Jones, thfounder of comparative philology, who firpointed out the pointed out the similaritiebetween Indian and Pythagorean beliefsLater, other scholars such as ColebrookGarbe, and Winternitz also testified to thIndian inspiration of Pythagoras.

Professor H. G. Rawlinson writes: " It is

more likely that Pythagoras was influenceby India than by Egypt. Almost all thetheories, religions, philosophical and mathematical taught by the Pythagoreans, were known in Indin the sixth century B.C., and the Pythagoreans, like the Jains and the Buddhists, refrained from thdestruction of life and eating meat and regarded certain vegetables such as beans as taboo" "Itseems that the so-called Pythagorean theorem of the quadrature of the hypotenuse was alreadyknown to the Indians in the older Vedic times, and thus before Pythagoras (ibid). (Legacy of India1937, p. 5).

Professor Maurice Winternitz is of the same opinion: "As regards Pythagoras, it seems to me veprobable that he became acquainted with Indian doctrines in Persia." (Visvabharati Quarterly Feb.1937, p. 8).

It is also the view of Sir William Jones (Works, iii. 236), Colebrooke (Miscellaneous Essays, i. 43ff.). Schroeder (Pythagoras und die Inder ), Garbe (Philosophy of Ancient India, pp. 39 ff),Hopkins (Religions of India, p. 559 and 560) and Macdonell (Sanskrit Literature, p. 422).(source: Eastern Religions & Western Thought - By S. Radhakrishnan p. 143).

Ludwig von Schröder German philosopher, author of the book Pythagoras und die Inder (Pythagoras and the Indians), published in 1884, he argued that Pythagoras had been influenceby the Samkhya school of thought, the most prominent branch of the Indic philosophy next toVedanta.(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg



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Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 252).

" Nearly all the philosophical and mathematical doctrines attributed to Pythagoras are derivfrom India."

Orphic religion, Pythagorean philosophy, Neo-Platonism, Stoicism and several others not sowell-known have been influenced by the Samkhya-Vedanta thought of India. In pre-Christiancenturies Persia served as a middle ground between India, and Greece. It is known that Indianarchers 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 becama great center of commerce and learning, where Buddhists and Brahmins congregated and whereNeo-Platonism was born. The great astronomical observatory at Ujjayini (now Ujjain) in centrIndia was linked to Alexandria in Egypt. The first Greek book about India was perhaps written bScylax, a Greek sea-captain whom Darius commissioned to explore the course of the Indus abou510 B.C. (Herodotus, iv. 44 ).

Vitsaxis G. Vassilis, in his book Plato and the Upanishads, argues that exponents of literature,

science, philosophy and religion traveled regularly between the two countries. He points to accounby Eusebius and Aristoxenes, of the visits of Indian sages to Athens and their meetings with Greekphilosophers. And reference to the visit of Indians to Athens is found in the fragment of Aristotle

preserved in the writings of Diogenes Laertius who was also one of Pythagoras’ biographers.

The essence of Socratic and Platonic philosophy has remainedunintelligible in the West because of lack of insight into Indianthought. Plato's view of Reality is the same as that of the UpanishaHis method of attaining knowledge of the Good is that of Vedanta. the Phaedo, Plato describes silent meditation as withdrawal of thesenses from their objects and as stilling the processes of mind.

The Greek theoria of the Pythagoreans, of Socrates and Plato, fromwhich the world 'theater' comes is the vision or darshana of theUpanishads. Plato mentions that philosophic wisdom can only be

communicated directly from a teacher to disciple, like lighting onelamp by another. The Timaeus indicates after the manner of theUpanishads that the receiver of philosophic truth must be a fit pers- fit by character and not by reason of intellect alone. Platonic thougis so un-Greek in the sense in which Greek thought is generallytaken, namely, purely rationalism, that some philosopher, such asNietzsche, have called it " un-Hellenic."

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 tearth, such as the Indians invented: the Arabians were obliged to adopt their cyphers." (source: The Philosophy of History, p. 527).

Pythagoras was particularly influenced by Indian philosophy. Professor R. G. Rawlinson remarksthat,"almost all the theories, religious, philosophical, and mathematical, taught by thePythagorians were known in India in the sixth century B.C."

Even Aristotle, the great rationalist and empiricist, upheld so strongly by teachers of philosophy in West, is not fully understood. Aristotle speaks of intellect in the same sense as do the Upanishadsintellect which is not thinking logically but which grasps truth immediately. The Indian term for intelis buddhi, the purest understanding.



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The thought of Plotinus is Hindu.Eusebius in his biography of Socrarelates an incident recorded in thefourth century B.C. in which Socratemet a Brahmin in the agora or themarket place. The Brahmin askedSocrates what he was doing. Socratreplied that he was questioning peoin order to understand man. At this, Brahmin laughed and asked how oncould understand man without knowGod.

The Socrates conception of freedomand virtue is that of the UpanishadsSocrates defined virtue as knowledgVirtue is character, the realization ofthe essence of man. Know thyself,which is exactly the same as theUpanisadic command, Atmanam

biddhi. In the Gita, knowledge or wisdom is defined as character. Virtcomes from the Vedic word vira (hero, man).

Greek philosophy began in Asia Minor and Greek writers refer to the travels of Pythagoras, andothers, to the East to gain wisdom. According to his biographer Iamblichus,

"Pythagoras traveled widely, studying the esoteric teachings of the Egyptians, Assyrians, aeven Brahmins." According to Gomprez, "It is not too much to assume that the curious Grewho was a contemporary of Buddha, and it may be of Zoraster, too, would have acquired amore or less exact knowledge of the East, in the age of intellectual fermentation, through thmedium of Persia."

Vivekananda said that Samhkya was the basis of thephilosophy of the whole world. " There is no philosophy in world that was not indebted to Kapila. (Kapila is the foundof the Sankhya philosophy). Krishna says in the Gita that,among the perfected sages, he is Kapila. Pythagoras camto India and studied his philosophy and that was thebeginning of the philosophy of the Greeks. Later it formed

Alexandrian school, and still later the Gnostic."

Panini, who speaks of the Greek script as yavanani lipi.The Prakrit equivalent of yavana, viz. yona, is used in the

inscriptions of Ashoka to describe the Hellenic princes of Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, Epirus, and Syria.

"It is believed that the Dravidians from India went to Egyptand laid the foundation of its civilization there. the Egyptianthemselves had the tradition that they originally came fromthe South, from a land called Punt, which an historian of th

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 theexcavations, the oldest of all civilizations unearthed (c. 4000 B.C.) It is older than theSumerian and it is believed by many that the latter was a branch of the former.




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Some people called the Brahui who dwell in Baluchistan which is at present a part of Pakistan, stilspeak the Dravidian language. It is likely that their ancestors were the people who sailed across thnarrow waters at the entrance of the Persian Gulf to Oman and then to Aden along the southernlittoral of Arabia, crossing over to Africa at the narrow strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, near Somaliland anproceeding north along the Nile Valley."

(Source: The Bhagvad Gita: A Scripture for the Future - Translation and Commentary by

Sachindra K. Majumdar p. 28).

"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).

Klaus K. Klostermaier, in his book " A Survey of Hinduism "

18 says:

"For several centuries a lively commerce developed between thancient Mediterranean world and India, particularly the ports on Western coast. The most famous of these ports was Sopara, nofar from modern Bombay, which was recently renamed

Mumbai. Present day Cranganore in Kerala, identified with tancient Muziris, claims to have had trade contacts withAncient Egypt under Queen Hatsheput, who sent five shipsobtain spices, as well as with ancient Israel during KingSoloman's reign. Apparently, the contact did not break off afteEgypt was conquered by Greece and later by Rome.

According to I .K. K. Menon:

"there is evidence of a temple of Augustus near Muziris(Cranganore, Kerala) and a force of 1200 Roman soldiers

stationed in the town for the protection of Roman commerce." Large hoards of Roman traders, whmust have rounded the southern tip of India to reach that place."

(Note: The ancient Alexandrian port of Muziris, now Cranganore, Kerala is where the Romans buitemple to Augustus in the first century.)

Thus, 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 thentire Middle East, to the Nile Valley and thence to Greece and Rome.

Other Indic Influences:

American mathematician, A. Seindenberg has demonstrated that the Sulbhasutras, the ancientVedic mathematics, have inspired all the mathematic sciences of the antique world from BabyloniaEgypt and Greece". "Arithmetic equations from the Sulbhasutras were used in the observation of ttriangle by the Babylonians and the theory of contraries and of inexactitude in arithmetic methods,discovered by Hindus, inspired Pythagorean mathematics." writes Abraham Seidenberg.

In astronomy, too, Indus were precursors: Jean-Claude Bailly (1736–93) 18th century Frenchastronomer and politician. His works on astronomy and on the history of science (notably the Essasur la théorie des satellites de Jupiter ) were distinguished both for scientific interest and literaryelegance and earned him membership in the French Academy, the Academy of Sciences, and the

Academy of Inscriptions. Bailly had already noticed that:



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"the Hindu astronomic systems were much more ancient than those of the Greeks or even theEgyptians the movement of stars which was calculated by Hindus 4,500 years ago, does not differeven by a minute from the tables which we are using today." And he concludes: "The Hindu systemof astronomy are much more ancient than those of the Egyptians - even the Jews derived from theHindus their knowledge." There is also no doubt that the Greeks heavily borrowed from the"Indus."

Alain Danileou (1907-1994), son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy,

religion, history and arts of India, including Virtue, Success, Pleasure, & Liberation : The Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of Ancient India. He was perhaps the first European to boldly

proclaim his Hinduness. He settled in India for fifteen years in the study of Sanskrit. He had a wideeffect upon Europe's understanding of Hinduism. He has remarks that:

"the Greeks were always speaking of India as the sacred territory of Dionysus and historians workunder Alexander the Great clearly mention chronicles of the Puranas as sources of the myth of Dionysus." Alain Danielou quotes Clement of Alexandria who admitted that "we the Greeks havstolen from the Barbarians their philosophy."

We know that the Greeks had translated the Bhagvad-gita and French philosopher and historianRoger-Pol Droit writes in his classic "L'oubli de l'Inde (India forgotten) "that there is absolutely

a shadow of a doubt that Greeks knew all about Indian philosophy."

William Jones (1746-1794) came to India as a judge of theSupreme Court at Calcutta. He pioneered Sanskrit studies. linguist of British India, his admiration for Indian thought andculture was almost limitless. He noted that "the analogiesbetween Greek Pythagorean philosophy and the Sankhschool, are very obvious."

(source: Arise, O India - By Francois Gautier ISBN81-241-0518-9 Har-Anand Publications 2000. p. 21-22).

Jean-Paul Droit, French philosopher, and Le Monde journalist, recently wrote in his book "The Forgetfulness ofIndia, that:

"The Greeks loved so much Indian philosophy that Demetri

Galianos had even translated the Bhagavad-Gita"

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The Roman Empire - A Gangster State?

According to Petr Beckman, author of ' A History of Pi: " While Alexandria had become the worldcapital of thinkers, Rome was becoming the capital of thugs. Rome was not the first state of organized gangsterdom nor was it the last; but it was the only one that managed to bamboozleposterity into an almost universal admiration. Few rational men admire the Huns, the Nazis or theSoviets; but for centuries, schoolboys have been expected to read Julius Caesar's militaristdrivel. They have been led to believe that the Romans had attained an advanced level in thesciences, the arts, law, architecture, engineering and everything else.



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It is my opinion that the alleged Romanachievements are largely a myth; and I feel it is tifor this myth to be debunked a little. What theRomans excelled in was bullying, bludgeoninbutchering and blood bath. They enslavedpeoples whose cultural level was far above their own. They not only ruthlessly vandalized their countries, but they also looted them, stealing theiart treasures, abducting their scientists and copyitheir technical know-how, which the Romans' barsociety was rarely able to improve on.

Then there is Roman engineering: The Romanroads, acquaducts, the Coliseums. Warfare, alashas always been beneficial to engineering. In ahealthy society, engineering design gets smarter and smarter; in gangster states, it gets bigger andbigger.

The architecture of the Coliseums and other placof Roman entertainment are difficult to judge withrecalling what purpose they served. It was here thgladiators fought to the death; that prisoners of wconvicts and Christians were devoured by a manas 5,000 wild beasts at a time; and that victims wcrucified or burned alive for the entertainment of Roman civilization. When the Roman screamedfor ever more blood, artificial lakes were dugand naval battles as many as 19,000 gladiator

were staged until the water turned red with blood. The only Roman emperors who did notthrow Christians to the lions were the Christian emperors. They (Christians) threw the pagato the lions with the same gusto and for the same crime - having a different religion.

Romans were not primitive savages, but were sophisticated killers. The Roman contribution tosciences was mostly limited to butchering antiquity's greatest mathematicians, burning the Library

Alexandria. and it demonstrates an abysmal ignorance of sciences. Pliny tells us that in India this a species of men without mouths who subsist by smelling flowers.

Yet most historians extol the achievements of Rome. "it accustomed the Western races to the ideaa world-state, and by pax romana....."

(source: A History of Pi - By Petr Beckman p. 55-59).

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Did You Know

Iron with Mettle



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Ancient India developed advanced metallurgical technology thatmade it possible to cast a remarkable iron pillar, dating to about300 B.C.E. Still standing today in Delhi. This solid shaft of wrougiron is about 24 feet high and 16 inches in diameter. It has beenexposed to weather and pollution since its erection, yet showsminimal corrosion, a technology lost to current ironmakers. Evenwith today's advances, only four foundries in the world could mathis piece and none were able to keep it rust-free.

The earliest known metal expert (some 2,200 years ago) RishiPantanjali. His book Loha Shastra, "metal manual" describes indetail metal preparation.

The pillar is a solid shaft of iron sixteen inches in diameter and 23 feet high. What is mostastounding about it is that it has never rusted even though it has been exposed to wind andrain for centuries! The pillar defies explanation, not only for not having rusted, but becauseis apparently made of pure iron, which can only be produced today in tiny quantities byelectrolysis! The technique used to cast such a gigantic, solid pillar is also a mystery, as itwould be difficult to construct another of this size even today. The pillar stands as mutetestimony to the highly advanced scientific knowledge that was known in antiquity, and not

duplicated until recent times. Yet still, there is no satisfactory explanation as to why the pillhas never rusted!

(source: Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients - By David Hatche

Childress p. 80)

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