Greek Asia: THE HIDDEN GREEK ROOTS OF THE INDIAN CIVILIZATION

Saturday, 12 October 2019

THE HIDDEN GREEK ROOTS OF THE INDIAN CIVILIZATION

When Alexander the Great liberated the West Indies from the Persians, the Indians had no connection with the ancient culture of the Indus Valley. Moreover, the liberated Indians of the East had no intention of liberating the West Indies.

When Megasthenes went to India in 302 BCE , he saw a society where reading and writing skills were almost unknown. The buildings were made of wood,since Indians did not know how to process stone.The reason why not one single piece of monumental architecture has survived from ancient India, is simply because the natives didn't have the knowledge or the ability to build one. It was the Greeks who taught Indians stone sculpture and architecture. Metalworking techniques, such as the lost-wax method for making statues ,were adopted at a much later date.

Indian Sculpture: The Aniconic Years Before the Greeks

Early Indian art, including the Mauryan and post-Mauryan art, has been heavily influenced by Greek and Persian influences. Mathura and Gandhara served as a conduit for the transfer of Greco-Persian artistic styles.

Writing and Language

During the time of Megasthenes, Indians did not know how to write. It was the Greeks who taught them how to write, by adopting the Aramaic script used by the Persians and using it to make Kharosthi and Brahmi. Karoshthi died out, but Brahmi spread far and wide to South East Asia.

The Hellenized Kingdoms that were established in India after the Indo-Greeks, -like the Scythians, Parthians, Kushanas, Alchon, Huns,et.c.- used Greek as their official language, along with Prakrit, even though they were of Iranian stock.

Sciences

There is little doubt that the Greeks were far more advanced than Indians in the field of Sciences. India didn't really have an independent scientific tradition until about the middle of the 1st millennium CE. From the period of 300BCE to 300 CE, people were busy ‘Indianizing’ Greek works on mathematics, astronomy and astrology.
As far as architecture is concerned, the buildings and infrastructures at Taxila and Sircap were modelled on Greek cities. Ujjain became an intellectual centre under the rule of Scythians, who were avowedly following Greek culture.

Medicine

Muslim invaders reintroduced to India what is known as Unani medicine. This type of Medicine originated in in Greece, it was carried to India through the Greeks, and returned under the Muslim rulers, who had also embraced it as their own.

Coinage in India: Also influenced by the Greeks

The Indians did not have their own coins.Instead, they used punchmarked coins of Persian origin until the Greek kingdoms made the first Indian coins; some of them depicted Hindu deities.
Moreover, Greek characters were used in the coins of Gupta Kings as late as the 5th century CE.

Greek influence on Buddhism

The Buddha was always depicted aniconically, through the use of symbols. It was the Greeks who first made a full-fledged human Statue of the Buddha, which later spread to China. This practice was adopted for Hindu Gods as well, after it was established in Buddhism. Also, the Indians did not have a concept of Temples in ancient times. The concept of making a statue for a God in human form, putting it in a free-standing temple and worshipping it originated from Greece. Even then, the early Indian temples are just the shadow of their glorious Greek counterparts.