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Indo-Greek cultural syncretism is so underrated

It should be noted that it wasn't just Alexander that brought Hellenism to the region. There were already Greek populations there that had been deported by the Persians.

I’m glad you did this video! I recently got into and now practice Buddhism (Theravada school). - Pakistani Buddhist 🇵🇰☸️

Hi! I'm a Buddhist from sri lanka and we have heard the story of king Menander or Milinda as he is called in our stories and his debates with the Fully enlightend monk(Arahanth) called Nagasena. It is taught in our stories that after 500 sessions of these debates with Arahanth Nagasena king Menander abdicated and gave his crown to his eldest son and Ordained as a monk himself, and later attained spiritual Enlightnment (Arahanthship). and he passed away near a war camp many years later in Ghandhar (modern day Kandahar) and his grandson who was the king at the time (his son passed away due to an accident) burned his body in a ceremonial fire and disributed his relics and built 1000 stupas in every major town in his kingdom honoring him

Original Buddhism was against the making of icons of the Buddha. Early Buddhist art used either a footprint or symbols like the dharma chakara to represent Buddha. The earliest depictions of Buddha came from Greek kingdoms within India.

This is one of my FAVOURITE periods in all of human history. It's so important that more people learn about the ancient cultural connections between East and West, thank you so much for making this video.

Fun fact central Asia had a massive Greek population centuries before Alexandre got there. They were Ionians (Anatolian) and other Greek soldiers/people who were defeated and expelled to a location far from their home land.

One of the weirdest crossovers I have ever seen - that statue of the Buddha together with a nude statue of Heracles (Hercules). It feels absolutely like a Marvel-American Pie crossover of sorts. XD

Thank you so much for making a video on this topic! I'm a practicing Buddhist, training to become a monk, and when I first found out about Grecco-Buddhism, I found myself enthralled by it. The most fascinating thing was that the very first images of the Buddha were carved by these artists. Amazing and inspiring stuff for a Buddhist from the 'West' seeing the original "Western" Buddhists. Goes to show the Universality of these ancient traditions. 🙏

One wonders how the early Greeks would have responded to the idea that absolutely anyone can be a Buddha and that a Buddha is a teacher of gods and men alike. In Greek mythology humans can NEVER reach the divine through their own effort, and anyone who fancied himself the equal of the gods would quickly face their wrath. But in Buddhism we're all already in a sense divine -- we all possess the Buddha Nature -- it being merely a question of bringing this Buddha Nature to full fruition. The Olympian gods would have regarded all this as an affront to their exalted status. Well, maybe some of the Greeks who were attracted to Buddhism thought: "To Hell with the Olympian gods." :P

Actually, there were already Greek communities in Pakistan/Afghanistan before Alexander. The Achaemenid Persian empire, when it conquered western Anatolia, had exiled hordes of Greeks from there to the Eastern reaches of their rule. Alexander was just building on those existing communities.

I had always assumed that the gymnosophists were the tradition we now call Jain but that kind of asceticism was probably not exclusive to Jain, especially when you consider how the fluid and complex Indian religious history. And I had also assumed that the sages the Buddha debated with were Jain or some similar preceding tradition. Have you done a Jain video?

The Seleucid Empire & all of the cultural & religious fusion it brought about is one of my favorite subjects in history.

Indo greek kingdom, let's go!

I am a Sri lankan Sinhalese Buddhist who practice Theravada buddhism. We often come up with the debate of Yonaka king Mirendo(Milinda) vs Arahanth Nagasena. The famous Milinda prashna...Almost it contains all types of philosophical-radical questions that could be asked by an intelligent person on buddhism. Love your videos and you have done the research at your best rather than telling stories...

Totally new concept to me, and totally fascinating. Had to watch right away. Glad I'm subscribed.

There is a little known work of fiction where Jesus was simply trying to teach Buddhism but was misunderstood.

The more I learn of history the more confidence I feel about my slow life's trajectory toward Buddhism. You see the wisdom of the Buddha emerge all over the world as tiny little acknowledgements of even singular monks wandering the world. Even in Christianity, you see the same wisdom expressed by Jesus. The most brilliant people who ever lived find it over and over again. Of course I'm not arrogant enough to believe that Buddhism is the only way through life or the only valid faith - every faith or philosophy, so long as it doesn't call for the extinction of others, had it's place in the world. And I think that understanding is directly expressed by Buddhism. I don't know, there's just something beautiful about both the simplicity and complexity of the Buddha's message that I think can enrich the life of anyone

greco buddhism, the indo-greeks, and kushan empire is probably my favorite topics in history. The art especially is amazing. Probably one of the most beautiful budhas sculpted.

I got the chance to visit the statue shown in 1:35 in the museum in Kolkata and i must say, up close you can just say by looking that Gandhara art is unique in the way indian and european styles are combined, something we won't see for millennia after that

Greeks having an influence on Buddhism in the east and Christianity in the west will never not boggle my mind

I love seeing how two cultures can influence one another

I’ve always felt there’s a strong Buddhist sensibility in the Gospel of Thomas.

one of the most fascinating things in ancient history is the Greek India connection. yet I heard nothing about it until youtube.

This reminded me of a theory I once saw about how the Therapeutae was possibly influenced by Buddhist traditions. Really makes me feel like everything is more interconnected than we think sometimes.

This makes so much sense, given how close the two civilizations were to each other

Having a philosopher in battle is beyond valuable for the perspectives to be given could be immense. Philosophy is not only about existence. You can philosophize about almost anything including war.

I'm an Anthropology major who focused on Archaeology and this is brand new information to me! Really interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Honestly I've been very curious about this topic for years, I'm so happy you made a video.

This is one of my favourite historical crossovers. I had read that some historians believe Nagarjuna actually learned his skeptical ideas from the Greeks, which is why he claimed to have been taught his ideas by snakes (naga) to hide the fact that they came from foreigners. Of course, the Greeks also likely learned these ideas from Indians, but no one knows for sure.

The gymnosophists are assumed to be monks from the Jain religion by some historians. It does have some overlapping concepts with Buddhism though, and by no means does it undermine the arguments made in this video. Great video!

This is fascinating. I always thought Greek philosophy was sorely lacking in non-dualism (except in some pre-Socratic fragments) and compassion, so Buddhism was just what the doctor ordered.

Thomas McEvilley's monumental text, 'The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies' is a great reference to this terrific topic on how the so-called "Western thought" was shaped significantly by Yogic (Hindu) and Buddhist philosophies. The text also has a fascinating collection of photos on syncretic art and sculpture.

In D&D, I play essentially an artorian knight with heavy greek, buddhist, and wuxia themes so it's pretty great to see that buddhist greeks were actually a real thing

oh yes, spear is popularly known as the great weapon for ancient warfare. it's easy to construct and replace when broken, it's pretty effective for long range and formation battles, and it's easy to learn for soldiers

Thank you Ian Hecox for your video essay on Bactrian Greek Buddhist syncretism. Smosh never fails!

Your offerings keep getting better and better. Thank-you!

As a philosophy student, this was mindblowingly interesting. Thank you for your awesome work!

King Menander sounds like an absolutely fascinating historical figure! Right in the harmonious mix of these ancient cultures. I truly have learned something new and wondrous today

You can find Greco Buddhist stuff all over north west Pakistan. I've had the good fortune of being there too, to see Greek and Indic art/culture/religion intersecting in such seemless ways really make you think differently about the modern world and all it's rigid ideas of race and nation states.

Best KZfaq recommendation I've gotten in a long while

This is my favorite channel on KZfaq and has been for some time now. Thank you for your uploads and knowledge

The Buddha sculptures in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have very Greek looking faces.

This was absolutely amazing, mate!

The gymnosophists were most probably wandering sects of "Aghoris" or "Nath Yogis", both are very ancient indian orders that deal with principles of detachment and asceticism. There are many local folklores detailing the interactions that Alexander had with these sects. Most famously, a wandering indian saint who joined Alexander's entourage as per the direction of his guru was called Kalanos, who after spending some time with Alexander, told him that his time on earth has come to an end and asked the king's permission for samadhi or death by self immolation. Although Alexander and his aides begged kalanos to not go forward with this, Alexander finally allowed him to carry out his final wish. By now, Alexander had grown close to Kalanos and viewed him as a teacher and an enlightened soul, on his final night, as if to console Alexander, Kalanos predicted that he'll meet Alexander again after one year from now in the City of Babylon. Legend has it that in his bouts of delirium during his final day, Alexander shouted "Alas, my friend, you came to meet me in Babylon." P.S: Like any folklore or legend, I'm sure that some of the details have been exaggerated and embellished, but it's a cool story nonetheless.

I saw an ancient buddhist statue/carving when visiting my home town in north Pakistan.

I've read many of the place and proper names of that time, but haven't heard them spoken very often. Thank you for helping me out on that, and with the topics you select for videos as well!

Wow, absolutely fascinating subject!

I love you Buddhism videos! Keep up the good work man!

The Romans first encountered my country, Sri Lanka, during the time of Emperor Claudius, and they called it Taprobane. This is recorded even by Pliny the Younger. According to historians at the time, they were intrigued by a Buddhism, a religion which didn’t have any gods at the core. They were also apparently flabbergasted to how a society could function without slaves 😄

I had already read about this topic but this video gives us a much more appealing format plus more updated info on this interesting subject for anyone who likes Indo-European studies - or ancient history, for that matter. Thank you so much, I've given the due thumbs-up and subscribed to your channel.😊

Abigail Thorn mentioned! What a treat it would be if two of my favorite KZfaqrs collab in the future. A boy can only dream. Great video! I've always been fascinated by Greco-Bactrian history.

Great video! I wonder which Buddhist traditions were principally circulating in the Indo-Greek Kingdoms. I know the Sarvāstivādins were later very popular in that region, as were certain Mahāyāna Sūtra circulations - Seishi Karashima discovered some textual evidence from the Prākṛt core of some of the Pure Land Sūtras that the versions we had today came from Gāndharī recensions, and of course there's even surviving fragments of a Gāndharī language manuscript of the 8000 Line Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra. So perhaps some antecedents of those traditions were vibrant there even during the Indo-Greek period? It would be interesting if the Indo-Greek archeological evidence supplies any clues as to _which_ Buddhists were active in converting Greeks.

I was actually telling my partner all about Buddhism and its interaction with greek religion before this came out.

I've just finished reviewing this topic in my buddhist art history class, this stuff was so surprising when I learned about it. The mixing of such iconically greek motifs applied to so distinctively buddhist works in a myriad of sculptures is nothing short of awesome.

An absolutely fascinating video… Thanks for the upload.

on some level, when you first learn about this kind of thing, this kind of phenomenon in history, you are kinda shocked that people would just convert to another religion all because they lived nearby to that religion. converts who genuinely were swayed to the other's belief only account for so many. but then the more you think about it, the more you realize that cultural contact also means marriages. when you see things about "greeks who converted to buddhism", im sure that happened to a degree, but i think a huge driving force of that must have been the children of greeks and buddhists, who synthesized both of their cultural heritages. its easy to forget that lines are almost never rigid. even if these started as two distinct groups of people, given enough time, of course a sizeable mixed-ethnicity population would emerge. and there's something really kinda beautiful about that, you know? cultural exchange often happens by force, with one culture dominating another and outlawing their former practices and making the people follow the conqueror's practices. but i think cultures honestly resist that pressure just as strongly, and preserve whatever they can out of sheer spite and human willpower, and we see that constantly. i think cultural adoption happens so so so so so much more via genuine friendship and marriage and kids who are born to both cultures and grow up without thinking of them as as separate as their ancestors did. you can only force so many people to convert via violence. people are much more willing to adopt a new religion or synthesize two if one is the religion of their father and the other of their mother also it does help that both greek and sanskrit are indo-european lol. these are more like two cousins than two strangers. buddhism isnt the same as hinduism of course, and hinduism is a closer analog and probably direct relative of the greek pantheon and mythology, but nevertheless they do still share a lot of ideas about things.

Slight correction: The original Manta was in Pali not Sanskrit. Thanks 🙂

This is fascinating, and all very new to me! Thank you for covering this topic!

Really interesting clarification of syncretization! It's way more wholesome when you frame it that way.

Ashoka already became Buddhist before the legendary post-war origin story used as propaganda. This is fairly well accepted at this point. And he still did a lot of violence post-this. I know this is a religion video, but the history needs to be accurate.

This is the type of IRL lore I live for. Thank you for consistently making content that is not only informative but also just straight up cool to learn about.

Loved this no nonsense take on the Greco Buddhism. 🙂

This video is truly awesome! Thank you for sharing this joy with everyone

The hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo or Alexandria mentions an ascetic group living in the desert called the Therapeutae. There are scholars who speculate that the word Therapeutae may be a Hellenistic corruption of the word Theravada.

At the Freer Gallery on the National Mall in Washington DC, there was a tablet called “All People’s Praising Buddha” on display for years. It was created during the Hellenistic Period after the conquests of Alexander, featuring 15-20 of carved lines, each line depicting a people from a different culture “praising Buddha” with with each individual displaying their hands gesturing their practice of Buddhism. The tablet started from East to west, the top lines depicting clothing and culture from the farthest known regions to the east. Their dress was more similar to what would appear to come from Korea/Japan, as opposed to the more Qin depiction of Chinese adherents to Buddha featured a few lines down. Line by line, it displayed unique dress and culture. Towards the mid bottom, it displayed clearly Greek, Thracian, Roman (with Togas!), then clearly people from Gaul, and Celtic Iberian! I’d known that Buddhism spread and flourished during the Hellenistic period, but not to the extent of it spreading to Rome, Gaul, and Iberia! It was an incredible work to survive, eyes opening, however, sadly, it hasn’t been on display for awhile…

What a wonderful & illuminating video.

This is very rich in detail-thank you for putting it together! I’m a practicing Chan Buddhist under the Mahayana tradition for over 13 years now. The word “Dharma” (when capitalized) refers to the Buddhas teachings themselves. When (in lowercase “dharma”) it’s referring to the semantic meaning of phenomena (used in ancient India).

Gandhara(Indian) and Bactria(Iranian) are extremely fascinating regions and people. Genuinely sucks that they’re mostly gone, but at least we know the history part 😅

This topic is awesome, and goes way deeper than I thought it would.

YES!!! This is maybe the most sought after content for me, Graeco-Buddhism!! Amazing. (Now to watch actually the video, lol)

This stuff is so fascinating. Thank you for your cool videos

Greek Buddhists...now thats something that was beyond my imagination

I think he spoke to jain monks since they were described as not wearing anything... Since jain monks until today are known for not wearing anything. And since jainism and buddhism have similar philosophys.

Such an amazing insight at Greek-India relationship at that period through Buddhism. Nice work man! Love it.

Excellent, this is the topic which I've always wondered about. Thanks!

@10:30 I believe her (Olga Kubica) name is pronounced as Kubitsa and not Kubika

Awesome video

Okay this is going on my religion playlist great job

I love this period. It just undermines the absolutist claims of later religious movements in neighbouring regions.

Pyrrho's reformed ideology is also similar to the Ajivika school and early Digambara Jainism.

Please explore more of the indo-greek relations and also the syncretism between greek and Hinduism.

Thank you a great educational program in historical subjects, I highly recommend it. It's good to watch

I love how you're talking about this! This period of history is very interesting, and the Greeks that have influenced the Indians and vice versa will always one of my favourite historical tidbits!

You say 6:31 "the concept of shunyata or emptiness meaning that all phenomena are devoid or empty of intrinsic existence" However, according to Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, this is a rather Western translation. 'Sunyata' means 'not having a separate existence' or 'empty of a separate self'. For example. a plant cannot exist without air, water, soil, minerals etc. As such, although we see what looks like a plant with a separate existence, this is not so - the plant is not separate from the air/water etc. This explanation is very practical, not the esoteric idea that the translation 'emptiness' would imply.

It gets even wackier. Bodhidharma was a blue eyed Buddhist from India that went to China. At the Shaolin Monastery he was disappinted in their monks lack of physical strength, similar to Plato's philosophy on physical fitness. He taught them both meditation and pankration(a Greek martial art similar to modern mma). This evolved into what we call Kung Fu. Basically, he was your uncle that watches UFC and likes to fish in silence.

We love underdiscussed cultural movements in history! Thans RFB!

This was absolutely fascinating! Never considered the potential for overlap between these two traditions, thankyou!

the gymnosophists could be any number of the early ascetic groups.. likely several different ones... even if we limit it to sramana groups, jain and ajivika are pretty valid conclusions.

Gandhara! Thank you so much, I've been a fan of this time and area for years!

Great video

🤩 Woao, this is wobderful! Thank you for this video, Andrew! 🤩

Great content as always!! Just when i think i know sooo much about history or religion, this channel always finds a way to humble me

I would agree that the style of the statues is indeed “Greco-Roman”. Not because a Greek had to have built them, but because the STYLE of the statue is indeed influenced by Greek art.

Excellent vedio, very informative!

So interesting. Thank you!

Their's also an idea that Buddhism influenced the Gnostics and early Christianity

Everyone loves a cross-over episode!

Absolutely fascinating