Greece–India relations are the bilateral relations between India and Greece. Greece has an embassy in New Delhi. India has an embassy in Athens. As of 2023, the relation between the two countries is closer than ever and is considered historical and strategic by both parts.
Historical relations Ancient era
For the ancient Greeks, "India" () referred to the polity situated east of Persia and south of the Himalayas (with the exception of Serica). However, during different periods of history, "India" referred to a much wider or much less extensive place.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed. – India The Greeks referred to the ancient Indians as "Indói" (); the Indians referred to the Greeks as "Yonas (Yavanas)" in reference to the Ionians.
The Greeks referred to the ancient Indians as "Indoi" (). The Vedic Aryans referred to the Greeks as "Yavanas",The Influence of Greek Classics on Indian Culture in Ancient Era or Yona or Yonaka,Lal, Shyam Bihari. “YAVANAS IN THE ANCIENT INDIAN INSCRIPTIONS.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 65, 2004, pp. 1115–20. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44144820. Accessed 24 Feb. 2024. in reference to the Ionians. "Yawan" is a Hebrew term that refers to the ancient Greeks. The inscriptions in Pali texts trace the Prakrit equivalent of the Sanskrit word "Yavana" as "Yona." It is suggested that the Indians took the word either from the Persians (who called the Greeks Yaunas) or from some Semitic language.
Art and literature
In Greek Anthology, India and Indians are mentioned on many occasions.Greek Anthology In Sophocles' play Antigone, Creon mentions the gold of India.Sophocles, Antigone, 1039-1040 The satirist Lucian wrote that Indians get drunk very easily with wine and they get worse than any Greek or Roman would be.
The Yavana Ganika (Greek Ganika) was a common sight in India (Gaṇikā in India was similar to a Hetaira in the Greek world). These girls were also trained in the theatrical arts. The Indian theater had adopted some elements of Greek comedy. Kalidasa mention the Yayanis (Greek maidens) in his work.
Hellenistic influence on Indian art is well documented. Gandhara art was heavily influenced by the Greek style. The Art of Mathura is a blend of Indian and Greek art. The Pompeii Yakshii, an Indian sculpture of a Yakshii, was found in the ruins of Roman Pompeii. Bharhut Yavana is a relief, discovered among the reliefs of the railings around the Bharhut Stupa, representing a Greek warrior.
At the Nasik Caves, some of the caves were built by people with Greek heritage. The murals in the Ajanta Caves are painted in such a way which suggest a Greek influence.
Astronomy and astrology Greek astronomical texts were translated from Jyotisha Shastra Sanskrit pertaining of Surya Siddhanta and other works by different Indian scholars. Similar to most books of philosophy, mathematics from Sanskrit literature made its way into Greece by trade.
Philosophy and religion Pyrrhonism The philosopher Pyrrho accompanied Alexander the Great on his Indian campaign. According to Diogenes Laërtius, Pyrrho developed his philosophy, now known as Pyrrhonism, in India when he was there. Diogenes Laërtius wrote that Anaxarchus, Pyrrho's teacher, met and spoke with Indian gymnosophists and magi.Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers, 9.61 In the view of Christopher I. Beckwith, Pyrrho's philosophy was strikingly similar to the Buddhist three marks of existence, suggesting that his teaching was influenced by contact with Buddhism.
Because of the high degree of similarity between Nāgārjuna's philosophy and Pyrrhonism, particularly the surviving works of Sextus Empiricus,Adrian Kuzminski, Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism 2008 Nāgārjuna was likely influenced by Greek Pyrrhonist texts imported to India.Thomas McEvilley, The Shape of Ancient Thought 2002 pp. 499-505
Buddhism Buddhism flourished under the Indo-Greeks, leading to the Greco-Buddhist cultural syncretism. The iconography of Vajrapani is clearly that of the hero Heracles, with varying degrees of hybridization.Herakles/Vajrapani, the companion of Buddha Menander I was one of the patrons of Buddhism; he was also the subject of the Milinda Panha and is mentioned on the Shinkot casket. It has been claimed (by G. R. Sharma) that Menander is mentioned in the Reh Inscription, but other scholars disagree. Many Greek rulers after Menander had the description "Maharajasa dhramikasa" (follower of the Dharma) next to their name on their coinage; this does not necessarily imply that they were Buddhists or that Buddhism was dominant in their kingdom, as symbols of the Greek religion were also on the same coins, but it does indicate that Buddhism played a significant role. Buddhist manuscripts in cursive Greek, dated later than the 2nd century AD, have been found in Afghanistan. Some mention the "Lokesvararaja Buddha" (λωγοασφαροραζοβοδδο).The Greco Indian Kingdoms, Dr. Uday Dokras
Dharmaraksita was a Greek who converted to Buddhism. He was one of the missionaries sent by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka to proselytize Buddhism. Mahadharmaraksita was a Greek Buddhist master who, according to Mahāvaṃsa traveled to Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka together with 30,000 Greek Buddhist monks from Alexandria of the Caucasus. Mahāvaṃsa also mentions how early Buddhists from Sri Lanka went to Alexandria of the Caucasus to learn Buddhism.
The Kandahar Greek Edicts of Ashoka, which are among Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts, were written in the Greek language. In addition, the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription was written in Greek and Aramaic. The emperor Ashoka used the word "eusebeia" (piety) as a Greek translation for the central Buddhist and Hindu concept of "dharma" in the Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription.Hacker, Paul. Dharma in Hinduism, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 2006, 34:479-496
Buddhist gravestones from Ptolemaic Egypt have been found in Alexandria decorated with depictions of the dharma wheel, showing the presence of Buddhists in Hellenistic Egypt.The Greeks in Bactria and India, W.W. Tarn, South Asia Books, Ptolemy II Philadelphus is mentioned in the Edicts of Ashoka as a recipient of the Buddhist proselytism of Ashoka:
Political and military
During the Second Persian invasion of Greece, the Persian army had Indian troops, both infantry and cavalry.Herodotus Book 7: Polymnia, 65Herodotus Book 7: Polymnia, 86Herodotus Book 8: Urania, 113Herodotus Book 9: Calliope, 31
Indo-Greek kingdoms and Greco-Bactrian Kingdoms were founded by the successors of Alexander the Great (Greek conquests in India). Yavana era describes the period with Greek presence in India.
According to Indian sources, Greek troops seem to have assisted Chandragupta Maurya in toppling the Nanda Dynasty and founding the Mauryan Empire.
Later, Seleucus I's army encountered Chandragupta's army. Chandragupta and Seleucus finally concluded an alliance. Seleucus gave him his daughter in marriage, ceded the territories of Arachosia, Herat, Kabul and Makran and received 500 war elephants.
Bindusara, the second Mauryan emperor of India, had diplomatic relations with and very friendly feelings towards the Greeks. He even asked Antiochus I Soter to send him a Greek sophist for his court.
Megasthenes had traveled to India and had several interviews with Chandragupta Maurya, known as Sandracottus to the Greeks.A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology William Smith, Ed., Megasthenes
Ptolemy II Philadelphus is recorded by Pliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra in India, probably to Emperor Ashoka:
"But [India] has been treated of by several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius, who was sent thither by Philadelphus expressly for the purpose: all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources of these nations." Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", Chap. 21Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", Chap. 21
Asoka also appointed some Greeks to high offices of state (Yavanaraja, meaning Greek King or Governor), for example, the Tushaspha. In addition, his edicts mention a Yona (Greek) province on the north-west border of India, most probably the Arachosia.
Polybius wrote about the use of Indian elephants in battles and about the alliance between the Indian king Sophagasenus and Antiochus III the Great.Polybius, Histories
Diodorus, quoting Iambulus, mentioned that the king of Pataliputra had a "great love for the Greeks".The historian Diodorus wrote that the king of Pataliputra, apparently a Mauryan king, "loved the Greeks": "Iambulus, having found his way to a certain village, was then brought by the natives into the presence of the king of Palibothra, a city which was distant a journey of many days from the sea. And since the king loved the Greeks ("Philhellenos") and devoted to learning he considered Iambulus worthy of cordial welcome; and at length, upon receiving a permission of safe-conduct, he passed over first of all into Persia and later arrived safe in Greece" Diodorus ii,60."Diodorus testifies to the great love of the king of Palibothra, apparently a Mauryan king, for the Greeks" Narain, "The Indo-Greeks", p. 362.
The Greek historian Apollodorus and the Roman historian Justin, affirmed that the Bactrian Greeks conquered India. Justin also described Demetrius I as "King of the Indians". Greek and Indian sources indicate the Greeks campaigned as far as Pataliputra until they were forced to retreat following a coup in Bactria in 170 BC.
The Heliodorus pillar is a stone column erected around 110 BCE in present-day central India in Vidisha, by Heliodorus (), a Greek ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas to the court of the Shunga king Bhagabhadra. The site is located about 5 miles from the Buddhist stupa of Sanchi.
The King Phraotes received a Greek education at the court of his father and spoke Greek fluently.
Stephanus of Byzantium called the city Daedala in India an Indo-Cretan city, most probably because it was a settlement of Cretan mercenaries.Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, D216.8
Tamil poems described the Greek soldiers who served as mercenaries for Indian kings as "the valiant-eyed Yavanas, whose bodies were strong and of terrible aspect".
Alfred Charles Auguste Foucher said that some of the troops of Mara in the Gandhara sculptures may represent Greek mercenaries.
The Cilappatikaram mentions Yavana soldiers, who, according to scholars, including Professor Dikshitar, is a reference to the Greek mercenaries employed by the Tamil kings.
18–19th century The settlement of Greek merchants in Bengal began in the early eighteenth century and lasted until the middle of the twentieth century.
The trading house of the Ralli Brothers which operated in Kolkata and Dhaka was the most important Greek business presence in India during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Dimitrios Galanos (, 1760–1833) was the first modern Greek Indologist who lived for 40 years in India and translated many Sanskrit texts into Greek making available the knowledge of the philosophical and literary traditions of India in Greece and the rest of the world.
The church, cemetery and property of the Greek community of Bengal are currently managed by the Charitable Foundation of the Greek Orthodox Church in Kolkata.
DNA analysis from the skeletons of the Roopkund Lake, revealed that 14 skeletons (dated ~1800 CE) had a genetic ancestry tied to Greece.
Modern
Diplomatic relations between Greece and India started in May 1950. India opened its resident embassy in Athens in March 1978. The new Greek Embassy building in New Delhi was inaugurated on 6 February 2001.