For the ancient Greeks, India () referred to the geographical region located east of Persia and south of the Himalayas, excluding Serica. At later points in history, the term also came to refer either to the more extensive Indian subcontinent or to the less extensive Indus Plain.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed. - India

Names

The Greeks referred to the Indo-Aryans as Indoi (. The Vedic Aryans referred to the Greeks as Yavanas,The Influence of Greek Classics on Indian Culture in Ancient Era 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. terms derived from the Ionians. Yawan is a Hebrew term that referred to the ancient Greeks. Inscriptions and Pali texts trace the Prakrit equivalent of the Sanskrit word Yavana as Yona. It has been suggested that the Indians adopted the term either from the Persians—who called the Greeks Yaunas—or from a Semitic language.

Traditional Indian grammarians believed that the word Yavanas was derived from the Sanskrit root Yu ('to mix, to mingle'). The earliest written record of the term Yavana appears in the Astadhyayi, a work on grammar by Pāṇini. When demonstrating the use of the suffix -anuk, he cites Yavanani as one of his examples. In addition, Katyayana explains that when the suffix is added to the word Yavana, it indicates handwriting. Yavanani and Yavanallipyam are examples of scripts used by the Yavana people.

Although originally the word Yavana meant 'Greek', in later centuries it was also applied to Romans, Arabs, and Westerners in general.

Mythology and legends

Dionysus

Megasthenes wrote about the prehistoric arrival of the god Dionysus in India, as did Apollodorus in Bibliotheca.Apollodorus, Library, 3.5.1-2 Polyaenus wrote that, after fighting King Deriades, Dionysus subdued the Indians, allied with them and the Amazons, and took them into his service. He later employed them in his campaign against Bactria.Polyaenus, Strategems, § 1.1.3

The epic poem Dionysiaca by Nonnus recounts Dionysus' expedition to India. Nonnus also wrote about Colletes (), a huge, formidable figure, whose ancestor was said to be the founder of the Indian race.Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 36.196 In addition, in Book 14, Hera assumes the likeness of an Indian in order to speak with and persuade the Indian chief to fight Dionysus' army.Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 14.303-14.317

A hymn to Dionysus in the Greek Anthology is titled Dionysus Indoletes ('Ἰνδολέτης'), which means 'slayer' or 'killer of Indians'.Greek Anthology, 9.524 Other poems in the Greek Anthology also mention Dionysus' campaign against the Indians.Greek Anthology Book 16 Planudean, 183 Alphesiboea ('Ἀλφεσιβοῖα') was an Indian nymph who was loved by Dionysus.A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Alphesiboea

Philostratus reports that Dionysus was called Nysian or Nysean (Ancient Greek: 'Νύσιος') by the Indians.Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 2.2 According to legend, he founded the city of Nysa, sometimes identified with Nagara.St. Jerome, Chronicon, B1329 When Alexander the Great arrived in Nysa, representatives of the city met him and asked him not to capture the city or its land, explaining that Dionysus had founded it and named it after his nurse. He had also named the mountain near the city Meron (Ancient Greek: 'Μηρόν'), meaning 'thigh', because Dionysus grew in the thigh of Zeus.Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, 5.1Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, 5.2Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 6.23.5 In addition, Philostratus mentions that at Delphi, a silver offering disc bore the inscription 'Dionysus the son of Semele and Zeus, from the men of India to the Apollo of Delphi' (Ancient Greek: 'ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΣ Ο ΣΕΜΕΛΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΔΙΟΣ ΑΠΟ ΙΝΔΩΝ ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙ ΔΕΛΦΩΙ').Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 2.9 Furthermore, he reports that the Indians living in Caucasus and along the river Cophen said that Dionysus was an Assyrian visitor who knew the religious rites of the city of Thebes in Greece (according to Ancient Greek legend, Dionysus was born there).

In Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius wrote about the Nysean son of Zeus, who left the tribes of the Indians and came to dwell at Thebes.Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 2.904-906 Indians inhabiting the district between the Indus and the Hydraotes and the continental region extending up to the river Ganges declared that Dionysus was the son of the river Indus and that Dionysus of Thebes was his disciple. Phylarchus wrote that Dionysus was the first to bring two bulls, named Apis and Osiris, from India to Egypt; Plutarch found this theory absurd.Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 29

Heracles

Megasthenes also wrote about the legendary arrival of Heracles in India. Pandaie () was a daughter of Heracles, whom he fathered in India. He gave her the southern part of India, where she reigned as queen.Polyaenus, Strategems, 1.3.4 According to legend, the Indian tribe of Pandae was descended from her, and for this reason, they were the only tribe in India to have the custom of female sovereigns.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Pandae An Indian tribe called the Sourasenoi worshipped Heracles at the time of Alexander the Great. Quintus Curtius Rufus mentions Indian soldiers carrying a banner with the name 'Herakles' during Alexander's push eastwards.Jones, T. T., (1964). The Genesis of Military River Operations: Alexander the Great at the Hydaspes River. The Military Engineer, vol. 56, issue 374, pp. 424–6. ISSN 0026-3982

Contact, records, and influence between the two civilizations

Coinage

Between about 200 BC and the very beginning of the first millennium AD, the Indo-Greek Kingdom covered an area encompassing modern-day Pakistan, parts of Afghanistan and of north-west India. The city of Kapisi appeared on Indo-Greek coins.See: Notes on Indian coins and Seals, Part IV, E. J. Rapson in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, 1905, p 784, (Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland).

The Kushan Empire, which succeeded the Indo-Greek Kingdom and lasted nearly four hundred years, used the Greek alphabet and Greek legends on their coins. The Kushans also adopted other elements of Greek culture. Art themes derived from Greek mythology were common initially, but later Buddhist imagery dominated.Kushan Empire (ca. Second Century B.C.–Third Century A.D.)-The Metropolitan Museum of Art In broadly the same era and south of the Kushan Empire, the Western Kshatrapas established coinage derived from Indo-Greek coinage. The obverse of the coins consists of the profile of the ruler with a legend in Greek, while the reverse represents a thunderbolt and an arrow, with Brahmi and Kharoshthi legends. In the first century CE, Gondophares, king of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom, minted coins with the Greek title of autokrator.

Inscriptions

Greeks are mentioned in the Yavanarajya inscription in northern India, and on the Rukhuna reliquary. In a Kharoshthi inscription found in the Swat area of Gandhara, which dates to the 1st century BC, there is a dedication from the Greek meridarch Theodorus. The Rabatak inscription uses Greek script to write a language described as Arya. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kanishka.

Art and literature

In the 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 with wine very easily and worse than any Greek or Roman would be.

Kalidasa mentions the Yayanis (Greek maidens) in his work and 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.

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 a way which suggests a Greek influence.

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. 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.

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 and Prakrit languages. 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:

Peripateticism

Aristotle's knowledge of India came essentially from Scylax and Ctesias. He quoted Scylax to refer to Indian politics and mentions seven Indian animals, by clearly drawing on Ctesias.Strabo and India