Greco-Buddhist monasticism
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The role of Greek Buddhist monks in the development of the Buddhist faith under the patronage of Emperor Ashoka around 260 BCE and subsequently during the reign of the Indo-Greek king
Menander Menander (; grc-gre, Μένανδρος ''Menandros''; c. 342/41 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek dramatist and the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His rec ...
(r. 165/155–130 BCE) is described in the '' Mahavamsa'', an important non-canonical Theravada Buddhist historical text compiled in
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
in the 6th century in the Pali language. The ''Mahavamsa'' or "Great Chronicle" covers the history of Buddhism from the 6th century BCE to the 4th century CE. It was written in the 6th century by the monk Mahanama, brother of King Dhatusena of Anuradhapura, and heavily relied on the '' Dipavamsa'' or "Island Chronicle" written five centuries earlier.


Background

Emperor Ashoka convened the third Buddhist council around 250 BCE at Pāṭaliputra (today's Patna). It was held by the monk Moggaliputta. The Pāli Canon, which consists of the Theravada texts of reference and considered to be directly transmitted from the Buddha, was formalized at that time. It is known as the ''
Tipiṭaka The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During t ...
'' or "Three Baskets" and contains doctrine (
Sutta Pitaka Sutta may refer to: *Sutta Nipata, is a Buddhist scripture *Sutta Piṭaka, The second of the three divisions of the Tripitaka or Pali Canon *Sutta Pazham, is a 2008 Indian Tamil language adult comedy thriller film *Sutta Kadhai, 2013 Indian Tamil ...
), monastic discipline (
Vinaya Pitaka The Vinaya (Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon (''Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (Buddhism), Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinay ...
) and a compendium of philosophy (the Abhidhamma Pitaka). Another objective of the council was to reconcile the different schools of Buddhism and to purify Buddhism, particularly from opportunistic factions which had been attracted by the royal patronage. Finally, the council also reported on the proselytizing efforts of Ashoka, who sought to expand the Buddhist faith throughout Asia and as far as the
Mediterranean Basin In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...
. The contemporary stone inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka also relate this activity in detail. Following these efforts, the Buddhist faith seems to have expanded among Greek communities under the rule of Ashoka, and tens of thousands were converted. About 50 years laters, the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Hellenistic Greece, Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Helleni ...
invaded North India as far as Pāṭaliputra and founded the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Buddhism flourished under the Indo-Greek kings, and it has been suggested that their invasion of India was intended to show their support for the
Maurya Empire The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...
and to protect Buddhism from the religious persecutions of the new
Shunga Empire The Shunga Empire (IAST: ') was an ancient Indian dynasty from Magadha that controlled areas of the most of the northern Indian subcontinent from around 185 to 73 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra Shunga, Pushyamitra, after taking ...
(185–73 BCE). Greek Buddhist monks continued to play a key role during the time of Menander, as far as
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
.


Greek monks under Ashoka

According to Edicts of Ashoka, Greek populations (generally described in ancient times throughout the Classical world as Yona, Yojanas or Yavanas, lit. "
Ionia Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian ...
ns

were under his rule in northwestern India. Far from just being on the receiving end of conversion to Buddhism, the Mahavamsa indicates that Greeks took an active and crucial role in spreading the Buddhist faith as emissaries of Ashoka. These Greek missionaries appear in the list of the "elders" (Pali: "thera") sent far and wide by Emperor Ashoka: :"When the thera Moggaliputta, the illuminator of the religion of the Conqueror, had brought the (third) council to an end (…) he sent forth theras, one here and one there: :* The thera Mahyantika he sent to Kasmira and Gandhara, :* The thera, MaMdeva he sent to Mahisamandala. :* To Vanavasa be sent the thera named Rakkhita, :* and to Aparantaka (he sent) the Yona named Dhammarakkhita; :* to Maharattha (he sent) the thera named Mahadhammarakkhita, :* but the thera Maharakkhita he sent into the country of the Yona. :* He sent the thera Majjhima to the Himalaya country, :* and to Suvambhurni he sent the two theras Sona and Uttara. :* The great thera Mahinda, the theras Utthiya, Uttiya, Sambala and Bhaddasala his disciples, these five theras he sent forth with the charge: `Ye shall found in the lovely island of Lanka the lovely religion of the Conqueror.'" (Mahavamsa, XII)


Dharmaraksita

Dhammarakkhita (Dharmaraksita in Sanskrit), was the Yona (Lit. "Ionian" or "Greek") leader of the mission to Aparantaka. The country of Aparantaka has been identified as the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, and comprises Northern Gujarat, Kathiawar, Kachch, and
Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
, the area where Greek communities were probably concentrated. To this day, a city in Gujarat is named Junagadh, originally "Yonagadh", lit. "City of the Greeks". Dharmarashita is said to have preached the Aggikkhandopama Sutta, so that 37,000 people were converted in Aparantaka and that thousands of men and women entered the Order (Mahavimsa XII). According to the Milinda Panha (I 32-35), the monk Nagasena, who famously dialogued with the Greek king Menander I to convert him to Buddhism, was a student of Dharmaraksita, and he reached enlightenment as an arhat under his guidance.


Mahyantika

The thera (“elder”) Mahyantika was sent to
Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
and
Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...
, also areas with strong Hellenic presence. Although he is not identified as Greek in the Mahavamsa, his name probably means Maha (great) + Antika (Antiochos), a common Greek first name.


Maharaksita

The thera (“elder”) Maharakkhita (Maharaksita in Sanskrit) is said to have been sent to the country of the Greeks. He would probably have been Greek as well due to the nature of his mission, but this is unconfirmed.


Greek monks under Menander

The Indo-Greek king Menander I (reigned 160- 135 BCE) had his capital in Sagala, in today’s northern Punjab, and is described by Strabo as one of the most powerful Greek kings of the period, even greater than Alexander the Great. Menander probably converted to Buddhism, and seems to have encouraged the spread of the faith within the Indian subcontinent, and possibly into Central Asia as well. A documented example of the influence of a Greek Buddhist monk is found in the Mahavamsa again:


Mahadharmaraksita

During the time of Menander I, the Yona (Ionian) Mahadhammarakkhita ( sa, Mahadharmaraksita) is said to have come from “Alasandra” (thought to be Alexandria of the Caucasus, the city founded by Alexander the Great, near today’s Kabul) with 30,000 monks for the foundation ceremony of the Maha Thupa ("Great
stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...
") at Anuradhapura in
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, during the 2nd century BCE. :"From Alasanda the city of the Yonas came the thera Yona Mahadhammarakkhita with thirty thousand bhikkhus." ( Mahavamsa, XXIX) These elements tend to indicate the importance of Buddhism within Greek communities in northwestern India, and the prominent role Greek Buddhist monks played in them, as well as throughout the Indian subcontinent and possibly as far as the Mediterranean, during the last centuries before the current era.


See also

*
Buddhist monasticism Buddhist monasticism is one of the earliest surviving forms of organized monasticism and one of the fundamental institutions of Buddhism. Monks and nuns, called bhikkhu (Pali, Skt. bhikshu) and bhikkhuni (Skt. bhikshuni), are responsible for ...
& Sangha * '' Milinda Panha'' * Edicts of Ashoka * Greco-Buddhism *
Mahadharmaraksita Mahadhammarakkhita (Sanskrit: ''Mahadharmaraksita'', literally "Great protector of the Dharma") was a Greek (in Pali:"Yona", lit. " Ionian") Buddhist master, who lived during the 2nd century BCE during the reign of the Indo-Greek king Menander ...
*
Buddhism in Greece Buddhism has existed in Greece since antiquity. Today, there is a sizable Buddhist community in Greece, comprising immigrants and native Greek converts. Buddhism has influenced Greek literary tradition to some extent, as evident in the works of ...
* History of Buddhism *
Ancient Greece–Ancient India relations For the ancient Greeks, “India" ( el, Ινδία) referred to the polity situated east of Persia and south of the Himalayas (with the exception of Serica). Although, during different periods of history, "India" referred to a much wider or mu ...


References

* “The shape of ancient thought. Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian philosophies”, by Thomas Mc Evilly (Allworth Press, New York 2002) * "The Edicts of King Asoka: An English Rendering" by Ven. S. Dhammika (The Wheel Publication No. 386/387)


External links


Full text of the Mahavamsa






{{DEFAULTSORT:Greco-Buddhist Monasticism Greco-Buddhism Indo-Greek religions and philosophy