Discovery Of India By Greeks

SR No.: 269274
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong
Total Pages: 28
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 19

THE DISCOVERY OF INDIA BY THE GREEKS
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W.W. Tarn in his famous book The Greeks in Bactria and India (Cambridge, 1938, 21951). Not all of Tarn's ideas have been accepted by later scholars. Tarn attributed great conquests to the Greek king Demetrios and stated that his name is mentioned in Indian texts under different forms: Dattāmitra in the Mahābhārata 49, Dharmamita in the Yugapurāņa 50. Whereas Alexander's expedition seems to have left practically no traces in Indian literature 51, Demetrios would have been better remembered. However, E.M. Johnston and A.K. Narain in his excellent book on The Indo-Greeks have shown that there is not enough evidence to prove that Demetrios is mentioned in Indian texts 52. The history of the Indo-Greek kingdoms has been reconstructed by Narain mainly with the help of numismatic evidence, for the information given by classical and Indian texts is very scarce and difficult to interpret. His work is the latest comprehensive study of this interesting chapter of Indian history which is of such great importance for the mutual relations of Indian and Greek civilizations. About the middle of the first century B.C. the last Indo-Greek king, Hermaeus, died and the Greeks were supplanted by the Scythians, the Sakas of the Indian sources. Their ruling families merged with the mingled racial stocks of North-West India, until all traces of them were lost 53.
From the end of the 6th century when Greeks were deported to Bactria until the fall of the last independent Greek kingdom in the middle of the first century B.C., Indians and Greeks were in close contact with
49. Lamotte (op.cit., p. 412) follows Tarn without taking into account Johnston's critical remarks (cf. note 52) and Tarn's reaction (cf. JRAS, 1940, p. 179). See also Tarn, op.cit., sec. ed., p. 526: 'It must now be taken that the Mahābhārata does not mention Demetrias, Demetrius, or Apollodotus.'
50. Tarn. op.cit., pp. 118, 178, 378, 454; Lamotte, op.cit., p. 411.
51. Sylvain Lévi, Alexandre et Alexandrie dans les documents indiens, Mémorial Sylvain Levi, 1937, pp. 413-423; E, Lamotte, Alexandre et le Bouddhisme, BEFEO, XLIV, 1947– 1950, pp. 147-162.
52. E.M. Johnston, Demetrias in Sind?, JRAS, 1939, pp. 217–240; Narain, op.cit., pp. 39-45; Tarn, op.cit., second edition pp. 526 and 536.
53. Cf. Narain, op.cit., p. 164.