Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 01

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 129

A Comparative Historiography of Vedic and Pre Socratic Thought / 91
But by and large comparative historiography of these two cultures still swirled betweens two extremes. The racist imperialist view referred to as "Colonial Ideology" and the second the extreme reaction to this view by Indian Scholars.
A novel and fresh approach to this problem has been dealt with by Thomas Mc Evilly recently. In this work The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophy.
Although he has traced meticulously the meeting ground of the two cultures as the near eastern countries - Persia and Asia Minor, he concludes that both the cultures were complex and multidirectional, their relationship forms the foundational level of comparative philosophy. The early schools of Greek and Indian Philosophy seem to have had the same contents though presented in different styles and combinations like the different branches of a single tradition."
I would like to point out the new understanding of the parallels between Greek and Indian thought presented by this very latest trend in historiography as well as its criticism.
The first point of this appraisal is that this view has tried to correct the over rationalistic interpretation of Greek thought by earlier writers. The earlier writers glorified the Greek humanism and neglected the mystical side of Greek thought. Humanism reaffirms the value human life in its sensuous beauty and intellectual power. Secularism and rationalism were as much a part of human life as its celebration of the joy of life. In this sense humanism was seen as the root of modern western thought. This view was opposed to the tendencies of religion that stress the importance of human life after death and which do not regard the enjoyment of human life as the supreme goal.
Hence the Greek character was defined as rational humanism and as said before it was believed by scholars like Marlow that irrational and mystical ideas in Greece came from India.
Secondly the mystical ideas of Greece were neglected by Scholars.
Mc Evilly has brought out the similarities in the mystical ideas of the Vedas and Upanisads and early Greek thought.
One such example is the ideal of reincarnation. The three dominant features of reincarnation are(a) The process of reincarnation (sansära and its parallel meta psychosis in Greek)
(b) Moral and cognitive law governing this process (karma and its parallel Katharsis) (c) Goal of escape from this process (moksha and its parallel basis).
This view of incarnation is very different from the traditional tribal view which is in the context of animistic relationship or a totemic context. The Chandogya Upanisad in fifth Prapathak (V.10.7) says that those whose conduct is good will quickly attain good birth but those whose conduct is evil would attain evil birth. Later Plato had also said that the process of catharsis shifts the character from good to better incarnation. The path of purification for the same included ascetic practices as well as mystical knowledge of underlying unity behind all the phenomenon. This is common to the Upanisads as well as the Orphics.
Mc Evilly says that reincarnation entered Greece in the Seventh or Sixth Century B.C. There was a soup of after life beliefs. These elements swirled around Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and