Greek and Indian Languages
Although Greek knowledge of India (initially mediated through Persia) dates back to the 6th-5th c. BCE, it was only with Alexander the Great’s Indian campaign (ca 330 BCE) that the Greeks came into direct contact with the Indian world, founding colonies and settling in Indian regions (especially in Bactria) as soldiers, settlers, diplomats, traders, and even rulers of kingdoms. The conspicuous presence of Greeks in India is attested by some of the edicts of Aśoka (3rd c. BCE). The main Greek sources on India include: historical and medical works, Attic tragedy, reports of Alexander’s officers and companions, and sources depicting the Indian philosophers called Gymnosophists. As an effect of language contact between Greeks and Indians, Ancient Greek incorporates a variety of Indian loanwords. Among them are words referring to “exotic” products (péperi ‘pepper’, oríndēs / óruza ‘rice’, sákkhari(s) / sákkharon / sákkhar ‘sugar’, etc.) and words from the sphere of philosophy and religion (e.g. brakhmânes and sarmânai).
Although Greek knowledge of India (initially mediated through Persia) dates back to the 6th-5th c. BCE, it was only with Alexander the Great’s Indian campaign (ca 330 BCE) that the Greeks came into direct contact with the Indian world, founding colonies and settling in Indian regions (especially in Bactria) as soldiers, settlers, diplomats, traders, and even rulers of kingdoms. The conspicuous presence of Greeks in India is attested by some of the edicts of Aśoka (3rd c. BCE). The main Greek sources on India include: historical and medical works, Attic tragedy, reports of Alexander’s officers and companions, and sources depicting the Indian philosophers called Gymnosophists. As an effect of language contact between Greeks and Indians, Ancient Greek incorporates a variety of Indian loanwords. Among them are words referring to “exotic” products (péperi ‘pepper’, oríndēs / óruza ‘rice’, sákkhari(s) / sákkharon / sákkhar ‘sugar’, etc.) and words from the sphere of philosophy and religion (e.g. brakhmânes and sarmânai).
1. Historical Background
The Greek world became aware of India beginning in the mid-first millennium BCE, when the Persian conquest of the Indus valley (by Darius I, ca 500 BCE) brought about commercial and cultural exchanges between the Aegean and the Indian world. Thus, prior to the time of Alexander, Greek knowledge of “India” (of course, what the Greeks call India does not necessarily coincide with what is now called India) was acquired largely by way of Persia. Only Alexander the Great’s Indian campaign (ca 330 BCE) brought the Greeks into direct contact with the Indian world; cities were founded and Macedonian colonies were established in those regions. Reports and accounts were written by Alexander’s companions, such as Ptolemy, which were used as sources for later historians.A considerable number of Greeks lived in the Indian subcontinent, from the reign of Alexander the Great until at least the 1st c. BCE, as soldiers, settlers, diplomats, traders, and even rulers of kingdoms. Bactria was the region with the greatest density of Greek settlers. After the advent of the Indian Maurya dynasty (mentioned in the lexicon of Hesychius: mōrieîs: hoi tôn Indôn basileîs ‘Maurya: the Indian kings’), the Greeks came into conflict with the king Chandragupta (Sandrákottos or Sandrókottos in Greek sources), who conquered and unified almost all of the Indian subcontinent. The Diadoch Seleucus I Nicator had to sign a treaty that imposed the withdrawal of the Greeks from many Indian and Iranian provinces and from the Greek cities founded there.The Maurya empire reached its peak at the time of Aśoka (ca 304–232 BCE). After his conversion to Buddhism, he engaged in the diffusion of Buddhist principles throughout his empire. His edicts provide epigraphic evidence of this engagement, and of the fact that it was also specifically addressed to Greeks (Yona in Middle Indian; see discussion in section 3). In the Rock Edict 13 Aśoka underlines the scarce involvement of the Greeks in religion: “There is no country, except among the Greeks, where these two groups, Brahmans and ascetics, are not found, and there is no country where people are not devoted to one or another religion”. Two edicts have been discovered in Afghanistan with Greek inscriptions; one of these is a bilingual edict in Greek and Aramaic, found at Shar-i-kuna (near Kandahar), advocating the adoption of “piety” (Greek eusébeia, rendering Indian dharma) in the Greek community.After the death of Aśoka the Maurya kingdom was weakened, and the Greeks who had settled in the Northwest tried to recover the territories lost during the reign of Chandragupta; Greek kingdoms were established in India. Demetrius II (ca 200 BCE), called aníkētos ‘invincible’, had coins minted with the image of an elephant’s trunk, the symbol of his dominion over India: some coins are bilingual, with inscriptions in Greek and Prakrit. Substantial Greek communities settled in the territories controlled by the Indo-Greek kings, in some cases becoming proper colonies with a stable governments and autonomous laws, and with constitutions that took their inspiration from those of the Greek poleîs.The most famous Indo-Greek king is Menander. Under his reign the symbiosis between the Greek and Indian cultures reached its peak: Menander’s sympathies for Buddhism coexisted with the use of the image of the Greek goddess Athena on bilingual (Greek and Prakrit) coins. Menander is repeatedly mentioned in the Buddhist tradition; his supposed conversion to Buddhism is the object of a vast work in Pāli, the Milindapañha (‘Menander’s questions’). Menander’s death (ca 130 BCE) marks the beginning of the decline of the Indo-Greek kingdoms.
The Greek world became aware of India beginning in the mid-first millennium BCE, when the Persian conquest of the Indus valley (by Darius I, ca 500 BCE) brought about commercial and cultural exchanges between the Aegean and the Indian world. Thus, prior to the time of Alexander, Greek knowledge of “India” (of course, what the Greeks call India does not necessarily coincide with what is now called India) was acquired largely by way of Persia. Only Alexander the Great’s Indian campaign (ca 330 BCE) brought the Greeks into direct contact with the Indian world; cities were founded and Macedonian colonies were established in those regions. Reports and accounts were written by Alexander’s companions, such as Ptolemy, which were used as sources for later historians.
A considerable number of Greeks lived in the Indian subcontinent, from the reign of Alexander the Great until at least the 1st c. BCE, as soldiers, settlers, diplomats, traders, and even rulers of kingdoms. Bactria was the region with the greatest density of Greek settlers. After the advent of the Indian Maurya dynasty (mentioned in the lexicon of Hesychius: mōrieîs: hoi tôn Indôn basileîs ‘Maurya: the Indian kings’), the Greeks came into conflict with the king Chandragupta (Sandrákottos or Sandrókottos in Greek sources), who conquered and unified almost all of the Indian subcontinent. The Diadoch Seleucus I Nicator had to sign a treaty that imposed the withdrawal of the Greeks from many Indian and Iranian provinces and from the Greek cities founded there.
The Maurya empire reached its peak at the time of Aśoka (ca 304–232 BCE). After his conversion to Buddhism, he engaged in the diffusion of Buddhist principles throughout his empire. His edicts provide epigraphic evidence of this engagement, and of the fact that it was also specifically addressed to Greeks (Yona in Middle Indian; see discussion in section 3). In the Rock Edict 13 Aśoka underlines the scarce involvement of the Greeks in religion: “There is no country, except among the Greeks, where these two groups, Brahmans and ascetics, are not found, and there is no country where people are not devoted to one or another religion”. Two edicts have been discovered in Afghanistan with Greek inscriptions; one of these is a bilingual edict in Greek and Aramaic, found at Shar-i-kuna (near Kandahar), advocating the adoption of “piety” (Greek eusébeia, rendering Indian dharma) in the Greek community.
After the death of Aśoka the Maurya kingdom was weakened, and the Greeks who had settled in the Northwest tried to recover the territories lost during the reign of Chandragupta; Greek kingdoms were established in India. Demetrius II (ca 200 BCE), called aníkētos ‘invincible’, had coins minted with the image of an elephant’s trunk, the symbol of his dominion over India: some coins are bilingual, with inscriptions in Greek and Prakrit. Substantial Greek communities settled in the territories controlled by the Indo-Greek kings, in some cases becoming proper colonies with a stable governments and autonomous laws, and with constitutions that took their inspiration from those of the Greek poleîs.
The most famous Indo-Greek king is Menander. Under his reign the symbiosis between the Greek and Indian cultures reached its peak: Menander’s sympathies for Buddhism coexisted with the use of the image of the Greek goddess Athena on bilingual (Greek and Prakrit) coins. Menander is repeatedly mentioned in the Buddhist tradition; his supposed conversion to Buddhism is the object of a vast work in Pāli, the Milindapañha (‘Menander’s questions’). Menander’s death (ca 130 BCE) marks the beginning of the decline of the Indo-Greek kingdoms.
2. Ancient Greek Sources on India
Herodotus’ Histories represent the main extant source of Greek knowledge of India before Alexander’s expedition. The works of other authors dealing with India, such as Scylax, Hecataeus and Ctesias have been mostly lost, surviving only in fragments or in later quotations. Another historian, Xenophon, also refers to India several times. Occasional references to India also appear in the medical literature: pepper is mentioned as the “Indian medicine” (Indikón phármakon) in the Corpus Hippocraticum. Some knowledge of Indian medicine may have reached Greece through Iran; Ctesias, the author of the Indiká, had been employed as a physician at the court of Artaxerxes II. The work of Herodotus provides a great variety of data concerning the Indians (hoi Indoí), the river Indus (Indós) and the Indian region (Indikḗ khṓrē): see 3.98-106; 7.65, 70, and 86. These earlier accounts, generally not based on direct testimony, are a mixture of ethnological data and mythical narratives. Herodotus emphasizes the country’s wealth in gold, which is said to be produced in the Indian desert by fierce ants larger than foxes; Indian birds and beasts he regards as much bigger than those existing elsewhere, except for horses; Indian clothes are said to be made of wool growing on trees (i.e., cotton).References to India and to alleged Indian customs also occur incidentally in other kinds of texts, such as Attic tragedy. Thus, in the Suppliants, Aeschylus reports the habit of Indian nomad women (Indás nomádas) of riding on camels as steeds (284f.); this is the first passage in extant Greek literature where camels are mentioned. Sophocles’ Antigone (1038ff.) makes reference to Indian gold.The reports of Alexander’s officers and companions such as Aristobulus, Onesicratus and Nearchus, and those of Megasthenes (ambassador of Seleucus to Chandragupta), based on direct experience, are known through fragments and through extracts in the works of Strabo, Arrian and Pliny.Among the aspects of Indian culture that most fascinated Greek authors were those related to philosophy and religion: Indian philosophers, Brahmans, monks and ascetics are repeatedly mentioned by Greek authors, and legends arose about meetings between Alexander or his men and Indian sages. One of the common names for Indian sages is Gymnosophists (gumnosophistaí) ‘naked sophists’, first mentioned in a fragment of the philosopher Democritus (Diels & Kranz 1.15); the nakedness of these sages was emphasized by Alexander’s companions. Strabo reports that Gymnosophists were religious people among the Indians (16, 1), and also divides Indian philosophers into brakhmânes and sarmânes (15.1.59-60), following the accounts of Megasthenes. A famous tale is related about a gymnosophist named Kalanos (actually, the designation is taken from the Prakrit greeting formula Kallaṇam), who, according to Strabo, immolated himself in front of Alexander.In the Maurya period, the Greeks who were integrated into the Maurya empire undoubtedly gained a deeper knowledge of Indian culture; this deeper understanding does not, however, seem to have reached Greece itself.
Herodotus’ Histories represent the main extant source of Greek knowledge of India before Alexander’s expedition. The works of other authors dealing with India, such as Scylax, Hecataeus and Ctesias have been mostly lost, surviving only in fragments or in later quotations. Another historian, Xenophon, also refers to India several times. Occasional references to India also appear in the medical literature: pepper is mentioned as the “Indian medicine” (Indikón phármakon) in the Corpus Hippocraticum. Some knowledge of Indian medicine may have reached Greece through Iran; Ctesias, the author of the Indiká, had been employed as a physician at the court of Artaxerxes II. The work of Herodotus provides a great variety of data concerning the Indians (hoi Indoí), the river Indus (Indós) and the Indian region (Indikḗ khṓrē): see 3.98-106; 7.65, 70, and 86. These earlier accounts, generally not based on direct testimony, are a mixture of ethnological data and mythical narratives. Herodotus emphasizes the country’s wealth in gold, which is said to be produced in the Indian desert by fierce ants larger than foxes; Indian birds and beasts he regards as much bigger than those existing elsewhere, except for horses; Indian clothes are said to be made of wool growing on trees (i.e., cotton).
References to India and to alleged Indian customs also occur incidentally in other kinds of texts, such as Attic tragedy. Thus, in the Suppliants, Aeschylus reports the habit of Indian nomad women (Indás nomádas) of riding on camels as steeds (284f.); this is the first passage in extant Greek literature where camels are mentioned. Sophocles’ Antigone (1038ff.) makes reference to Indian gold.
The reports of Alexander’s officers and companions such as Aristobulus, Onesicratus and Nearchus, and those of Megasthenes (ambassador of Seleucus to Chandragupta), based on direct experience, are known through fragments and through extracts in the works of Strabo, Arrian and Pliny.
Among the aspects of Indian culture that most fascinated Greek authors were those related to philosophy and religion: Indian philosophers, Brahmans, monks and ascetics are repeatedly mentioned by Greek authors, and legends arose about meetings between Alexander or his men and Indian sages. One of the common names for Indian sages is Gymnosophists (gumnosophistaí) ‘naked sophists’, first mentioned in a fragment of the philosopher Democritus (Diels & Kranz 1.15); the nakedness of these sages was emphasized by Alexander’s companions. Strabo reports that Gymnosophists were religious people among the Indians (16, 1), and also divides Indian philosophers into brakhmânes and sarmânes (15.1.59-60), following the accounts of Megasthenes. A famous tale is related about a gymnosophist named Kalanos (actually, the designation is taken from the Prakrit greeting formula Kallaṇam), who, according to Strabo, immolated himself in front of Alexander.
In the Maurya period, the Greeks who were integrated into the Maurya empire undoubtedly gained a deeper knowledge of Indian culture; this deeper understanding does not, however, seem to have reached Greece itself.
3. Linguistic Aspects
The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoí, the people of the Indós. The history of the latter word reflects the course followed by the information on its way to Greece: the Greek name of the river goes back ultimately to Indian sindhu- ‘river’ (also designating, more specifically, the Indus itself), through a Persian intermediary hindu-. In the psilotic dialect of the Ionians of Asia Minor, subject to Persian rule from 546 BC, the initial aspiration was lost (Psilosis), and the formIndós was subsequently adopted by the rest of the Greeks.That Ionians played a central role in Greek-Indian (and Greek-Iranian) contacts is confirmed by the Indian name for the Greeks: the Sanskrit form yavana (first attested in Pāṇini, 4th-3rd c. BCE, who speaks of the yavanānī lipi, ‘Greek writing’) and the Middle Indian form yonaultimately go back to Gk. iáones <*iáwones ‘Ionians’ (perhaps through the intermediary of Old Persianyauna). The name of the Ionians has become the name of Greeks in general also in other eastern languages such as Armenian and Hebrew, as a result of both the cultural prestige of the Ionians, and the fact that the Ionian colonies in Asia Minor were the most easily accessible for the populations of the East.As an effect of language contact between Greeks and Indians, Ancient Greek incorporated a variety of Indian loanwords, which reproduce Old Indian or Middle Indian forms. Some ancient Indian loanwords in Greek result from the trade of “exotic” products, and include “Wanderwörter” which have spread, through the intermediary of Latin, into modern Western languages. Such is the case for the Greek word for pepper, péperi, first attested in the Hippocratic corpus; in Mul. II 205, reference is made to both India and Persia: tò indikòn, hò kaléousin hoi Pérsai péperi ‘the Indian (medicine), which the Persians call pepper’. The reference to Persia is consistent with the antiquity of this borrowing, datable to the 5th c. BCE, i.e., to a time when Greek knowledge of India was generally mediated through Persia. A Persian intermediary could also account for the presence of /r/ in the Greek form, contrasting with /l/ in Old Indian pippalī-. An alternative hypothesis is that péperi descends from a dialectal Western Indian form with /r/ (also continued in Prakrit pipparī).More complex is the history of the words oríndēs and óruza ‘rice’. The former, attested in a fragment of Sophocles (609 Radt), seems to represent one of the most ancient references to rice in the West. The usual Greek word for rice is óruza, related to Iranian *ṷrinǰi- and Old Indianvrīhí-; óruza, probably derived from a Middle-Iranian form, is fully integrated in the Greek lexicon. Borrowed into Latin as oriza, it is the source of most Western designations for rice. Another loanword which has enjoyed a widespread distribution is the word for sugar, attested in Greek as sákkhari(s) / sákkharon / sákkhar, from the Middle Indian (Pali) form sakkharā (cf. Old Indian śárkharā-). Borrowed from Greek into Latin as saccharon, it survives in most Western designations for sugar. Other material loanwords include kárpasos, the name of a cloth (cotton or flax), from Old Indian karpāsa (the Greek form is first attested in the 3rd c. BCE, but cotton had been known to Greeks since the 5th century) and sándalon / sántalon ‘sandalwood’ (> Lat.sandalum / santalum), which can be traced back to Old Indian candana-.In the sphere of philosophy and religion, we have words such as brakhmânes and sarmânai, which are not actually integrated in the Greek lexicon, but are used with reference to specific Indian realities. The plural brakhmânes is from Old Indian brahmānaḥ (nom. pl.). The borrowing is likely to have taken place in the late 4th c. BCE, i.e, in the same period when the Greeks became acquainted with the Gymnosophists; its first datable occurrences are in Strabo and Diodorus. A variant nom. pl. bramenai occurs in the Greek edicts of Aśoka. A nom. pl. formbrakhmánai occurs in a fragment of Alexander Polyhistor (in Clem. Al. Strom. 3.7), who reports that the brakhmánai do not eat animals and do not drink wine. In Greek sources, Brahmans sometimes appear as a tribe, militarily engaged against Alexander. The Greek form is variously rendered in Latin as Bragmani, Bracmani, Bragmanae, Brachmanae, Brachmani etc.Sarmânai, samanaîoi and sarmânes (a form recovered through emendation of garmânes in Strabo’s text) are various forms referring to a class of wandering monks, frequently mentioned together with the brahmans. The term is related to Old Indian śramaṇá- ‘ascetic, buddhist monk’; in the Aśoka edicts we have the forms ś(r)amaṇa- and samaṇa.Among the borrowings from Prakrit into Greek is a word which continues to be used in various forms in modern Western languages: bērúllion / bḗrullos ‘gem of sea-green color’, ‘beryl’, from Prakrit verulia. This word, reproduced in Latin as beryllus, survives in the name of a chemical element, beryllium, as well as in the German word for “glasses”, Brille, and in certain verbs of the Romance languages such as Italianbrillare and Frenchbriller ‘to shine’.
The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoí, the people of the Indós. The history of the latter word reflects the course followed by the information on its way to Greece: the Greek name of the river goes back ultimately to Indian sindhu- ‘river’ (also designating, more specifically, the Indus itself), through a Persian intermediary hindu-. In the psilotic dialect of the Ionians of Asia Minor, subject to Persian rule from 546 BC, the initial aspiration was lost (Psilosis), and the formIndós was subsequently adopted by the rest of the Greeks.
That Ionians played a central role in Greek-Indian (and Greek-Iranian) contacts is confirmed by the Indian name for the Greeks: the Sanskrit form yavana (first attested in Pāṇini, 4th-3rd c. BCE, who speaks of the yavanānī lipi, ‘Greek writing’) and the Middle Indian form yonaultimately go back to Gk. iáones <*iáwones ‘Ionians’ (perhaps through the intermediary of Old Persianyauna). The name of the Ionians has become the name of Greeks in general also in other eastern languages such as Armenian and Hebrew, as a result of both the cultural prestige of the Ionians, and the fact that the Ionian colonies in Asia Minor were the most easily accessible for the populations of the East.
As an effect of language contact between Greeks and Indians, Ancient Greek incorporated a variety of Indian loanwords, which reproduce Old Indian or Middle Indian forms. Some ancient Indian loanwords in Greek result from the trade of “exotic” products, and include “Wanderwörter” which have spread, through the intermediary of Latin, into modern Western languages. Such is the case for the Greek word for pepper, péperi, first attested in the Hippocratic corpus; in Mul. II 205, reference is made to both India and Persia: tò indikòn, hò kaléousin hoi Pérsai péperi ‘the Indian (medicine), which the Persians call pepper’. The reference to Persia is consistent with the antiquity of this borrowing, datable to the 5th c. BCE, i.e., to a time when Greek knowledge of India was generally mediated through Persia. A Persian intermediary could also account for the presence of /r/ in the Greek form, contrasting with /l/ in Old Indian pippalī-. An alternative hypothesis is that péperi descends from a dialectal Western Indian form with /r/ (also continued in Prakrit pipparī).
More complex is the history of the words oríndēs and óruza ‘rice’. The former, attested in a fragment of Sophocles (609 Radt), seems to represent one of the most ancient references to rice in the West. The usual Greek word for rice is óruza, related to Iranian *ṷrinǰi- and Old Indianvrīhí-; óruza, probably derived from a Middle-Iranian form, is fully integrated in the Greek lexicon. Borrowed into Latin as oriza, it is the source of most Western designations for rice. Another loanword which has enjoyed a widespread distribution is the word for sugar, attested in Greek as sákkhari(s) / sákkharon / sákkhar, from the Middle Indian (Pali) form sakkharā (cf. Old Indian śárkharā-). Borrowed from Greek into Latin as saccharon, it survives in most Western designations for sugar. Other material loanwords include kárpasos, the name of a cloth (cotton or flax), from Old Indian karpāsa (the Greek form is first attested in the 3rd c. BCE, but cotton had been known to Greeks since the 5th century) and sándalon / sántalon ‘sandalwood’ (> Lat.sandalum / santalum), which can be traced back to Old Indian candana-.
In the sphere of philosophy and religion, we have words such as brakhmânes and sarmânai, which are not actually integrated in the Greek lexicon, but are used with reference to specific Indian realities. The plural brakhmânes is from Old Indian brahmānaḥ (nom. pl.). The borrowing is likely to have taken place in the late 4th c. BCE, i.e, in the same period when the Greeks became acquainted with the Gymnosophists; its first datable occurrences are in Strabo and Diodorus. A variant nom. pl. bramenai occurs in the Greek edicts of Aśoka. A nom. pl. formbrakhmánai occurs in a fragment of Alexander Polyhistor (in Clem. Al. Strom. 3.7), who reports that the brakhmánai do not eat animals and do not drink wine. In Greek sources, Brahmans sometimes appear as a tribe, militarily engaged against Alexander. The Greek form is variously rendered in Latin as Bragmani, Bracmani, Bragmanae, Brachmanae, Brachmani etc.
Sarmânai, samanaîoi and sarmânes (a form recovered through emendation of garmânes in Strabo’s text) are various forms referring to a class of wandering monks, frequently mentioned together with the brahmans. The term is related to Old Indian śramaṇá- ‘ascetic, buddhist monk’; in the Aśoka edicts we have the forms ś(r)amaṇa- and samaṇa.
Among the borrowings from Prakrit into Greek is a word which continues to be used in various forms in modern Western languages: bērúllion / bḗrullos ‘gem of sea-green color’, ‘beryl’, from Prakrit verulia. This word, reproduced in Latin as beryllus, survives in the name of a chemical element, beryllium, as well as in the German word for “glasses”, Brille, and in certain verbs of the Romance languages such as Italianbrillare and Frenchbriller ‘to shine’.
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