Greco-Buddhism: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Greco-Buddhism (or Graeco-Buddhism) is the result of a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia, in an area corresponding to contemporary Afghanistan and Pakistan. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic (and, possibly, conceptual) development of Mahayana Buddhism in Central Asia, before it was adopted by China, Korea and Japan from the 5th century AD.

History

The interraction between Hellenism and Buddhism started when Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor and Central Asia from 334 BC, going as far as the Indus, thus establishing direct contact with India, the birthplace of Buddhism.

Alexander founded several cities in his new territories in the areas of the Oxus and Bactria, and Greek settlements further extended to the Khyber Pass, Gandhara (see Taxila) and the Punjab. These regions correspond to a unique geographical passage way, between the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains, through which most of the interraction between India and central Asia took place, generating intense cultural exchange and trade.

Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, his generals founded their own kingdoms in Asia Minor and Central Asia. General Seleucus set up the Seleucid Kingdom which extended as far as India. Later, the Eastern part of the Seleucid Kingdom broke away to form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (3rd.c.-2nd.c. BC), followed by the Indo-Greek Kingdom (2nd century BC-1st century AD), and later still by the Kushan Empire (1st - 3rd century AD).

The interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures operated over several centuries until it ended in the 5th century AD with the invasions of the White Huns, and later the expansion of Islam.

See also: Pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan.

Numerous Greco-Buddhist works of art display the intermixing of Greek and Buddhist influences, around such creation centers as Gandhara. The subject matter of Gandharan art was definitely Buddhist, while most motifs were of western Asiatic or Hellenistic origin.

The anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha.

Although there is still some debate, the first anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha himself are often considered a result of the Greco-Buddhist interraction. Before this innovation, the Buddha was only represented through his symbols (an empty throne, the Bodhi tree, the Buddha's footprints, the prayer wheel).

"As a result of their cult of form, the Greeks were the first to attempt a sculptural representation of the Buddha" (Linssen, "Zen Living").

The Classical influence may have included "the general idea of representing the man-god in this purely human form, which of course was well familiar in the west" (Boardman, "The diffusion of Classical art in Antiquity")

Many of the stylislic elements in the representations of the Buddha point to Greek influence: the Greco-Roman toga-like wavy robe covering both shoulders, the contrapposto stance of the upright figures (see: 1st-2nd century Gandhara standing Buddhas [1] and [2]), the stylicized Mediterranean curly hair and top-knot apparently derived from the style of the Belvedere Apollo (330 BC), and the measured quality of the faces, all rendered with strong artistic realism (see: Greek art).

"One of the distinguishing features of the Gandharan school of art that emerged in north-west India is that it has been clearly influenced by the naturalism of the Classical Greek style. Thus, while these images still convey the inner peace that results from putting the Buddha's doctrine into practice, they also give us an impression of people who walked and talked, etc. and slept much as we do. I feel this is very important. These figures are inspiring because they do not only depict the goal, but also the sense that people like us can achieve it if we try" (The Dalai-Lama, foreword to "Echoes of Alexander the Great", 12th December 2000).

During the following centuries, this anthromorphical representation of the Buddha seems to have evolved to incorporate more Indian and Asian elements.

A Hellenized Buddhist pantheon.

Several other Buddhist deities may have been influenced by Greek gods. For example, the image and characteristics of Hercules were adopted to represent Vajrapani, the Bodhisattva protector of the Buddha (Vajrapani in the guise of Heracles). In Japan, this expression further translated into the wrath-filled and muscular Niō guardian gods of the Buddha, standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples.

"Heracles with a lion-skin served as an artistic model for the Buddha Vajrapani, a protector of the Buddha" (Foltz, "Religions and the Silk Road").

According to Katsumi TANABE, professor at Chuo University, Japan (in "Alexander the Great.East-West cultural contact from Greece to Japan"), besides Vajrapani, Greek influence also appears in several other gods of the Mahayana pantheon, such as the Japanese Wind God Fujin inspired from the Greek Boreas through the Greco-Buddhist Wardo, or the mother deity Hariti (Kariteimo and Kishibojin in Japan) inspired from Tyche.

In addition, forms such as garland-bearing cherubs, vine scrolls, and such semi-human creatures as the centaur and triton, are part of the repertory of Hellenistic art introduced by Greco-Roman artists in the service of the Kushan court.

The length of the Greek presence in Central Asia and northern India provided opportunities for interaction, not only on the artisitic, but also on the religious plane.

The Greek presence in Bactria from 332 to 125 B.C.. When Alexander conquered the Bactrian and Ghandharan regions, these areas may already have been under Buddhist influence.

Tetradrachm of eastern Greek emperor Seleucus I ca.300 BC

According to a legend preserved in Pali, the language of the Theravada canon, two merchants brothers from Bactria, named Tapassu and Bhallika, visited the Buddha and became his disciples. They then returned to Bactria and built temples to the Buddha (Foltz).

Alexander established in this same area several cities (Ai-Khanoum, Begram, Hadda) and an administration that were to last more than two centuries under the Seleucids and the Greco-Bactrians, all the time in direct contact with Indian territory.

In 125 BC, the northern Indo-European Yuezhi nomads (the future Kushans, promoters of the Mahayana faith) took control of the Bactrian territory, where they underwent a process of Hellenization for more than a century, as examplified by their coins and their adoption of the Greek alphabet.

The Mauryan empire B.C.322-183 B.C. . The Mauryan Chandragupta reconquered the northwest Indian territory that had been lost to the Greeks. However contacts were kept and several Greeks, such as Megasthenes, resided at the Mauryan court.

His grandson Asoka converted to the Buddhist faith and became a great proselityser in the line of the traditional Pali cannon of Theravada Buddhism, insisting on non-violence to humans and animals (ahimsa, and general precepts regulating the life of lay people.

According to his edicts, set in stone, some of them written in Greek, he sent Buddhist emissaries to the Greek lands in Asia and as far as the Mediterranean. The edict names each of the rulers of the Hellenic world at the time. Some of the emissaries, such as the famous Maharaksita, are described as Greek in Indian sources (The Mahavamsa, quoted in Woodcock "Greeks in India").

The Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms 250-1 B.C. The Greco-Bactrians, a dynasty of Greek kings that split from the Seuleucid empire around 250 B.C. conquered northern India from 180 B.C., whence they are known as Indo-Greeks. They ruled various areas of the northern Indian territory until 1 B.C.

Evidence of direct religious interaction between Greek and Buddhist thought during the period include the Milinda Panha, a Buddhist discourse in the platonic style, held between the Greek king Menander (160 to 135 BC) and the Buddhist monk Nagasena. Menander's coins, written in Greek on the front, sometimes were adorned with the title of "Maharajasa Dharmika Menandrasa" (lit. Menander the Great King of Buddhist Teaching) in the Prakrit language and in the Kharoshthi script. Buddhism recognizes him as one of its great benefactors together with Asoka and Kanishka.

According to Ptolemy, Greek cities were founded by the Greco-Bactrians in northern Pakistan, such as Euthydemia. Menander established his capital in Sagala, today's Sialkot in Punjab, one of the centers of the blossoming Buddhist culture.

The Mahayana movement probably began around the 1st century BCE in northwestern India, at the time and place of these interactions. According to most scholars, the main sutras of Mahayana were written after 100 BC, when sectarian conflicts arose among Nikaya Buddhist sects regarding the humanity or superhumanity of the Buddha, questions of metaphysical essentialism, etc.

The Kushans 1st century A.D.- 3rd century A.D.. The Kushans, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi confederation settled in Bactria, invaded the northern parts of Pakistan and India from around 1 AD.

By that time they had already been in contact with Greek culture and the Indo-Greek kingdoms for more than a century. They used the Greek script for writing. The absorption of Greek historical and mythological culture is suggested by Kushan sculptures representing Dyonisiac scenes or even the story of the Trojan horse (See: Kushan Trojan horse). Some of their coins bear the earliest representions of the Buddha on a coin (around 120 AD), in Hellenistic style and with the the word "Boddo" in Greek script .

The Kushan king Kanishka, who honored Zoroastrian, Greek and Brahmanic deities as well as the Buddha and was famous for his religious syncretism, convened the fourth great Buddhist council in Kashmir which marked the official beginning of the pantheistic Mahayana Buddhism and its scission with Nikaya Buddhism.

Kanishka also had the original Gandhari vernacular, or Prakrit, Mahayana Buddhist texts translated into the high litterary language of Sanskrit, "a turning point in the evolution of the Buddhist litterary cannon" (Foltz, Religions on the Silk Road)

The new syncretic form of Buddhism expanded into Northern Asia from around that time, ultimately to China, Korea and Japan, and was itself at the origin of Zen.

Greco-Buddhism and the rise of the Mahayana

"Key formative influences on the early development of the Mahayana and Pure Land movements, which became so much part of East Asian civilization, are to be sought in Buddhism's earlier encounters along the Silk Road"(Foltz, Religions on the Silk Road).

Through these centuries of cultural (and religious) interaction in northwestern India, some scholars consider that the concepts developped by Mahayana Buddhism may have been influenced by the interaction of Greek and Buddhist thought:

• The first physical representations of the Buddha, often in realistic Greco-Buddhist style.

"One might regard the classical influence as including the general idea of representing a man-god in this purely human form, which was of course well familiar in the West, and it is very likely that the example of westerner's treatment of their gods was indeed an important factor in the innovation" (Boardman, "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity" ).

• A supra-mundane understanding of the Buddha (lokattara) and the possibility of reaching Buddhahood through virtuous acts (bodhisattva).

"The god-king concept brought by Alexander (...) may have fed into the developping boddhisattva concept, which involved the portrayal of the Buddha in Gandharan art with the face of the sun god, Appolo" (McEvilly, "The Shape of Ancient Thought").

• Possibly, the Greek Stoicist philosophy may also have influenced the description of each individual as having the potential to reach excellence (Concept of each individual having a Buddha nature (tathagatha)) and as being equal in value to all others (Compassion for the less fortunate).

"Their conviction in the essential equality of all humankind (...), which did not provide for superior or inferior, dominant and subordinate relations between states. From the ideal of equality there followed the Stoic's emphasis on virtue, conscience, duty, and absolute personal integrity" (Bentley, "Old World Encounters")

Greco-Buddhism and the West

In the direction of the West, the Greco-Buddhist syncretism may also have had some formative influence on the religions of the Mediterraneam Basin.

Intense westward physical exchange at that time along the Silk Road is confirmed by the Roman craze for silk from the 1st century BC (Strabo, Pline 23-79, Seneque 4-65), to the point that the Senate issued, in vain, several edict to prohibit wearing silk, on economical and moral grounds.

Plutarch and Strabo wrote about king Menander, confirming that information was circulating throughout the Hellenistic world.

"Scholars have often considered the possibility that Buddhism influenced the early development of Christianity. They have drawn attention to many parallels concerning the births, lives, doctrines, and deaths of the Buddha and Jesus" (Bentley, "Old World Encounters").

Through art and religion, the influence of Greco-Buddhism on the cultural make-up of Northern Asian countries, especially Korea and Japan, may have extended further into the intellectual area.

Together with Zen, a branch of Mahayana, central concepts of Hellenic culture such as virtue, excellence or quality may have been adopted by the cultures of Korea and Japan after a long diffusion among the Hellenized cities of Central Asia, to become a key part of their warrior and work ethics.

• "Religions and the Silk Road" by Richard C. Foltz (St. Martin's Press, 1999)
• "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity" by John Boardman (Princeton University Press, 1994)
• "The Shape of Ancient Thought. Comparative studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies" by Thomas McEvilly (Allworth Press and the School of Visual Arts, 2002)
• "Old World Encounters. Cross-cultural contacts and exchanges in pre-modern times" by Jerry H.Bentley (Oxford University Press, 1993)
• "Alexander the Great: East-West Cultural contacts from Greece to Japan" (NHK and Tokyo National Museum, 2003)
• "Living Zen" by Robert Linssen (Grove Press New York, 1958)
• "Echoes of Alexander the Great: Silk route portraits from Gandhara" by Marian Wenzel, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama (Eklisa Anstalt, 2000)