Time Materialism and Historiography: Some Indo - Hellenic Parallels

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The book brings out many tangential points between ancient Indian and Greek cultures with a view to tracing the common path through which all human cultures begin journey to achieve their identity and individuality. The interaction between Nature, world, man, value and culture is very interestingly presented to reflect the process through which man, originally a natural being is transformed in a cultural being and then becomes an Indian or Greek in a historical passage.

A.K. SINHA, M.A., D.Phil. (University of Allahabad, Allahabad) teaches in the Depart-ment of Ancient History and Culture, M.J.P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly since 1985. Dr. Sinha specialises in the History of Ideas, Philosophy of History and Historiography. He has to his credit three research books and more than fifty research papers published in presti-gious journals. He has presented papers in the World Archaeological Congress-3, World Philosophical Congress, International Collo-quium on Thucydides at Athens, Greece; Inter-national Seminar on Relevance of Classics in the New Millennium' and two international conferences of Indian Society for Greek and Roman Studies besides a number of national level seminars and conferences. He is closely associated with several academic organisations like Indian History Congress, U.P. History Congress, Indian History and Culture Society, Indian Society for Greek and Roman Studies and Heritage Trust to name a few. He is Assistant Editor of research journal Yavanika: Indo-Hellenic Studies and Associate Editor of various other publications. A prolific writer, Dr. Sinha has contributed a good number of creative articles in magazines and papers and given talks on All India Radio and Doordarshan.

The contributions of ancient Indian and Greek culture to the culture and civilization of ancient world is well-recognised. As the representatives of the ancient East and the West respectively, these two cultures resemble and differ at the same time at many points. While resemblances indicate the possibility of the influence of one over the other as has been the subject-matter of a number of works, the differences speak of the distinctive features that create a sense of identity and individuality in each of the two. Anyway, a comparative study of these two cultures in almost every aspect has been developing interest in the scholars since long and as a result to it we have got a good number of scholarly works in this field.

The present monograph continues this trend but with a slight difference. Unlike most of the earlier works explaining resemblances between the two cultures in terms of the cultural contacts resulting into the influence of one over the other, the present work which is a collection of some thematic papers on some commonpoints of interest in ancient Indian and Greek cultures, sees the problem in a different way. It makes an attempt to explain their similarities and dissimilarities in terms of the parallel developments having taken place in both of them as the natural outcome of the circumstances. they faced. If resemblances have been seen as the element of 'commonness' found in any of the Human Cultures' (ancient Indian and Greek cultures not being an exception to this), the differences and dissimilarities stand for their identity and individuality making them independent and 'distinct' in the crowds of the 'likes'.

Some of the chapters of this monograph were initially presented as research papers in the seminars/conferences or they have been published in some journals in different times and occasions. There may, therefore, apparently be found some sort of repetition at some places yet a thematic unity and consistency in approach have been the major factors in planning to present them all together in a single volume under one title. Before linking them all in a conceptual threading they have been revised and updated with new materials whereever necessary. The intervals between their initial and the present presentation have been taken into account and attempted to be adjusted and justified accordingly.

First, out of the six chapters, initiates the discussion on the fundamental unity and diversity in all human cultures. On the basis of some famous phrases, apparently common, in ancient Indian and Greek cultures, points of resemblance and difference have been focussed to show how a culture becomes different from others in the process of developing its identity based on a distinct value-system with a distinct understanding of the notions and relation between Nature, world, man and culture.

Parallelisms between the Greek and Indian traditions have been noted for a long time. Unfortunately colonial historians have misrepresented the nature and origin of these parallelisms. Vincent Smith, thus in his Early History of India gives a long description of Alexander's campaigns in India but quotes-

The East is East and the West is West,

The twain shall never meet.

And yet he argues at length in History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon that the Gandhara art was directly inspired by India's Greek contacts. The same view is repeated in Cambridge History of India (Vol. 1). Others argued that the whole development of Indian astronomy as a scientific system was due to Greek influence. Parallelisms in literature and philosophy were noted but not taken seriously because of the lower value placed on Indian parallels. Vincent Smith had remarked that the Greeks could not take Asoka's emissaries seriously. Burnet discounts the very existence of philosophy properly so-called among the Indians. In a nutshell, for colonial historiography parallelisms between Indian and Greek traditions are simply due to the imitation of the Greek models by the Indians.

It is a happy augury now that several Indian scholars are turning to a first hand study of the Greek sources and are finding increasing evidence of certain deep-rooted similarities between the Greek and the Indian ways of life and thought. These parallels show similarities and differences as one should normally expect in autonomous developments within inter-connected cultural areas. Thus the Homeric and the Indian epics, Greek and Indian drama, philosophy, astronomy, and art, all show interesting similarities and differences. Dr. A.K. Sinha has analyzed the notion of time in Plato and Upanisadic philosophy, Greek and Indian Materialism, the Historiography of Kalhana and Thucydides. Plato distinguishes time from eternity as the principle of the created world from the nature of the uncreated. The Upanishads similarly distinguish Brahma as eternal Being from the changing forms of the created world. There are again striking parallels between the Charvakas and the Greek materialistic philosophers. If Thucydides is more meticulous in his description of events, Kalhana has the same respect for truth combined with a deeper sense of the historical process in time. Such specific studies would prepare the ground for further studies which might seek to trace the similarities and differences to their sources. The present work thus is most welcome and shows the author's wide-ranging scholarly studies. I look forward to further studies of this kind from him.

It was the discovery of ancient Greek Civilization, its literature, science, philosophy and art-that gave birth to renaissance and brought forth the transition from medievalism to modern-age in Europe. Contrary to the preaching of the medieval Church, that human being is essentially the embodiment of sin, the Renaissance had upheld the value of reason and human life on earth. In India too the 19th Century Renaissance had emerged as a result of the impetus derived from the study of the Sanskrit Classics. The notion of the Far-East too despite going into the footsteps of the west in the development of science and technology continue to preserve Confucianism and Buddhism as their guiding force.

The ancient civilizations and their classics not only mobilized the notions in their forward march but also unite the races and peoples of diverse beliefs. While drawing parallels between the two cultures one realises the immense depth of affinities in ideas, thought and expression. Thus, the affinity between the Iliad and the Ramayana, Plato and Upanisads, Pythagoras and Buddhism, Aristotelian logic and Nyaya, Avesta and the Vedas, Saadi's works and Pancatantra or Hitopadesa, Zeus and Dyaus, Dike and Dharma, Categoria and Padartha may be best explained with the wonderful term 'Samavayo' coined by the Emperor Ashoka in his Rock edict No. XII which signifies beautifully a 'coming together' combinat 'concourse'.

In the area of comparative studies of Civilizations, the Graeco-Indian studies with which the present study is connected has recently gained much attention. In fact the interest in it had begun from the very beginning of the interest of European scholars in Indological studies. The early western scholars were greatly fascinated to notice affinity between Sanskrit and Greek languages. The Sanskrit dadhami is in Greek Tithemi; Sanskrit abharam is Greek epheron; the patrasi corresponds to the Sanskrit pitrsu even in the term of ancient. These observations had led the early scholars to believe in the theory of common Indo-European origin. Greek and Indo-Iranian inflections, together with an extensive cognat vocabulary took the form of the Indo-European lexicon. With the beginning of comparative philology, the comparative mythology also attracted the attention of scholars. It was emphasized that the similarities in the languages and myths among the Indians, Greeks, Iranians, Hittites, Celts, Tutons and Romans are on account of their common Indo-European heritage. The theory still prevails although it has been vehemently criticized in the recent years in the light of the new evidences.

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