Friday, November 3, 2017

Indo-Greeks: What happened to the settlers?

Masaman; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


What happened to the Greek settlers in Ancient India?
Central Asia begins on left of map beyond modern Pakistan, formerly the NW frontier of "India," loosely affiliated kingdoms before Buddhist Emperor Asoka reunited them.
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The Buddha in Greco-Buddhist art
Greeks settled in Ancient India and Pakistan (which was only partitioned from India in 1948) in the area at least 2,000 years ago. One great Greek settlement was Bactria, Central Asia, where the Buddha was raised and lived as the Saka/Scythian Prince Siddhartha Gautama for the first 29 years of his life. Let's look at the history of the former area of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian Empire under Alexandros III of Macedon. Where are the Indo-Greeks and their descendants today, Aryan invaders? Eurasian migrants? Iranians/Aryians? A Greek ruler in Bactria, King Milinda (Menander I), was very interested in Buddhism and often entertained a great Buddhist monk, Ven. Nagasena, which produced The Questions of King Milinda, a famous Greco-Buddhist work from around Gandhara/Bactria.
Area that became Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was formerly the Buddha's Scythia/Shakya Land


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