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Who are the Brahmans? Indian lore and cynic Doctrine in Palladius' De Bragmanibus and its models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Richard Stoneman
Richard Stoneman
Affiliation:
Institute of Classical Studies, London
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Extract

I have devoted a separate study to the question of how far the account in the Alexander Romance of Alexander's meeting with the Naked Philosophers, later known as Brahmans, rests on genuine information about India. My conclusion was that the author of the Romance knew the Alexander historians but did not add any genuine knowledge; and that he incorporated a separate text of Cynic origin, the series of ten questions and answers.

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Articles
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , December 1994 , pp. 500 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1994

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References

1 Richard, Stoneman, ‘Naked Philosophers: the Brahmans in the Alexander Romance and the Alexander Historians’, forthcoming JHS 135 (1995).Google Scholar

2 Pap. Genev. inv. 271. See Victor, Martin, ‘Un recueil de diatribes cyniques,’ Mus. Helv. 16 (1959), 77–115Google Scholar; Penelope, Photiades, ‘Les diatribes cyniques du papyrus de Genève 271, leurs traductions et élaborations successifs’, Mus. Helv. 16 (1959), 116–39Google Scholar. Some further amendments to the text are offered by Kakridis, J. T., ‘Zum Kynikerpapyrus (Pap. Genev. inv. 271)’, Mus. Helv. 17 (1960), 34–6Google Scholar and ‘Weiteres zum Kynikerpapyrus (Pap. Genev. inv. 271)’, Parola del Passato 16 (1961), 383–6Google Scholar. The diatribe is followed in the papyrus by part of one of the letters of Heraclitus, a Cynic collection: see Malherbe, A., The Cynic Epistles (Scholars Press, 1977).Google Scholar

3 Beverly, Berg, ‘Dandamis: an Early Christian Portrait of Indian Asceticism’, Class, et Med. 31 (1970), 269–305.Google Scholar

4 Coleman-Norton, P. R., ‘The Authorship of the Epistola de Indicis Gentibus et de Bragmanibus’, Class. Phil. 21 (1926), 154–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The opinion is shared by Beverly Berg (n. 3) and by J. D. M. Derrett (n. 5).

5 Duncan, J.Derrett, M., ‘The History of “Palladius on the Races of India and the Brahmans”’, Class, et Med. 21 (1960), 77–135Google Scholar; Berghoff, Wilhelm, Palladius de Gentibus Indiae et Bragmanibus (Meisenheim am Glan, 1967)Google Scholar. Derrett proposes that rec. Θ influenced rec. Σ; Berghoff that Θ and Σ both derive from an original text by ‘Arrian’. See the stemmata in Berghoff 20 and 27.

6 Mating only for procreation seems to be a Christian motif; cf. Shaw, B. D., ‘The Family in Late Antiquity: the Experience of Augustine’, Past and Present 115 (1987), 3–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 J. D. M. Derrett, (n. 5), sect. iii. Contra: Hansen, G. C., ‘Alexander und die Brahmanen’, Klio 43–5 (1964), 351–86 (365f).Google Scholar

8 The name Dandamis is itself worth comment, as it seems to mean ‘staff-bearer’, from the Sanskrit danda, a staff, which it was incumbent on the highest grade of Brahman to carry always: Laws of Manu 4.36. (The Laws of Manu are cited throughout this article from the Penguin translation by Wendy Doniger with Brian K. Smith (Harmondsworth, 1991).)

9 Diod. Sic. xvi.92.2; xvii.49.4; xvii.103.7.

10 Manu 6.49, 81.

11 The phrase echoes that of Calanus in Philo, , Quod Omnis Probus Liber est 96Google Scholar, which will be discussed further below.

12 Manu 4.87f., 6.61, 12.16, 12.74f.

13 Arr. Anab. vii.1.1.

14 Note 2 above.

15 Manu 4.84; cf. 4.186, and 247–50 on acceptable alms.

16 Manu 3.210; cf. 4.53 on the holiness of fire. The point is significant against those who think that the Brahmans of these texts are Jains, as Jains avoid the use of fire. Dundas, P., The Jains (1992), 44.Google Scholar

17 Cf. Lang, D. M. in [John Damascene, St], Barlaam and Ioasaph (Loeb Classical Library, 1983), p. xvi.Google Scholar

18 Berg, op. cit.; Photiades, op. cit. (n. 2).

19 Sedlar, Jean W., India and the Greek World (Totowa, NJ, 1980), 167–99.Google Scholar

20 On Bardaisan see Drijvers, H. J. W., Bardaisan of Edessa (Assen, 1966), 175, 218Google Scholar, and note 61 in my companion study (above n. 1). Other examples of India featuring in western thought and literature at this period are the Acts of Thomas and Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana –whose professed ‘Indian’ philosophy is really a ‘spiritualized Pythagoreanism’: Sedlar (op. cit. in n. 19), 195. See also Apuleius, Florida vi and vii.

21 Porph. Vit. Plot. p. 8; Sedlar, op. cit. (n. 19), 199–207.

22 As proposed by Filliozat, J., ‘La doctrine des brahmanes d'après St Hippolyte’, Revue de l'histoire des religions 130 (1945), 64Google Scholar. Hippolytus' most likely source is Bardaisan. G. C. Hansen (op. cit. in n. 7), 361f., suggests that Hippolytus used a Gnostic version of de Bragmanibus for his account of Brahman lore: but there is a great deal in Hippolytus that is not in this work.

23 Hamilton, J. R., Plutarch: Alexander – A Commentary (Oxford, 1969), 179Google Scholar; Claire, Muckensturm, ‘Les Gymnosophistes étaient-ils des cyniques modèles?’ in Goulet-Cazé, M. O. and Goulet, R. (edd.), Le Cynisme ancien et ses prolongements (Paris, 1993), 225–39.Google Scholar

24 Derrett (op. cit. in n. 5). Brown, Truesdell S., Onesicritus (Berkeley, 1949)Google Scholar, chapter 2, argued (unconvincingly in my view) that Cynicism is of Indian origin. The position is lucidly rejected by Doyne, Dawson, Cities of the Gods (Oxford, 1992), 128Google Scholar, who emphasizes the Pythagorean affinities of Cynicism. See additional note, p. 510.

25 Str. 15.1.65.

26 See in general McCrindle, J., The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great (Bombay, 1896), 386–92.Google Scholar

27 Str. 15.1.68.

28 Arr. Anab. vii.2–3.

29 Str. 15.1.2.

30 Quod Omnis Probus Liber est 96; cf. Vit. Abraham 182.

31 Str. 15.1.65.

32 Puri, B. N., India in Classical Greek Writings (Ahmedabad, 1963), 84 n. 1.Google Scholar

33 Manu 11.74.

34 Dundas, P., The Jains (London, 1992), 155f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Dundas 138.

36 Dio 54.9; Str. 15.1.73, deriving from Nicolaus of Damascus (McCrindle, , Ancient India as described in Classical Literature 78 nn.)Google Scholar. Other examples: Cic. TD v.27(= McCrindle, op. cit. 68 n. 1); Pomponius Mela iii.7.40. See van Hooff, Anton, From Autothanasia to Suicide: Self-killing in Classical Antiquity (London, 1990), 38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; though no discussion is offered.

37 McCrindle (op. cit. in n. 26), 167ff., 170.

38 Diod. Sic. ii.57.

39 Brown, Truesdell S., Onesicritus (Berkeley, 1949)Google Scholar, ch. 2. The motif recurs in a Christian work, The Narrative of Zosimus (Ante Nicene Fathers add. vol. ii.219–24), and seems to have been a topos of Cynic Utopias. For a recent study of this work see Chris, Knights, ‘“The Story of Zosimus” or “The History of the Rechabites”?’, Jnl for the Study of Judaism 24 (1993), 235–245.Google Scholar

40 Manu 5.33, 45, 54–6.

41 Apul.Flor. 15. John, Ferguson, Utopias of the Classical World (1975), 47 and 64Google Scholar accepts this chain of influence. A more sceptical view is taken by Sedlar (op. cit. in n. 19), chapters 1–5. Dombrowski, Daniel A., The Philosophy of Vegetarianism (Amherst, 1984Google Scholar; reissued as Vegetarianism: the Philosophy Behind the Ethical Diet, Wellingborough, 1985) 35–54Google Scholar points rather to the influence of Egyptian priests and ‘Orphics’ (on whose non-existence see West, M. L., The Orphic Poems [Oxford, 1983])Google Scholar. Iamblichus, de Vit. Pyth. offers no source for Pythagoras' views. See also note 63.

42 The same point is made by Paul, Pedech, Historiens compagnons d'Alexandre (Paris, 1984), 114Google Scholar. Cf. Doyne Dawson (op. cit. in n. 24), 132: the Cynic's aim is not to eliminate desire but to control it. Dawson remarks (124) that the passage of Strabo where Onesicritus derives from Mandanis' remarks the idea that freedom from pleasure and pain is to be aimed at, is one of the clearest pieces of Cynicism in the encounter.

43 The phraseology is rather strikingly echoed by Ovid, Met. xv. 88–95 in his account of the Pythagorean objection to meat-eating: heu! quantum scelus est, in viscere viscera condi / congestoque avidum pinguescere corpore corpus / alteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto!…

44 Cf. Berg (op. cit. in n. 3), 288.

45 Farrand, Sayre, Diogenes of Sinope (1938), 88f.Google Scholar: Stob. 3.98.9 from Sotades; DL 6.34, 6.76; Athen. 8.341 et al. mult.

46 Ep. 108; Dombrowski (op. cit. in n. 41), 80, 85.

47 See above note 22 and my companion study (op. cit. in n. 1).

48 There are some general remarks o n Porphyry in Colin, Spencer, The Heretic's Feast (1992), ch. 4, pp. 104–7Google Scholar, a discussion which, however, mentions neither the Cynics nor Palladius.

49 Dombrowski 119.

50 Lovejoy, A. D. and Boas, G., Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity (New York, 1965), 117–52, esp. 145–51Google Scholar. Dombrowski (op. cit. in n. 41). It is associated also with the Scythians: Ferguson (op. cit. in n. 40), 18.

51 Scytobrachion: Diod. Sic. iii.53.4–6 (FGrH 32.7).

52 Anacharsis, Ep. 9, p. 48. 29f. Malherbe: γν ἕχομεν πσαν πντες. ὅσα δδωσιν ἕκουσα λαμβνομεν, ὅσα.κρπτει, χαρειν μεν. See in general Kindstrand, J. F., Anacharsis: the Legend and the Apophthegmata (Uppsala, 1981).Google Scholar

53 Theopompus: FGrH 115F75.

54 Iambulus: Diod. Sic. ii.57. For a speculative argument for Iambulus' influence on the Essenes, see Mendels, D., ‘Hellenistic Utopias and the Essenes’, Harv. Theol. Rev. 72 (1979), 207–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55 FGrH 63.1.30ff. ( = Diod. Sic. v.41.4ff.): Ferguson (op. cit. in n. 40), 110–12.

56 E.g. Dio Chrysostom 35.18–24; translation in McCrindle (op. cit. in n. 26), 174–7.

57 Philostratus, Vit.Ap.Ty. for example.

58 Narrative of Zosimus (above n. 39); Cosmas Indicopleustes II.96.

59 Doyne Dawson (op. cit. in n. 24, 172) sees Iambulus and Euhemerus as primarily Stoic in inspiration, inasmuch as Cynics were opposed to any kind of state, even a Utopian one. But it must be admitted that Cynic ideas on ‘the natural life’ were an important component of Stoicism, and it is this strand which is to the fore in these Utopias.

60 Dombrowski (op. cit. in n. 41), 39–41 gives the data on the Pythagoreans. On Cynics, see the remarks about Diogenes above.

61 Some Christian writers felt uneasy about meat-eating. Clement, Strom. 7.32 claimed that pagan sacrifice was an invention of mankind to excuse the eating of flesh. Tertullian, De jejunio 9 praised the simple bread-and-vegetables diet of Daniel and Elijah. There is some general discussion of this subject, with several incorrect references, in Colin, Spencer, The Heretic's Feast (1993), ch. 5, 108–29.Google Scholar

62 See however Bosworth, A. B., From Arrian to Alexander (Oxford, 1988)Google Scholar, for some scepticism about this valuation of Arrian: he emphasizes the role of rhetorical models in certain parts of the Anabasis.

63 Some of the ideas in this article were influenced by Richard Sorabji's lectures on vegetarianism in antiquity; his book Animal Minds and Human Morals (London, 1993)Google Scholar unfortunately appeared too late for detailed citation in this article. See esp. chh. 13 and 14 on Pythagorean, Neoplatonic and Christian attitudes to sacrifice and meat-eating.

64 Addition to n. 24: Ingalls, Daniel H. H., ‘Cynics and Pasupatas: the seeking of dishonor’ (Harv. Theol. Rev. 55 (1962), 281–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar, considers the possible origins of some aspects of Cynic asceticism in an ancient Indian cult of Shiva, and suggests that the Cynic ways may be a parallel development to Indian practices, from the same ancient origin.