The sun., 1900-06-17

! Inn. ,vith ,vestern countries In the ages pre-
cedins the discovery of the route arounu inc
Cape OF Good Hope II Is probable thh' 'n u'o
second and IL Is certain that In the irst in'''en-
mum B. G. there was good deal oi coihlne'
cal intercourse between the land OF the fha-
raohs and the Indian peninsula Inc lh'rr-
medaries were. first, the inhabitants oi ,no
soutbwestarn corner of the Arabian peninsula
afterward known As Axiomites secondly me
Phenicians: and, lastly. native Egyptians IL
| il also probable enough that after Greeks were
permitted by the later Pharaohs TO setli near
the mouths Of the Nile, Greek travellers may
have gained at first or second hand soIle ac-
| Quaintance with India a. early as the close oi
the seventh century B. G. After the founda-
ton of the Persian Empire another channei Oh
communication between India ana the west
! was opened Cyrus the Great himself maze
tributary the Indian tribes OF the Gandharas ana
| Acvakas. The old Persian inscriptions OF BE-
hist,in and Persepolis show that Darius hys-
taspes ruled over not Only the Gandharans,
but also the people Of the Indus Herodotus also
tests that this monarch had subjected the
| northern Indians" At the command Of the
same Darius a Greek named SkylaX Ia said to
have travelled in India and to have naviaated
the Indus In 500 n. c. From his account vI'-
| Oub uTtck WTlttIS, WV"
derived their information about India In the
army which Xerxes led against Greece in 80
B. c. there were divisions Of GandhTans a1d
Indians. whose dress and equipment are de-
scribed by Herodotus. That historian also
makes the statement that the satrapy of India
furnished the heaviest tribute In the Persian
Empire At the beginning Of the fourth cen
tiry n. c. the Greek physician Ktesias, who
resided at the court OF Artaxerxes H.. learned
much from the Persians about India and was
| personally acquainted with wise Indians. He
gave an account OF the information thus OBJ
| tanned In the book which no wrote after his re-
turn In 39s b. C..
Tho destruction Of the Persian Empire by
| Alexander the Great !cd to a new invasion OF
India, which fixes the first absolutely certain
date In Indian history. In 1927 n. e. Alexander
passed over the Hindu Kush and early In the
following year he crossed the Indus. Vt
Taksknclla (Ta1iles> h,;wean the Indus ard
the Jheum Ctydaspes), the Greeks for the
first time saw Rrahman Yogis or tho wise
men o. tho Indians" as thev called thcm,
and were astonished at their asceticlsm and
strange doctrines The Greek conoueror
continued his march eastward until the
reached the Sutlei (Zadnres), when he VAS
compelled 10 turn back BY his Macedonian
soldiers. or the writings Of the learned men
who accompanied Alexander nothing has been
preserved except statements quoted from
them by later authors. Not long after Alex
ander'S death the Greek whom he Ind left
as Sntrap OF the Punlsh was expelled and the
whole Of the Indus and Gances valleys fell
under the sway of Young native ndvcnturcr
named Chandra Gupta tSandrskottosl, the
grandfather OF Acoka. A Greek named Me
| 4 si.a IL n
Patalputrn by Sceucus. who had founded
kingdom IN Media and Persia. This am
bassndor lived In the heart Of India between
| 9ii md 302 r. {. and wrote a work. entitled
ia Indlkn," which is particularly valuable RS
tho earliest extant record Of visit by for
eigner who knew the country AT Arst hand.
McgastheneS mentions forest aSccticS and
distinguishes Brachmanes and Sarnanai as
two classes Of philosophers, meaning doubt
less, Rrahm>ns nrd Buddhists Uraman-Sl,
After Acol,a's death or about 200 II. c. he
GRECO Bactran princes began to CONQUER
western India and ruled there for about
eighty wears. The most conspicuous member
OF the C-@co-B -Bactrian dynasty In India was
Mcnander tabout $50 p. CO. who under the
nams Of Mnda Il well known In Rnddhlst
writings. After tho reign OF Heliokles. which
ended In i2o 3. c.. the Crack princes in India
ceased to he connected with Pactria. The
last vestice Of Greek domlnation in Indin
disappeared about 20 B. c.. having lastod
ncarlv two centuries II IL n remarkable
fact that no Greek monumental inscriptions
have ever been found in India. That literary
"a well rs commercial intercourse continued
between Independent India and the Par
THAN. Sassanid and Arab rulers Of Persia
there II abundant evidence. With the Mo-
hanmedan conquest Of northern Indie about
1000 A. D., the country again fell urder a
foreign yoke. As after Aleyandsr's invasion,
so now once more we have the good fortune
TO possess In Alberuni's India tabout 1890
4. d. the work OF cultivated foreigner
giving detailed hrst-lnnd account Of the
civilization Of India at this now era In its
history.
The prolonged commercial intercourse Of
india with Egypt and. later the repeated CON
tact of the Indians with invaders from the
West naturally led 20 the exercise Of reciprocal
influence In various branches Of literature
II IL certain that the early Greek and Indian
philosophers have many points IN common
Some of the leading doctrines Of the Fleatics---
as. for instance, that God and the universe
nro one, that everything existing in multi
pcity has no reality and that thinking and
being are identical-'are all To be found in the
philosophy of the Upanlshads and the Vedanta
system, which is It's outcome Again. the
doctrine Of Empedoces. that nothing can arise
| which has not existed before and that nothing
existing can be annihilated, has its exact par
| allel in the characteristics doctrine of the San.
khya system about the eternity and inde-
| structibiity Of matter. According 70 Greek
tradition, Thaes, Fmpedocles. Anaxagoras
| Democritus and others undertook Journeys 10
| Oriental countries in order 10 study philosophy
Hence there is at least the possibility OF the
| Greeks having been influenced by Indian thought
transmitted through Egypt or Persia. What
ever may be the truth In tho cases lust men
toned. the dependence Of Pythagoras on In
dian philosophy and science seems to be I'm
mistakable. Almost all the doctrines a.cribed
TO him. religious. philosophical, mathematical,
were known in Indin In the sixth century B. c.
| SO numerous are the condolences that their
cumulative force becomes considerable The
transmiRration theory. the assumption Of five
elements, the Pythacorean theorem In geon,-
etry, the prohibition as TO eating beans, the
philosophical character Of the Pytha-
gorean fraternity and the mystical specula-
tons Of the Pythagorean school, all have
their close parallels In ancient India The
doctrine OF metempsychosis appears in
Pythagoras without any explanatory back
ground and was regarded BY the Greeks
| Themselves as of foreign origin lie