Cheers.

In that link it reads:
> ZARMANOCHEGAS, AN INDIAN, A NATIVE OF BARGOSA, HAVING IMMORTALIZED HIMSELF ACCORDING TO THE CUSTOM OF HIS COUNTRY, HERE LIES

not exactly the same text. If you then follow the reference, you get to this page:

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15...

Where we see the phrase discussed by Strabo. He himself says he is relaying the account of Nicolaüs Damascenus.

> But one might add to the accounts here given that of Nicolaüs Damascenus.

> 73 He says that at Antioch, near Daphnê, he chanced to meet the Indian ambassadors who had p127 been despatched to Caesar Augustus; that the letter plainly indicated more than three ambassadors, but that only three had survived (whom he says he saw), but the rest, mostly by reason of the long journeys, had died; and that the letter was written in Greek on a skin; and that it plainly showed that Porus was the writer, and that, although he was ruler of six hundred kings, still he was anxious to be a friend to Caesar, and was ready, not only to allow him a passage through his country, wherever he wished to go, but also to co-operate with him in anything that was honourable. Nicolaüs says that this was the content of the letter to Caesar, and that the gifts carried to Caesar were presented by eight naked servants, who were clad only in loin-cloths besprinkled with sweet-smelling odours; and that the gifts consisted of the Hermes, 115 a man who was born without arms, whom I myself have seen, and large vipers, and a serpent of ten cubits in length, and a river tortoise three cubits in length, and a partridge larger than a vulture; and they were accompanied also, according to him, by the man who burned himself up at Athens; 720 and that whereas some commit suicide when they suffer adversity, seeking release from the ills at hand, others do so when their lot is happy, as was the case with that man; for, he adds, although that man had fared as he wished up to that time, he thought it necessary then to depart this life, lest something untoward might happen to him if he tarried here; and that therefore he leaped upon the pyre with a laugh, his naked body anointed, wearing only a loin-cloth; and that the p129 following words were inscribed on his tomb: "Here lies Zarmanochegas, 116 an Indian from Bargosa, who immortalised himself in accordance with the ancestral customs of Indians."

So, even if we do trust that the account of Stabo's is not a forgery or some other concoction, this is several layers deep into hearsay - the purported event, purportedly witnessed by Nicolaüs Damascenus, that was then faithfully captured by Strabo, that was then faithfully preserved/transcribed etc over tens of hundreds of years.

And even then, it doesn't mention the Kerameikos cemetery!

Contrast what we see above with the claim in the original article:

> The 11-acre archaeological site is filled with tombstones and statues of astonishing design and quality. One of these tombs is that of an Indian Buddhist monk. On his tomb was placed this inscription: “Here lies Zarmanochegas, of Barygaza, who according to the ancestral custom of the Indians gave himself immortality.”

Can we really say that one of the tombs *is* that of Zarmanochegas? Is it really unambiguous, with no room for doubt?

In all honesty the threshold of evidence historians accept in order to make grand claims, is outrageous. They are simply unable to say they don't know, and can never know. They make up stories, that would never pass muster with anyone with a reasoning mind.

I suppose the story gets the tourists in, so there's that. I'm sure a few Indian and Buddhist folk will make a visit on account of this story, and spend a few Euros.