Greco-Buddhist Monasticism - Greek Monks Under Ashoka

Greek Monks Under Ashoka

According to Edicts of Ashoka, Greek populations (generally described in ancient times throughout the Classical world as Yona, Yojanas or Yavanas, lit. "Ionians" ) were under his rule in northwestern India.

Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions in Dhamma. —S. Dhammika, Edicts of Ashoka, Rock Edict No. 13

Far from just being on the receiving end of conversion to Buddhism, the Mahavamsa indicates that Greeks took an active role in spreading the Buddhist faith as emissaries of Ashoka.

These Greek missionaries appear in the list of the "elders" (Pali: "thera") sent far and wide by Emperor Ashoka:

"When the thera Moggaliputta, the illuminator of the religion of the Conqueror, had brought the (third) council to an end (…) he sent forth theras, one here and one there:
  • The thera Mahyantika he sent to Kasmira and Gandhara,
  • The thera, MaMdeva he sent to Mahisamandala.
  • To Vanavasa be sent the thera named Rakkhita,
  • and to Aparantaka (he sent) the Yona named Dhammarakkhita;
  • to Maharattha (he sent) the thera named Mahadhammarakkhita,
  • but the thera Maharakkhita he sent into the country of the Yona.
  • He sent the thera Majjhima to the Himalaya country,
  • and to Suvambhurni he sent the two theras Sona and Uttara.
  • The great thera Mahinda, the theras Utthiya, Uttiya, Sambala and Bhaddasala his disciples, these five theras he sent forth with the charge: `Ye shall found in the lovely island of Lanka the lovely religion of the Conqueror.'" (Mahavamsa, XII)

Read more about this topic:  Greco-Buddhist Monasticism

Famous quotes containing the words greek and/or monks:

    What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art and poetry, in all its periods from the Heroic and Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuries later? What but this, that every man passes personally through a Grecian period.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Bourbon’s the only drink. You can take all that champagne stuff and pour it down the English Channel. Well, why wait 80 years before you can drink the stuff? Great vineyards, huge barrels aging forever, poor little old monks running around testing it, just so some woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma can say it tickles her nose.
    John Michael Hayes (b.1919)