Krsna and Balarama in Greece

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Krsna and Balarama in Greece

 

"The people of Marathon worship both those who died in the fighting,

calling them 'heroes,' and [a semi-divine being called] 'Marathon,'

from whom the country derives its name, but also Heracles . . . .

They say also that a man took part in the battle who looked and was

dressed like a farmer. He slaughtered many of the Persians with his

plowshare, and when everything was over he disappeared. But when the

Athenians consulted the oracle, the god would not tell them anything

except to honor 'Echetlaeus' [i.e. the man with the plowshare] as a

hero."

 

However, the worship of Sankarsana appears to have been quite popular

in the fourth century BC and Megasthenes seems to refer to him. The

Greek writer referring to Dionysos clearly states that the Indians

speak of three individuals of this name appearing in different ages

and they assign suitable achievements to each of these. The oldest of

these was Indos, apparently the same as Indra, "who crushed grapes

and discovered the use of the properties of wine." He further states

that Dionysos also found out the method of growing figs and other

fruit trees and taught this knowledge to others whence he was called

Lenaios. This may be a corruption of Lingayasas or Lingin, a name for

Siva. The third god spoken of in this context is Katapogon; and

Megasthenes states that he was so named because it is a custom among

Indians to grow their beards with great care. Katapogon is evidently

the same as Kapardin, meaning one wearing braided and matted hair.

The epithet is usually applied to Siva, but it may have been applied

to Sankarsana also since the worshippers of Sankarsana, as we have

noted earlier, wore braided (jatila) hair.

 

Dionysus

 

At any rate, the three gods who could have been confused with

Dionysos by Megasthenes are apparently Indra, Siva and Sankarsana,

all the three are associated with wine and renowned for their

bacchanalian habits. Arrian informs us that before the coming of

Dionysos, Indians were nomads subsisting on the bark of the trees

known as tala (fan-palm) and that when Dionysos came to India he

taught them to sow the land, and it was he who "first yoked oxen to

the plough and made many Indian husbandmen and gave the people the

seeds of cultivated plants."

 

The description eminently suits the agricultural divinity Sankarsana,

the wielder of the plough, with the fan-palm as his emblem. Arrian

also writes that according to the Indians, Dionysos was earlier than

Herakles by fifteen generations; and, as Herakles is generally

identified with Vasudeva-Krsna in the popular mythology of the fourth

century B.C., the Krishna and Baladeva legends had not yet acquired

the final shape in which they are presented to us in the Mahabharata

and the Puranas."

 

>From `Pausanias, Description of Greece', 1.32.4, quoted in George

Luck's `Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman

Worlds'. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, (1985)

 

Herakles

 

"It is pointed out in the Bhagavad-gita that Arjuna often addresses

Vasudeva Krsna as Visnu. But the date of this work is highly

controversial. It is closely linked with that of the epic in its

present form. The assertion of another scholar (Pusalkar) about

Megasthenes "The Greek ambassador definitely states that Krsna was

regarded as an incarnation of Visnu" is evidently baseless. All that

Megasthenes is reported to have said is "This Herakles is held in

especial honour by Sourasenoi, an Indian tribe who possess two large

cities Mathora and Cleisobora and through whose country flows a

navigable river called Iobares." Herakles has been identified with

Vasudeva Krsna and Sourasenoi with the Surasena Yadavas. The use of

the words "especial honour" clearly indicates that Krsna was still a

minor divinity, far from being the supreme god that he becomes with

his identification with Narayana-Visnu; by no stretch of the

imagination can it be construed to refer to Narayana-Visnu.

 

In the early centuries preceding and succeeding the Christian era,

the entry of foreign tribes into India produced a favourable impact

on the cults of Vaisnvaite and Saivite divinities, which, on the

whole, enjoyed the support of the foreigners. The Greeks identified

Krsna with Herakles and Sankarsana with Dionysos, and it is no wonder

that they were favourably inclined to their worship. The Besnagar

inscription describes the Greek ambassador Heliodorus as a Bhagavata

who dedicated a Garuda banner to Lord Vasudeva.

 

The earliest epigraphic evidence for the existence of the Bhagavata

cult is found in Madhya Pradesh. The discovery of the Garuda pillar

inscription of Besnagar is a landmark in the history of Bhagavatism.

The inscription records the erection of a Garuda standard in honour

of Vasudeva, the god of gods, by a Greek ambassador Heliodorus who

describes himself as a Bhagavata (see Heliodorus Column), and a

resident of Taksasila. The ambassador came from the Greek king

Antialcidis to Kautsiputra Bhagabhadra identified with the fifth

Sunga king, and the record is dated in the fourteenth year of his

reign, approximating to c. 113 B.C."

 

Suvira Jaisval, The Origin and Deveopment of Vaisnavism (Munshiram

Manoharlal, 1967)

 

The Times of India reports a major archeological find of structures

dating back to the Mahabharata period:

 

"Archaeologists have discovered ancient monuments, dating back to the

Mahabharat period, during excavations carried out near Gwalior. The

excavations, carried over a period of five months, were suspended on

July 7 due to the monsoon.' The archaeologists believe that Gwalior

town was established in the first century AD and not in eighth

century AD, as was believed earlier. They came to this conclusion

following the discovery of a large community structure at the Gwalior

fort.

 

Superintending archaeologist of Madhya Pradesh A.K. Sinha said the

excavations had exposed a 1.7-metre thick burnt brick wall having a

height of about three metres. Mr Sinha told TOINS that the wall

appeared to be a part of a large community structure, possibly a huge

reservoir. On the basis of the ceramic industry and workmanship, the

structure was dated to the first century AD. Though Naga coins dating

to the 2nd or 3rd century AD were found from the surface on earlier

occasions from Gwalior fort, this is the first time that any

structural remains dating back to the beginning of the Christian era

has been found. The ASI plans to carry out more excavations after the

monsoon.

 

A Mahabharat period site has also been found at Kotwar, about 40 km

from here. The site is located about eight km from Noorabad, a sub-

divisional town on the Agra-Mumbai highway. The excavations, which

started in February last, will be resumed after the monsoon.

According to the archaeologists, the site has been identified with

Kamantalpur, which was derived from the name of its founder, Kamant,

father of the mythological character in the Mahabharat, Kunti, who

later became the mother of the five Pandva brothers.

 

The site has a 18 to 20-metre-high mound and covers an area of about

2.5 sq km, according to Mr Sinha. He said the site had also been

identified as one of the chief cities of the nine., Naga kings.The

archaeologists claim that the digging at Kotwar had led to the

recovery of painted greyware which had been interpreted by noted

archaeologists B.B. Lal, as belonging to the Mahabharat period.

 

During the excavations at Kotwar, black and redware and black slipped

ware, typical ceramic industries which pre-dated even the painted

greyware (1100-800 BC), were found from the lowest levels. The

remains found at Kotwar have been sent to the Physical Research

Laboratory and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Botany for precise

dating. The excavations also revealed a number of ring wells which

date back to the later half of the first millennium BC."

 

 

 

 

 

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