calanus or Kalyana muni

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Calanus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relief showing a saddhu (Gogdara, Pakistan)

 

 

Calanus

(Indian: Kalyana): Indian sage who accompanied Alexander

the Great.

In April 326, the Macedonian

king Alexander the Great reached Taxila,

the capital of one of the Indian kingdoms in the Punjab (Indian

Takshaçila,

modern Rawalpindi). Onesicritus

of Astypalaea, one of Alexander's officers and biographers, writes

that the king sent him to the Indian sages, only to be ridiculed by them

and to be thaught cosmology (text).

Another biographer of Alexander, Arrian

of Nicomedia, states that Alexander personally interviewed the sages,

who may have been traditional Brahmans or innovating saddhu's.

 

On the appearance of Alexander and his army, these venerable

men stamped with their feet and gave no other sign of interest. Alexander

asked them through interpreters what they meant by this odd behavior, and

they replied: 'King Alexander, every man can possess only so much of the

earth' surface as this we are standing on. You are but human like the rest

of us, save that you are always busy and up to no good, traveling so many

miles from your home, a nuisance to yourself and to others. Ah well! You

will soon be dead, and then you will own just as much of this earth as

will suffice to bury you.' Alexander expressed his approval of these sage

words; but in point of fact his conduct was always the exact opposite of

what he then professed to admire.

[Arrian, Anabasis 7.1.5-2.1;

 

tr. Aubrey de Sélincourt]

 

Alexander invited the sages to join him, but their leader, Dandamis, refused

and sharply criticized Calanus, who accepted the invitation. (There is

a tradition, going back to the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria,

that Calanus was in fact forced to join the Macedonian army.)

Calanus must have been one of Alexander's advisers during his Indian

campaigns. We do not know what he thought of the anti-Macedonian rebellion

that the Brahmans organized in April 325, when Alexander was leaving India.

 

In India Calanus had never been ill, but when he was living

in Persia all strength ultimately left his body. In spite of his enfeebled

state he refused to submit to an invalid regimen, and told Alexander that

he was content to die as he was, which would be preferable to enduring

the misery of being forced to alter his way of life. Alexander, at some

length, tried to talk him out of his obstinacy, but to no purpose. Then,

convinced that if he were any further opposed he would find one means or

another of making away with himself, he yielded to his request, and gave

instructions for the building of a funeral pyre under the supervision of

Ptolemy

son of Lagus, of the Personal Guard.

Some say Calanus was escorted to the pyre by a solemn procession - horses,

men, soldiers in armor and people carrying all kinds of precious oils and

spices to throw upon the flames; other accounts mention drinking-cups of

silver and gold and kingly robes. He was too ill to walk, and a horse was

provided for him; but he was incapable of mounting it, and had to be carried

an a litter, upon which he lay with his heard wreathed with garlands in

the Indian fashion, and singing Indian songs, which his countrymen declare

were hymns of praise to their gods. The horse he was to have ridden was

of the royal breed of Nisaia,

and before he mounted the pyre he gave it to Lysimachus,

one of his pupils in philosophy, and distributed among other pupils and

friends the drinking-cups and draperies which Alexander had ordered to

be burnt in his honor upon the pyre.

 

At last he mounted the pyre and with due ceremony laid himself down.

All the troops were watching. Alexander could not but feel that there was

a sort of indelicacy in witnessing such a spectacle - the man, after all,

had been his friend; everyone else, however, felt nothing but astonishment

to see Calanus give not the smallest sign of shrinking from the flames.

We read in Nearchus'

account of this incident that at the moment the fire was kindled there

was, by Alexander's orders, an impressive salute: the bugles sounded, the

troops with one accord roared out their battle-cry, and the elephants joined

in with their shrill war-trumpettings.

 

[Arrian, Anabasis 7.3.1-6;

 

tr. Aubrey de Sélincourt]

 

Burning oneself was not common in ancient India. It is only rarely mentioned

in Brahman sources. However, it is unclear whether Calanus was a Brahman,

and even if he were, it may be pointed out that voluntarily departing from

one's life was considered

by the Greeks to be the culmination of

one's spiritual quest: one had been able to renunciate life itself.

Calanus departed from life with the words 'Alexander, we shall meet

again in Babylon'.

Nobody understood why he said this, but in the end, the words proved true

when Alexander died in Babylon.

 

His death made a lasting impression. In 165 CE, a Greek philosopher

named Peregrinus Proteus, did the same during the Olympic games. Although

his contemporary Lucian described him as someone intent on publicity, most

people were very impressed by the 'new Calanus', who had shown that death

was nothing to be feared.

 

 

 

 

Literature

 

Brian Bosworth, " Calanus and the Brahman Opposition " in: Wolfgang Will

(ed.), Alexander der Grosse. Eine Welteroperung und ihr Hintergrund

(1998 Bonn), pp.173-203

 

 

Related sites

 

Arrian

on Alexander and the Indian sages

Arrian

on Alexander and the Indian sages

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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