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Zarmanochegas: The monk who lies in Athens
Kerameikos is crucial cemetery of Ancient Athens which got here into existence within the twelfth century BC. It derives its identify from the outdated neighborhood of Kerameis, who settled on the banks of the river Eridanos. When the Eridanos River flowed by way of right here, it produced an orange-red clay excellent for pottery (keramos in Greek). The neighborhood of pottery artisans and their type of elaborately painted earthenware was known as kerameikos (Greek for ceramic).
The 11-acre archaeological website is stuffed with tombstones and statues. One of those tombs is that of an Indian Buddhist monk. On his tomb is that this inscription: “Here lies Zarmanochegas, of Barygaza, who according to the ancestral custom of the Indians gave himself immortality.”
Tamil or Punjabi
Scholars have been debating whether or not Zarmanochegas, part of the mission to the court docket of the Romans by way of Athens, was despatched by a Tamil king or a Punjabi king of India. Pakistani journalist Majid Sheikh mentions in his article in Dawn: “In my student days while hitch-hiking through Europe, I stumbled across a mysterious tomb of Porus’ (King of Punjab area, now divided between India and Pakistan) ambassador.” History tells us that ‘Zarmanochegas’ was a Rajput Khokhar from Lahore and reached Athens alongside together with his 85 slaves. He was honored with a tomb.
As per RN Dandekar in his analysis paper, Some Aspects of the Indo-Mediterranean Contacts, printed by Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, a Pandya embassy, below the management of Zarmanochegas (Sramanacarya), had left Bhrukaccha (Barygaza) in 25 BC and waited upon Augustus at Sumos with presents for the emperor that are mentioned to have consisted, amongst different issues, of a huge python, enormous tortoises, and an armless boy who might shoot arrows together with his ft.
Pandyas had been a Tamil dynasty of Dravidian origin, therefore, if what Dandekar mentions is correct, then Zarmanochegas was a part of a Tamil mission to Roman court docket by way of Athens.
Self-immolation
As per Kim Han-Sang, Research Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea, self-immolation refers to ascetic Buddhist practises that embody the voluntary termination of 1’s life or the providing of elements of 1’s physique normally by setting oneself ablaze.
In each the Northern (Mahayana) and Southern (Theravada) Buddhist traditions, self-immolation has been thought-about a heroic bodhisattva act to finish one’s life.
Kalanos and Zarmanochegas
Zarmanochegas was not the primary Indian monk to self-immolate in entrance of historical Greeks. Long earlier than him, Alexander’s pal Kalanos, or Swami Kalyan, additionally did it. When the Macedonian military reached north-western India, Alexander met gymnosophist Dandamis. Alexander needed him to return with him again to Greece, however he refused. One of the Gymnosophistai there, a person named Kalanos (Indian Kalyana), adopted the conqueror to the West. The story is described within the Anabasis by the Greek creator Arrian of Nicomedia. It was in Persia that Kalanos mounted the pyre and with due ceremony laid himself down.
We learn in Nearchus’s account of this incident that in the meanwhile the fireplace was kindled there was, by Alexander’s orders, a formidable salute: the bugles sounded, the troops with one accord roared out their battle-cry, and the elephants joined in with their shrill warfare trumpetings.
Zarmanochegas’ Mission
At least 9 embassies from India are recognized to have visited Roman emperors as much as the time of Constantine. The objective will need to have been each diplomatic and industrial. Indian philosophy appears to have made an amazing impression on the thinkers of the Graeco-Roman world.
As per Roman History ‘Book LIV’ by Cassius Dio, “The people of India, who had already made overtures, now made a treaty of friendship, sending among other gifts, tigers, which were then for the first time seen by the Romans, as also, I think by the Greeks. One of the Indians, Zarmarus, for some reason, wished to die—either because, being of the caste of sages, he was on this account moved by ambition, or, in accordance with the traditional custom of the Indians, because of old age, or because he wished to make a display for the benefit of Augustus and the Athenians—he was therefore initiated into the mysteries of the two goddesses, which were held out of season on account, they say, of Augustus, who also was an initiate, and he then threw himself alive into the fire.”
The mission of Zarmanochegas was an try and create a stronger relationship between India and Rome, however his self-immolation astonished the Greeks, like that of Kalanos a number of years earlier than him had astonished the Macedonian troopers.
(This article was initially printed on Greekreporter.com)
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