THE SYRIAC VERSIONS OF INDIAN STORIES
(Revd.Dr.B.Varghese)
In
spite of geographical, linguistic and racial obstacles, uninterrupted
intercourse existed between India and the West Asia throughout the ages.
Indians were open to Mesopotamian and Greek sciences. The exchange of knowledge
was never one sided. Some of the Indian stories reached Mesopotamia, West Asia,
Egypt and Greece, often adapted or presented in new forms. In this paper we
shall discuss the transmission of two such pieces.
The legend of Barlaam and Josaphat
Since the seventh century A.D., the story of the Indian saints Barlaam
and Josaphat (or Joasaph) was known in the Greek-speaking world. By the
eleventh century, the Greek version was attributed to John of Damascus and in
1048 it was translated into Latin. Since 1583 in the Roman Martyrology, a feast
of the Indian saints Barlaam and Josaphat was introduced (27th
November).[1]
In the Greek Church a few liturgical calendars also mention the same feast.
Thus it is attested in the Menology of
Basil and a few lectionaries[2].
Finally, Venice claimed the possession of their relics that were transferred to
the Monastery of Saint Savior in Antwerp in 1633. It seems that the relics are
still kept in Antwerp.
In
spite of the liturgical traditions concerning Barlaam and Josaphat, scholars
were suspicious of the authenticity of their story and some were even reluctant
to believe that the ‘saints’ ever really existed. Since the 17th
century, European scholars have pointed out the striking resemblance between
the story of Barlaam and Josaphat and that of Buddha. Now the European
scholarship unanimously accepts the Indian origin of the legend.
Indian Origin of the Legend
According to the legend, Josaphat was the son of an Indian king named
Abenner who persecuted Christians. For long time he was without child and
finally Josaphat was born. At his birth the astrologians predicted that the
prince would one day be converted to Christianity. The king Abenner took
precautions and kept the prince within the walls of the palace. Strict orders
were given so that the sight of poverty, pain or death will not disturb the prince.
When Josaphat became an adult, at his persistent demand, the king gave him
freedom and allowed him to know the life of the outside world. The prince
finally became aware of the suffering and death, which created spiritual and
intellectual problems for him.
Mean while Barlaam, a desert monk had a vision concerning the prince’s
dilemma. Disguised as a merchant, Barlaam calls on the prince and presented him
a precious pearl. Then follows a long discourse on the vanity of the world and
the splendour of Christianity. The discourse has made use of the parables of
the Gospels as well as the fables of the East. Having baptized Josaphat,
Barlaam retires to the desert. The king was furious and attempted in vain to
reconvert the prince. Finally, following the advice of his ministers, the king
asks an old man named Nachor to convince the prince in the costumes of Barlaam.
But Nachor, inspired by God, makes a splendid apology of Christianity. In fact
this apology is the reproduction of the work of Aristide of Athens, a second
century philosopher and Apologist. Thus the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat has
preserved an earlier version of Aristide’s apology. However, the legend says
that Nachor was converted to Christianity. The king Abenner was convinced of
the truth of Christianity and received baptism along with his people. After the
death of his father, Josaphat renounced the crown and went to the desert to
meet his master Barlaam and spent the rest of his life as monk. At their death,
the bodies of Barlaam and Josaphat were placed in the same tomb, which became a
center of numerous miracles.
One
can easily distinguish elements of folklore in the story. According to the
biography of Buddha as narrated in Lalitha Visthara, at the birth of
Sidhartha (the first name of Buddha), the priests predicted that the prince
would renounce the crown. In spite of the precautions, the young prince became
aware of the suffering and death and became very sad. Later he met an itinerant
monk (bikshu) and discusses the questions on the meaning of life and
human destiny. Several common traits are found in our legend and in the life of
Buddha. Even the names of the heroes of the legend are identical. The name
Josaphat has been derived from Bodhisattva, the name of Buddha.
The Greek ‘Ιωασαφ derives from the Arabic Yoûasaf which in turn
derives from Bodhisattva[3].
The Greek Version of the Legend
J.F.Boissonade has edited the Greek text from 3 manuscripts of Paris[4].
This edition, with a Latin translation (by Billy), has been reproduced in
J.P.Migne (PG. 96, 857-1250) among the works of John of Damascus. Most
of the ancient manuscripts attest that John, a monk of the monastery of
St.Sabas, brought the story to Jerusalem. In some manuscripts, he is referred
to as a ‘monk of Saint Sinai’. A few manuscripts of 16th and 17th
centuries attest that some pious men brought the story from India to the
monastery of Saint Sabas in Jerusalem, which was recorded by John of Damascus.
According to two manuscripts (one of Venice and the other of Paris), the story
was translated from Georgian into Greek by Euthymius the Iberian. Modern
scholars reject the attribution to Euthymius or John of Damascus. It has been
generally accepted that the story was composed in the monastery of Saint Sabas
in the first half of the 7th century. A good number of manuscripts
attest the Indian origin of the legend. Apart from the Greek version, Arabic,
Syriac, Ethiopian, Armenian and Hebrew versions are also known.
Syriac Version of the Legend
No
complete text of the Syriac Version of the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat has
so far been discovered. But this does not mean that it was unknown in the
Syriac world. About 800 AD, the legend circulated in Baghdad and enjoyed some
popularity in the Arabic world. [In Basra towards the end of the 10th
century, Ihwan as-Safa movement used the story for their propaganda].
Arnold van Lantschoot has discovered a Syriac version of a parable of
the legend (‘the parable of the three friends’) in Vat.Syr.467, a manuscript
dated 1186 AD written in the East Syrian Script, which he has edited[5].
Another parable of the legend was known to Bar Hebraeus. In his Laughable
Stories, Chapter 10 (“the Selected Stories on the Subject of the Language of
the irrational animals), we find the story of a sparrow caught by a hunter
in his net (No.382 in Budge’s edition)[6].
In fact it was part of the discourse of Barlaam to Josaphat. Thus at least
portions of the Indian legend circulated in Syriac.
The
kernel of the legend may belong to Lalitha Visthara (biography of
Buddha) or Jatakamala, (the birth stories), a collection of the
stories of Buddha of which some have been illustrated in the Ajanta caves (8th
cent BC to 3rd cent. AD). How did the legend reach Mesopotamia and
Jerusalem? Before considering this question, let us discuss the transmission of
Kalilah and Dimnah, the animal stories of Indian origin.
Kalilah and Dimnah
The
Sanskrit collection of stories Panchatantra (“Five techniques”),
probably written in the 4th century AD, is the source of the ‘Book
of Kalilah and Dimnah’ widely circulated in different oriental languages. The
author was perhaps Vishnusarman from the Vakataka empire of South India
(Deccan). This illustrating novel is satirical and aims to teach by examples.
The prime story is the instruction of three young princes averse to formal
education. It was greatly popular and new versions were made with addition from
which it is rather difficult to recover the original work. The title derives
from the names of two jackals, Karataka and Damanaka (who were
brothers), the characters of a story.
In
his Catalogue, Abdh-isho says that the Periodeutes Bodh (6th cent.?)
made the Syriac translation from the “Indian”, that is, Sanskrit original. Bodh
is said to have had charges of the Christians in the remote regions of the
Persian Empire and India. But the editors suggest that the author had a Pahlevi
or Persian version before him. The Syriac translation keeps the older title Kalilagh
and Damnagh. However, the first Syriac translation has been lost.
About the middle of the 8th century, an Arabic translation
was made from Pahlavi by ‘Abdallah ibn al-Mukaffa under the name Kalilah wa
Dimnah. The Arabic version served as the basic text for Syriac,
Persian, Greek and Hebrew translations. According to W.Wright, the Syriac
version was the work of a Christian priest who lived in the 10th or
the 11th century[7].
He has introduced a large number of quotations from the Bible, which are
wanting in the Arabic original.
Transmission of the Indian Stories
It
is unlikely that the ancient Christianity in South India had played any role in
the transmission of Indian literature and ideas to the Middle East. It has been
generally held that the Indian literature reached Syriac, Arabic or other
Middle Eastern languages through Sassanian Persia. The Syriac or Arabic
versions of the Book of Kalilah and Dimnah presuppose a Pahlavi original.
Several scholars believe that the legend of Buddha reached West Asia through
the same channel[8].
However, Abdisho’s claim that Bodh made the Syriac translation from a
‘Sanskrit’ original cannot be discarded as baseless, because the contacts
between India and the Middle East have been attested since 6th
century BC. At least in the case of the legend of Buddha, the history of its
transmission should be understood in the wider context of the cultural
exchanges between India and the ‘West’.
The
earliest contact between Greece and India was made about 510 BC, when Darius
the Great having advanced as far as the Indus river, sent a Greek mercenary
named Scylax of Caryana to sail down the river to its mouth. After a journey,
which lasted for two and a half years, Scylax returned to Arsinoe, the modern
Suez. His accounts were probably used by Herodotus (born in Halicarnassus, not
far from Caryanda, the native place of the Greek traveler Scylax). Herodotus, who wrote in 484 BC, about the
same date as the death of Buddha, has a good deal to tell about India.
Obviously he knew the Buddhist Jatakamala or the birth stories[9].
Herodotus speaks of a religious sect which ate nothing which had life and lived
on grain, like millet, which seems to be a reference to Jains. During this time
Persia served as a link between Greece and India. Indian troops took part in
the invasion of Greece in 480 BC, while Greek official and mercenaries served
in various parts of the Persian Empire, including India. At this time, India
was fully aware of the existence of the Greeks or Ionians, who were referred to
as Yavana or Yona in ancient Indian literature. This would explain the
traces of influences of the Indian ideas on Greek philosophy, especially on
Pythagorus (c.580 BC). Almost all the theories, religious, philosophical and
mathematical, taught by the Pythagoreans were known in India in the sixth
century BC. The Pythagoreans, like the Jains and the Buddhists, refrained from
the destruction of life and eating meat and regarded certain vegetables such as
beans as taboo. The theory of re-birth was dear to the Indians and the Greeks.
Both Pythagorus and Empedocles claimed to possess the power of recollecting
their past births.
The
Invasion of Alexander the Great (325 BC) opened a new era in the history of the
cultural exchanges between India and the West. About the time of Alexander’s
death, a new ruler, Chandragupta Maurya established a vast empire. In 305 he
defeated Seleucus Nicator, the successor of Alexander and a new alliance was
formed by a marriage between Chandragupta (or a member of his family) with a
Greek princess. The relationship between the Greek and Indian courts continued
by Chandragupta’s son and grandson Bindusara and Asoka. Greek ambassadors
resided in Pataliputra, the Mauryan capital. The most important of these was
Megasthenes, who wrote a detailed account of Chandragupta’s empire. When Asoka
became a convert to Buddhism, he dispatched a mission for the conversion of his
neighbours, ‘the King of the Greeks named Antiochus’ and the four other Greek
kings, Ptolemy, Philadelphus of Egypt, Antigonas Gonatas of Macedonia, Magas of
Cyrene, Ptolemy’s half brother and Alexander of Epirius (or of Corinth). We do
not know whether the Buddhist missionaries reached Macedonia or Corinth. But
there is no reason to suppose that they did not reach Alexandria or Antioch.A
flourishing trade was being carried on between Syria and India. Asoka’s empire
stretched west of Kabul and the passage of merchandise through this wild
country was comparatively safe.
With the death of Asoka in 232 BC, the close connection between
Pataliputra and the West Asia appears to have been broken off. The Greek
descendants of Alexander’s colonists in Bactria had declared themselves
independent in 250 BC and had crossed the Hindu Kush and established themselves
in the Punjab. The greatest of the Indo-Bactrian rulers was Menander (c.150
BC), who was converted to Buddhism. His conversion is recorded in Milinda-panha
or Questions of Milinda. The Bactrian Greeks were succeeded by a number of Saka
and Parthian princes, and the king Gondaphorus, whom Saint Thomas converted,
was one among them.
About 48 AD, these tribes were replaced by the Yüeh-chih or Kushana
horde from Central Asia. The Kushana Empire reached its zenith under Kanishka,
who became king about 120 AD. His capital was Peshwar. His empire extended as
far west as Kabul and as far north as Kashgar. Kanishka was a convert to
Buddhism. On his coins Zoroastrian, Hindu, Greek and Buddhist deities were
depicted. Buddha was depicted in Greek dress. Kaniska employed Greek workmen
and silversmiths. Under the Kushanas, the so-called Gandhara school of
sculpture flourished. It was probably the Indo-Greek artists of Gandhara who
evolved the Buddha figure, which is accepted as canonical all over the Buddhist
world today. (This has been disputed). In Antioch, Palmyra and Alexandria,
Indian and Greek merchants and men of letters met so freely to exchange ideas.
Kushanas were particularly anxious to be on good terms with Rome.
Various Indian kings sent a number of embassies from time to time. Strabo
speaks of a visit of an Indian king Pandion (probably one of the Pandhya kings
of the South) about 25 BC. Another Indian embassy went to Rome in AD 99 to
congratulate Trajan on his accession.
Indian philosophy was acquiring a growing reputation in the Hellensitc
schools of Asia Minor and Egypt. The famous miracle-monger Apollonius of Tyana
(c.AD.50) went to Taxila to study under the brahmans. Bardaisan of Edessa
learnt many curious facts about India from an Indian Embassy which came to
Syria in the reign of Elagabalus (AD.218-222). Bardaissan seems to have known a
great deal about the Brahmins and Buddhists and their discipline and mode of
life.
Buddhism was well known to Clement of Alexandria (AD.150-218). He
repeatedly refers to the Buddhists in Alexandria. He is the first Greek author
to mention Buddha by name. He says: “
There are some Indians who follow the precepts of Boutta, whom by an excessive
reverence they have exalted into a god” [Stromate 1:15].
The
contacts between India and the West Asia perhaps found its expression in
Gnosticism, which was a deliberate effort to fuse Christian, Platonic and
Oriental ideas[10].
The Gnostic teacher, a Hellenised Egyptian (first half of the Second century
AD) definitely borrowed his philosophy from the wisdom of the East which he
interwove into the framework of Christianity. Like Buddha, he was a pessimist.
He had remarkable explanation of the reason why God permitted His saints to
suffer martyrdom, which is evidently based on the Buddhist doctrine of Karma.
According to Clement of Alexandria, the theory of Basilides is that the soul
has previously sinned in another life and endures its punishment here. Thus the
elect suffer with the honor of martyrdom and the rest are purified by
appropriate punishment. Basilides was a firm believer in transmigration and
cited John 9:2 (Who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born
blind?) and Rom.7:9 (When commandment came, sin revived and I died)
in support. Basilides’ theory of personality has strong Buddhist
affinities. The soul is without
qualities, but the passion, like the Buddhist skandas, attach themselves
to it as appendages or ‘parasites’. God is unpredictable, almost non-existent,
and the divine entity of Jesus at death alone passed into Nirvana[11]. Similarly the Sabeans of Mesopotamia had been
probably influenced by Buddhism.
This would perhaps explain the origin and transmission of the legend of
Barlaam and Josaphat. The biography of
Buddha was probably adapted by Gnostics, then it was widely circulated among
the Christian monks and eventually it reached Jerusalem[12].
In the case of Kalilah and Dimnah, the Sassanian Persia might be responsible
for its translation and transmission. In fact, the inhabitants of Gundashapur
owed their knowledge of medical science to a physician whom Shapur, the founder
of the city brought from India[13].
Indian medical plants were known in Persia and Mesopotamia. Some of the
medicines were known in the name of the country of origin[14].
To
conclude, the history of the transmission of the Indian ideas and stories is a
complex one, which should be studied in the wider context of the cultural and
religious exchanges between India and the ‘West’. Buddhist, Christian and
Gnostic missionaries made significant contributions in this cultural exchange.
Philosophers, monks and merchants also played their role. Our knowledge of the
history of this exchange is still limited. Historians, archaeologists,
philologists and orientalists should work together to explore this fascinating
area of research.
[1] J.van den Gheyn, “ Barlaam et Josaphat”, Dictionnaire
de Théologie Catholique 2 (Paris, 1932), 410-16.
[2] Cfr. H.Delchaye, Synaxarium ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae,
(1902), col.410.
[3] Bodhisattva has been transcribed in
Arabic as Boûsatf. In fact some Persian and Arabic authors used the form
Boûdâsp. From it the Arabic forms Yoûdsaff and Youâsaf seem to have been derived. DTC.II,
411.
[4]
Anecdota graeca, Paris, 1832, t.IV, pp.1-361.
[5] A.van Lantschoot, “Deux paraboles
syriaques (Roman de Barlaam et Josaphat)”, Le Muséon 79 (1966), 133-154.
[6]
E.A.W.Budge, The Laughable Stories Collected by Mar Gregory John Bar
Hebraeus, London, 1897.
[7]
W.Wright, The Book of Kalilah and Dimnah translated from Arabic into Syriac,
Oxford, 1884.
Keith
Falconer, Kalilah and Dimnah or the Fables of Bidpai, London, 1885.
[8]
See, J.Van den Gheyn, DTC II, 414-16.
[9]
H.G.Rawlinson, “ Early Contacts between India and Europe”, in A.L.Bashem (ed), A
Cultural History of India, (Oxford University Press, 1999, 3rd
Imp.), pp.425-444.
[10]
Gnosticism has been sometimes qualified as “ Orientalism in Hellenic mask”.
See. Rawlinson, op.cit. 437.
[11]
See J.Kennedy, ´Buddhist Gnosticism”, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,(1902),
quoted by Rawlinson, op.cit., p.437.
[12]
This has already been suggested by M.P.Alfaric, “ La vie chrétienne du
Bouddha”, Journal Asiatique
11e s., t.X (1917), 269-288.
[13] Th.Nöeldecke, Geschichte der
Perser….Tabri, Leiden, 1872, p.67. quoted by R.Duval, La litterature syriaque, Paris, 1900,
p.272.n.2.
[14]
See.Philippe Gignoux, “ On the Syriac Pharmacopoeia”, The Harp XI-XII
(1998-99), 193-201.
Dear Baby Varghese Achen, Thank you very much for starting a blog. Contributions from such a great Syriac scholar as you are will be greatly beneficial to the church. Please continue writing.
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