Place · Greek city · Greece
Athens
Strabo and Dio Cassius record that an Indian embassy sent to Augustus reached him about 20 BCE, and that a member of its party, a sramana whom the Greeks called Zarmanochegas, burned himself alive at Athens and was given a monument inscribed as an Indian from Bargosa — Bharuch.
- Function
- Archaeology & heritage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 37.984, 23.727
Worth knowing
It is the earliest datable record of an Indian ascetic in Europe, and the inscription named his home port, which means somebody in Athens knew where Bharuch was.
Connections (3)
- Life routeZarmanochegas
Strabo and Dio Cassius record that an Indian embassy reached Augustus about 20 BCE and that a sramana travelling with it burned himself alive at Athens, laughing, having decided to end while things were good. A monument was raised over his ashes inscribed as the Indian from Bargosa — Bharuch. It is the first datable Indian religious figure in Europe, and the inscription names his home port, which means someone in Athens knew where it was.
- Life routeBharuch (Barygaza)
The sramana who burned himself at Athens about 20 BCE was described on his monument as an Indian from Bargosa, which is Bharuch. He had travelled with an embassy from a king the Greeks called Porus. The route he took is the Periplus route, and his epitaph is the only inscription in Europe naming an Indian port as someone's home.
- Succession in timeBabylon
Seleucus sent Megasthenes to Pataliputra after losing the eastern satrapies about 305 BCE; three centuries later an Indian embassy reached Augustus and one of its members died publicly at Athens. Diplomatic traffic between India and the Mediterranean ran for the whole of that period, and almost everything known about it comes from Greek and Latin authors quoting each other.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Athens”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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