Early Buddhism and the Greeks

Abstract

Greek thinkers are important witnesses for the Buddhism of the fourth to first centuries BCE in India. Both Pyrrho and his teacher Anaxarchus were exposed to Buddhist ideas while travelling with Alexander in India in 326 BCE. Buddhist forms of argument, such as the tetralemma, reappear in Pyrrho. Some scholars have argued that key elements of Buddhism, including the Four Noble Truths, and the doctrine of no self, only arose much later; but archaeological evidence, such as the sculptures of Sanchi, indicate that key doctrines, as enshrined in the jatakas, were circulating in the Indo-Greek period in India. Anecdotes about Anaxarchus also suggest familiarity with the idea of no self, while the Pali work The Questions of King Milinda suggests that the Greek king Menander could have raised questions about Buddhist doctrine at an early date (ca. 150 BCE).