[Shaahayda Rizvi]

Hello R cubed,

Thank you ever so much for the link to “Four Aims of Indian Life (Audio: Lecture II.4.5)”.  Interesting that Joe Campbell puts it this way, “They had all been students of Aristotle and Plato and so forth. And they thought they were going to have an interesting conversation with like-minded Oriental spirits.. — Joseph Campbell” I am going to listen to that Audio Lecture tonight.

Indian historians say,  “After conquering the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, the Macedonian king Alexander, launched a campaign into the Indian subcontinent in present-day Pakistan, part of which formed the easternmost territories of the Achaemenid Empire following the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley (late 6th century BC). After gaining control of the former Achaemenid satrapy of Gandhara, including the city of Taxila, Alexander advanced into Punjab, where he engaged in battle against the regional king Porus, whom Alexander defeated in the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC,[1][2]”

Another interesting tidbit from Wikipedia, “The Greek writers mention the priestly class of Brahmanas (as “Brachmanes”), who are described as teachers of Indian philosophy.[16] They do not refer to the existence of any religious temples or idols in India, although such references commonly occur in their descriptions of Alexander’s campaigns in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Iran. Greek accounts mention naked ascetics called gymnosophists. A philosopher named Calanus (probably a Greek transcription of the Indian name “Kalyana”) accompanied Alexander to Persepolis, where he committed suicide on a public funeral pyre: he was probably a Jain or an Ajivika monk. Curiously, there is no reference to Buddhism in the Greek accounts.[17]”  Taxila is chock full of Buddhist temples and stupas, so why was Buddhism not mentioned?

Shaheda