Zarmanochegas
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Zarmanochegas (
Pandion mission
Self-immolation and tomb in Athens
A tomb was made to the sramana, still visible in the time of
The same thing was done long after by another Indian who came with Caesar to Athens, where they still show you "the Indian's Monument."[11]
Strabo's (died AD 24) account at Geographia xv,i,4 is as follows:
From one place in India, and from one king, namely, Pandian, or, according to others, Porus, presents and embassies were sent to Augustus Caesar. With the ambassadors came the Indian
.
Strabo adds (at xv, i, 73)
To these accounts may be added that of Nicolaus Damascenus. This writer states that at
Augustus Caesar. It appeared from the letter that several persons were mentioned in it, but three only survived, whom he says he saw. The rest had died chiefly in consequence of the length of the journey. The letter was written in Greek upon a skin; the import of it was, that Porus was the writer, that although he was sovereign of six hundred kings, yet that he highly esteemed the friendship of Cæsar; that he was willing to allow him a passage through his country, in whatever part he pleased, and to assist him in any undertaking that was just. Eight naked servants, with girdles round their waists, and fragrant with perfumes, presented the gifts which were brought. The presents were a Hermes (i. e. a man) born without arms, whom I have seen, large snakes, a serpent ten cubits in length, a river tortoise of three cubits in length, and a partridge larger than a vulture. They were accompanied by the person, it is said, who burnt himself to death at Athens. This is the practice with persons in distress, who seek escape from existing calamities, and with others in prosperous circumstances, as was the case with this man. For as everything hitherto had succeeded with him, he thought it necessary to depart, lest some unexpected calamity should happen to him by continuing to live; with a smile, therefore, naked, anointed, and with the girdle round his waist, he leaped upon the pyre. On his tomb was this inscription:
Dio Cassio's (died AD 235) later account reads:
For a great many embassies came to him, and 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 (for Augustus had reached Athens);— 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.[13]
Based on the different ways Strabo and Dio Cassio render the name (Zarmanochegas, Zarmarus), modern scholars attempted at interpreting Strabo's version as a combination of two words carrying additional information (see below under "Interpretation of the inscription in regard to religious affiliation"), thus raising the question of the state of the tomb inscription at different times in the past.
The
Interpretation of the inscription in regard to religious affiliation
HL Jones (2006) interprets the inscription as mentioned by Strabo and sees two words at the beginning, instead of one name:
The Sramana master, an Indian, a native of Bargosa, having immortalized himself according to the custom of his country, lies here.[18]
Groskurd (1833) refers to Zarmanochegas as Zarmanos Chanes and as an Indian wiseman (indischer Weiser).[19]
Priaulx (1873) translates the name in Sanskrit as çramanakarja ("teacher of Shamans") and adds "which points him out as of the Buddhist faith and a priest, and, as his death proves, a priest earnest in his faith.[20]
Halkias (2015) situates Zarmanochegas within a lineage of Buddhist sramanas who had adopted the custom of setting themselves on fire.[21]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book XV Chapter 1 (§§ 39‑73)". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
- ^ Strabo, xv, 1, on the immolation of the Sramana in Athens (Paragraph 73).
- Dio Cassius, liv, 9.
- ^ Strabo, xv, 1, on the immolation of the Sramana in Athens (Paragraph 73).
- Dio Cassius, liv, 9.
- ISBN 978-1-4021-6154-4.
- ^ Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx. The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana and the Indian Embassies, London 1873, pp67 et seq.
- ^ Evelyn Schuckburgh. Augustus. London 1903 Appendix 31.
- ^ Plutarch. 'Life of Alexander' in The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. (trans John Dryden and revised Arthur Hugh Clough) The Modern Library (Random House Inc). New York.p850
- ISBN 3-16-148875-Xpp122-125
- ^ Plutarch. 'Life of Alexander' in The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. (trans John Dryden and revised Arthur Hugh Clough) The Modern Library (Random House Inc). New York. p850
- ^ Strabo, xv, 1.73.
- Dio Cassius, liv, 9.
- ISBN 0521553407p 122.
- ^ Charles Eliot. Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch vol 1. Curzon Press, Richmond 1990. p 431 fn 4.
- ^ McCrindle JW. The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great. Kessinger Publishing. Montana 2004. p 389. https://books.google.com/books?id=ncDFRgtSysIC&dq=zarmanochegas&pg=PA389 (accessed 12 December 2012)
- ISBN 978-1-4021-6154-4.
- ISBN 3-16-148875-Xp125
- ^ Christoph Gottlieb Groskurd. Strabons Erdbeschreibung. Berlin und Stettin. 1833 p470
- ^ Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx. The Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana and the Indian Embassies London 1873 p78.
- ^ "The Self-immolation of Kalanos and other Luminous Encounters among Greeks and Indian Buddhists in the Hellenistic world." Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Vol. VIII, 2015: 163-186. [1]