I am a professional historian who came to the Indian world years ago through studies of epic, mythology, and gender. When I read the Mahabharata, I was surprised that its internal coherence was not apparent. I connected with authors such as Alf Hiltebeite, who saw things in the same way. By then, I found evidence that its author used different materials, including Greco-Roman. And that his work was set at the time—around the turn of the era—when Afro-Eurasia was united in a very intense network of relations, exchanging merchandise, ideas, and many other things (including viruses). I have been trying to find out things about this brilliant author since.
I wrote...
In Search of Vyāsa: The Use of Greco-Roman Sources in Book 4 of the Mahābhārata
I liked this book very much because it is a brave book. It is becoming more and more difficult to accept that ancient Indian culture was influenced by outside influences, as is the case with all parts of the world.
But at the time, it was already a debated issue. This book advocated an open perspective on the Indian past and present. I was very pleased to see the author's lack of prejudice and wide knowledge. I enjoyed it very much.
At first glance, it seems like a rather unexciting book, to be honest. But it is enough to look at the table of contents to see that the author argues that one of the basic and oldest manuals of Indian architecture had borrowed whole sections from the best manual we have on Roman (that is, Greco-Roman) architecture: the book of Vitruvius.
I was shocked the first time I read it. This is another of the great enigmas of the subject: how is it that this text is hidden and the consequences of such massive borrowing are not brought out?
What I like about Prakash's book is that it is a very analytical text, very technical in a sense: it is simply trying to see if there are influences in Indian mythological stories from other cultures.
And with the same simplicity, he shows that there are, and in particular, Greek ones. He does it in such a way that you don't have to know much about Indian myths to understand it, and with a lot of (sometimes too much?) prudence.
Dr. Arora's present book is indeed a most welcome addition to the growing field of comparative mythological studies. The work is a very thorough investigation into some of the major themes and motifs in Indian mythology in a much wider and comparative perspective. He has carefully selected them from Indian, Greek, West-Asian, and other sources. The result obtained by him provides an amazing story of interaction between various cultural traditions through space and time. This is a painstaking work of research and a substantial contribution not only to the History of Indian Civilization but also to that of the ancient…
Of the five recommended books, this is the most current. No wonder there are so many years in between. Maintaining that there are external influences in India is very dangerous academically. I like that Morales-Harley, a young scholar who knows Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, dared to do it.
I like his book because it is well written, well argued, and always leaves open alternative interpretation possibilities.
This volume presents a sophisticated and intricate examination of the parallels between Sanskrit and Greco-Roman literature. By means of a philological and literary analysis, Morales-Harley hypothesizes that Greco-Roman literature was known, understood, and recreated in India. Moreover, it is argued that the techniques for adapting epic into theater could have been Greco-Roman influences in India, and that some of the elements adapted within the literary motifs (specifically the motifs of the embassy, the ambush, and the ogre) could have been Greco-Roman borrowings by Sanskrit authors.This book draws on a wide variety of sources, including Iliad, Phoenix, Rhesus and Cyclops (Greco-Roman)…
I wanted to end my list with another book by an Indian author. This is a text similar to Acharya's, a text that impressed me when I found it and that almost no one cites.
This is an author who argues not only that there are external influences in ancient India but that it is a constant in Indian history and that there is no reason to be ashamed of it. Why should there be? It is a basic text in the good sense of the word, a brave book that deserves to be reread.
My book seeks to prove that in Book 4 of the Mahabharata, there is a massive use of Greek and Roman texts that refer to the story of Heracles, his year of servitude in anonymity under Queen Omphale. It is a very spectacular theme involving the cross-dressing of Herakles.
It appears in authors such as Sophocles and Ovid, as well as in representations of the plastic arts. All its features (including transvestism) are projected in this book, which describes a year of servitude and anonymity of the protagonists of the Mahabharata and their common wife under King Virata.
