TL;DR

“Conquest by Dharma has been won here… and also among the Greeks (Yonas).”
— Major Rock Edict 13, Aśoka (3rd c. BCE), tr. N. A. Nikam & R. McKeon, via Ancient Buddhist Texts

What counts as a “connection”?#

By “connection” we mean historically evidenced channels (people, texts, inscriptions, institutions), not just similarity. Evidence falls into: (1) textual attestations of encounters; (2) bilingual/Greek inscriptions in Buddhist regions; (3) narratives of Greco-Buddhist dialogue; (4) prosopography of Greek Buddhists; and (5) conceptual correspondences argued by comparativists. Each is graded below with sources and caveats.

1) Contact in the historical record (4th–1st c. BCE)#

2) Archaeology, empire, and roads#

Table 1. Chronology of well-attested Greco–Buddhist contacts#

Date (BCE/CE)Event / EvidenceWhat it shows
327–325 BCEAlexander in NW India; reports of gymnosophists (Dandamis, Calanus) in Greek sources (Arrian, Strabo)Direct philosophical encounters; Greek curiosity toward Indian askēsis. (Arrian; Strabo)
c. 325 BCEPyrrho travels east with Alexander; later teaches epochē/ataraxia (DL 9)Plausible Buddhist contact shaping Pyrrhonism; evidence is suggestive, not clinching. (DL; SEP)
c. 260s BCEAśoka’s Major Rock Edict 13 names Greek kings; Greek edict at KandaharBuddhist proclamation aimed at Greek audiences; trans-imperial moral mission. (Aśoka; BM)
3rd–2nd c. BCEYona monks in Mahāvaṃsa (Dhammarakkhita; Mahādhammarakkhita)Greeks inside the Saṅgha; bidirectional religious movement. (Geiger tr.)
2nd–1st c. BCE/CEMilindapañha (Nāgasena–Menander); Plutarch on Menander’s ashesFormal Greco-Buddhist philosophical dialogue; Buddhist commemoration of a Greek king. (Rhys Davids; Plutarch)

Doctrines: parallels, influence claims, and critiques

Pyrrhonism & early Buddhism#

The classic case is the claim that Pyrrho imported a Buddhist-like therapy. Modern reconstructions hinge on Aristocles’ report (via Eusebius) of Pyrrho’s three marks of things: adiaphora (undifferentiated), astathmēta (unstable), anepikrita (undecidable)—which some align with anicca/duḥkha/anattā. Beckwith 2015; Kuzminski 2008, (https://www.routledge.com/Pyrrhonism-How-the-Ancient-Greeks-Reinvented-Buddhism/Kuzminski/p/book/9780739124019). Skeptics note the thin textual bridge and late testimonia; the therapeutic telos (ataraxia) is shared across Greek schools. SEP

Pyrrhonian term (Aristocles)Claimed Buddhist analogueCaution
adiaphora (no fixed nature)anattā (no self)“Nature” vs “self” is not one-to-one; textual dependence unproven. [Beckwith; critiques in reviews]
astathmēta (unstable)anicca (impermanence)Genuine overlap possible via common phenomenology.
anepikrita (undecidable)avyākata (undetermined), noble silenceStrongest resemblance, but also matches Greek skepticism broadly. [SEP]

Assessment. Afaict, influence is plausible given Pyrrho’s travels and the Kandahar Greek edict milieu; yet direct textual dependence is unproven and debated. Balanced treatments: McEvilley (comparativist synthesis), and critiques by Indologists reviewing Beckwith. (McEvilley 2002)

Stoicism/Epicureanism & Buddhism#

Shared aims: passion-therapy, training of attention, moderation, cosmopolitan ethics. But metaphysics/ontology diverge (Stoic logos and corporealism; Buddhist anattā/dependent origination). The safest read: partial convergence within a trans-Eurasian askēsis culture rather than one-way borrowing. [McEvilley 2002; general overviews in SEP entries]

Third sources: Near Eastern and Indo-Iranian feeders#

Before Alexander, Greek philosophy already shows Near Eastern imprints.

Takeaway. Similarities between Greek and Buddhist ideas need not imply direct borrowing: both could be drawing from older Near Eastern/Indo-Iranian repertoires, then refined through local philosophical projects.

What we can and cannot say#

  1. We can say Greeks and Buddhists met, talked, and sometimes shared communities (e.g., Yona monks). Mahāvaṃsa; Milindapañha, (https://archive.org/details/questionsofkingm00rhyuuoft)
  2. We can say certain conceptual toolkits overlap (skeptical suspension; desire-therapy; equanimity). [SEP; McEvilley]
  3. We cannot presently prove a specific text-to-text derivation for any core Buddhist doctrine from Greek sources, nor vice-versa—except that Buddhist public communications addressed Greeks directly (Aśoka’s Greek edict) and Greek rulers/monks participated in Buddhism. (Aśoka; Kandahar), (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1896-0908-6)
  4. We should expect mutual influence at the margins, third-source feeding, and parallel invention—not a single ancestor for “the same doctrine.”

FAQ#

Q1. Did Buddhism “cause” Greek Skepticism?
A. Unproven. Pyrrho’s Indian travel plus close programmatic parallels make influence plausible, but evidence is circumstantial; Pyrrhonism also fits longer Greek skeptical traditions. [Diog. Laert.; SEP; Beckwith; Kuzminski]

Q2. Was there a Greek Buddhist king?
A. Menander (Milinda) is the best case: dialogued with Nāgasena and received a Buddhist-coded funeral per Plutarch. Proof of engagement, not that “Greek states became Buddhist.” [Milindapañha; Plutarch]

Q3. Are Stoicism and Buddhism “the same”?
A. No. They share therapeutic aims and practices but diverge on metaphysics (Stoic logos vs Buddhist no-self/emptiness). Convergence and intercultural askēsis likely explain most overlap. [McEvilley 2002]

Q4. What’s the strongest single artifact tying Greeks to Buddhism?
A. The Greek Edict of Aśoka from Kandahar—a Buddhist moral proclamation composed in Greek for a Greek audience. (BM catalog)

Footnotes#

Sources#

  1. This report scopes “Buddhist philosophy” to early sutta/śramaṇa frames and subsequent Gandhāran/Indo-Greek interactions; later Mahāyāna/Neoplatonic contacts are real but outside the core evidence treated here. ↩︎