The Gymnosophists of Ancient India

Gymnosophists is the name (meaning "naked philosophers") given by the Greeks to certain ancient Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought (sadhus or yogis).They were probably the Naga Sadhus who are still in existence and are considered as the devotees of Lord Shiva.


The Digambar Jain monks in India even now remain unclothed; they have been identified as the gymnosophists by several researchers,.[1][2] Xuanzang mentions having come across Digambar Jain monks in Taxila during his 7th century CE visit to India,[3] in the same Punjab region where Alexander encountered the gymnosophists.


The term is first used by Plutarch  in the 1st century CE, when describing an encounter by Alexander the Great with ten gymnosophists in Punjab.

He (Alexander) captured ten of the Gymnosophists who had done most to get Sabbas to revolt, and had made the most trouble for the Macedonians. These philosophers were reputed to be clever and concise in answering questions, and Alexander therefore put difficult questions to them, declaring that he would put to death him who first made an incorrect answer, and then the rest, in an order determined in like manner; and he commanded one of them, the oldest, to be the judge in the contest. The first one, accordingly, being asked which, in his opinion, were more numerous, the living or the dead, said that the living were, since the dead no longer existed. The second, being asked whether the earth or the sea produced larger animals, said the earth did, since the sea was but a part of the earth. The third, being asked what animal was the most cunning, said: "That which up to this time man has not discovered." The fourth, when asked why he had induced Sabbas to revolt, replied: "Because I wished him either to live nobly or to die nobly." The fifth, being asked which, in his opinion, was older, day or night, replied: "Day, by one day"; and he added, upon the king expressing amazement, that hard questions must have hard answers. Passing on, then, to the sixth, Alexander asked how a man could be most loved; "If," said the philosopher, "he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear." Of the three remaining, he who was asked how one might become a god instead of man, replied: "By doing something which a man cannot do"; the one who was asked which was the stronger, life or death, answered: "Life, since it supports so many ills." And the last, asked how long it were well for a man to live, answered: "Until he does not regard death as better than life." So, then, turning to the judge, Alexander bade him give his opinion. The judge declared that they had answered one worse than another. "Well, then," said Alexander, "thou shalt die first for giving such a verdict." "That cannot be, O King," said the judge, "unless thou falsely saidst that thou wouldst put to death first him who answered worst."

—Plutarch, Life of Alexander, "The parallel lives," 64., ^[4]

Diogenes Laertius (ix. 61 and 63) refers to them, and reports that Pyrrho of Elis, the founder of pure scepticism, came under the influence of the Gymnosophists while travelling to India with Alexander, and on his return to Elis, imitated their habits of life; however, the extent of their influence is not described.
Strabo says that gymnosophists were religious people among the Indians (XVI,I), and otherwise divides Indian philosophers into Brahmans and Sramanas (XV,I,59-60), following the accounts of Megasthenes. He further divides the Sramanas into "Hylobioi" (forest hermits, c.f. Aranyaka) and "Physicians."

Of the Sarmanes, the most honourable, he says, are the Hylobii, who live in the forests, and subsist on leaves and wild fruits: they are clothed with garments made of the bark of trees, and abstain from commerce with women and from wine.

—Strabo XV, I,60

Of the Sarmanes (...) second in honour to the Hylobii, are the physicians, for they apply philosophy to the study of the nature of man. They are of frugal habits, but do not live in the fields, and subsist upon rice and meal, which every one gives when asked, and receive them hospitably. (...) Both this and the other class of persons practise fortitude, as well in supporting active toil as in enduring suffering, so that they will continue a whole day in the same posture, without motion.

—Strabo XV, I,60

Philo mentions the Gymnosophists twice in the course of listing foreign ascetics and philosophers who are, in his estimation, "prudent, and just, and virtuous" and therefore truly free:

And among the Indians there is the class of the gymnosophists, who, in addition to natural philosophy, take great pains in the study of moral science likewise, and thus make their whole existence a sort of lesson in virtue.

—Philo Judaeus, Every Good Man is Free, 74

But it is necessary for us...to bring forward as corroborative testimonies the lives of some particular good men who are the most undeniable evidences of freedom. Calanus was an Indian by birth, one of the gymnosophists; he, being looked upon as the man who was possessed of the greatest fortitude of all his contemporaries, and that too, not only by his own countrymen, but also by foreigners, which is the rarest of all things, was greatly admired by some kings of hostile countries, because he had combined virtuous actions with praiseworthy language.

—Philo Judaeus, Every Good Man is Free, 92-93.

In the 2nd century CE, the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria distinguishes the Gymnosophists, the philosophers of the Indians, from the Sramanas, "the philosophers of the Bactrians":

Philosophy, then, with all its blessed advantages to man, flourished long ages ago among the barbarians, diffusing its light among the gentiles, and eventually penetrated into Greece. Its hierophants were the prophets among the Egyptians, the Chaldeans among the Assyrians, the Druids among the Galatians, the Sramanas of the Bactrians, and the philosophers of the Celts, the Magi among the Persians who announced beforehand the birth of the Saviour, being led by a star till they arrived in the land of Judaea, and among the Indians the Gymnosophists, and other philosophers of barbarous nations.

—Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.15.71 (ed. Colon. 1688 p. 305, A, B).

1. Jacquetta Hopkins Hawkes, The Atlas of Early Man, St. Martin's Press, 1993.
2. Professor A.L. Basham, My Guruji, Sachindra Kumar Maity, 1997.
3. Bhanwarlal Nathuram Luniya, Life and Culture in Ancient India: From the Earliest Times to 1000 A.D. Lakshmi Narain Agarwal publisher,1978,
4. Life of Alexander, 64

Chandragupta Maurya came, saw and used what he saw to conquer.

BY DOUG TSURUOKA

Chandragupta Maurya came, saw and used what he saw to conquer.

The first ruler to unify most of India used his keen powers ofobservation to win an empire.

In 325 B.C., historians say, a young Chandragupta watched the army of Alexander the Great parade through the city of Taxila in northwest India. Alexander had invaded India after conquering the Persian Empire. Taxila would mark the eastern limit of Alexander's empire before he turned back to his capital in Babylon in what's nowIraq.

Chandragupta, at the time, was an exile living in Taxila. He'd fled there after launching a failed coup against the ruler of his native state of Magadha in northeast India.

Chandragupta's origins are obscure. Historian H.G. Rawlinson says hemight've been the illegitimate son of the ruling monarch of Magadha. Others say Chandragupta's father was a warrior who'd been killed ina civil war before he was born.

Watching the soldiers of the Macedonian phalanx file by with their long spears, Chandragupta saw the Greeks had a superior system of tactics and military organization. He decided to learn as much as he could about the Macedonian art of war.

Chandragupta struck up friendships with Alexander's officers. He questioned them closely about their weapons, training and strategy. Chandragupta was even granted an audience with Alexander. He tried to persuade Alexander to conquer his home state of Magadha and install him as viceroy.

Alexander, facing a mutiny from his tired troops, was wary ofanother 1,000-mile march to the east to take Magadha. He refused Chandragupta's entreaty.

But Chandragupta waited for his opportunity. When Alexander died in Babylon two years later, Chandragupta and some followers overturned the small Greek garrison in Taxila.

He then built an Indian army modeled on Macedonian lines, drilling his troops in the techniques he'd learned. He taught them to mass in the tight lines of Alexander's phalanx and field cavalry.

He also studied other successful military strategies, and incorporated the best into his plan. He wove traditional chariots and elephants of Indian warfare into his battle lines, bringing them together as a single unit.

Chandragupta then marched on Magadha. With his superior warriors, he easily defeated its army and killed its king in battle.

The victory made Chandragupta ruler of Magadha and laid the cornerstone of the Mauryan Empire. At its height in 250 B.C., his grandson Ashoka would rule thousands of square miles of India from the Bay of Bengal in the east to the Arabian Sea in the west, almost to the tip of southern India.

More Than A Warrior

The Macedonians who inherited Alexander's empire weren't happy that Chandragupta wiped out their garrison in Taxila.

In 305 B.C., Seleucus Nicator, who became ruler of western Asia after Alexander's empire was partitioned, tried to retake Taxila.

Chandragupta was unafraid. He used his Macedonian-style army to defeat Seleucus, beating the Greeks at their own game.

But Chandragupta knew that diplomacy was longer lasting than brute force in the political field. He also seems to have felt kindly toward the Macedonians, having learned so much from their military tactics and culture. He negotiated with Seleucus, persuading him to cede large parts of Afghanistan that had been conquered by theGreeks. But knowing that Seleucus was fighting rivals in the west for the right to succeed Alexander, Chandragupta eased the pain by giving Seleucus 500 Indian war elephants as a gift.

Seleucus (who was nowhere near as good as Alexander in war) needed all the help he could get. He accepted the elephants graciously. And the two rulers sealed their alliance with marriages and other aid.

A Greek diplomat named Megasthenes visited Magadha and wrote that Chandragupta's strict, highly centralized government resembled the one used by Alexander to rule the Persian Empire.

Though king, Chandragupta never gave in to luxury. He threw himself into the task of ruling his empire and was rarely idle.

He apparently kept a strict schedule. Megasthenes says Chandragupta woke at dawn every day. After religious rites, he visited his lawcourts and audience hall. There, he received ministers, heard reports from spies and did correspondence.

In the evening, Chandragupta inspected his troops and forts. To ensure he got exercise daily, he often went hunting before going to bed.

He kept careful records of his successes and failures, compiling a manual of politics and statecraft called the Arthashastra during his reign. The document provided a model for later Indian kings.

Though much of its advice is harsh, it also contains the following passage: "In the happiness of his subjects lies a king's happiness. In the welfare of his subjects, his welfare."

Military Innovator

Chandragupta constantly looked for new techniques in war, and he excelled as a military innovator. He created an army that was readyto fight at a moment's notice.

He came up with the idea of not letting soldiers have personal possessions. The government issued everything, including equipment, food and sundry pleasures, noted the Greek historian Nearchus.

As such, Chandragupta reasoned, the soldiers had nothing to tie them down when the time came to fight.

Chandragupta also realized that pomp and splendor could be effective in winning the obedience of his subjects. He often rode through the streets on the back of an elephant emblazoned with gold and silver. He wore fine muslin robes embroidered in purple and gold and had a flock of trained parrots that flew around his head at state events.

Chandragupta's methodical nature helped him survive countless plots against his life. He never slept twice in the same bed and tested all his food and drink against poison.

But Chandragupta eventually tired of absolute rule. He converted to Jainism, an Indian sect that opposes all violence and killing, abdicating his throne in 298 B.C. to become a Jain monk.

Legend has it that he died while fasting.