India and the Hellenistic World

KLAUS KARTTUNEN, born 12 February 1951, is Professor of South Asian Studies and Indo-European Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland. His research has focused on the relationship between the Indian subcontinent of the west and the western world, especially the classical antiquity from the Greek and Roman resources. Karttunen’s other major interest is the history and philosophy of Indology. He has published in Finnish a major book about the subject, and is currently preparing a biobibliography of deceased Indologists. Karttunen is currently working on a Jaiminisamaprayoga edition, a medieval Sanskrit handbook for domestic rituals belonging to the Tamil Jaiminiiya School. He has also taken part in Parpola’s Samavedic research program. His publications include: Short Sanskrit Grammar (1984), India and Early Greek Literature (1989), Humor In Ancient India: Three Playlet ((2000)), Vidyavavandanam : Essays in Honor of Asko Parapola (edited 2001), Rigveda: Ancient Indian Selection of Hymns ((2003)) and History of Indological Studies, edited volume of 12th WSC paper, MLBD (2015).
In three volumes, the author plans Graeco–Indian relations through their history. This India in Early Greek Literature, the present volume, and India and The Hellenistic World, the second volume, respectively, are the first and third volumes. The third volume is India And the Roman West. The author discusses the Indian accounts in Greece and the relationship between India and Greece up to Alexander’s Indian campaign. Megasthenes and other later authors were not mentioned unless their information was relevant to this purpose. The current volume focuses on the Hellenistic period, in the narrowest sense, which includes Alexander and the rise of Roman Imperial Hegemony. It is the main purpose of this book to discuss, explain, and collect relevant passages in Greek and Latin literature. This discussion will be in relation to Greek society and Roman literary traditions. There will also be information on India and other Asian countries. Although the methods are philological in nature, the author also tried to use new evidence from disciplines such as archaeology and epigraphy.