SV: 16th century European contacts with Hinduism

[Steve Farmer]

Nanda Chandran writes:

> Isn't there a reference in one of Plato's works, of a meeting between
> Socrates and an Indian gymnosophist? If I remember right, the Indian
> gymnosophist is said to have mocked at the Greek philosopher's definition of
> philosophy, saying the science had no meaning if it didn't relate to the
> divine.

You have the story right, but it doesn't show up in the Platonic
corpus (for 'Plato's works,' read 'works of the 4th-century BCE
Platonic school') -- too early. However, stories like this floated
around quite a bit in the wake of the Greek conquests in northern
India (more Indo-European invaders!) at the end of the 4th century.

In extant documents, this *particular* story first shows up in the 4th
century CE -- nearly 800 years after the death of 'Socrates'! -- in
the Church historian Eusebios (d. 340 CE). See _Evangelicae
Praeparationis_ 15.11.3; cf. Sedlar (1980: 14 and 306, n. 33).
Eusebius says that he got the story from the (lost) works of
Aristokles, who supposedly got it from the (lost) works of
Aristoxenos, a 4th century BCE musicologist. The story illustrates
that manuscript traditions were no less confused in the premodern West
than in India, although chronology isn't *quite* as big of a problem.