Buddhist Parallels in Inscriptions

Section Three concerns the inscriptions of famed Indian Buddhist king Ashoka or Aśōka (fl. 262-239 BCE ), who sent out Buddhist missionaries to “all parts” of the known world. The traces of the missionaries can be found, evidently, all the way to Great Britain, although the extent of this reach remains a matter of debate. 5

Lockwood’s anthology includes a survey of Ashokan texts, such as the rock edicts from Erragudi, Andhra Pradesh, in which the emperor clearly states, referring to the “conquest through Dharma” or Buddhist practices:

And such a conquest has been achieved by the “Beloved of the Gods” not only here [in his own dominions] but also in the territories bordering [on his dominions], as far away as [at the distance of] six hundred Yojanas, [where] the Yavana king named Antiyoka [is ruling and where], beyond [the kingdom of] the said Antiyoka, four other kings named Tulamaya, Antikeni, Maka and Alikasundara [are also ruling], [and] towards the south, where the Codas and Pandyas [are living], as far as Tamraparni. (Lockwood, 51)

Lockwood (53) notes that “Antiyoka” is Antiochus II (fl. 261-246 BCE ), the Greek ruler of the Seleucid Empire, and “Tulamaya” is Ptolemy II Philadelphius (fl. 285-247 BCE ), while “Antikeni” is Antigonas Gonatas of Macedonia (fl. 277-239 BCE ), “Maka” is Magas of Cyrene (fl. c. 288-258 BCE ), and “Alikasundara” is Alexander II of Epirus (fl. 272-255 BCE ).

As Lockwood demonstrates by including several other such inscriptions, the same proclamation can be found in multiple places around the relevant area, providing further evidence of Buddhism’s migration into the Near East, Greece, Egypt and Africa during the third century BCE .

Medical Missionaries

Ashokan Edict 2 from Girnar (Lockwood, 54) discusses the sending out of “medical missionaries,” explicitly mentioning Antiochus’s kingdom again. This fact rates as interesting, in light of the suggested appearance of the “Therapeuts” or “healers” in Egypt sometime between this era and the first centuries BCE to AD/CE . These wandering healers were specified for both humans and animals; thus, this Buddhist mission represented an early form of “Doctors and Veterinarians without Borders.”

The edicts such as found near Kandahar and now in the Kabul Museum contain the text both in Greek and Aramaic, the latter eventually replaced by the former as the lingua franca of the era and area. This fact serves as further evidence of the existence in Aramaic-speaking areas of Buddhist ideas, with Buddhist doctrinal migrations into Aramaic-speaking cultures, such as at Antioch. Hebrew, it should be recalled, is a close relative of Aramaic, and it is widely believed that the “historical” Jesus spoke Aramaic. In this same regard, Aramaic was spoken as far east as the Bactrian kingdoms in what is now Iran and Afghanistan.

The contention that Buddhistic ideas could be found in Antioch—the city where, according to the biblical book of Acts (11:26), Jesus’s followers were first called “Christians”—three centuries before the apostle Paul supposedly spent much significant time in that city (Gal 2:11-14) is highly suggestive of Buddhistic influence on the Christian effort.