The Naked Wise Men of India
The main aim of this study is the transmission of the image of the "naked philosophers" (gymnosophistai), identified with the Brahmans, from Hellenistic authors to late antiquity. The earlier descriptions have the double purpose of, on the one hand, defining the cultural distance separatin...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2021
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| In: |
Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
Year: 2021, Volume: 87, Issue: 2, Pages: 673-695 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Greece (Antiquity)
/ India
/ Cultural contact
/ Indian philosophy
/ Ascetic
/ Cultic nakedness
/ Reception
/ Literature
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| IxTheo Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism BE Greco-Roman religions BK Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity KBK Europe (East) KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
Philosophers
B Alexander B Gymnosophists B Alessandro B Brahmans B Fathers of the church B Nakedness B Gimnosofisti B nudità B Brahmanism B Bramani B Hellenistic antiquities |
| Summary: | The main aim of this study is the transmission of the image of the "naked philosophers" (gymnosophistai), identified with the Brahmans, from Hellenistic authors to late antiquity. The earlier descriptions have the double purpose of, on the one hand, defining the cultural distance separating the gymnosophists from what the classical world was, or felt to be; and on the other hand, of idealizing Indian wisdom, according to an entirely intellectual Greek model. Moreover, gymnosophists appear in the Alexander Romance, where they meet the Macedonian king, as emblems of a utopian community living in the state of nature. In a group of Christian texts from late antiquity, known as the "Indian treatises", we find descriptions of Alexander's encounter with the Brahman philosopher Dandamis/Dindimus. The latter is represented in a positive light as a symbol of "renunciation of the world". Finally, in some writings by the Church Fathers, though the nudity of the Indian sages is either justified or glossed over, the wise men still embody the cultural pattern of inclusion/exclusion of otherness previously elaborated by Greek thought. (English) |
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| ISSN: | 2611-8742 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
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