Greek and Indian traditions of the male nude met at Taxila in 326 B.C. when Alexander the Great met the Gymnosophists. Source analysis of 31 classical authors reveals that the reliable parts of the Gymnosophist story came from four companions of Alexander. Absences explain their contradictions. Later additions lacked truth. / Though Gymnosophists have often been called Jains, the only productive clue as to their identity is that Pyrrho of Elis taught the doctrine of Sanjaya, a contemporary of Mahavira and the Buddha. It is not clear whether the Gymnosophists were the last followers of Sanjaya, about to be outrivaled by the Jains, or whether they were a transitional group merging into Jainism. / Alexander's army introduced nude athletics to India. Though never popular, Greek sports persisted there more than five centuries later. Greek and Indian thinkers offered similar reasons for athletic or ascetic nudity: efficiency, healthy, independent thought, and purity or honesty--with less agreement on beauty and wholeness. / Certain Mauryan and early Shungan monumental nude sculptures follow Greek proportional theory (measurements provided), and perhaps quadrifacial carving methods--both obtainable through brief verbal contact. Other Mauryan-Shungan nudes exhibit Greek muscle treatment of chest, abdomen, and perhaps the back--all available in visual examples on Bactrian coins. / This Greek sculptural influence predated but did not noticeably affect Gandharan art, which differed from it by a Hellensitic/Roman rather than Classical inspiration, an emphasis on Cupid rather than Herakles, a sharp drop of interest in the nude, and some Buddhist propaganda against naked ascetics. / Except for chest muscle treatment, Greek sculptural influence died out until Jains in Karnataka revived the Mauryan style--and coincidentally its Greek elements--for Gommateshvara statues from the ninth century to 1604. Evidence suggests that sculptors used a damaged Mauryan example at Shravana Belgola--which lends credence to the legend that Chandragupta Maurya retired there. / Gymnosophist influence on the West remains to be studied. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1862. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76117 |
| Contributors | LEVALLEY, PAUL., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 305 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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