Literary Activity
It is difficult to assign any extant Indian work definitely to the Maurya age. Three works, the Kautiliya Arthasastra, the Kalpasutra of Bhadrabahu and the Buddhist Katha vatthu, are traditionally attributed to personages who are said to have flourished in the Maurya period, but the ascription in all these cases has not met with general acceptance. A considerable body of literature is presupposed by Patanjali, usually regarded as a contemporary of Pushyamitra. Though many of the compositions mentioned by him existed long before the Mauryas, some of them may have been products of the Maurya epoch. The Grammarian knows the Pandu epic and refers to dramatic recitals and the performance of Kamsabadha (slaying of Kamsa by Krishna) and Balibandha (binding of Bali by Vishnu in his Dwarf Incarnation). He also alludes to akhyanas or tales of Yavakrita, Yayati, Vasavadatta and others, and makes mention of a Vararucha Kavya. That parts of the Mahabharata were composed during the Maurya or early post-Maurya period appears probable from references to the unconquerable Asoka and also to a Yavana overlord of the lower Indus valley and his compatriot Dattamitra, possibly Demetrios. The reference in the sister epic to mingled hordes of Yavanas and Sakas suggests that the Ramayana, too, received accretions in the Graeco-Scythian age. The Manavadharma sastra which mentions the Yavanas, Sakas, Paradas, and Pahlavas among Kshatriya clans which were degraded for non-observance of sacred rites and neglect of Brahmanas may also be assigned to this period.
The epoch under review probably saw the composition of the Mahabhashya of Patanjali, an exposition of the grammatical aphorisms of Panini. Another grammatical work, the Katantra or Kalapaka of Sarvavarman, is traditionally assigned to the Satavahana period. To the same age probably belongs the Brihat katha of Gunadhya. The Gatha Saptasati attributed to Hala, a Satavahana king, bears signs of a much later date. The epoch of the Kushans produced the great work of Asvaghosha, poet, dramatist and philosopher. Among other celebrities of the period mention may be made of Charaka, Susruta, Nagarjuna, Kumaralata and possibly Aryadeva.
The Pali Buddhist canon is said to have been reduced to writing in the first century BC. The celebrated work known as the Milindapanho, or the Questions of Menander, is also usually regarded as a product of the period under review. Some scholars believe that the astronomical work of Garga, the Paumachariya of Vimalasuri, portions of the Divyavadana as well as the Lalitavistara and the Saddharma pundarika are also to be assigned to this age.
Greek and Roman Influence
For centuries during the period under review India was in intimate contact with the Graeco-Roman world. Embassies were exchanged with the Hellenic powers by the sovereigns of Magadha and Malwa. Indian philosophers, traders and adventurers were to be found in the intellectual circles of Athens and in the markets of Alexandria. The first of the Mauryas is said to have entered into a marriage contract with a Greek potentate. His son was eager to secure the services of a Greek sophist. The third and the greatest of the Mauryas entrusted the government of a wealthy province and the execution of important irrigation works to a Yavana chief. The services of Greek engineers seem to have been requisitioned by the greatest of the Kushans in the early centuries of the Christian era. Greek influence on Indian coinage and iconography is unmistakable.
A Greek orator, Dion Chrysostom, informs us that the poetry of Homer was sung by the Indians, who had translated it into their own language and modes of expression so that even Indians were not unacquainted with the woes of Priam, the weeping and wailing of Andromache and Hecuba and the heroic feats of Achilles and Hector. The reference may be to the Mahabharata, but the possibility of an actual translation of the Greek epic is not entirely excluded. Indian writers bear testimony to the proficiency of the Greeks in the sciences, and one author admits that they were honoured as though they were Rishis (Sages). Western singers were welcomed at the court of Broach. On the other hand Greek authors speak with admiration of the sages of India. Hellenic rulers and statesmen listened with respectful attention to Indian philosophers.
One of the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings, Menander, showed great predilection for Buddhist teaching and issued coins of Buddhist type. A Greek ambassador erected a Garuda column in honour of Vasudeva. Greek meridarchs are mentioned in Kharoshthi inscriptions as establishing Buddhist relics and sanctuaries. Indian cultural influence on the Greeks of Egypt has been traced in the Oxyrhynchus papyri.
