Is the Vedic warrior god "Skanda" really a reference to Alexander the Great?
I'd be sure careful about asking that question of Tamils.
QUOTE(betal_nut @ Apr 21 2004, 08:50 PM)
Is the Vedic warrior god "Skanda" really a reference to Alexander the Great?
It is one of those popular beliefs that goes around, but I do not believe that it is true.
There was another idea propounded by an Indian scholar, namely that the
yavana mentioned in the tenth book of the
BhAgavata is no other than Menander. According to this scholar, the story of the
yavanas coming to the aid of JarAsandha when he was attacking MathurA is a recollection of when Menander and his army of Bactrian Greeks invaded India in ca. 150 BCE. When caught between the hostile power of Magadha and the invading Greek forces, the inhabitants of MathurA decided to flee their city. He presented some evidence that MathurA was abandoned and that KauzambI was sacked by the Greeks.
Menander is, of course, the Milinda of Buddhist fame.
Sincerely,
Elpis
One Eastern Philosophy professor whose class I took commented, when explaining the very different concept of "history" in India, noted that Alexander hardly made it into any texts of the time. I don't know how accurate that statement was.