3-Week SASA Reading Group: The Milindapañha: A Conversation Between a Greek King and an Indian Buddhist Sage

If an Ancient Greek person and an Indian Buddhist ascetic met on the road, what do you think they would have discussed? What would the Greek person have thought of Buddhist practice and philosophy? How would the Buddhist ascetic engage with the worldview of the Greek person? The Milindapañha, a narrative account from the Pāli Buddhist Canon, presents this situation in the form of a question and answer discussion. This reading group will introduce you to this text, its context, and its recent interpretations so that you can deepen your understanding of the migration of Buddhism into Central Asia at the end of the Hellenistic Period (323 – 32 BCE).

No previous knowledge is required for this reading group. Each session will follow the groups points of interest in the relevant readings for that week, but the focus will primarily be on contextualizing the source and the figures indicated in…