Can you tell us a little more about Kalanos? Did he actually exist and if so which stories about his interactions with ATG are likely real or fake?
Kalanos/Calanus
To those for whom the name is unfamiliar, he was an Indian yogi who attached himself to Alexander train somewhere in India, probably Taxila/GandhÄra. He famously immolated himself in Susa in 323, and (supposedly) prophesied Alexanderâs own death months later by saying, âWeâll meet again in Babylon.â Whether or not he really said this a good question; Iâm quite dubious. But he did certainly exist, although âKalanosâ wasnât apparently his name (Plutarch says âSphinesâ which is still a Greekification, Alex. 65.3-4). What we know about him is kinda iffy, largely because the sources donât agree. He came along willingly, at Alexanderâs invitation, and Alexander reputedly treated him well with gifts he may have been somewhat bemused by and had little use for. Perhaps he genuinely thought he could teach Alexander something, I donât know. But Alexander had a fascination with philosophers that was not entirely the invention of Plutarch, although I think Plutarch exaggerated it. (I've written on that before.)
Not a lot has been written academically about Kalanos, interestingly (although see below). In his somewhat recent Soldier, Priest and God, Fred Naiden spends some time on the reported contest between Alexander and the Indian philosophers, described in Plutarch (which IS probably 95% invented). Not sure I agree with his assessments, but I mention it, as Naiden does address ATG and the Indian yogis, but he had little to say about Kalanos himself and seems to accept the prophecy uncritically or at least as something Kalanos actually said, asking (no doubt rhetorically) what he meant by it. Well, I donât think he said it, so what he meant by it would be whatever the original author (whoever that was) meant by it.
Other ATG biographers discuss Kalanos, and there may also be an article I donât recall, in this or that collection. A lot have come out in the last 20 years, some of which Iâve simply not read, or I glanced through them, looking for material relating to my own work and that wasnât it.
Kalanos is used by Curtius as a sort of totally-second-rate-Indian-philosopher-but-still-so-much-wiser-than-Alexander figure thatâs part of Curtiusâs general framing of Alexanderâs latter years. Heâs presented more positively in Arrian, Plutarch, and Diodoros (who confusingly calls him Karanos, which in other, later accounts was the supposed founder of Macedonâa completely different figure).
So, I think some good work could be done on Kalanos, academically, if someone wanted to take it upâparticularly perhaps, someone able to read ancient Indian texts as well, and who could contextualize Kalanos better. For instance, Naiden suggests that he immolated himself because he felt heâd committed some sacrilege. Iâm dubious. Then again, Iâm just not that familiar with Brahminic traditions of that period. (Although see a different take in an article mentioned below.)
Kalanosâs manner of suicide went on to have interesting ramifications later in the Hellenistic/Roman periods. First, he wasnât the only yogi to travel west, and immolation seems to have been a crowd draw and weird morbid-but-respectful fascination with the âWow, they didnât even flinch!â Consider the stories of Zarmanochegas. In any case, the story of Kalanos (and specifically his death) grew legs and pops up in a fair bit of later Roman-era writing.
I think we can lose sight of the fact Indian philosophy did have an impact in the west, maybe more than is sometimes acknowledged, and perhaps predating Alexander and Kalanos.
I found two articles that are at least somewhat recent and the first of which is the sort of real cultural dig Iâd like to see more of: The Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, âThe Self-immolation of Kalanos and other Luminous Encounters Among Greeks and Indian Buddhists in the Hellenistic Worldâ (Georgios T. Halkias), proposing that Kalanos may have been Buddhist, not a Hindu yogi at all. It looks quite interesting, with a solid bibliography, and is available publicly, so I will be downloading it for my own purposes. But as heâs not an Alexander scholar, so Iâm not sure how the assessment of the Alexander sources will go. (This is the eternal problem when trying to combine two quite different fields of study. But Iâm at least intrigued by the questions raised in the article abstract.)
The second was written by a George Bruseker with the British School at Athens, âCalanus and Dandamis: a Greek Sketch of Ancient Indian thought.â But the only journal Talanta I can find is for chemistry, so whether peer-reviewed or not, Iâm skeptical about the article appearing there and not in something related to ancient history. Also, the bibliography is rather thin. For that reason, Iâm not linking to it directly.
Again, Iâve not read either article, so I canât speak further than very quick, first impressions.
