Ed. by the Finnish Oriental Society. Helsinki. V. 65. 1989. 294 p.; idem. India and the Hellenistic World // Ibid. V. 83. 1997. 439 p.

Long gone are the days when Indologists read Latin and Greek fluently, and classical philologists learned Sanskrit. Klaus Karttunen is one of the few people who works professionally in both ancient and Sanskrit studies. His first publications were devoted to Ctesias of Cnidus. Then there was a dissertation, which turned into the book "India in early Greek literature". The research was continued in the monograph "India and the Hellenistic world", and in the coming years the author plans to publish another volume - "India and Rome". Thus, we will have at our disposal an extensive generalizing work on various aspects of the topic "Antiquity and India".

The Finnish indologist has an excellent knowledge of literature in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Russian. He shows a keen interest in the half-forgotten publications of the last century - and sometimes it turns out that new and original interpretations, in fact, have very distant predecessors. A careful presentation of the background makes peer-reviewed books valuable reference materials. However, sometimes they show a loving collection of curiosities-F's wild ideas. Wilford (early nineteenth century) or some modern Indian authors who identify Sanskrit asura with the Assyrians were hardly worth mentioning.

In an effort to summarize the development of historiography, K. Karttunen pays close attention to the methodology of scientific analysis. He is not afraid of accusations of hypercriticism, preferring fascinating hypotheses to reliably established facts. His criticism of the constructions of P. L. Eggermont, who too often neglected the rigor of phonetic correspondences when comparing ancient and Sanskrit toponyms, is characteristic. Peer-reviewed books will be useful for future researchers not only by the collected material, but also by the weighting of their assessments.

The author convincingly shows that there are no reliable facts at our disposal about the relations of India with the ancient Mediterranean before the Achaemenid era - the earliest information penetrated the Greek literature after the Skilak expedition. Before looking for a reflection of Indian reality in Herodotus or Ctesias, he considers it necessary to understand the character of early Greek descriptions, find out stable plots and motives, and take into account the peculiarities of the literary genre and ethnographic theory. The land at the edge of the ecumene must have been full of wonders, which is why plants and animals were so large there. In the stories of Greek writers, India approaches Egypt and mixes with Ethiopia, as a land inhabited by sages and righteous people, it takes on the features of the "land of the blessed". A stable literary image was reflected even in the writings of those who themselves had the opportunity to visit India. Therefore, the chronological framework of the study in the first monograph is not limited to Alexander's campaign. Onesikrit's conversations with Indian sages in Taxila are seen as a continuation of the old theme of " barbarian wisdom." The Greeks didn't just find "philosophers" at the edge of the inhabited world - they expected to find them there, they were looking for them there.

Numerous comparisons of Greek descriptions with data from Indian literature have so far yielded few encouraging results - as if we are talking about two different countries. K. Karttunen believes that, in addition to the well-known features of Sanskrit sources and the vagueness of their dating, local differences should be taken into account. North-West India is associated with the formation of Vedic literature - but this happened several centuries before the arrival of the Greeks here. As for the classical tradition, represented by dharmashastras and epic poems, it was formed mainly in the Ganges Valley. The distinction between North-West and North-East India is rarely taken into account by those who deal with ancient monuments. Meanwhile, for Herodotus, the eastern border of India was the Tar desert, and according to the " Laws of Manu "the same desert and the Saraswati River lost in its sands - the western border of the" land of the Aryans " (Aryavarta). So we are really talking about different countries.

The north-western territories are located on the border of the Indian and Iranian worlds, and they combine features inherent in both regions. When interpreting the information of ancient authors, first of all, it is necessary to look for correspondences in those Sanskrit texts,

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data that can be localized in Nuristan, Dardistan, and the Swat Valley. This was the area of contact between India and the Achaemenid empire, but the culture of the local population was significantly different from the orthodox Brahmin.

K. Karttunen analyzes in detail the messages of early Greek writers that are associated with this region - and distinguish it from classical India (wine consumption, falconry, etc.). But he pays special attention to fairy-tale and fantastic subjects. For example," gold mining ants " (according to Herodotus) in the country of the Dards are found both in the folklore of the peoples of Central Asia and in Sanskrit literature.

Following Ctesias, Greek and Latin authors tell of the wonderful river Silas, in which nothing stays on the surface, but instantly sinks to the bottom. We are talking about the so - called "Stone Water" (Siloda, Sila)-a river that, according to Indian narratives, serves as the border of the land of the blessed (Uttara - Kuru-in Hellenistic literature Attakors, compared with Hyperboreans). On the banks of this Power (Shila) grows as if a giant reed, and trunks falling into the water, turn into stone.

No less interesting is Ctesias 'story about a colossal "worm" living in the Indus, which comes out of the water at night and hunts horses and camels. The Indian king, having caught such a worm, hangs it upside down in the sun and collects the poison dripping from its mouth, which is able to incinerate everything around. Parallel motifs are found in the Indian puranas, which speak of a huge snake (Shesha or Takshaka, whose name is sometimes associated with Takshashila/Greek. Taxa). This serpent hangs upside down for a long time, performing an ascetic feat. And finally, drops of the terrible Kalakut poison begin to ooze out of it, burning the universe. Ctesias was ridiculed in ancient times and considered a liar. And now we can state that it was he who preserved the echoes of the myths of the peoples who lived on the eastern borders of the Achaemenid empire.

The second monograph of the Finnish researcher covers the next era, which began with Alexander the Great. The first chapters ("Conquerors of the World"; "Ancient Diplomacy: Megasthenes") deal with problems related to the history of the Indian campaign, as well as with the diplomatic mission of Megasthenes and his work"Indica". The central part of the book ("The Natural Sciences", "Bird-Watchers and Story-Tellers") contains material from ancient authors about the nature of India, its flora, fauna, and natural resources. This is followed by the chapter "Greeks in the East", which deals with the relations between the Seleucids and Mauryas, Greek inscriptions found in Afghanistan, coins of Greco-Bactrian and Greco-Indian kings, Hellenic cults in India, and references to Yavanas (Greeks) in Indian sources. The final part ("India and the Greek West") is devoted to the traditional features of the image of India in Hellenistic literature and the development of navigation in the Indian Ocean in that era.

It is not possible to maintain the chronological framework of the study. On the one hand, the writings of Alexander's companions and Megasthenes ' Indica were already discussed in the first book (although some subjects - for example, about the Indian Hercules and Dionysus-would be more appropriate in this context). On the other hand, it is impossible to separate the information of Hellenistic authors about Indian plants from the information preserved by Roman writers. The author has to move on to a completely different-thematic-principle of organizing the material. By concentrating all reports on botany in the appropriate chapter, he warns the reader that this topic will no longer be discussed in the Roman volume. Such a concentration of material is of practical value - it turned out to be a small encyclopedia, where you can find out what ancient authors of different times said about Indian minerals, animals or spices. However, the choice of topics seems rather random. There are special paragraphs about the mountains and rivers of India - and information about cities and peoples is only sporadically found. It is obvious that the very discussion of precious stones or spices involves careful work on localizing geographical locations and trade routes - and these subjects are most likely reserved for the next volume.

"India and the Hellenistic world" is a subject so vast that K. Karttunen is often forced to limit himself either to a review of existing opinions or to his own observations on specific issues. Both, of course, are useful, but the monograph loses its unity, turning into a collection of essays - sometimes special, sometimes very general. The author, having intrigued the reader with a particular problem, rushes to the next one, promising to reveal the previous one in more detail some other time.

The researcher emphasizes that it was not the campaign of Alexander the Great itself that had a significant impact on the development of India, but its consequence-the formation of Hellenistic churches.

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states. This general idea can hardly be challenged. On private issues, to which the author pays considerable attention, you can discuss with him.

For example, K. Karttunen holds the point of view that the dharmasutra of Gautama is the most ancient monument of this genre and can be dated to about 500 BC. e. This work is interesting, by the way, precisely because it contains a reference to the Yavanas, i.e. the Greeks. Based on the above-mentioned dating, one would think that the Indians report about the Greeks almost earlier than the Greeks about the Indians. However, serious arguments have long been made (in the works of I. J. Meyer, R. P. Kangle) in favor of a much later dating of this dharmasutra. K. Karttunen does not attach due importance to the fact that the Greeks are defined in it as a special caste. For such an assessment, not only the journey of Skilak, but also the campaign of Alexander would not be enough. We should be talking about a large social group that lived in the main territory of India.

The caste status of this group is low, the Greeks are attributed to the origin of the sudras (and at the same time the blood of Kshatriya warriors). We have the right to associate this passage in Gautama with the Indian tradition of Greek (Greco-Bactrian) conquests and, accordingly, to date it no earlier than the second century BC. e. There are no signs of interpolation in this case - and if without arguments the objectionable fragment is declared an interpolation, then any scientific study of the text will simply become impossible.

The second case, when the Yavanas appear as a caste, is not mentioned by the author - in the Naradiya-Manusamhita. He may be considering it in the next volume, but it is hardly appropriate to divide such a tiny topic as "references to the Greeks in the dharmasastras" between the volumes devoted to Hellenism and Rome.

As already mentioned, we can only welcome the trend towards such a study of ancient India, which would fully take into account regional features. But it is all the more regrettable that K. Karttunen has not yet given a systematic review of the information of ancient authors on the geography of South Asia. In our opinion, he did not use the resources of the sources he worked with when discussing this topic. For example, the state of Asmaga in Pliny is undoubtedly Ashmaka, located in the territory of the Deccan, and not at all in the Indus region, where the author of the book places it (India and the Hellenistic World. p. 191). For the corresponding section on Indian tigers, of course, the localization of this country, "full of wild tigers", is very significant.

Pliny can hardly be understood to mean that the cities of Mathura and Chrysobora are located on both banks of the Yamuna River at its confluence with the Ganges (ibid., p. 120). First, it would be too gross a mistake to localize Mathura , a city well-known since Megasthenes. Secondly, it would be meaningless to say that the Yamuna flows through the land of the Palibothros between these cities before it flows into the Ganges, inter oppida Methora et Chrysobora per palibothros decurrit. Palibotras are the designation of a people whose capital is the city of Pataliputra. Thus, this name corresponds to the Magadha of the period when the Pataliputra rulers extended their power over the entire Ganges basin. The ancient author, claiming that the Yamuna River between Mathura and Krisobora flows "through the land of the Palibotras", marks the western borders of the Magadha empire.

K. Karttunen gives numerous comparisons of the mountain tribe Casiri/Cosiri with Skt. Khasa, Khasira, Kasmira, Kausika, Kasyapapura, etc. He quite rightly says in the end that playing with words that sound similar in different languages does not do much. The only reason for identifying the Cashiers, he considers Pliny's indication that the Cashiers eat human flesh. At the same time, the question is raised about their localization in Kashmir, and at the same time cannibal plots are found among kafirs.

It seems to me that there are other reasons for localization, in addition to cannibalism. It is worth noting that Pliny's Qasirs are at the center of the list of Hindu Kush (Emoda) tribes. In addition, they are mentioned both among the Indians (iam indorum) and among the peoples of "Scythia", i.e. the border regions of Eastern Turkestan. They are considered Indians, but unlike real Indians, they are considered savages and cannibals. Where they live, there is a passage between India and" Scythia", which is regularly used by nomads (nomades quoque Indiae vagantur hue). The last details vividly recall the descriptions of travelers at the end of the last century (see, for example, Holdich T. N. The Indian Borderland. L., 1909. P. 243): nomads with their families annually pass to India and back along the road between Lundi Kotal and Jalalabad. The area near the Khyber Pass is not only the "Gateway of India", but also the zone where you can talk about "already Indians", but still uncivilized tribes.

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To accurately identify the tribes, all this is not enough just because we do not know the ethnic map of the region more than two thousand years ago. We may be talking about the distant ancestors of the infidel Nuristans or other barbaric tribes that lived in the central part of the Hindu Kush. But their localization certainly does not correspond to either Kashmir or the Khas region (approximately the Almora region), and the level of culture - the urban civilization of Kashyap Pura, or Multan. In the Vedic Kausika, however, it is difficult to see any affinity with the Kasirs. The fact that both names start with the letter "k" is not enough to identify them.

Such excursions can be made quite a lot. No wonder K. Karttunen hopes that his works will stimulate further research of ancient sources about India. We will wait for the promised third volume.

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