Kalanos The Sadhu & Alexander The Great
In 327 BC, Alexander the Great began his expansion into the Indian subcontinent.
After gaining control Gandhara, a region that spans between north-western Pakistan and north-eastern Afghanistan, he moved his army onwards into Punjab. However, early in this campaign into the subcontinent, Alexander and his army encountered a group of people who adhered to a unique set of beliefs – the gymnosophists, or as they are known today, Sadhus. Gymnosophistai (meaning ‘naked philosophers’ or ‘naked wise men’) was the term given by the Greeks, specifically Plutarch’s writing in the 1st century CE, for a group of Indian ascetics who regarded food, clothing and shelter as unnecessary, or even an impediment to purity of thought.
Sadhu’s only eat the bare minimum necessary for survival, forewent any clothing, and lived outdoors, though it is unclear what status these men had at the time – they may have been and indeed are commonly referred to as Brahmin, the priestly class of the Hindu caste system.
Between Alexander The Great & The Sadhu
Accounts of the encounter between Alexander The Great and the gymnosophists vary. The most famous are passed down to us through Strabo, Plutarch and Arrian, and record the accounts of individuals on Alexander’s campaign such as Onesicritus (a member of Alexander’s fleet), Aristobulus (an architect, military engineer, and close friend of Alexander’s) and Nearchus (a navarch, or high-ranking officer, in Alexander’s army).
Plutarch’s account states that Alexander and his army encountered ten gymnosophists by the banks of the Indus. Intrigued by their choice of lifestyle, impressed by their adherence to a strict, difficult and painful form of psychophysical asceticism, and questioning their status as wise philosophers, Alexander (in some accounts after sending Onesicritus as a messenger to learn from them first) decided to ask them a series of questions with the condition that the first incorrect answer they gave would result in death.
The Sadhu Riddles Alexander The Great
- Q1: Who in your opinion are more numerous, the living or the dead?
A: The living, since the dead no longer existed. - Q2: Does the earth or the sea produce larger animals?
A: The earth did, since the sea was but a part of the earth. - Q3: What animal was the most cunning?
A: That which up to this time man has not discovered. - Q4: Why did you induce Sabbas to revolt?
A: Because I wished him either to live nobly or to die nobly. - Q5: Which, in your opinion, was older, day or night?
A: Day, by one day. - Q6: How can a man be most loved?
A: If he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear. - Q7: How does one become a god instead of man?
A: By doing something which a man cannot do. - Q8: Which is the stronger, life or death?
A: Life, since it supports so many ills. - Q9: How long should a man live?
A: Until he does not regard death as better than life.
After nine questions, however (see here for the source), Alexander was satisfied with their answers and instead offered them gifts. At some point after this, Alexander was introduced to a gymnosophist who the Greeks called Kalanos. Here, accounts vary slightly; in some accounts, Onesicritus meets Kalanos first, while in others it is Alexander himself.
Whether it was Alexander or Onesicritus, the story goes, according to Strabo, that Kalanos supposedly initially told them to remove all of their clothing in a short and brash manner before hearing and learning the teachings of the gymnosophists, as a display of humility and to prove that they truly wanted to learn. The discussion then settled into a comparison between the slaves to material goods (such as Onesicritus and Alexander The Great) and those who are free (such as the gymnosophists). During this latter discussion, another older gymnosophist, Dandamis arrives and reprimands Kalanos, saying that he is being far too arrogant and that Alexander should be praised for wanting to seek wisdom while commanding such a large empire and powerful army (“the king was the only philosopher in arms that he had ever seen”).
Another Accounting Of The Situation
Another account however, pieced together from accounts from Megasthenes, Strabo and Arrian, records that Alexander sent men directly to the oldest of the gymnosophists that he encountered, Dandamis, stating that if he comes to meet with Alexander he will be rewarded with many gifts whereas if he does not he will be punished.
There is also a suggestion that this threat to Dandamis actually stemmed from the ruler of Taxila, a man called Taxile, who decided to cooperate with Alexander rather than fight him – Taxile decided to cooperate and facilitate the meeting between Alexander and the Brahmins, because they were one of the most important constituents of Indian society, so as to avoid having to fight Alexander’s army. Regardless of the source of the threat, Dandamis, true to his ascetic beliefs, responds definitively that he does not need any gifts, and that Alexander can offer him nothing because he already has everything he needs before going on to challenge Alexander’s conquest, suggesting that Alexander has in truth gained nothing. Alexander is impressed by this, changing his mind and respecting the freedom of Dandamis. In this version, Kalanos actually decides to leave the gymnosophists and join Alexander and is vilified by the Indian gymnosophists for displaying a lack of control, for serving a human rather than a god, and giving up the local customs in favour of the ways of a foreigner. Interestingly, some scholars argue that Kalanos in this instance does not represent a single person, but a minority group of Indian people who decided to collaborate with the invading forces.
Kalanos Joins Alexander The Great On The Journey
If the bold and brash attitude of Kalanos towards the Greeks is accurate, it seems to have paid off as Alexander subsequently wanted Kalanos to accompany him and be a teacher of “eastern honesty and freedom”. Initially, Alexander insinuated that if Kalanos would not come with him to Persia he would force him, however Kalanos replied that he would be of no worth to Alexander if he does not wish to come himself.
Recently, some have suggested that Kalanos’ decision to join Alexander was in fact a tactical one, as part of an overarching military strategy to protect India from Alexander. The “kuta-yuddha” or Battle of Intrigue, was supposedly a strategy adopted by the people of Taxila, who welcomed Alexander and his army in order to avoid fighting and ultimately deter them. Thus, Kalanos was in fact infiltrating the invading army, rather than voluntarily joining out of his own volition. The theory proposes that Kalanos actually persuaded Alexander to stop his invasion of India (a coin depicting a naked sadhu on one side and the final defeat of Alexander’s army in Punjab on the other supposedly supports this theory). Plutarch certainly describes an instance when Kalanos demonstrates to Alexander the need to focus on the middle of his empire, rather than the extremities, by using a dry animal hide: Kalanos stands on the outer edges, showing that when he does so the other edges concurrently rise up, whereas if he stands in the middle, the hide remains firm and still. According to this theory, Alexander subsequently announced his decision to adhere to the advice of the Kalanos and would halt the campaign (Kumar, 2019).
What is certain is that Kalanos accompanied Alexander, imparting spiritual advice, for around 4 years as Alexander and his army travelled down the Indus towards the Indian Ocean, and then back westward towards Persis (Persia). However, in 323 BC after a long, hard period of travelling, the seventy-three year old Kalanos fell ill in Susa (Fox, 1973). Likely weakened from the harshness of the travelling, the Persian climate and perhaps his lifetime of radical asceticism, Kalanos’ condition quickly worsened. Rather than become invalid, he decided he would rather die, choosing self-immolation on a funerary pyre as his form of suicide. Despite the protestations of Alexander, a pyre was constructed (by none other than Ptolemy). As Kalanos approached the funerary pyre, he distributed all of the gifts he had been given by Alexander before ascending onto the pyre and purportedly burning without so much as a flinch.
Perhaps most interestingly of all, according to Arrian in Anabasis the last words that Kalanos is alleged to have said to Alexander were “We shall meet in Babylon”. Kalanos, thus, supposedly prophesied Alexander’s death in Babylon a year later, at the age of 32.
