Pranab Singh

Some scholars’ claim that the ancient Indian, Middle Eastern, and Greek civilisations originated from the ancient cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro dating back to around 3000 B.C. Many scholars have pointed out the similarity between the languages. But most striking is the similarity in the mythology and epical stories of the Indian subcontinent with those of the Greeks. Their deities are similar, like the King of the Greek Gods, Zeus, sharing the same weapon (a thunderbolt) with Indra. Although Hinduism has much more intricacies with the three greater Gods — Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the heavenly Gods remain in tune to those of the Greeks.

The similarities between the two epics, the Illiad and the Ramayana are most striking. In both stories a war is initiated by the abduction of a woman: Helen in Iliad and Sita in Ramayana. Although the details vary, the war ends with a bit of deceit and trickery in both stories, through the use of the Trojan horse in the Iliad and a more blatant betrayal by Ravanna’s charioteer giving away his secret to Rama in the Ramayana. Although there are striking similarities, the underlying philosophy and the approach taken by the Greeks versus the Hindus is different. With Thales of Miletus, Greek philosophy decided to take its own course and diverged from religion where as in the Indian subcontinent philosophy and religion never achieved that strong a dichotomy and remain closely intertwined even till today.