Kalanos
{{Short description|Indian philosopher (c. 398–323 BCE)}}
File:La mort de Calamus - Beaufort.jpg: La mort de Calamus, 1779, Museo del Prado.]]
Kalanos, also spelled Calanus ({{langx|grc|Καλανός}}){{cite Plutarch|Alexander|8}} ({{circa|398}} – 323 BCE), was an ancient Indian gymnosophist{{cite book |last1=Wheeler |first1=James Talboys |title=The History of India: India from the earliest ages: Jain, Hindu, Buddhist, and Brahmanical revival |date=1973 |publisher=Cosmo Publications |pages=171–72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXpDAAAAYAAJ&q=kalanos+brahmin |access-date=23 July 2019 |language=en}}{{cite book |last=Hunter |first=W.W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yUhvfR1S_UEC |title=The Indian empire : its people, history, and products (1886) |publisher=Asian Educational Services |year=2005 |isbn=9788120615816 |location=New Delhi |page=169}}{{cite book |last1=Hunter |first1=William Wilson |title=The Imperial Gazetteer of India |date=1887 |publisher=Trübner & Company |pages=173 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qhw3AQAAMAAJ&q=kalanos+brahmin&pg=PA173 |access-date=23 July 2019 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=Classica Et Mediaevalia |date=1975 |publisher=Librairie Gyldendal |pages=271–76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YiMUAQAAMAAJ&q=kalanos+brahmin |access-date=23 July 2019 |language=en}} and philosopher from Taxila{{cite journal|last1=Halkias|first1=Georgios|title=The Self-immolation of Kalanos and other Luminous Encounters Among Greeks and Indian Buddhists in the Hellenistic World|journal=Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies|date=2015|volume=8|pages=163–186|url=http://jocbs.org/index.php/jocbs/article/view/111/128|access-date=30 May 2015}} who accompanied Alexander the Great and was his teacher. He accompanied Alexander the Great to Persis and later self-immolated, after falling ill, entered himself into a pyre, in front of Alexander and his army. Diodorus Siculus called him Caranus ({{langx|grc|Κάρανος}}).[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0060.tlg001.perseus-grc3:17.107 Diodorus Siculus, Library, 17.107.1]
According to the Greek sources, he did not flinch as his body burned. He bade goodbye to some of the Greek soldiers who were his students, but not to Alexander. He communicated to Alexander that he would meet him in Babylon and curiously Alexander died exactly a year later in Babylon.{{cite book |last=Bar-Kochva |first=Bezalel |title=The image of the Jews in Greek literature: The Hellenistic Period |year=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=9780520253360|pages=60–63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tVbzRfhBwCEC}} It was from Kalanos that Alexander learned of Dandamis, the leader of their group, whom Alexander later went to meet in the forest.{{cite book |last1=Stoneman |first1=Richard |title=The Legends of Alexander the Great |year=2012 |pages=43–47 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9781848857858 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W8gMKhTO5ZAC}}
Early life
Plutarch indicates{{cite Plutarch|Alexander|65}} that his real name was Sphínēs and that he was from Taxila, but since he greeted people with the word "Kalē!" – perhaps kalya (कल्य) "Greetings" – the Greeks called him Kalanos.{{cite book |last=M'Crindle |first=J.W. |title=The invasion of India by Alexander the Great |year=2004 |publisher=Kessinger Pub. |location=Whitefish, Montana |isbn=9780766189201 |pages=46, 315, 388–9, 346 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncDFRgtSysIC}}{{cite book |title=Enemies of the Roman order: treason, unrest, and alienation in the empire By Ramsay MacMullen |year=1992 |page=317 |isbn=9780415086219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a4YOAAAAQAAJ|last1=MacMullen |first1=Ramsay |publisher=Routledge }}
Most sources and scholars refer to Kalanos as a Brahmin sage,{{Cite book |last=Vasunia |first=Phiroze |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcWoqkmFJW4C |title=The Classics and Colonial India |date=2013-05-16 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-920323-9 |pages=61 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Worthington |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xnQABAAAQBAJ&pg=PT203 |title=Alexander the Great: Man and God |date=2014-07-10 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86644-2 |language=en}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJJyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA632 |title=Brill's Companion to the Reception of Alexander the Great |date=2018-09-11 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-35993-2 |pages=632 |language=en}} Some scholars have claimed that Kalanos was a Jain, but modern scholarship rejects this notion as Jain ascetics are forbidden from using fire and intentional self-harm due to their convictions about Sallekhana. He was not a Jain monk due to the violent suicide he committed.{{Cite web |title=Strabo, Geography, BOOK XV., CHAPTER I., section 64 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=15:chapter=1:section=64 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}} Further, considering the dominant Brahmanical presence in Taxila, it is likely that the ascetics Alexandar met, including Kalanos, were Brahmanical. Johannes Bronkhorst states that it is highly unlikely that Buddhists and Jains were present in the areas Alexander visited.{{Cite book |last=Bronkhorst |first=Johannes |title=How the Brahmins won: from Alexander to the Guptas |date=2016 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-31519-8 |series=Handbook of oriental studies |location=Leiden |pages=34–35}} Furthermore, choosing of death by self immolation among chanting of vedic hymns also cements general opinion that Kalanos was not a Jain or Buddhist but Hindu Brahmin.
Meeting Alexander
Plutarch records that when first invited to meet Alexander, Kalanos "roughly commanded him to strip himself and hear what he said naked, otherwise he would not speak a word to him, though he came from Jupiter himself." Kalanos refused the rich gifts offered by Alexander, saying that man's desire cannot be satisfied by such gifts.{{cite book |last=Chatterjee |first=Suhas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KItocaxbibUC |title=Indian civilization and culture |publisher=M.D. Publications |year=1998 |isbn=9788175330832 |location=New Delhi |page=129}} The gymnosophists believed that even if Alexander killed them "they would be delivered from the body of flesh now afflicted with age and would be translated to a better and purer life."
Alexander's representative Onesicritus{{cite book |last=Williams Jackson |first=A.V. |title=History of India Vol. IX |year=2009 |publisher=Cosimo Inc. |location=New York |isbn=9781605205328 |pages=65–70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lllGG9RtILQC}} had a discussion with several gymnosophists and Alexander was attracted by their thoughts on Greek philosophy, of which they generally approved, but criticized the Greeks for preferring custom to nature and for refusing to give up clothing.{{cite book |last=Sastri |first=Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoAwor58utYC |title=Age of the Nandas and Mauryas |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1988 |isbn=9788120804654 |location=Delhi |pages=105–106}}
Alexander persuaded Kalanos to accompany him to Persis and stay with him as one of his teachers. Alexander even hinted use of force to take him to his country, to which Kalanos replied philosophically, that "what shall I be worth to you, Alexander, for exhibiting to the Greeks if I am compelled to do what I do not wish to do?" Kalanos lived as a teacher to Alexander and represented "eastern honesty and freedom".{{cite book |last=Niehoff |first=Maren R. |title=Philo on Jewish identity and culture |year=2001 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Tübingen |isbn=9783161476112 |pages=153–154 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cOjCkfLCt3sC}}
Death and prophecy
He was seventy-three years of age at time of his death. When the Persian weather and arduous travels had weakened him, he informed Alexander that he would prefer to die rather than live as an invalid. He decided to take his life by self-immolation. Although Alexander tried to dissuade him from this course of action, upon Kalanos' insistence the job of building a pyre was entrusted to Ptolemy.{{cite book |title=Alexander the Great |year=1973 |publisher=Robin Lax Fox |page=416 |isbn=9780713905007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UGApAQAAMAAJ}} Kalanos is mentioned also by Alexander's admirals, Nearchus and Chares of Mytilene.{{cite book |title=The Sháhnáma of Firdausí By Arthur George Warner, Edmond Warner |year=2001 |page=61 |isbn=9780415245432 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CixkKv_ywoMC|last1=Warner |first1=Arthur George |last2=Warner |first2=Edmond |publisher=Psychology Press }} The city where this immolation took place was Susa in the year 323 BC.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s8ufAAAAMAAJ |title=Yādnāmah-ʾi Panjumīn Kungrih-ʾi Bayn al-Milalī-i Bāstānshināsī va Hunar-i Īrān |publisher=Ministry of Culture and Arts, Iran. Vizārat-i Farhang va Hunar |year=1972 |page=224}} Kalanos distributed all the costly gifts he got from the king to the people and wore just a garland of flowers and chanted vedic hymns. He presented his horse to one of his Greek pupils named Lysimachus.{{cite book|title=The calcutta review|date=1867|pages=400|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qp4IAAAAQAAJ&dq=calanus+vedic+hymn&pg=PA400|accessdate=5 March 2017}}{{cite book |last=Sagar |first=Krishna Chandra |title=Foreign influence on ancient India |year=1992 |publisher=Northern Book Centre |location=New Delhi |isbn=9788172110284 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UA4rkm9MgkC}} He did not flinch as he burnt to the astonishment of those who watched.{{cite book |title=Defending the West: a critique of Edward Said's Orientalism Front Cover by Ibn Warraq |year=2007 |publisher=Prometheus Books |page=108 |isbn=9781591024842 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JoJtAAAAMAAJ}}{{cite book |title=The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy edited by Keimpe Algra |year=1999 |page=243 |isbn=9780521250283 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9lRD6feR3hEC|last1=Algra |first1=Keimpe |last2=Barnes |first2=Jonathan |author3-link=Jaap Mansfeld|last3=Mansfeld |first3=Jaap |last4=Schofield |first4=Malcolm |publisher=Cambridge University Press }} Although Alexander was not personally present at time of his immolation, his last words to Alexander were "We shall meet in Babylon".{{cite book |last=Elledge |first=C. D. |title=Life after death in early Judaism the evidence of Josephus |year=2006 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |location=Tübingen |isbn=9783161488757 |pages=121–124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWGfdR9T3poC}}{{cite book |last=Borruso |first=Silvano |title=History of Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wiA0NIf14ZAC |year=2007 |publisher=Paulines Publications Africa |isbn=9789966082008 |page=50}}{{cite book |title=National Geographic, Volume 133 |year=1968 |pages=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M8YvAAAAYAAJ}} He is said to have thus prophesied the death of Alexander in Babylon, even though at the time of death of Kalanos, Alexander did not have any plans to go to Babylon.{{cite book |title=The philosophical books of Cicero |year=1989 |publisher=Duckworth |page=186 |isbn=9780715622148 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L1MEAQAAIAAJ}}
A drinking contest was held in response to his death. According to Plutarch, citing Chares of Mytilene, Promachus of Macedon drank the equivalent of 13 litres of unmixed wine and won the first prize of a golden crown worth a talent. He died three days later and forty-one other contestants allegedly died of alcohol poisoning as well.{{cite Plutarch|Alexander|70}}
Legacy
A letter written by Kalanos to Alexander is preserved by Philo.{{cite book |last=Sullivan |first=Denis F. |title=Siegecraft : two tenth-century instructional manuals by "Heron of Byzantium"|year=2000 |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=9780884022701|pages=168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8KnzvzqAJ04C}}
A painting {{circa|1672}} by Jean Baptiste de Champaigne depicts "Alexander the Great receiving the news of the death by immolation of the gymnosophist Calanus" is displayed at Chateau de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles.{{cite book |title=Exploring cultural history : essays in honour of Peter Burke |year=2010 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Farnham, Surrey, England |isbn=9780754667506 |page=259 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2WRsHPuWR5oC |author1=Melissa Calaresu |author2=Filippo de Vivo |author3=Joan-Pau Rubiés }}