Cross-Cultural Communication in the Hellenistic Mediterranean and Western and South Asia

Abstract

This chapter deals with West–Asian cross-cultural interaction that developed during the Hellenistic period in the aftermath of Alexander’s conquest of the Persian Empire as the land and sea routes between the Mediterranean and India opened up. Despite their constant warfare, the kings that dominated this region established diplomatic ties influenced by a rich range of linguistic, visual, spatial, and ritual idioms. Canepa views Mauryan pillars and inscribed edicts issued by the emperor Aśoka as responses both to local South Asian traditions of religion and empire, and also to those of the Achaemenids and Seleucids. The cross-cultural interaction of this period not only transformed contemporary worldviews and traditions, but also formed the basis for future exchanges among the Romans, Arsacids, Kuṣāṇas, and Sasanians.