Did Pythagoras learn from India?
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Pythagoras taught rebirth of the soul and a meat-free life, ideas also found in India. Stories that he studied in India come from writers many centuries later.
Indian claim not supported by evidenceCulture, games, language & ideas
Indian claim
Pythagoras visited India or learned from Indian teachers, which is why he taught transmigration of souls and vegetarianism.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Ideas of rebirth and non-violence to animals were well developed in India in the same period (Upanishads, early Jainism and Buddhism).
- Late ancient writers such as Philostratus (3rd century CE) linked Pythagorean wisdom to the Brahmins of India.
Commonly credited to
Pythagoras's ideas came from Greek, Egyptian or other Mediterranean sources, or were his own.
Evidence for the other claim
- The stories of his Indian journey appear centuries after his death; the scholar Klaus Karttunen calls them late and unconvincing.
- The first clear evidence of direct intellectual contact between Greece and India comes only with Alexander (4th century BCE).
- Herodotus (5th century BCE) linked the Greek belief in transmigration to Egypt, not India.
What historians and scientists say
The parallels are real and interesting, but there is no early evidence that Pythagoras went to India or learned from Indian teachers.