Greek and Indian philosophy - parallels and interchanges Many thanks, everybody! I really appreciate your replies.
As a general observation, the fact is that there are many striking parallels between Platonism and Indian philosophy.
For example, the so-called “parable of the chariot” in which the Indian version has the horses standing for the senses, the chariot for the body, the charioteer for the intellect and the rider for the soul (Katha Upanishad).
Now, an almost identical version is found in Greek writers like Plato, Parmenides and Xenophon.
Another example that strikes me is the tripartite division of the soul into distinct psychological aspects/functions.
Greek:
έπιθυμητικόν epithymetikon sensual aspect
θυμός thymos emotional aspect
λογιστικόν logistikon intellectual aspect
Indian:
मनस् manas sensual aspect
अहंकार ahamkara emotional aspect
बुद्धि buddhi intellectual aspect
Also, the concept of a higher inner soul/man - Greek νοῦς nous, Indian पुरुष purusha - that is connected downwards with the body-mind complex and upwards with God. See Plotinus, et al.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Obviously, I am not in a position, at this point in time, to determine who influenced whom or whether there was a third, common source (Egyptian/Babylonian?).
However, as regards astrology, the consensus seems to be that Hellenistic astrology drew on Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources in the second and first millennia BC and flourished for centuries until it began to decline in the West under Christianity. But it survived in Persia, it influenced Indian astrology and was transmitted to the Islamic world (from where it was re-introduced into Europe).
I haven’t got a theory with respect to philosophy but, as a theoretical possibility, could Platonic traditions have followed a somewhat similar trajectory?
For example, tradition has it that Pythagoras went to Egypt to acquire “secret knowledge” and apparently, in the 6th century CE, the last leading philosophers from the Platonic Academy at Athens settled in Persia from where Platonism passed into the Arab world.
It would be difficult to prove, but equally difficult to disprove, the possibility that Platonists went even further east, reaching India where they may have influenced certain currents of local philosophy and mysticism. Hence it may be worthwhile looking for parallels in Indian traditions that emerged in the early Middle Ages whose appearance may be explained with the help of external influence.