The Gandhāric Roots of the Indian Symposion and Sympotic-like Elements in Buddhist Literature

Starting with a recent work by Kenneth G. Zysk “From Symposion to Goṣṭhī: The Adaptation of a Greek Social Custom in Ancient India”, this contribution aims to analyse evidence about the three sympotic elements (alcohol, sex, and intellectual pursuits) in the Gandhāra region. Gandhāra is, indeed, the ideal area in which a métissage of cultures could occur, and an ideal place in which the Greek symposion could at first be accommodated and then later spread. Then, Buddhist literary sources (with a special reference to those in Pāli) will be considered in order to analyse some relevant sympotic-like elements. Most notably, a feast occurring in the Pāli Vinaya, the regulative monastic code of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition, will be examined, highlighting its sympotic characteristics. Furthermore, three groups of deities known as karoṭapāṇi ‘Those with cups in hands’, mālādhara ‘Garland-bearers’, and sadāmatta/sadāmada ‘Always euphoric/drunk’ will be discussed. These deities are represented in iconography, well attested in Buddhist literary sources in Sanskrit and Chinese, and even mentioned in Pāli literature. Their sympotic function in Buddhist cosmology as hypostatisations of the three sympotic elements of the symposion will be advanced.