Men and Lights – The Symbol of the Light–Bearer in Greek, Buddhist and Moslem Sources

Abstract

The triple occurrence of the symbol of the light–bearer who is walking in broad daylight in the public places of the cities involves the wandering of the researcher who is following in the footsteps of the hermeneutical truth in the labyrinth of hypothesis. The first attempt to reconstruct the chronology suggests the ensuing order: the text of the Tripitaka (the Indian–Buddhist tradition), the legend referring to Diogenes of Sinope, rewritten and edited by Diogenes Laertios (the Greek tradition), the ample orchestration of the archaic theme of the light–bearer, achieved by Jalal-ud-din
Rumi, in the Mathnawi, a medieval re-writing, indited from the perspective of the Moslem mystical theology (the Sufi tradition).
The second attempt to reconstitute the chronology implies the reversing of the order which involves the transmission of the subject–matter of the light– bearer between the Greek tradition and the Indian–Buddhist tradition: the legend focused on Diogenes of Sinope, the narrative devoted to Sariputra in the Tripitaka, the Sufi rewriting incorporated in the Mathnawi. This exegetical perspective presumes that the theme of the light–bearer had been imported from Greece and penetrated inside the Indian cultural and religious space following in the footsteps or in the spiritual headway of Alexander the Great’s army.