between myth and history 207
and mutual influence in philosophy and art intensified after Alexander
the Great’s campaigns in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and north-
ern India.52 We know that around 300 BC, the two Greek ambassadors,
Megasthenes and Deimachus, arrived in the Mauryan court, and they
resided in Pataliputta— a city with outstanding Greek- influenced art and
architecture. Pataliputta, we recall, was the hometown of the engineer
who obtained the plans for making robots from “Rome.”53
King Asoka lived in the third century BC, at a time when automata
and other devices were proliferating in Alexandria and other centers
of technology in the West. Throughout his kingdom, Asoka left many
inscribed pillars and rock inscriptions, some written in ancient Greek
and others referring to Hellenistic kings by name, attesting to ongo-
ing cultural exchange and trade with the West. Asoka sent emissaries
and corresponded with several Hellenistic rulers, including Ptolemy II
Philadelphus in Alexandria, whose spectacular procession in 279/78 BC
featured marvelous displays of robotic mythic figures like Dionysus and
Nysa. Asoka’s envoys came to Alexandria, and Ptolemy II sent his own
ambassador, a Greek named Dionysius, to Asoka’s court in Pataliputta. 54
Further evidence of long- lasting cross- cultural influence comes from
the journal of the Chinese monk Fa Hsien, one of many Buddhist pil-
grims who traveled to Pataliputta, Asoka’s city, in about AD 400. Fa
Hsien witnessed the traditional annual procession celebrating Buddha,
presumably begun in Asoka’s day. The monk describes the magnificent
parade of large four- wheeled carts bearing colossal structures, imposing
replicas of stupas five stories high, a succession of towering images of Bud-
dha, Bodisattvas, and other divine beings of gold, silver, and lapis lazuli,
with colorful silk banners and canopies, attended by hosts of singers,
dancers, and musicians. Fa Hsien does not mention mechanized statues
(although automated Buddhist figures were displayed in parades in China
in this era). 55 One has a sensation of déjà vu, so closely does the scene in
Pataliputta resemble the Grand Procession of Ptolemy II Philadelphus
in Alexandria in 279 BC, a half century earlier.
Was the tale of Asoka and the robots known to Empress Wu
(b. AD 624) and her engineers in Tang China? There were many real
and imaginary automata in her era. A large golden Buddha surrounded
by rotating mechanical attendants that periodically bowed and tossed