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Arthur Llewellyn Basham (1914-1986)
Von Friedrich Wilhelm, München
An outstanding historian and great friend of India has passed from us:
A. L. Basham (to use the form under which he published his books) died
in Calcutta on 27 January 1986. He was bom on 24 May 1914 at Lough-
ton, Essex', and educated at Gorleston School. While staying with his
father, who worked as a joumalist with the Indian Army at Kasauli
(near Simla), he gained his first impressions of India. In 1938, Basham
won the Ouseley Scholarship at the School of Oriental and African Stu¬
dies in London; and, in 1941, received his B. A. (London Honours I,
Indo-Aryan Studies). A conscientious objector he joined the Auxiliary
Fire Service at Lowestoft and served with them until the end ofthe war.
At the University in London, he received his Ph. D. in 1951, was
appointed Reader in 1953, and became Professor of the History of
South Asia in 1957. From 1964 to 1965, he was Director ofthe Royal
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; and, in 1965, he was called
to the Australian National University in Canberra where he became
Professor and Head ofthe Department of Asian Civilizations. Until his
retirement in 1979, and thereafter, he accepted numerous invitations as
Visiting Professor to Ceylon, India, U. S. A., Mexico, Argentina and
Canada.
Basham' 8 first indological publication (Har^a of Kashmir and the Ico¬
noclast Ascetics. In: BSOAS 12 [1948], pp. 688-91) prepared the ground
for his thesis on the Äjivikas, a revised version of which came out under
the title: History and Doctrines of the Ajivilcas. A Vanished Indian Reli¬
gion. London 1951. While research on the Buddhist and Jaina religions
dates back to the 19th century, the earliest publication on the Äjivikas
was Hoernle 's article in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
(1908). Taking as his starting-point the "Six Heretics" (cf. C. Vogel:
' As some obituaries give the date of A. L. Basham's birth as the 24 June 1914, it seems appropriate to mention that in the Register ofthe Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Loughton, it is given as the 24th of May 1914. I should
like to thank Mr. Ken James, Church Warden at Loughton, Essex, for this
information.
2 ZDMG 138/1
18 Friedrich Wilhelm
The Teachings of the Six Heretics. Wiesbaden 1970. [AKM, 39, 4.]),
Basham delved into the biography of one of them, Makkhali Gosäla, the
leader of the Äjivikas. Since Gosäla was a contemporary of Mahavira
and the Buddha, the recent discussion on the date of the Buddha (cfr.
H. Bechert: Die Lebenszeit des Buddha. Göttingen 1986. [Nachrichten
d. Akad. d. Wiss. in Göttingen. 1: Philol.-Hist. Kl. Jg. 1986, Nr. 4.]) also
affects the chronology ofthe Äjivikas. Basham's full-length study ofthe
Äjivikas ranges from the earliest communities to the southem Äjivikas.
The latest Sanskrit references to the latter date from the 15th century.
Part II deals with the doctrines of this religion, the fundamental prin¬
ciple of which was the notion of predestination (niyati). Basham's
supervisor, L. D. Barnett, commented in his foreword: "Logically, of
course, one may ask how believers in that dismal creed can submit
themselves voluntarily to self-torture and even to death in pursuance of
it. But man is not a logical creature: he does not abstain from effort
although he may believe the issue to be predeterminated, as the
example of Calvin and his Church shows." (p. XII). Basham recon¬
stmcted his account of Äjivikism from Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali and Tamil
texts as well as from North and South Indian inscriptions. This stan¬
dard work is reviewed in great detail by W. Schubring in: ZDMG 104
(I95I), pp. 256-263.
With The Wonder that was India. 1st ed. London 1954, Basham made
a successful attempt to redraw the cultural map of ancient India and to
update L. D. Barnett's The Antiquities of India. London 1913. The
somewhat catchy title was imposed upon Basham by the publishing
house, Sidgwick and Jackson, who brought the book out uniformly with
The Glory that was Greece, The Grandeur that was Rome etc. Subtitled A
Survey of the Culture of the Indian Sub-Continent before the coming of the
Muslims, the book gives a vivid realistic account of Indian prehistory
and ancient history, society, everyday life, religion, arts, languages and
literatures. By reconstmcting India's past in a comprehensible way the
author was aiming at a wider public. His translations from Sanskrit,
Prakrit and Tamil poetry try to keep "some of the lively vemacular
style ofthe original," while opting in the old dilemma for beauty, not
fidelity. The last ofthe twelve appendices is dedicated to the Indian ori¬
gin ofthe Gypsies: "Among India's many gifts to the world we must in¬
clude the Gypsies, who, with their music and dancing, have formed a
romantic and colourful element in European life for over five centuries"
(p. 512). Ever since his boyhood in Essex Basham had been mesme¬
rized by them, and even told his friends that he had Gypsy blood in his
veins, but I think this nomadic academic of Welsh descent simply want-
Arthur Llewellyn Basham (1914-1986) 19
ed to jocularly account for his lifestyle. Basham's bestselling Wonder —
called a "masterpiece of synthesis" by K. Ballhatchet — was trans¬
lated into Hindi, Tamil and Sinhalese, into French and Polish, but not
into German. However, Basham's inaugural lecture (London, 11 March
1958) was translated into German: Der indische Subkontinent in histori¬
scher Perspektive. In: Saeculum 10 (1959), pp. 196-207. Another contri¬
bution in German language is his survey of Indian medicine: Indien. In:
H. Schipperges, E. Seidler und P. U. Unschuld: Krankheit, Heil¬
kunst, Heilung. Freiburg/München 1978, pp. 145-178.
In Sourees of Indian Tradition. New York 1958 (ed. Th. de Bary)
Basham provided the general reader with selected translations from
Jaina and Buddhist texts. In the 3rd edition of the Oxford History of
India. Oxford 1958, Basham revised the section on ancient India, incor¬
porating the results of the latest research. Moreover, he ironed out the
prejudices evident in Vincent Smith's 1st edition of 1919; for
example, he omitted Smith's comparison ofthe policy of Kautilya with
that of Imperial Germany. In his article. Modern Historians of Ancient
India. In: Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon. London 1961 (ed.
C. H. Philips), Basham questions Smith's hero-worshipping; for
example, when Smith asserts that with regard to Alexander "criticism
is silenced in admiration", or when he labels Candragupta "a man of
blood and iron." In the same paper, Basham deals with Christian
Lassen and his Hegelian presuppositions; with the historical works of
Louis DE la Vall^e Poussin, Sir. R. G. Bhandarkar, H. C. Ray¬
chaudhuri; and with The History and Culture of the Indian People. Lon¬
don 195 Iff.
In I960, Basham convened the "Conference on the Date of Kaniska,"
in London and edited the resulting Papers on the Date of Kaniska in 1968.
Neither the earlier colloquium on the subject in London 1 913 nor
Basham's conference solved the puzzle ofthe Kushan chronology, but
the latter provoked an intemational discussion which has lasted until
today. Mention should also be made of a third conference, held in
Dushanbe in 1968, and a plethora of publications in this field by for
example P. H. L. Eggermont, G. Fussman, R. Göbl, H. Humbach,
G. V. Mitterwallner.
Basham edited The Civilizations of Monsoon Asia. Sidney 1974, and
he was also in charge of a new edition of the Legacy of India which
appeared as A Cultural History of India. Oxford 1975, with most ofthe
contributions newly written, three from Basham's pen.
Kenneth G. Zysk in: LASTAM, Newsletter Nr. 8 (1986), p. 4,
emphasized the wide range and profundity of Basham's knowledge:
20 Friedrich Wilhelm
. . he maintained that the more one can know about the history of
mankind in general, the more one will understand the particular history
and culture one is studying and trying to elucidate." One may also
argue, however, that Basham's historical approach started from the
individual. In my opinion, he has always been in tune with a maxim
which Alexander Pope coined long before Goethe: "The proper
study of mankind is man."
When I first came to London in 1958, I remember telling Basham
how impressed I was by the manifestations of monarchy, so visible in
the capital, and of anarchy, as by speakers at Marble Arch. With regard
to monarchy, he gave the British answer, "Yes, but we are not very seri¬
ous about it"; and conceming anarchy, he commented, "Actually I am
anarchist myself," which astounded me, as I had been brought up to
associate the academic status with some sort of authoritarian attitude.
Years later, when we passed a sports field in South Germany, he told
me: "This is one ofthe good things we gave to the world." This suggest¬
ed a certain national pride with the undertone that there may have been
other things too. His day-dreams of Central Europe included Goethe,
Brahms, the Black Forest, and Brecht (he was deeply impressed by a
performance of Mutter Courage in London) . Personally, I felt that he was
favourably disposed towards me because I was a German. Others may
have felt the same regarding their own nationality.
In 1980, several ofhis former students contributed papers to a Fest¬
schrift: India in History and Thought. Essays in Honour of A.L. Basham.
Ed. S. N. Mukherjee. Basham's foremost concem has always been
his students, and he supervised numerous theses, attaching great
importance to "midwifery", as he put it. Each ofhis students could con¬
fide in him, and he always knew what advice he had to give: less didact¬
ic than Polonius, he had a certain Shakespearian indulgence and broad-
mindedness. "Everyone can do as much harm to himself as he likes as
long as he does not do harm to others," was one ofhis only too liberal
statements which gave food for thought.
As a scholar of intemational renown, Basham was elected President
ofthe 28th Intemational Congress of Orientalists in Canberra in 1971
and presided over the Intemational Association of Buddhist Studies
from 1981. Basham was the founder ofthe Intemational Association
for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (LASTAM) and organised
its first Intemational Conference in 1979. His paper. The Practice of
Medicine in Ancient and Medieval India, was published in Ch. Leslie
(ed.): Asian Medical Systems. Berkeley 1976. On Basham's death lAS-
TAM established an Arthur L. Basham Medal. Six medals bearing
Arthur LleweUyn Basham (1914-1986) 21
Basham's likeness will be awarded "for outstanding studies in the
social and cultural history of traditional Asian medicine." Even prior to
this, on Basham's retirement in 1979, the Australian National Univer¬
sity in Canberra had established a series of public lectures in honour of
A. L. Basham, the sixth of which was delivered by Monika Thiel-
Hobstmann in 1985.
Basham has been honoured in India on various occasions. He
received an honorary D. lit. from Kurukshetra Umversity (1965), and
the title Vidyavaridhi (i. e. "ocean of knowledge") from Nava Nalanda
Mahavihara, Nalanda (1977). He was awarded the biennial Dr. B. C.
Law Gold Medal for Indology by the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (1975),
and the Deshikottama Award by Vishvabharati Umversity, Shantinike¬
tan (1985). So many honours, so many appointments; but Basham was
always cutting a low profile, hating V.l. P. treatment which was so often
offered to him. His last appointment was as Swami Vivekänanda Profes¬
sor in Oriental Studies at the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (1985/86) his
last office being in the annex of the old building in 1, Park Street.
Basham died in the paramparä of Sir William Jones, the founder of
the Asiatick (sic!) Society in 1784, whom he had always greatly
admired.
On Basham's demise the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi,
respectfully said in a message of condolence that India had lost a dear
friend: "He was a scholar of great insight and integrity." Indeed, the
cosmopolitan scholar with appointments in four continents had felt an
ever-increasing affinity for India, an affinity shared and encouraged by
his Assamese wife.
In one ofhis Heras Memorial Lectures (in: A. L. Basham: Aspects of
Ancient Indian Culture. Bombay 1966, p. 43), Basham emphasized the
inclusiveness of Indian religious life: "It is through this inclusive spirit,
diametrically opposite to the older traditional westem one of exclusive¬
ness, that Hindu culture has always found it easy to incorporate new
elements, and the process has not ceased. In the minds of many good
and pious Hindus Jesus Christ is a divinity of the Hindu Pantheon. I
have myself seen devout, unbaptized, simple Hindus praying most reve¬
rently before a statue ofthe Virgin Mary in Colombo. So also some Hin¬
dus can accept Karl Marx as a sort of avatära. I have met Gandhian
Marxists and Marxist Gandhians. The policy which by the present
Indian Govemment is called non-alignment can perhaps be better inter¬
preted as a sort of partial alignment with both camps."
Basham lies buried in Calcutta "in the Old Military Cemetery belong¬
ing to the Anglican Church of which officially he was a member" (Mrs.
22 Friedrich Wilhelm
Basham in her letter of Sept. 3rd, 1986). Was this friend of Indian reli¬
gion an Anglican at the end of his life as he was by birth? Certainly he
was religiously minded: I saw the emotion in his face when he was look¬
ing at Schongaubr's Madonna in Colmar. But we should not narrowly
confine him in terms of either-or. What Basham said about Indian
inclusiveness, he embodied himself, "striving to assimilate apparently opposing elements" in religion as well as in politics.
Basham had a feeling for poetry as is shown by his translations from
Sanskrit, Pali and Tamil. Before taking up Indian studies Basham pub¬
lished Proem, a book of poems, in 1935. His novel Golden Furrow
appeared in 1939. When I asked him for an English translation of Her¬
mann Hesses's poem.4w den indischen Dichter Bhartrihäri (sic!), he sent
me in his letter of 5 December 1978 his own spontaneous rendering:
To the Indian Poet Bhartrihäri
Like you, my ancestor and brother, I take
a zigzag course through life between my urges,
and my soul, today a sage, tomorrow a fool.
Today at one with God, tomorrow given over
eagerly to the flesh. With my two scourges —
pleasure and penance — I flageUate myself
until my back is bloody, now monk, now wastrel,
now thinker, and now beast. The guilt of mere
existence calls for pardon — either way
I must commit sin of necessity,
and bum myself to ashes in two fires.
Those who honoured yesterday my sanctity
see me today converted, a ne'er-do-well,
while those who rolled in the gutters with me yesterday
now find me fasting, praying eamestly,
and both sides spit on me and fling their curses
at the false lover, cheap and undignified,
for I also weave, among the bloody roses
of my crown of thoms, the blossoms of contempt.
I travel sanctimonious through a world of sham,
as hateful to myself as I am to you.
Arthur LleweUyn Basham (1914-1986)
the horror of every child. And this I know —
that everything we do, whether you or I,
means less to God than dust blovm in the wind.
This too I know, along this infamous
and sinful path I am blown by the breath of God,
and I must bear it all, must press yet further,
run deeper into debt, in the mad frenzy
of craving, in the power of evil deeds.
What sense lies in this drive I cannot tell.
But, as with grubby, vicious hands I wipe
the dust and blood from my face, this I do know —
that I must travel this road right to the end.
CODLI A - eine semitische Bezeichnung für garum?
Von Jürgen Blänsdorf und Heribert Horst, Mainz
I
Die 1980 in Mainz gefundene Scherbe einer südspanischen Amphore
aus claudischer Zeit (41-54) sicherte endlich den vollen Wortbestand
eines bisher nur aus Abkürzungen oder unsicheren Lesungen bekannten
Wortes : codlia. ' Die mit einer Buchstabenhöhe von ca. 12 mm quer über
den Amphorenbauch verlaufende Pinselinschrift hat folgenden Wort¬
laut:
CODLIA VE (tus) / EXCELL(ens)
Das a ist in der im 1. und 2. Jahrhundert verbreiteten Form mit stark
nach links ausladender Schräghaste geschrieben. Obwohl diese von der
schräg nach rechts verlaufenden Schräghaste etwas überkreuzt wird,
ist eine Lesung als x ausgeschlossen, wie der Vergleich mit der Buchsta¬
benform in EXCELL(ens) zeigt.
Die bisherige Überlieferung beruhte bei völligem Fehlen literarischer
Belege nur auf folgenden in Pompeji und Rom gefundenen tituli picti
von Amphoren spanischer und italischer Herkunft?. Die Belege sind auf
das 1. und 2. Jahrhundert beschränkt:
CIL IV 5629 C 0 D II VE
5630 C 0 D L I A A (vel R) VE EXCEL
M. VALERI ABINNERICI
(ab Eup) H R A T E (?)
5631 CODLLX VE (oder C 0 D L I X)
5632 CXLIX VE EXCELL SVMMA
5633 COAirV SVMMA EXCEL
5634 CODUVM SVMAVR EXCELL
' A. DO PA50 u. K.-V. Decker: Archäologische Untersuchungen am Hopfengar¬
ten Maim. In: Mainzer Zeitschrift 79/80 (1984/5), 246-250; J. Blänsdorf:
Drei Mainzer Amphoren-Scherben. In: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 15
(1985), 91-93 (m. Abb.).
' Die Lesungen des Thes. Ung. Lat. sind aus den beigegebenen Umzeichnun-
gen ergänzt. — Frau Dr. U. Keudel von der Redaktion des Thesaurus habe ich
fiir weitere Materialhinweise zu danken.
