Biblexika

Milindapanha (Questions of King Milinda)

buddhismPalic. 100 BCE - 200 CE

The Milindapanha (Questions of King Milinda) is one of the most intellectually engaging texts in all of Buddhist literature — a dialogue between the Greek king Menander (Milinda in Pali), who ruled the Indo-Greek kingdom in northwestern India around 155-130 BCE, and the Buddhist monk Nagasena. Their sustained philosophical conversation covers the most difficult problems in Buddhist thought, includ

Overview

The Milindapanha (Questions of King Milinda) is one of the most intellectually engaging texts in all of Buddhist literature — a dialogue between the Greek king Menander (Milinda in Pali), who ruled the Indo-Greek kingdom in northwestern India around 155-130 BCE, and the Buddhist monk Nagasena. Their sustained philosophical conversation covers the most difficult problems in Buddhist thought, including the nature of the self, rebirth without a permanent soul, karma, nirvana, and the Buddha's nature. The text is remarkable both as a record of cross-cultural philosophical encounter between Greek and Indian traditions and as a model of rigorous philosophical dialogue in the Socratic spirit.

The dialogue begins with King Milinda challenging Nagasena: if there is no permanent self (the Buddhist doctrine of anatta), who is it that meditates, accumulates karma, and is reborn? Nagasena's famous response uses the analogy of a lamp — when you light one lamp from another, is it the same flame? No, and yet neither is it a different flame. Similarly, the 'person' who is reborn is neither the same nor different from the person who died. The process of karma and rebirth is real; what is absent is a permanent, unchanging self carrying that process forward.

The Milindapanha is fascinating for comparative religion students because King Milinda's Greek philosophical background brings Platonic questions about the soul into direct conversation with Buddhist philosophy. The resulting exchange clarifies both traditions' positions through contrast: the Greek tradition's persistent self that continues after death, versus the Buddhist stream of consciousness without a permanent self that nonetheless produces karma and rebirth.

Bible connections
  • Acts 17:16-34 (Paul's dialogue with Greek philosophers — comparable cross-cultural encounter)
  • 1 Corinthians 15 (resurrection body and personal identity after death)
  • John 11:25-26 (resurrection and the nature of the self that continues)
Key terms
anatta (no-self)– the Buddhist doctrine that there is no permanent, unchanging self or soul — one of the Three Marks of Existence alongside impermanence and suffering
nirvana– the cessation of craving, suffering, and the cycle of rebirth — the supreme goal of Buddhist practice, achieved by extinguishing the fires of desire, aversion, and delusion
karma– intentional actions that create causal consequences shaping future experience and rebirth — the moral law governing the continuity of the stream of consciousness across lives
upaya (skillful means)– the Buddha's teaching adapted to the specific needs and capacities of different hearers — a key concept in Buddhist pedagogy explaining why the Buddha taught different things to different people
Did you know?

King Menander I is one of the most documented Greco-Bactrian kings through his coins. Found across Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, his coins show his Greek profile on one side and Buddhist symbols — including the Dhamma wheel and the lotus — on the reverse, suggesting genuine philosophical engagement with Buddhism rather than mere political accommodation. He is the only Greek king mentioned by name in Buddhist literature.