An ancient Indian Buddhist monk buried in Athens
Buddhist philosophy is practical and seems some what out of sync with the Hindu thought at that time. Buddha lived around the same time as Socrates. I can't help but wonder if some of the ideas were not cross-pollinated. Don't get me wrong. There are many similarities between the cultures, even 1000 years ago. Al-Biruni, an arabic scholar, well versed in Greek thought, said as much. He thought Indians were on par with Greeks in Math and Science, but didn't advance as much because the language(Sanskrit) depends on analogies and metaphors a tad too much ie, not being quantitive and exact. I feel even today, Indian culture relies heavily on analogy.