A man from 60 km up the coast lies under a Greek inscription in Athens, and almost nobody in Surat has heard his name. Zarmanochegas, a monk from Barygaza, the Greek name for Bharuch, sailed with an Indian embassy to Emperor Augustus and burned himself alive in Athens around 19 BC. Three ancient writers recorded it. 1. Barygaza (Bharuch) was the great port of the Gujarat coast when Surat did not yet exist. It sits about 60 km north of Surat as the crow flies.
2. At Antioch, near Daphne (today's Harbiye in Turkey), the historian Nicolaus of Damascus met the envoys. Only 3 of the party had survived the road; the rest had died on the way. Strabo, Geography 15.1.73.
3. Augustus received the embassy while wintering on Samos in 20 BC. Dio Cassius says the Indians brought tigers, the first the Romans, and he thinks the Greeks, had ever seen, and a boy born without arms. Dio, Roman History 54.9.
4. Their letter, written in Greek on skin, came from a king calling himself Porus, ruler of 600 kings, offering Augustus passage through his lands. Strabo 15.1.73.
5. At Eleusis the Mysteries were held out of season for Augustus, and the Indian, whom Dio calls Zarmarus, was initiated. Then he threw himself alive into the fire. Dio 54.9.
6. Strabo says he leaped onto the pyre with a laugh, oiled, wearing only a loincloth, while his luck still held. Slide 7 is an 1802 Amsterdam print of the scene, drawn by J. Kuyper, from the Rijksmuseum.
7. His tomb read: Here lies Zarmanochegas, an Indian from Bargosa, who immortalised himself according to the ancestral customs of Indians. A century later Plutarch wrote that Athens still showed the Indian's Tomb. Its exact spot is unknown; slide 8 is the Kerameikos, the city's ancient cemetery. The cover and end card are the Acropolis of Athens, the city he chose. Every photo is real and credited on the slide. Sources: Strabo 15.1.73; Cassius Dio 54.9; Plutarch, Life of Alexander 69. Tag the Surti who thinks history starts at 1600. Did anyone ever tell you this one?
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Udhna, Surat | Oct 4, 2026 
