Calanus
Kalanos
Calanus (a Greek transliteration the Macedonian sources derive from his Indian greeting; the Indians called him Sphines), a Brahmanical ascetic from the gymnosophist community at Taxila, joined Alexander's entourage at the king's request in 326 BC — alone among the naked philosophers in agreeing to accompany the army, a decision Dandamis the senior gymnosophist condemned as capitulation (Arr. *Anab.* 7.2.2–4; Plut. *Alex.* 65.1–3; Strabo 15.1.68). He travelled with the army from Taxila through India, Gedrosia, and Carmania to Persis, reportedly in excellent health until old age overtook him near Pasargadae in the spring of 324 BC (Plut. *Alex.* 69.3 gives his age as seventy-three; Diod. 17.107.1–6 gives a slightly different account). Refusing to be carried sick or to outlive his own vigour, he requested a funeral pyre be constructed for him, mounted it in full lotus-posture, and self-immolated without a sound as the Macedonian army watched — Plut. *Alex.* 69.7 reports that he did not move as the fire took him. His last words to Alexander before mounting the pyre are preserved in Arr. *Anab.* 7.3.6: 'We shall meet again at Babylon' — a prediction Arrian notes Alexander understood only later to refer to his own death (he died at Babylon a little over a year later). Cicero *De Div.* 1.47 preserves the prophecy as a celebrated example of foreknowledge in a non-Greek tradition.