The term "Indo-Greek Kingdom" loosely describes a number of various Hellenistic states, ruling from regional capitals likeTaxila,Sagala,Pushkalavati, andBagram.[10][11][12] Other centers are only hinted at; e.g.Ptolemy'sGeographia and the nomenclature of later kings suggest that a certainTheophilus in the south of the Indo-Greek sphere of influence may also have had a royal seat there at one time.
During the two centuries of their rule, the Indo-Greek kingscombined the Greek and Indian languages and symbols, as seen on their coins, and blended Greek and Indian ideas, as seen in the archaeological remains.[15] The diffusion of Indo-Greek culture had consequences which are still felt today, particularly through the influence ofGreco-Buddhist art.[16] The ethnicity of the Indo-Greek may also have been hybrid to some degree.Euthydemus I was, according to Polybius,[17] aMagnesianGreek. His son,Demetrius I, founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom, was therefore of Greek ethnicity at least by his father. A marriage treaty was arranged for the same Demetrius with a daughter of theSeleucid rulerAntiochus III. The ethnicity of later Indo-Greek rulers is sometimes less clear.[18] For example,Artemidoros (80 BC) was supposed to have been ofIndo-Scythian descent, although he is now seen as a regular Indo-Greek king.[19]
Menander I, being the most well known amongst the Indo-Greek kings, is often referred to simply as "Menander," despite the fact that there was indeed another Indo-Greek King known as Menander II. Menander I's capital was at Sakala in the Punjab (present-day Sialkot). Following the death of Menander, most of his empire splintered and Indo-Greek influence was considerably reduced. Many new kingdoms and republics east of theRavi River began to mint new coinage depicting military victories.[20] The most prominent entities to form were theYaudheya Republic,Arjunayanas, and theAudumbaras. The Yaudheyas and Arjunayanas both are said to have won "victory by the sword".[21] TheDatta dynasty andMitra dynasty soon followed inMathura.
The Indo-Greeks ultimately disappeared as a political entity around 10 AD following the invasions of theIndo-Scythians, although pockets of Greek populations probably remained for several centuries longer under the subsequent rule of theIndo-Parthians, theKushans,[b] and theIndo-Scythians, whoseWestern Satraps state lingered on encompassing localGreeks, up to 415 CE.
Greeks first began to establish authority in the Northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent during the time of thePersianAchaemenid Empire.Darius the Great conquered the area, but along with his successors also conquered much of the Greek world, which at the time included all of the westernAnatolian peninsula. When Greek villages rebelled under the Persian yoke, they were sometimes ethnically cleansed, by relocation to the far side of the empire around today's Afghanistan. Over time they grew influential politically and rose to power establishing their own independent kingdoms and expanding their realm in all directions.[citation needed]
In the fourth century BC,Alexander the Great defeated and conquered the Persian empire. In 326 BC, thisincluded the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent as far as theHyphasis River. Alexander establishedsatrapies and founded several cities, includingBucephala; he turned south when his troops refused to go further east.[22] The Indian satrapies of thePunjab were left to the rule ofPorus andTaxiles, who were confirmed again at theTreaty of Triparadisus in 321 BC, and the remaining Greek troops in these satrapies were left under the command of Alexander's generalEudemus. After 321 BC Eudemus toppled Taxiles, until he left India in 316 BC. To the south, another general also ruled over the Greek colonies of the Indus:Peithon, son of Agenor,[23] until his departure forBabylon in 316 BC.
Around 322 BC, the Greeks (described asYona orYavana in Indian sources) may then have participated, together with other groups, in the uprising ofChandragupta Maurya against theNanda dynasty, and gone as far asPataliputra for the capture of the city from the Nandas. TheMudrarakshasa ofVisakhadutta as well as theJaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandragupta's alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, often identified withPorus,[24] and according to these accounts, this alliance gave Chandragupta a composite and powerful army made up ofYavanas (Greeks),Kambojas,Shakas (Scythians),Kiratas (Nepalese),Parasikas (Persians) andBahlikas (Bactrians) who tookPataliputra.[25][26][27]
In 305 BC,Seleucus I led an army to theIndus, where he encounteredChandragupta. The confrontation ended with a peace treaty, and "an intermarriage agreement" (Epigamia, Greek: Ἐπιγαμία), meaning either a dynastic marriage or an agreement for intermarriage between Indians and Greeks. Accordingly, Seleucus ceded his eastern territories to Chandragupta, possibly as far asArachosia and received 500war elephants (which played a key role in Seleucus's victory at theBattle of Ipsus):[28]
The Indians occupy in part some of the countries situated along the Indus, which formerly belonged to the Persians: Alexander deprived the Ariani of them, and established there settlements of his own. ButSeleucus Nicator gave them toSandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants.
The details of the marriage agreement are not known,[30] but since the extensive sources available on Seleucus never mention an Indian princess, it is thought that the marital alliance went the other way, with Chandragupta himself or his son Bindusara marrying a Seleucid princess, in accordance with contemporary Greek practices to form dynastic alliances. An IndianPuranic source, thePratisarga Parva of theBhavishya Purana, described the marriage of Chandragupta with a Greek ("Yavana") princess, daughter of Seleucus,[31] before accurately detailing early Mauryan genealogy:
"Chandragupta married with a daughter ofSuluva, theYavana king ofPausasa. Thus, he mixed the Buddhists and the Yavanas. He ruled for 60 years. From him,Vindusara was born and ruled for the same number of years as his father. His son wasAshoka."
Chandragupta, however, followed Jainism until the end of his life. He got in his court for marriage the daughter ofSeleucus Nicator, and thus, he mixed the Indians and the Greeks. His grandsonAshoka, as Woodcock and other scholars have suggested, "may in fact have been half or at least a quarter Greek."[34]
Also several Greeks, such as the historianMegasthenes,[35] followed byDeimachus andDionysius, were sent to reside at theMauryan court.[36] Presents continued to be exchanged between the two rulers.[37] The intensity of these contacts is testified by the existence of a dedicated Mauryan state department for Greek (Yavana) and Persian foreigners,[38] or the remains ofHellenistic pottery that can be found throughout northern India.[39]
On these occasions, Greek populations apparently remained in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent under Mauryan rule. Chandragupta's grandsonAshoka, who had converted to the Buddhist faith declared in theEdicts of Ashoka, set in stone, some of them written in Greek,[40][41] that Greek populations within his realm also had converted to Buddhism:[42]
Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, theKambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, theAndhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions inDharma.
In his edicts, Ashoka mentions that he had sent Buddhist emissaries to Greek rulers as far as the Mediterranean (Edict No. 13),[43][44] and that he developedherbal medicine in their territories, for the welfare of humans and animals (Edict No. 2).[45]
The Greeks in India even seem to have played an active role in the propagation of Buddhism, as some of the emissaries of Ashoka such asDharmaraksita,[46] or the teacherMahadharmaraksita,[47] are described inPali sources as leading Greek ("Yona", i.e., Ionian) Buddhist monks, active in Buddhist proselytism (theMahavamsa, XII).[48] It is also thought that Greeks contributed to the sculptural work of thePillars of Ashoka,[49] and more generally to the blossoming of Mauryan art.[50] Some Greeks (Yavanas) may have played an administrative role in the territories ruled by Ashoka: theJunagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman records that during the rule of Ashoka, aYavana King/ Governor namedTushaspha was in charge in the area ofGirnar,Gujarat, mentioning his role in the construction of a water reservoir.[51][52]
Again in 206 BC, theSeleucid emperorAntiochus led an army to theKabul valley, where he received war elephants and presents from the local kingSophagasenus:[53]
He (Antiochus) crossed the Caucasus (the Caucasus Indicus or Paropamisus: mod.Hindú Kúsh) and descended into India; renewed his friendship withSophagasenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leavingAndrosthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him.
Alexander had also established several colonies in neighbouringBactria, such asAlexandria on the Oxus (modernAi-Khanoum) andAlexandria of the Caucasus (medievalKapisa, modernBagram). After Alexander's death in 323 BC, Bactria came under the control ofSeleucus I Nicator, who founded theSeleucid Empire. The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was founded when Diodotus I, thesatrap of Bactria (and probably the surrounding provinces) seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BC. The preserved ancient sources (see below) are somewhat contradictory and the exact date of Bactrian independence has not been settled. Somewhat simplified, there is a high chronology (c. 255 BC) and a low chronology (c. 246 BC) for Diodotos' secession.[56] The high chronology has the advantage of explaining why the Seleucid kingAntiochus II issued very few coins in Bactria, as Diodotos would have become independent there early in Antiochus' reign.[57] On the other hand, the low chronology, from the mid-240s BC, has the advantage of connecting the secession of Diodotus I with theThird Syrian War, a catastrophic conflict for the Seleucid Empire.
Diodotus, the governor of the thousand cities of Bactria (Latin:Theodotus, mille urbium Bactrianarum praefectus), defected and proclaimed himself king; all the other people of the Orient followed his example and seceded from the Macedonians.
The new kingdom, highly urbanized and considered one of the richest of the Orient (opulentissimum illud mille urbium Bactrianum imperium "The extremely prosperous Bactrian empire of the thousand cities" Justin, XLI,1[59]), was to further grow in power and engage into territorial expansion to the east and the west:
The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only ofAriana, but also ofIndia, asApollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander... Their cities wereBactra (also called Zariaspa, through which flows a river bearing the same name and emptying into theOxus), and Darapsa, and several others. Among these wasEucratidia, which was named after its ruler.
When the ruler of neighbouringParthia, the former satrap and self-proclaimed kingAndragoras, was eliminated byArsaces, the rise of theParthian Empire cut off the Greco-Bactrians from direct contact with the Greek world. Overland trade continued at a reduced rate, while sea trade betweenGreek Egypt and Bactria developed.
Diodotus was succeeded by his sonDiodotus II, who allied himself with the ParthianArsaces in his fight againstSeleucus II:
Soon after, relieved by the death of Diodotus, Arsaces made peace and concluded an alliance with his son, also by the name of Diodotus; some time later he fought against Seleucos who came to punish the rebels, and he prevailed: the Parthians celebrated this day as the one that marked the beginning of their freedom
Euthydemus, aMagnesian Greek according toPolybius[62] and possibly satrap ofSogdiana, overthrew Diodotus II around 230 BC and started his own dynasty. Euthydemus's control extended to Sogdiana, going beyond the city ofAlexandria Eschate founded by Alexander the Great inFerghana:
"And they also held Sogdiana, situated above Bactriana towards the east between the Oxus River, which forms the boundary between the Bactrians and the Sogdians, and theIaxartes River. And the Iaxartes forms also the boundary between the Sogdians and the nomads.
Coin depicting theGreco-Bactrian kingEuthydemus I, c. 230–200 BC. The reverse shows seatedHeracles holding club. TheGreek inscription reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΕΥΘΥΔΗΜΟΥ – "(of) King Euthydemus".
Euthydemus was attacked by the Seleucid rulerAntiochus III around 210 BC. Although he commanded 10,000 horsemen, Euthydemus initially lost a battle on theArius[64] and had to retreat. He then successfully resisted a three-year siege in the fortified city ofBactra (modernBalkh), before Antiochus finally decided to recognize the new ruler, and to offer one of his daughters to Euthydemus's sonDemetrius around 206 BC.[65] Classical accounts also relate that Euthydemus negotiated peace with Antiochus III by suggesting that he deserved credit for overthrowing the original rebel Diodotus, and that he was protecting Central Asia from nomadic invasions thanks to his defensive efforts:
...for if he did not yield to this demand, neither of them would be safe: seeing that great hordes of Nomads were close at hand, who were a danger to both; and that if they admitted them into the country, it would certainly be utterly barbarised.
Following the departure of the Seleucid army, the Bactrian kingdom seems to have expanded. In the west, areas in north-easternIran may have been absorbed, possibly as far as intoParthia, whose ruler had been defeated byAntiochus the Great. These territories possibly are identical with the Bactrian satrapies ofTapuria andTraxiane.
To the north, Euthydemus also ruledSogdiana andFerghana, and there are indications that fromAlexandria Eschate the Greco-Bactrians may have led expeditions as far asKashgar andÜrümqi inChinese Turkestan, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 220 BC. The Greek historianStrabo too writes that:
they extended their empire even as far as theSeres (Chinese) and thePhryni
Several statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been found north of theTien Shan, on the doorstep to China, and are today on display in theXinjiang museum atUrumqi (Boardman[66]).
Greek influences on Chinese art have also been suggested (Hirth,Rostovtzeff). Designs withrosette flowers, geometric lines, and glass inlays, suggestive of Hellenistic influences,[67] can be found on some earlyHan dynasty bronze mirrors.[68]
Numismatics also suggest that some technology exchanges may have occurred on these occasions: the Greco-Bactrians were the first in the world to issuecupro-nickel (75/25 ratio) coins,[69] an alloy technology only known by the Chinese at the time under the name "White copper" (some weapons from theWarring States period were in copper-nickel alloy[70]). The practice of exporting Chinese metals, in particular iron, for trade is attested around that period. Kings Euthydemus, Euthydemus II,Agathocles andPantaleon made these coin issues around 170 BC and it has alternatively been suggested that a nickeliferous copper ore was the source from mines atAnarak.[71] Copper-nickel would not be used again in coinage until the 19th century.
The presence of Chinese people in the Indian subcontinent from ancient times is also suggested by the accounts of the "Ciñas" in theMahabharata and theManu Smriti.
TheHan dynasty explorer and ambassadorZhang Qian visited Bactria in 126 BC, and reported the presence of Chinese products in the Bactrian markets:
"When I was in Bactria (Daxia)", Zhang Qian reported, "I saw bamboo canes from Qiong and cloth made in the province of Shu (territories of southwestern China). When I asked the people how they had gotten such articles, they replied, "Our merchants go buy them in the markets of Shendu (India)."
Upon his return, Zhang Qian informed the Chinese emperor HanWudi of the level of sophistication of the urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia, who became interested in developing commercial relationships with them:
The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus:Ferghana (Dayuan) and the possessions ofBactria (Daxia) andParthia (Anxi) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, and placing great value on the rich produce of China
The Indian emperorChandragupta, founder of theMauryan dynasty, had re-conquered northwestern India upon the death ofAlexander the Great around 322 BC. However, contacts were kept with his Greek neighbours in theSeleucid Empire, a dynastic alliance or the recognition of intermarriage between Greeks and Indians were established (described as an agreement onEpigamia in Ancient sources), and several Greeks, such as the historianMegasthenes, resided at the Mauryan court. Subsequently, each Mauryan emperor had a Greek ambassador at his court.
Chandragupta's grandsonAshoka converted to the Buddhist faith and became a great proselytizer in the line of the traditional Pali canon ofTheravada Buddhism, directing his efforts towards the Indian and the Hellenistic worlds from around 250 BC. According to theEdicts of Ashoka, set in stone, some of them written in Greek, he sent Buddhist emissaries to the Greek lands in Asia and as far as the Mediterranean. The edicts name each of the rulers of theHellenistic world at the time.
Some of the Greek populations that had remained in northwestern India apparently converted to Buddhism:
Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, theKambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, theAndhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions inDharma.
Furthermore, according toPali sources, some of Ashoka's emissaries were Greek Buddhist monks, indicating close religious exchanges between the two cultures:
When the thera (elder) Moggaliputta, the illuminator of the religion of the Conqueror (Ashoka), had brought the (third) council to an end… he sent forth theras, one here and one there: …and to Aparantaka (the "Western countries" corresponding toGujarat andSindh) he sent the Greek (Yona) namedDhammarakkhita... and the thera Maharakkhita he sent into the country of the Yona.
Greco-Bactrians probably received these Buddhist emissaries (At least Maharakkhita, lit. "The Great Saved One", who was "sent to the country of the Yona") and somehow tolerated the Buddhist faith, although little proof remains. In the 2nd century AD, the Christian dogmatistClement of Alexandria recognized the existence of BuddhistSramanas among the Bactrians ("Bactrians" meaning "Oriental Greeks" in that period), and even their influence on Greek thought:
Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it came toGreece. First in its ranks were the prophets of theEgyptians; and theChaldeans among theAssyrians;[73] and theDruids among theGauls; and theSramanas among theBactrians ("Σαρμαναίοι Βάκτρων"); and the philosophers of theCelts; and theMagi of thePersians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into the land ofJudea guided by a star. The Indiangymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them calledSramanas ("Σαρμάναι"), and othersBrahmins ("Βραφμαναι").
— Clement of Alexandria, "The Stromata, or Miscellanies" Book I, Chapter XV[74]
In India, the Maurya dynasty was overthrown around 185 BC whenPushyamitra Shunga, the commander-in-chief of Mauryan Imperial forces and aBrahmin, assassinated the last of the Mauryan emperorsBrihadratha.[75][76] Pushyamitra Shunga then ascended the throne and established theShunga Empire, which extended its control as far west as thePunjab.
Buddhist sources, such as theAshokavadana, mention that Pushyamitra was hostile towards Buddhists and allegedly persecuted theBuddhist faith. A large number of Buddhist monasteries (viharas) were allegedly converted toHindu temples, in such places asNalanda,Bodhgaya,Sarnath orMathura. While it is established by secular sources thatHinduism andBuddhism were in competition during this time, with the Shungas preferring the former to the latter, historians such asEtienne Lamotte[77] andRomila Thapar[78] argue that Buddhist accounts of persecution of Buddhists by Shungas are largely exaggerated. SomePuranic sources however also describe the resurgence ofBrahmanism following theMaurya dynasty, and the killing of millions of Buddhists, such as thePratisarga Parva of theBhavishya Purana:[79]
"At this time [after the rule ofChandragupta,Bindusara andAshoka] the best of thebrahmanas, Kanyakubja, performed sacrifice on the top of a mountain named Arbuda. By the influence ofVedic mantras, fourKshatriyas appeared from theyajna (sacrifice). (...) They kept Ashoka under their control and annihilated all the Buddhists. It is said there were 4 million Buddhists and all of them were killed by uncommon weapons".
Some narrative history has survived for most of the Hellenistic world, at least of the kings and the wars;[82] this is lacking for India. The main Greco-Roman source on the Indo-Greeks isJustin, who wrote an anthology drawn from the Roman historianPompeius Trogus, who in turn wrote, from Greek sources, at the time ofAugustus Caesar.[83] In addition to these dozen sentences, the geographerStrabo mentions India a few times in the course of his long dispute withEratosthenes about the shape of Eurasia. Most of these are purely geographical claims, but he does mention that Eratosthenes' sources say that some of the Greek kings conquered further than Alexander; Strabo does not believe them on this, nor does he believe thatMenander and Demetrius son of Euthydemus conquered more tribes than Alexander[84] There is half a story about Menander in one of the books ofPolybius which has not come down to us intact.[85]
There are Indian literary sources, ranging from theMilinda Panha, a dialogue between a Buddhist sageNagasena and Indianized names that may be related to Indo-Greek kings such asMenander I. Names in these sources are consistently Indianized, and there is some dispute whether, for example,Dharmamitra represents "Demetrius" or is an Indian prince with that name. There was also a Chinese expedition to Bactria byChang-k'ien under theEmperor Wu of Han, recorded in theRecords of the Grand Historian andBook of the Former Han, with additional evidence in theBook of the Later Han; the identification of places and peoples behind transcriptions into Chinese is difficult, and several alternate interpretations have been proposed.[86][full citation needed]
Other evidence of the broader and longer influence of Indo-Greeks is possibly suggested byYavanarajya inscription, dated to the 1st-century BC. It mentionsYavanas, a term which is derived from "Ionians", and which at that time most likely means "Indo-Greeks".[87]
Demetrius I, the son ofEuthydemus is generally considered theGreco-Bactrian king who first launched the Greek expansion intoIndia. He is therefore the founder of theIndo-Greek realm. The true intents of the Greek kings in occupying India are unknown, but it is thought that the elimination of theMaurya Empire by theSunga greatly encouraged this expansion. The Indo-Greeks, in particularMenander I who is said in theMilindapanha to have converted to Buddhism, also possibly received the help of Indian Buddhists.[89]
There is an inscription from his father's reign already officially hailing Demetrius as victorious. He also has one of the few absolute dates in Indo-Greek history: after his father held offAntiochus III for two years, 208–6 BC, the peace treaty included the offer of a marriage between Demetrius and Antiochus' daughter.[90] Coins of Demetrius I have been found inArachosia and in theKabul Valley; the latter would be the first entry of the Greeks into India, as they defined it. There is also literary evidence for a campaign eastward against theSeres and thePhryni; but the order and dating of these conquests is uncertain.[91]
Demetrius I seems to have conquered the Kabul valley,Arachosia and perhapsGandhara;[92] he struck no Indian coins, so either his conquests did not penetrate that far into India or he died before he could consolidate them. On his coins, Demetrius I always carries the elephant-helmet worn by Alexander, which seems to be a token of his Indian conquests.[93]Bopearachchi believes that Demetrius received the title of "King of India" following his victories south of the Hindu Kush.[94] He was also given, though perhaps only posthumously, the titleἈνίκητος ("Aniketos", lit.Invincible) a cult title ofHeracles, which Alexander had assumed; the later Indo-Greek kings Lysias, Philoxenus, and Artemidorus also took it.[95] Finally, Demetrius may have been the founder of a newly discoveredYavana era, starting in 186/5 BC.[96]
First bilingual and multi-religion monetary system
After the death of Demetrius, the Bactrian kingsPantaleon andAgathocles struck the first bilingual coins with Indian inscriptions found as far east as Taxila[98] so in their time (c. 185–170 BC) the Bactrian kingdom seems to have included Gandhara.[99] These first bilingual coins used theBrahmi script, whereas later kings would generally useKharoshthi. They also went as far as incorporating Indian deities, variously interpreted as Hindu deities or theBuddha.[97] They also included various Indian devices (lion, elephant,zebu bull) and symbols, some of them Buddhist such as the tree-in-railing.[100] These symbols can also be seen in thePost-Mauryan coinage of Gandhara.
The Hinduist coinage of Agathocles is few but spectacular. Six Indian-standard silverdrachmas were discovered atAi-Khanoum in 1970, which depict Hindu deities.[101] These are earlyAvatars ofVishnu:Balarama-Sankarshana with attributes consisting of theGada mace and theplow, andVasudeva-Krishna with theVishnu attributes of theShankha (a pear-shaped case or conch) and theSudarshana Chakra wheel.[101] These first attempts at incorporating Indian culture were only partly preserved by later kings: they all continued to struck bilingual coins, sometimes in addition toAttic coinage, but Greek deities remained prevalent. Indian animals however, such as the elephant, the bull or the lion, possibly with religious overtones, were used extensively in their Indian-standard square coinage. Buddhist wheels (Dharmachakras) still appear in the coinage ofMenander I andMenander II.[102][103]
Several Bactrian kings followed after Demetrius' death, and it seems likely that the civil wars between them made it possible forApollodotus I (from c. 180/175 BC) to make himself independent as the first proper Indo-Greek king (who did not rule from Bactria). Large numbers of his coins have been found in India, and he seems to have reigned in Gandhara as well as western Punjab. Apollodotus I was succeeded by or ruled alongsideAntimachus II, likely the son of the Bactrian kingAntimachus I.[104]
Menander I (155–130 BC) is one of the few Indo-Greek kings mentioned in both Graeco-Roman and Indian sources.
The next important Indo-Greek king wasMenander I who is considered to have been the most successful of the Indo-Greek kings, and who expanded the kingdom to its greatest extent by means of his various conquests.[105][106] The finds of his coins are the most numerous and occur across the greatest geographical area, more than any of the other Indo-Greek kings. Coins stamped with Menander's likeness can be found as far away as Eastern Punjab over 600 miles distant. Menander seems to have begun a second wave of conquests, and it seems likely that the easternmost conquests were made by him.[107]
Thus from 165 BCE until his death in 130 BCE, Menander I ruled Punjab withSagala as his capital.[108][109] Menander subsequently made an expedition across northern India toMathura, where the Yavnarajya inscription was recorded. However, it is not known if this was a contiguous empire, or ruled through key city centers or polis. Soon after,Eucratides I king of theGreco-Bactrian Kingdom began warring with the Indo-Greeks in the north western frontier.
According toApollodorus of Artemita, quoted by Strabo, the Indo-Greek territory for a while included the Indian coastal provinces ofSindh and possiblyGujarat.[110] With archaeological methods, the Indo-Greek territory can however only be confirmed from theKabul Valley to the easternPunjab, so Greek presence outside was probably short-lived or non-existent.
TheShinkot casket containing Buddhist relics was dedicated "in the reign of the Great King Menander".[111]Indian-standard coinage of Menander I withwheel design.Obv ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ "Of Saviour King Menander" around wheel.Rev Palm of victory,Kharoshthi legendMāhārajasa trātadasa Menandrāsa,British Museum.[112]
Some sources also claim that the Indo-Greeks may have reached theShunga capitalPataliputra in northern India.[113] However, the nature of this expedition is a matter of controversy. The only recorded primary account regarding this campaign was written in theYuga Purana, however this text was written as a forthcoming prophecy of an impending conflict. It is not known if the expedition was carried out, or if the Yavanas (Indo-Greeks) were successful in this campaign.
"After having conquered Saketa, the country of the Panchala and the Mathuras, the Yavanas, wicked and valiant, will reach Kusumadhvaja ("The town of the flower-standard", Pataliputra). The thick mud-fortifications at Pataliputra being reached, all the provinces will be in disorder, without doubt. Ultimately, a great battle will follow, with tree-like engines (siege engines)."
However the claim that the Yavanas held Pataliputra is not supported by numismatic or historical accounts, and is even contradicted by some inscriptions. KingKharavela ofKalinga, during his forth year reigning, was recorded in theHathigumpha inscription to have routed a demoralized Indo-Greek army back to Mathura. It is not known which Indo-Greek was leading the army at the time, however it is presumed to be Menander I or perhaps even a later ruler.[114] Then during his twelfth year in power, Kharavela is recorded to have battled theShunga Empire and defeated the emperor Brhaspatimitra, known asPushyamitra Shunga.[115] Kharavela is then stated to have sacked the capital Pataliputra, and reclaimed theJain idols and treasures that had been plundered from Kalinga and taken to Pataliputra. Based on the chronology and date during1st century BC, it is postulated that Menander was the one leading the Indo-Greeks during Kharavela's reign.
"Then in the eighth year, (Kharavela) with a large army having sacked Goradhagiri causes pressure on Rajagaha (Rajagriha). On account of the loud report of this act of valour, the Yavana (Greek) King Dimi[ta] retreated to Mathura having extricated his demoralized army."
The important Bactrian king Eucratides seems to have attacked the Indo-Greek kingdom during the mid 2nd century BC. A Demetrius, called "King of the Indians", seems to have confronted Eucratides in a four-month siege, reported by Justin, but he ultimately lost.[c]
It is uncertain who this Demetrius was, and when the siege happened. Some scholars believe that it was Demetrius I."(Demetrius I) was probably the Demetrius who besieged Eucratides for four months", D.W. Mac Dowall, pp. 201–202,Afghanistan, ancien carrefour entre l'est et l'ouest. This analysis goes against Bopearachchi, who has suggested that Demetrius I died long before Eucratides came to power. In any case, Eucratides seems to have occupied territory as far as theIndus, between ca. 170 BC and 150 BC.[116] His advances were ultimately reclaimed by the Indo-Greek kingMenander I,[117]
Menander is also remembered in Buddhist literature, where he is called Milinda. He is described in theMilinda Panha as a convert toBuddhism and that he became anarhat[118] whose relics were enshrined in a manner reminiscent of a Buddha.[119][120] He also introduced a new coin type, withAthena Alkidemos ("Protector of the people") on the reverse, which was adopted by most of his successors in the East.[121]
Following the death of Menander his empire was greatly reduced due to the emergence of new kingdoms and republics within India.[21] The most eminent entities to reform were theYaudheya and theArjunayanas, which were military confederations that had been annexed by theMaurya Empire. These republics began to mint new coins mentioning military victories, that were reminiscent of Indo-Greek type coins. Along with numismatic evidence, theJunagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman details the conquests of the Saka KingRudradaman I of theWestern Satraps over the Yaudheya Republic, reaffirming their independence during the time of the Indo-Scythian invasions.[122]
From the mid-2nd century BC, theScythians, in turn being pushed forward by theYuezhi who were completing a long migration from the border ofChina, started to invade Bactria from the north.[123] Around 130 BC the last Greco-Bactrian kingHeliocles was probably killed during the invasion and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom proper ceased to exist. TheParthians also probably played a role in the downfall of the Bactrian kingdom, and supplanted the Scythians.
There are however no historical recordings of events in the Indo-Greek kingdom after Menander's death around 130 BC, since the Indo-Greeks had now become very isolated from the rest of the Graeco-Roman world. The later history of the Indo-Greek states, which lasted to around the shift BC/AD, is reconstructed almost entirely from archaeological and numismatical analyses.[124]
Greek presence inArachosia, where Greek populations had been living since before the acquisition of the territory byChandragupta fromSeleucus, is mentioned byIsidore of Charax. He describes Greek cities there, one of them called Demetrias, probably in honour of the conquerorDemetrius.[125]
Apollodotus I (and Menander I) were mentioned byPompeius Trogus as important Indo-Greek kings.[126]It is theorized that Greek advances temporarily went as far as the Shunga capitalPataliputra (todayPatna) in eastern India. Senior considers that these conquests can only refer to Menander:[127] Against this, John Mitchiner considers that the Greeks probably raided the Indian capital ofPataliputra during the time of Demetrius,[128] though Mitchiner's analysis is not based on numismatic evidence.
KingHippostratos armed with bow and arrows, and riding a horse, circa 100 BC (coin detail).
Of the eastern parts of India, then, there have become known to us all those parts which lie this side of theHypanis, and also any parts beyond the Hypanis of which an account has been added by those who, after Alexander, advanced beyond the Hypanis, to theGanges andPataliputra.
The seriousness of the attack is in some doubt: Menander may merely have joined a raid led by Indian Kings down theGanges,[131] as Indo-Greek presence has not been confirmed this far east.
To the south, the Greeks may have occupied the areas of theSindh andGujarat, including the strategic harbour of Barygaza (Bharuch),[132] conquests also attested by coins dating from the Indo-Greek rulerApollodotus I and by several ancient writers (Strabo 11;Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Chap. 41/47):[133]
The Greeks... took possession, not only ofPatalene, but also, on the rest of the coast, of what is called the kingdom ofSaraostus andSigerdis.
ThePeriplus further explains ancient Indo-Greek rule and continued circulation of Indo-Greek coinage in the region:
"To the present day ancient drachmae are current inBarygaza, coming from this country, bearing inscriptions in Greek letters, and the devices of those who reigned after Alexander,Apollodorus [sic] andMenander."
Narain however dismisses the account of the Periplus as "just a sailor's story", and holds that coin finds are not necessarily indicators of occupation.[136] Coin hoards further suggest that in Central India, the area ofMalwa may also have been conquered.[137]
TheYavanarajya inscription discovered inMathura, mentions its carving on "The last day of year 116 of Yavana hegemony" (Yavanarajya), or 116th year if theYavana era, suggesting the Greeks ruled over Mathura as late as 60 BC.[138]Mathura Museum.
From numismatic, literary and epigraphic evidence, it seems that theIndo-Greeks also had control overMathura during the period between 185 BCE and 85 BCE, and especially during the rule ofMenander I (165–135 BC).[139]Ptolemy mentioned that Menander's ruler extended to Mathura (Μόδυρα).[139]
Slightly northwest of Mathura, numerous Indo-Greek coins were found in the city ofKhokrakot (modernRohtak), belonging to as many as 14 different Indo-Greek kings, as well as coin molds inNaurangabad,[140] suggesting Indo-Greek occupation ofHaryana in the 2nd-1st centuries BC.[141][142]
An inscription in Mathura discovered in 1988,[144] theYavanarajya inscription, mentions "The last day of year 116 of Yavana hegemony (Yavanarajya)". The "Yavanarajya" probably refers to the rule of the Indo-Greeks in Mathura as late as around 70–60 BC (year 116 of theYavana era).[138] The extent of Indo-Greek rule in Mathura has been disputed, but it is also known that no remains of Sunga rule have been found in Mathura,[138] and their territorial control is only proved as far as the central city ofAyodhya in northern central India, through theDhanadeva-Ayodhya inscription.[145] Archeological excavations of cast die-struck coins have also revealed the presence of aMitra dynasty (coin issuers who did not name themselves "kings" on their coins) in Mathura sometime between 150 BC to 20 BC.[138] Additionally, coins belonging to aDatta dynasty have also been excavated in Mathura. Whether these dynasties ruled independently or as satraps to larger kingdoms is unknown.
Several figures of foreigners appear in the terracottas ofMathura art from the 4th to the 2nd century BCE, which are either described simply as "foreigners" or Persian or Iranian because of their foreign features.[147][148][149] These figurines might reflect the increased contacts of Indians with foreigners during this period.[148] Several of these seem to represent foreign soldiers who visited India during the Mauryan period and influenced modellers in Mathura with their peculiar ethnic features and uniforms.[150] A helmeted head of a soldier, probablyIndo-Greek, is also known, and dated to the 1st century BCE, now in the Mathura Museum.[146] One of the terracotta statuettes, usually nicknamed the "Persian nobleman" and dated to the 2nd century BCE, can be seen wearing a coat, scarf, trousers and a turban.[151][152][153][147]
Mathura may then have been conquered by theMitra dynasty, or ruled independently by theDatta dynasty during the 1st century BC.[154] In any case Mathura was under the control of theIndo-ScythianNorthern Satraps from the 1st century of the Christian era.
The termYavana is thought to be a transliteration of "Ionians" and is known to have designated Hellenistic Greeks (starting with theEdicts of Ashoka, whereAshoka writes about "theYavana kingAntiochus"),[155] but may have sometimes referred to other foreigners as well after the 1st century AD.[156]
Patanjali, a grammarian and commentator onPāṇini, around 150 BC, describes in theMahābhāsya, the invasion in two examples using the imperfect tenseSanskrit, denoting a recent or ongoing events:[157][158]
"Arunad Yavanah Sāketam" ("TheYavanas (Greeks) were besieging Saketa")
"Arunad Yavano Madhyamikām" ("The Yavanas were besiegingMadhyamika" (the "Middle country")).
Possible statue of aYavana/ Indo-Greek warrior with boots andchiton, from the Rani Gumpha or "Cave of the Queen" in theUdayagiri Caves on the east coast of India, where theHathigumpha inscription was also found. 2nd or 1st century BC.[159]
The Brahmanical text of theYuga Purana describes events in the form of a prophecy, which may have been historical,[160][161][162] relates the attack of the Indo-Greeks on the capital Pataliputra,[163] a magnificent fortified city with 570 towers and 64 gates according toMegasthenes,[164] and describes the ultimate destruction of the city's walls:[165]
Then, after having approachedSaketa together with thePanchalas and theMathuras, the Yavanas, valiant in battle, will reach Kusumadhvaja ("The town of the flower-standard",Pataliputra). Then, once Puspapura (another name of Pataliputra) has been reached and its celebrated mud-walls cast down, all the realm will be in disorder.
According to the Yuga Purana, the Yavanas thereafter will retreat following internal conflicts:
"The Yavanas (Greeks) will command, the Kings will disappear. (But ultimately) the Yavanas, intoxicated with fighting, will not stay in Madhadesa (theMiddle Country); there will be undoubtedly a civil war among them, arising in their own country (Bactria), there will be a terrible and ferocious war." (Gargi-Samhita, Yuga Purana chapter, No7).[166]
According to Mitchiner, theHathigumpha inscription indicates the presence of the Indo-Greeks led by a ruler listed as "ta" fromMathura during the 1st century BCE.[168] Although, the name of the king has been omitted and undeciphered. The remaining syllables [ta] has been disputed. It has been argued by Tarn to be referencing the ruler Demetrius. However this interpretation is disputed by other historians like Narain, which point out the discrepancies in chronology and the fact Demetrius didn't venture past Punjab.[169] Instead most historians now theorize it to be the Indo-Greek ruler Menander I, or perhaps a later Yavana king from Mathura.
"Then in the eighth year, (Kharavela) with a large army having sacked Goradhagiri causes pressure on Rajagaha (Rajagriha). On account of the loud report of this act of valour, the Yavana (Greek) King Dimi[ta] retreated toMathura having extricated his demoralized army."
But while this inscription may be interpreted as an indication that Demetrius I was the king who made conquests in Punjab, it is still true that he never issued any Indian-standard coins, only numerous coins with elephant symbolism, and the restoration of his name in Kharosthi on the Hathigumpha inscription:Di-Mi-Ta, has been doubted.[171] The"Di" is a reconstruction, and it may be noted that the name of another Indo-Greek king, Amyntas, is speltA-Mi-Ta in Kharosthi and may fit in.
Therefore, Menander remains the likeliest candidate for any advance east of Punjab.
Menander is considered to have been probably the most successful Indo-Greek king, and the conqueror of the largest territory.[105] The finds of his coins are the most numerous and the most widespread of all the Indo-Greek kings. Menander is also remembered in Buddhist literature, where he is called Milinda, and is described in theMilinda Panha as a convert toBuddhism:[177] he became anarhat[118] whose relics were enshrined in a manner reminiscent of the Buddha.[119][120] He also introduced a new coin type, withAthena Alkidemos ("Protector of the people") on the reverse, which was adopted by most of his successors in the East.[121]
From the mid-2nd century BC, theScythians, in turn being pushed forward by theYuezhi who were completing a long migration from the border ofChina, started to invade Bactria from the north.[123] Around 130 BC the last Greco-Bactrian kingHeliocles was probably killed during the invasion and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom proper ceased to exist. TheParthians also probably played a role in the downfall of the Bactrian kingdom.
Immediately after the fall of Bactria, the bronze coins of Indo-Greek kingZoilos I (130–120 BC), successor of Menander in the western part of the Indian territories, combined the club of Herakles with aScythian-type bowcase and shortrecurve bow inside avictory wreath, illustrating interaction with horse-mounted people originating from the steppes, possibly either the Scythians (futureIndo-Scythians), or theYuezhi (futureKushans) who had invaded Greco-Bactria.[178] This bow can be contrasted to the traditional Hellenistic long bow depicted on the coins of the eastern Indo-Greek queenAgathokleia. It is now known that 50 years later, the Indo-ScythianMaues was in alliance with the Indo-Greek kings inTaxila, and one of those kings,Artemidoros seems to claim on his coins that he is the son of Maues,[179] although this is now disputed.[19]
The extent of Indo-Greek rule is still uncertain and disputed. Probable members of the dynasty of Menander include the ruling queenAgathokleia, her sonStrato I, andNicias, though it is uncertain whether they ruled directly after Menander.[180]
Coin ofAntialcidas (105–95 BC). The obverse withGreek inscription: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΝΙΚΗΦΟΡΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΑΛΚΙΔΟΥ "Of Victorious King Antialcidas". The reverse with theKharosthi inscription:Maharajasa Jayadharasa Antialikitasa, "Of Great Victorious King Antialcidas"Coin ofPhiloxenus (100–95 BC). The obverse with the Greek inscription: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΙΚΗΤΟΥ ΦΙΛΟΞΕΝΟΥ, "Of the Invincible King Philoxenus". The reverse with the Kharosthi inscription:Maharajasa Apadihatasa Philasinasa, "Of Great Invincible King Philoxenus".
Other kings emerged, usually in the western part of the Indo-Greek realm, such asZoilos I,Lysias,Antialcidas andPhiloxenus.[181] These rulers may have been relatives of either the Eucratid or the Euthydemid dynasties. The names of later kings were often new (members of Hellenistic dynasties usually inherited family names) but old reverses and titles were frequently repeated by the later rulers.
Immediately after the fall of Bactria, the bronze coins of Indo-Greek kingZoilos I (130–120 BC), successor of Menander in the western part of the Indian territories, combined the club of Herakles with aScythian-type bowcase and shortrecurve bow inside avictory wreath, illustrating interaction with horse-mounted people originating from the steppes, possibly either the Scythians (futureIndo-Scythians), or theYuezhi (futureKushans) who had invaded Greco-Bactria.[178] This bow can be contrasted to the traditional Hellenistic long bow depicted on the coins of the eastern Indo-Greek queenAgathokleia. It is now known that 50 years later, the Indo-ScythianMaues was in alliance with the Indo-Greek kings inTaxila, and one of those kings,Artemidoros seems to claim on his coins that he is the son of Maues,[179] although this is now disputed.[19]
Coin ofZoilos I (130–120 BC) showing on the reverse theHeraklean club with theScythian bow, inside a victory wreath.
While all Indo-Greek kings afterApollodotus I mainly issued bilingual (Greek andKharoshti) coins for circulation in their own territories, several of them also struck rareGreek coins which have been found in Bactria. The later kings probably struck these coins as some kind of payment to the Scythian or Yuezhi tribes who now ruled there, though if as tribute or payment for mercenaries remains unknown.[182] For some decades after the Bactrian invasion, relationships seem to have been peaceful between the Indo-Greeks and these relatively hellenised nomad tribes.
It is around this time, in 115 BC, that the embassy ofHeliodorus, from kingAntialkidas to the court of theSungas kingBhagabhadra inVidisha, is recorded. In the Sunga capital, Heliodorus established theHeliodorus pillar in a dedication toVāsudeva. This would indicate that relations between the Indo-Greeks and the Sungas had improved by that time, that people traveled between the two realms, and also that the Indo-Greeks readily followed Indian religions.[185]
Sanchi
Also around the same period, circa 115 BC, decorative reliefs were introduced for the first time at nearbySanchi, 6 km away from Vidisha, by craftsmen from the northwest.[186] These craftsmen left mason's marks inKharoshthi, mainly used in the area aroundGandhara, as opposed to the localBrahmi script.[186] This seems to imply that these foreign workers were responsible for some of the earliest motifs and figures that can be found on the railings of the stupa.[186] These early reliefs at Sanchi, (those ofSanchi Stupa No.2), are dated to 115 BC, while the more extensive pillar carvings are dated to 80 BC.[187] These reliefs have been described as "the oldest extensive stupa decoration in existence".[188] They are considered the origin ofJataka illustrations in India.[189]
Sanchi, Stupa No 2 Mason's marks inKharoshti point to craftsmen from the north-west (region ofGandhara) for the earliest reliefs at Sanchi, circa 115 BC.[186][187][190]
Foreigner on a horse. The medallions are dated circa 115 BC.[187]
A warrior figure, theBharhut Yavana, appeared prominently on ahigh relief on the railings of the stupa ofBharhut circa 100 BC.[197][198] The warrior has the flowing head band of a Greek king, a northern tunic with Hellenisticpleats, he hold a grape in his hand, and has a Buddhisttriratana symbol on his sword.[197] He has the role of advarapala, a Guardian of the entrance of the Stupa. The warrior has been described as aGreek,[197] Some have suggested that he might even represent kingMenander.[192][193][194]
Also around that time, craftsmen from theGandhara area are known to have been involved in the construction of the Buddhisttorana gateways atBharhut, which are dated to 100–75 BC:[199] this is becausemason's marks inKharosthi have been found on several elements of the Bharhut remains, indicating that some of the builders at least came from the north, particularly fromGandhara where the Kharoshti script was in use.[195][200][201]
Cunningham explained thatthe Kharosthi letters were found on the balusters between the architraves of the gateway, but none on the railings which all had Indian markings, summarizing that the gateways, which are artistically more refined, must have been made by artists from the North, whereas the railings were made by local artists.[196]
Foreigners on the Northern Gateway of Stupa I atSanchi.
Again inSanchi, but this time dating to the period ofSatavahana rule circa 50–1 BC, one frieze can be observed which shows devotees in Greek attire making a dedication to the Great Stupa of Sanchi.[202][203] The official notice at Sanchi describes "Foreigners worshiping Stupa". The men are depicted with short curly hair, often held together with aheadband of the type commonly seen on Greek coins. The clothing too is Greek, complete withtunics,cloaks, and sandals, typical of theGreek travelling costume.[204] The musical instruments are also quite characteristic, such as the double flute calledaulos. Also visible arecarnyx-likehorns.[205] They are all celebrating at the entrance of the stupa.
The actual participation ofYavanas/Yonas (Greek donors)[206] to the construction ofSanchi is known from three inscriptions made by self-declared Yavana donors:
The clearest of these reads "Setapathiyasa Yonasa danam" ("Gift of theYona of Setapatha"),[207][208] Setapatha being an uncertain city, possibly a location nearNasik,[209] a place where other dedications by Yavanas are known, in cave No.17 of theNasik Caves complex, and on the pillars of theKarla Caves not far away.
A second similar inscription on a pillar reads:"[Sv]etapathasa (Yona?)sa danam", with probably the same meaning, ("Gift of theYona of Setapatha").[209][210]
The third inscription, on two adjacent pavement slabs reads"Cuda yo[vana]kasa bo silayo" ("Two slabs of Cuda, the Yonaka").[211][209]
KingPhiloxenus (100–95 BC) briefly occupied the whole Greek territory from theParopamisadae to WesternPunjab, after that the territories fragmented again between smaller Indo-Greek kings. Throughout the 1st century BC, the Indo-Greeks progressively lost ground to the Indians in the east, and theScythians, theYuezhi, and theParthians in the West. About 20 Indo-Greek kings are known during this period,[216] down to the last known Indo-Greek rulers,Strato II andStrato III, who ruled in thePunjab region until around 10 AD.[217]
Hermaeus (90–70 BC) was the last Indo-Greek king in the Western territories (Paropamisadae).Hermaeus posthumous issue struck byIndo-Scythians nearKabul, circa 80–75 BC.
Around eight "western" Indo-Greek kings are known; most of them are distinguished by their issues of Attic coins for circulation in the neighbouring region.
One of the last important kings in theParopamisadae (part of theHindu Kush) wasHermaeus, who ruled until around 80 BC; soon after his death theYuezhi orSakas took over his areas from neighbouring Bactria. When Hermaeus is depicted on his coins riding a horse, he is equipped with therecurve bow and bow-case of the steppes and RC Senior believes him to be of partly nomad origin. The later kingHippostratus may however also have held territories in the Paropamisadae.
After the death of Hermaeus, the Yuezhi or Saka nomads became the new rulers of the Paropamisadae, and minted vast quantities of posthumous issues ofHermaeus up to around 40 AD, when they blend with the coinage of theKushan kingKujula Kadphises.[218] The first documented Yuezhi prince,Sapadbizes, ruled around 20 BC, and minted in Greek and in the same style as the western Indo-Greek kings, probably depending on Greek mints and chelators.
Around 80 BC, anIndo-Scythian king namedMaues, possibly a general in the service of the Indo-Greeks, ruled for a few years in northwestern India before the Indo-Greeks again took control. He seems to have been married to an Indo-Greek princess named Machene.[219] KingHippostratus (65–55 BC) seems to have been one of the most successful subsequent Indo-Greek kings until he lost to the Indo-ScythianAzes I, who established an Indo-Scythian dynasty in 48/47 BC.[d] Various coins seem to suggest that some sort of alliance may have taken place between the Indo-Greeks and the Scythians.[e]
Although the Indo-Scythians clearly ruled militarily and politically, they remained surprisingly respectful of Greek and Indian cultures. Their coins were minted in Greek mints, continued using proper Greek and Kharoshthi legends, and incorporated depictions of Greek deities, particularly Zeus.[220] TheMathura lion capital inscription attests that they adopted the Buddhist faith, as do the depictions of deities forming the vitarka mudra on their coins. Greek communities, far from being exterminated, probably persisted under Indo-Scythian rule. There is a possibility that a fusion, rather than a confrontation, occurred between the Greeks and the Indo-Scythians: in a recently published coin,Artemidorus seems to present himself as "son of Maues"[221] (but this is now disputed),[222] and theBuner reliefs show Indo-Greeks and Indo-Scythians reveling in a Buddhist context.
The last known mention of an Indo-Greek ruler is suggested by an inscription on a signet ring of the 1st century AD in the name of a kingTheodamas, from theBajaur area ofGandhara, in modern Pakistan. No coins of him are known, but the signet bears inkharoshthi script the inscription"Su Theodamasa","Su" being explained as the Greek transliteration of the ubiquitousKushan royal title"Shau" ("Shah", "King").[223]
Approximate region ofEast Punjab and Strato II's capitalSagala.The last known Indo-Greek kingsStrato II andStrato III, here on a joint coin (25 BC-10 AD), were the last Indo-Greek king in eastern territories ofEastern Punjab.
The Indo-Greek kingdoms lost most of their eastern territories in the 1st century BC following the death of Menander.[224] TheArjunayanas and theYaudheya Republic mention military victories on their coins ("Victory of the Arjunayanas", "Victory of the Yaudheyas"). These entities would remain independent until being conquered by the Saka KingRudradaman I of theWestern Satraps.
Rudradaman (...) who by force destroyed the Yaudheyas who were loath to submit, rendered proud as they were by having manifested their' title of' heroes among allKshatriyas.
The Yavanas may have ruled as far as the area ofMathura from the time ofMenander I until the middle of the 1st century BC: theMaghera inscription, from a village near Mathura, records the dedication of a well "in the one hundred and sixteenth year of thereign of the Yavanas", which corresponds to circa 70 BC.[230] In the 1st century BC, however, they lost the area of Mathura, either to theMitra rulers under theShunga Empire or to theDatta dynasty.[154]
Fleeing the Sakas in the west, the Indo-Greeks continued to rule a territory in the eastern Punjab. The kingdom of the last Indo-Greek kingsStrato II andStrato III was conquered by theNorthern Satrap Saka rulerRajuvula around 10 AD.[231]
Pillar of the Great Chaitya atKarla Caves, mentioning its donation by aYavana.[232] Below: detail of the word "Ya-va-na-sa" in oldBrahmi script:, circa AD 120.
Some Greek nuclei may have continued to survive until the 2nd century AD.[233]
Nahapana had at his court a Greek writer namedYavanesvara ("Lord of the Greeks"), who translated from Greek to Sanskrit theYavanajataka ("Saying of the Greeks"), an astrological treatise and India's earliest Sanskrit work in horoscopy.[234]
A large number ofBuddhist caves in India, particularly in the west of the country, were artistically hewn between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD. Numerous donors provided the funds for the building of these caves and left donatory inscriptions, including laity, members of the clergy, government officials. Foreigners, mostly self-declaredYavanas, represented about 8% of all inscriptions.[235]
Karla Caves
Yavanas from the region ofNashik are mentioned as donors for six structural pillars in the Great BuddhistChaitya of theKarla Caves built and dedicated byWestern Satraps rulerNahapana in 120 AD,[236] although they seem to have adopted Buddhist names.[237] In total, the Yavanas account for nearly half of the known dedicatory inscriptions on the pillars of the Great Chaitya.[238] To this day, Nasik is known as thewine capital of India, using grapes that were probably originally imported by the Greeks.[239]
Two more Buddhist inscriptions by Yavanas were found in theShivneri Caves.[240] One of the inscriptions mentions the donation of a tank by the Yavana named Irila, while the other mentions the gift of a refectory to theSangha by the Yavana named Cita.[240] On this second inscription, the Buddhist symbols of thetriratna and of theswastika (reversed) are positioned on both sides of the first word "Yavana(sa)".
Pandavleni Caves
One of the Buddhist caves (Cave No.17) in thePandavleni Caves complex nearNashik was built and dedicated by "Indragnidatta the son of theYavana Dharmadeva, a northerner from Dattamittri", in the 2nd century AD.[241][242][243] The city of "Dattamittri" is thought to be the city ofDemetrias inArachosia, mentioned byIsidore of Charax.[241]
The "Yavana" inscription on the back wall of the veranda, Cave No.17, Nashik.
Cave No.17 has one inscription, mentioning the gift of the cave by Indragnidatta the son of theYavana (i.e.Greek orIndo-Greek) Dharmadeva:
"Success! (The gift) of Indragnidatta, son of Dhammadeva, theYavana, a northerner fromDattamittri. By him, inspired by true religion, this cave has been caused to be excavated in mount Tiranhu, and inside the cave aChaitya and cisterns. This cave made for the sake of his father and mother has been, in order to honor allBuddhas bestowed on the universalSamgha by monks together with his son Dhammarakhita."
In theManmodi Caves, nearJunnar, an inscription by aYavana donor appears on the façade of the mainChaitya, on the central flat surface of the lotus over the entrance: it mentions the erection of the hall-front (façade) for the Buddhist Samgha, by a Yavana donor named Chanda:[244]
At theManmodi Caves, the facade of theChaitya (left) was donated by aYavana, according to the inscription on the central flat surface of the lotus (right). Detail of the "Ya-va-na-sa" inscription in oldBrahmi script:, c. AD 120.[244]
"yavanasa camdānam gabhadā[ra]" "The meritorious gift of thefaçade of the (gharba) hall by theYavana Chanda"
— Inscription on the façade of the Manmodi Chaitya.[245][246][247]
These contributions seem to have ended when theSatavahana KingGautamiputra Satakarni vanquished theWestern Satrap rulerNahapana, who had ruled over the area where these inscriptions were made, c. AD 130. This victory is known from the fact that Gautamiputra Satakarni restruck many of Nahapana's coins, and that he is claimed to have defeated a confederacy ofShakas (Western Kshatrapas),Pahlavas (Indo-Parthians), andYavanas (Indo-Greeks), in the inscription of his mother Queen Gotami Balasiri at Cave No. 3 of theNasik Caves:[248][249]
Statue with inscription mentioning "year 318", probably of theYavana era, i.e. AD 143.[254]
SeveralGandhara Buddha statues with dated inscriptions, are now thought to have been dated in theYavana era (originating c. 186 BC). One of the statues of the Buddha fromLoriyan Tangai has an inscription mentioning "the year 318". The era in question is not specified, but it is now thought, following the discovery of theBajaur reliquary inscription and a suggestion byRichard Salomon which has gained wide acceptance,[255] that it is dated in the Yavana era beginning in 186 BC, and gives a date for the Buddha statue of c. AD 143.[254]
Piedestal of theHashtnagar Buddha statue, with Year 384 inscription, probably of the Yavana era, i.e. AD 209.[256]
The inscription at the base of the statue is:
sa 1 1 1 100 10 4 4 Prothavadasa di 20 4 1 1 1 Budhagosa danamu(khe) Saghorumasa sadaviyasa
"In year 318, the day 27 of Prausthapada, gift of Buddhaghosa, the companion of Samghavarma"
— Inscription of the Buddha of Loriyan Tangai.[254]
This would make it one of the earliest known representations of the Buddha, after theBimaran casket (1st century AD), and at about the same time as the Buddhist coins ofKanishka.[254]
Another statue of Buddha, the Buddha ofHashtnagar, is inscribed from the year 384, also probably in the Yavana era, which is thought to be AD 209. Only the pedestal is preserved in theBritish Museum, the statue itself, with folds of clothing having more relief than those of the Loriyan Tangai Buddha, having disappeared.[254]
Evolution ofZeus Nikephoros ("Zeus holdingNike") on Indo-Greek coinage: from the Classical motif of Nike handing thewreath of victory to Zeus himself (left, coin ofHeliocles I 145–130 BC), then to a babyelephant (middle, coin ofAntialcidas 115–95 BC), and then to theWheel of the Law, symbol ofBuddhism (right, coin ofMenander II 90–85 BC).
Buddhism flourished under the Indo-Greek kings, and their rule, especially that of Menander, has been remembered as benevolent. It has been suggested, although direct evidence is lacking, that their invasion of India was intended to show their support for theMauryan empire with which they may have had a long history of marital alliances,[f] exchange of presents,[g] demonstrations of friendship,[h] exchange of ambassadors[i] and religious missions.[j] The historianDiodorus even wrote that the king of Pataliputra had "great love for the Greeks".[262][263]
The Greek expansion into Indian territory may have been intended to protect Greek populations in India,[264] and to protect the Buddhist faith from the religious persecutions of theShungas.[265] The city ofSirkap founded by Demetrius combines Greek and Indian influences without signs of segregation between the two cultures.
The first Greek coins to be minted in India, those ofMenander I andApollodotus I bear the mention "Saviour king" (ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ), a title with high value in the Greek world which indicated an important deflective victory. For instance,Ptolemy I had beenSoter (saviour) because he had helped saveRhodes fromDemetrius the Besieger, andAntiochus I because he had savedAsia Minor from theGauls. The title was also inscribed in Pali as ("Tratarasa") on the reverse of their coins. Menander and Apollodotus may indeed have been saviours to the Greek populations residing in India, and to some of the Indians as well.[266]
Also, most of the coins of the Greek kings in India were bilingual, written in Greek on the front and inPali on the back (in theKharosthi script, derived fromAramaic, rather than the more easternBrahmi, which was used only once on coins ofAgathocles of Bactria), a tremendous concession to another culture never before made in the Hellenic world.[267] From the reign ofApollodotus II, around 80 BC, Kharosthi letters started to be used as mintmarks on coins in combination with Greek monograms and mintmarks, suggesting the participation of local technicians to the minting process.[268] Incidentally, these bilingual coins of the Indo-Greeks were the key in thedecipherment of the Kharoshthi script byJames Prinsep (1835) andCarl Ludwig Grotefend (1836).[269][270] Kharoshthi became extinct around the 3rd century AD.
In Indian literature, the Indo-Greeks are described asYavanas (inSanskrit),[271][272][273] orYonas (inPali)[274] both thought to be transliterations of "Ionians". In the Harivamsa the "Yavana" Indo-Greeks are qualified, together with theSakas,Kambojas, Pahlavas and Paradas asKshatriya-pungava i.e. foremost among the Warrior caste, orKshatriyas. TheMajjhima Nikaya explains that in the lands of the Yavanas and Kambojas, in contrast with the numerous Indian castes, there were only two classes of people,Aryas andDasas (masters and slaves).
In addition to the worship of the Classicalpantheon of the Greek deities found on their coins (Zeus,Herakles,Athena,Apollo...), the Indo-Greeks were involved with local faiths, particularly with Buddhism, but also with Hinduism and Zoroastrianism.[279]
Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of theMauryan Empire, conquered the Greek satraps left by Alexander, which belonged toSeleucus I Nicator of theSeleucid Empire. The Mauryan EmperorAshoka would then establish the largest empire in the Indian Subcontinent through an aggressive expansion. Ashoka converted toBuddhism following the destructiveKalinga War, abandoning further conquests in favor of humanitarian reforms.[280] Ashoka erected theEdicts of Ashoka to spread Buddhism and the 'Law of Piety' throughout his dominion. In one of his edicts, Ashoka claims to have converted his Greek population along with others to Buddhism.
Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, theKambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-of-the-Gods' instructions inDharma.[281]
The last Mauryan EmperorBrihadratha was assassinated byPushyamitra Shunga, the formersenapati or "army lord" of the Mauryan Empire and founder of theShunga Empire. Pushyamitra is alleged to have persecuted Buddhism in favor ofHinduism, likely in attempt to further remove the legacy of the Mauryan Empire.[282]
... Pushyamitra equipped a fourfold army, and intending to destroy the Buddhist religion, he went to theKukkutarama (inPataliputra). ... Pushyamitra therefore destroyed thesangharama, killed the monks there, and departed. ... After some time, he arrived inSakala, and proclaimed that he would give a ... reward to whoever brought him the head of a Buddhist monk.[283]
It is possible thatMenander I Soter or the "Saviour king", chooseSakala as his capital due to the Buddhist presence there. Menander I, is stated to have converted to Buddhism[284] in theMilinda Panha, which records the dialogue between Menander and the Buddhist monkNagasena. Menander is claimed to have obtained the title of anarhat.
And afterwards, taking delight in the wisdom of the Elder, he (Menander) handed over his kingdom to his son, and abandoning the household life for the house-less state, grew great in insight, and himself attained toArahatship!
The wheel he represented on some of his coins was most likely BuddhistDharmachakra,.[285]
Another Indian text, theStupavadana of Ksemendra, mentions in the form of a prophecy that Menander will build a stupa in Pataliputra.[286]
Plutarch also presents Menander as an example of benevolent rule, and explains that upon his death, the honour of sharing his remains was claimed by the various cities under his rule, and they were enshrined in "monuments" (μνημεία, probablystupas), in a parallel with the historicBuddha:[287]
But when one Menander, who had reigned graciously over the Bactrians, died afterwards in the camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated his funerals; but coming to a contest about his relics, they were difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that his ashes being distributed, everyone should carry away an equal share, and they should all erect monuments to him.
TheButkara stupa was "monumentalized" by the addition of Hellenistic architectural decorations during Indo-Greek rule in the 2nd century BC.[278] A coin of Menander I was found in the second oldest stratum (GSt 2) of theButkara stupa suggesting a period of additional constructions during the reign of Menander.[289] It is thought that Menander was the builder of the second oldest layer of the Butkara stupa, following its initial construction during the Mauryan Empire.[290]
Several Indo-Greek kings use the title "Dharmikasa", i.e. "Follower of the Dharma", in theKharoshti script on the obverse of their coins. The corresponding legend in Greek is "Dikaios" ("The Just"), a rather usual attribute on Greek coins. The expression "Follower of the Dharma" would of course resonate strongly with Indian subjects, used to this expression being employed by pious kings, especially since the time ofAshoka who advocated theDharma in hisinscriptions. The seven kings using "Dharmakasa", i.e. "Follower of the Dharma", are late Indo-Greek kings, from around 150 BC, right after the reign ofMenander I, and mainly associated with the area ofGandhara:Zoilos I (130–120 BC),Strato (130–110 BC),Heliokles II (95–80 BC),Theophilos (130 or 90 BC),Menander II (90–85 BC),Archebios (90–80 BC) andPeukolaos (c. 90 BC).[291] The attribute ofDharmika was again used a century later by a known Buddhist practitioner,Indo-Scythian kingKharahostes, to extoll on his coins the virtues of his predecessor kingAzes.[292]
From the time ofAgathokleia andStrato I, circa 100 BC, kings and divinities are regularly show on coins making blessing gestures,[293] which often seem similar to theBuddhistVitarka mudra.[294] As centuries passed, the exact shapes taken by the hand becomes less clear. This blessing gesture was also often adopted by theIndo-Scythians.[295]
King Philoxenus (c. 100 BC), riding a horse and making a blessing gesture.
King Nicias in Hellenistic uniform, holding a palm of victory, and making a blessing gesture.
King Strato I in combat gear, making a blessing gesture with his right hand, circa 100 BC.
King Menander II in military uniform, holding a spear and making a blessing gesture with his right hand.
Various blessing gestures: divinities (top), kings (bottom).
In general, the art of the Indo-Greeks is poorly documented, and few works of art (apart from their coins and a fewstone palettes) are directly attributed to them. The coinage of the Indo-Greeks however is generally considered some of the most artistically brilliant of Antiquity.[296] The Hellenistic heritage (Ai-Khanoum) and artistic proficiency of the Indo-Greek world would suggest a rich sculptural tradition as well, but traditionally very few sculptural remains have been attributed to them. On the contrary, most Gandharan Hellenistic works of art are usually attributed to the direct successors of the Indo-Greeks in India in the 1st century AD, such as the nomadicIndo-Scythians, theIndo-Parthians and, in an already decadent state, theKushans[297] In general, Gandharan sculpture cannot be dated exactly, leaving the exact chronology open to interpretation.
The possibility of a direct connection between the Indo-Greeks andGreco-Buddhist art has been reaffirmed recently as the dating of the rule of Indo-Greek kings has been extended to the first decades of the 1st century AD, with the reign ofStrato II in the Punjab.[298] Also, Foucher, Tarn, and more recently, Boardman, Bussagli and McEvilley have taken the view that some of the most purely Hellenistic works of northwestern India and Afghanistan, may actually be wrongly attributed to later centuries, and instead belong to a period one or two centuries earlier, to the time of the Indo-Greeks in the 2nd–1st century BC:[k]
Intaglio gems engraved in the northwest of India (2nd century BCE-2nd century CE).
This is particularly the case of some purely Hellenistic works inHadda,Afghanistan, an area which "might indeed be the cradle of incipient Buddhist sculpture in Indo-Greek style".[299] Referring to one of the Buddha triads in Hadda, in which the Buddha is sided by very Classical depictions ofHerakles/Vajrapani andTyche/Hariti, Boardman explains that both figures "might at first (and even second) glance, pass as, say, from Asia Minor or Syria of the first or second century BC (...) these are essentially Greek figures, executed by artists fully conversant with far more than the externals of the Classical style".[300]
Alternatively, it has been suggested that these works of art may have been executed by itinerant Greek artists during the time of maritime contacts with the West from the 1st to the 3rd century AD.[301]
TheGreco-Buddhist art ofGandhara, beyond the omnipresence of Greek style and stylistic elements which might be simply considered an enduring artistic tradition,[302] offers numerous depictions of people in GreekClassical realistic style, attitudes and fashion (clothes such as thechiton and thehimation, similar in form and style to the 2nd century BCGreco-Bactrian statues ofAi-Khanoum, hairstyle), holding contraptions which are characteristic of Greek culture (amphoras, "kantaros" Greek drinking cups), in situations which can range from festive (such asBacchanalian scenes) to Buddhist-devotional.[303][304]
SeatedBuddha, Gandhara, 2nd century (Ostasiatisches Museum, Berlin)
Uncertainties in dating make it unclear whether these works of art actually depict Greeks of the period of Indo-Greek rule up to the 1st century BC, or remaining Greek communities under the rule of theIndo-Parthians orKushans in the 1st and 2nd century AD. Benjamin Rowland thinks that the Indo-Greeks, rather than the Indo-Scythians or the Kushans, may have been the models for theBodhisattva statues of Gandhara[305]
The abundance of their coins would tend to suggest large mining operations, particularly in the mountainous area of theHindu-Kush, and an important monetary economy. The Indo-Greek did strike bilingual coins both in the Greek "round" standard and in the Indian "square" standard,[308] suggesting that monetary circulation extended to all parts of society. The adoption of Indo-Greek monetary conventions by neighbouring kingdoms, such as theKunindas to the east and theSatavahanas to the south,[309] would also suggest that Indo-Greek coins were used extensively for cross-border trade.
Stone palette depicting a mythological scene, 2nd–1st century BC.
It would also seem that some of the coins emitted by the Indo-Greek kings, particularly those in the monolingualAttic standard, may have been used to pay some form of tribute to the Yuezhi tribes north of the Hindu-Kush.[182] This is indicated by the coins finds of theQunduz hoard in northern Afghanistan, which have yielded quantities of Indo-Greek coins in the Hellenistic standard (Greek weights, Greek language), although none of the kings represented in the hoard are known to have ruled so far north.[310] Conversely, none of these coins have ever been found south of the Hindu-Kush.[311]
The Indo-Greek kings in Southern Asia issued the first knowncupro-nickel coins, withEuthydemus II, dating from 180 to 170 BC, and his younger brothersPantaleon andAgathocles around 170 BC. As onlyChina was able to produce cupro-nickel at that time, and as the alloy ratios are exclusively similar, it has been suggested that the metal was the result of exchanges between China and Bactria.[312]
An indirect testimony by the Chinese explorerZhang Qian, who visited Bactria around 128 BC, suggests that intense trade withSouthern China was going through northern India. Zhang Qian explains that he found Chinese products in the Bactrian markets, and that they were transiting through northwestern India, which he incidentally describes as a civilization similar to that of Bactria:
"When I was in Bactria", Zhang Qian reported, "I saw bamboo canes fromQiong and cloth (silk?) made in the province ofShu. When I asked the people how they had gotten such articles, they replied: "Our merchants go buy them in the markets of Shendu (northwestern India). Shendu, they told me, lies several thousandli southeast of Bactria. The people cultivate land, and live much like the people of Bactria".
— Sima Qian, "Records of the Great Historian", trans. Burton Watson, p. 236.
Recent excavations at the burial site ofChina's first EmperorQin Shi Huang, dating back to the 3rd century BCE, also suggest Greek influence in the artworks found there, including in the manufacture of the famousTerracotta Army. It is also suggested that Greek artists may have come to China at that time to train local artisans in making sculptures.[313][314]
Maritime relations across the Indian Ocean started in the 3rd century BC, and further developed during the time of the Indo-Greeks together with their territorial expansion along the western coast of India. The first contacts started when thePtolemies constructed theRed Sea ports ofMyos Hormos andBerenike, with destination theIndus delta, theKathiawar peninsula orMuziris. Around 130 BC,Eudoxus of Cyzicus is reported (Strabo,Geog. II.3.4)[315] to have made a successful voyage to India and returned with a cargo ofperfumes andgemstones. By the time Indo-Greek rule was ending, up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India (StraboGeog. II.5.12).[316]
The coins of the Indo-Greeks provide rich clues on their uniforms and weapons. Typical Hellenistic uniforms are depicted, with helmets being either round in the Greco-Bactrian style, or the flatkausia of the Macedonians (coins ofApollodotus I).
Their weapons were spears, swords, longbow (on the coins ofAgathokleia) and arrows. Around 130 BC, the Central Asianrecurve bow of the steppes with itsgorytos box started to appear for the first time on the coins ofZoilos I, suggesting strong interactions (and apparently an alliance) with nomadic peoples, either the Yuezhi or the Scythians.[317] The recurve bow becomes a standard feature of Indo-Greek horsemen by 90 BC, as seen on some of the coins ofHermaeus.
Generally, Indo-Greek kings are often represented riding horses, as early as the reign ofAntimachus II around 160 BC. The equestrian tradition probably goes back to theGreco-Bactrians, who are said byPolybius to have faced aSeleucid invasion in 210 BC with 10,000 horsemen.[318] Althoughwar elephants are never represented on coins, a harness plate (phalera) dated to the 3rd–2nd century BC, today in theHermitage Museum, depicts a helmetted Greek combatant on an Indian war elephant.
The Milinda Panha, in the questions ofNagasena to king Menander, provides a rare glimpse of the military methods of the period:
-(Nagasena) Has it ever happened to you, O king, that rival kings rose up against you as enemies and opponents? -(Menander) Yes, certainly. -Then you set to work, I suppose, to have moats dug, and ramparts thrown up, and watch towers erected, and strongholds built, and stores of food collected? -Not at all. All that had been prepared beforehand. -Or you had yourself trained in the management of war elephants, and in horsemanship, and in the use of the war chariot, and in archery and fencing? -Not at all. I had learnt all that before. -But why? -With the object of warding off future danger.
The Milinda Panha also describes the structure of Menander's army:
Now one day Milinda the king proceeded forth out of the city to pass in review the innumerable host of his mighty army in its fourfold array (of elephants, cavalry, bowmen, and soldiers on foot).
KingStrato I in combat uniform, wearing alinothorax with pleats, achlamys cloak, and boots (krepides), while armed with a spear, shield and sword (held at waist). He is also making a blessing gesture with his right hand; circa 100 BCE.
The armed forces of the Indo-Greeks engaged in battles with other Indian kingdoms. The ruler ofKalinga, KingKharavela, states in theHathigumpha inscription that during the 8th year of his reign he led a large army in the direction of a Yavana King, and that he forced their demoralized army to retreat to Mathura.
"Then in the eighth year, (Kharavela) with a large army having sacked Goradhagiri causes pressure on Rajagaha (Rajagriha). On account of the loud report of this act of valour, the Yavana (Greek) King Dimi[ta] retreated toMathura having extricated his demoralized army."
— Hathigumpha inscription, lines 7–8, probably in the 1st century BCE. Original text is in Brahmi script.[170]
The name of the Yavana king is not clear, but it contains three letters, and the middle letter can be read asma ormi.[319]R. D. Banerji andK.P. Jayaswal read the name of the Yavana king as "Dimita", and identify him withDemetrius I of Bactria. However, according toRamaprasad Chanda, this identification results in "chronological impossibilities".[320]The Greek ambassadorMegasthenes took special note of the military strength of Kalinga in hisIndica in the middle of the 3rd century BC:
The royal city of the Calingae (Kalinga) is called Parthalis. Over their king 60,000 foot-soldiers, 1,000 horsemen, 700 elephants keep watch and ward in "procinct of war."
— Megasthenes fragm. LVI. in Plin. Hist. Nat. VI. 21. 8–23. 11.[321]
An account by the Roman writerJustin gives another hint of the size of Indo-Greek armies, which, in the case of the conflict between the Greco-BactrianEucratides and the Indo-GreekDemetrius II, he numbers at 60,000 (although they allegedly lost to 300 Greco-Bactrians):
Eucratides led many wars with great courage, and, while weakened by them, was put under siege byDemetrius, king of the Indians. He made numerous sorties, and managed to vanquish 60,000 enemies with 300 soldiers, and thus liberated after four months, he put India under his rule
From the 1st century AD, the Greek communities ofcentral Asia and the northwesternIndian subcontinent lived under the control of theKushan branch of the Yuezhi, apart from a short-lived invasion of theIndo-Parthian Kingdom.[324] The Kushans founded theKushan Empire, which was to prosper for several centuries. In the south, the Greeks were under the rule of theWestern Kshatrapas. TheKalash tribe of theChitral Valley claim to be descendants of the Indo-Greeks; although this is disputed.
It is unclear how much longer the Greeks managed to maintain a distinct presence in the Indian sub-continent. The legacy of the Indo-Greeks was felt however for several centuries, from the usage of the Greek language and calendrical methods,[325] to the influences on the numismatics of the Indian subcontinent, traceable down to the period of theGupta Empire in the 4th century.[326]
The Greeks may also have maintained a presence in their cities until quite late.Isidorus of Charax in his 1st century AD "Parthian stations"itinerary described an "Alexandropolis, the metropolis of Arachosia", thought to beAlexandria Arachosia, which he said was still Greek even at such a late time:
Beyond is Arachosia. And theParthians call this White India; there are the city of Biyt and the city of Pharsana and the city of Chorochoad and thecity ofDemetrias; then Alexandropolis, themetropolis of Arachosia; it isGreek, and by it flows the riverArachotus. As far as this place the land is under the rule of the Parthians.[327]
The Indo-Greeks may also have had some influence on the religious plane as well, especially in relation to the developingMahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism has been described as "the form of Buddhism which (regardless of how Hinduized its later forms became) seems to have originated in the Greco-Buddhist communities of India, through a conflation of the GreekDemocritean–Sophistic–Pyrrhonist tradition with the rudimentary and unformalized empirical andskeptical elements already present in early Buddhism".[328]
Today 36 Indo-Greek kings are known. Several of them are also recorded in Western and Indian historical sources, but the majority are known throughnumismatic evidence only. The exactchronology and sequencing of their rule is still a matter of scholarly inquiry, with adjustments regular being made with new analysis and coin finds (overstrikes of one king over another's coins being the most critical element in establishing chronological sequences).
There is an important evolution of coin shape (round to square) and material (from gold to silver to brass) across the territories and the periods, and from Greek type to Indian type over a period of nearly 3 centuries. Also, the quality of coinage illustration decreases down to the 1st century AD. Coinage evolution is an important point of Indo-Greek history, and actually one of the most important since most of these kings are only known by their coins, and their chronology is mainly established by the evolution of the coin types.
The system used here is adapted from Osmund Bopearachchi, supplemented by the views of R C Senior and occasionally other authorities.[329]
Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kings, their coins, territories and chronology – Based onBopearachchi (1991)[330]
^alsoYavanarajya[3] after the wordYona, which comes fromIonians
^"When the Greeks of Bactria and India lost their kingdom they were not all killed, nor did they return to Greece. They merged with the people of the area and worked for the new masters; contributing considerably to the culture and civilization in southern and central Asia." Narain, "The Indo-Greeks" 2003, p. 278
^Justin refers to an incident in which Eucratides with a small force of 300 was besieged for four months by "Demetrius, king of the Indians" with a large army of 60,000. The numbers are obviously an exaggeration. Eucratides managed to break out and went on to conquer India.
^G.K. Jenkins, using overstrikes and monograms, showed that, contrary to what Narai would write two years later, Apollodotus II and Hippostratus were posterior, by far, to Maues. (...) He reveals an overstike if Azes I over Hippostratus. (...) Apollodotus and Hippostratus are thus posterior to Maues and anterior to Azes I, whose era we now starts in 57 BC." Bopearachchi, p. 126-127.
^"It is curious that on his copperZoilos used a bow and quiver as a type. A quiver was a badge used by the Parthians (Scythians) and had been used previously by Diodotos, who we know had made a treaty with them. Did Zoilos use Scythian mercenaries in his quest against Menander perhaps?" Senior,Indo-Scythian coins, p. xxvii
Discussion on the dynastic alliance in Tarn, pp. 152–153: "It has been recently suggested that Ashoka was grandson of the Seleucid princess, whomSeleucus gave in marriage toChandragupta. Should this far-reaching suggestion be well founded, it would not only throw light on the good relations between the Seleucid and Maurya dynasties, but would mean that the Maurya dynasty was descended from, or anyhow connected with, Seleucus... when the Mauryan line became extinct, he (Demetrius) may well have regarded himself, if not as the next heir, at any rate as the heir nearest at hand". Also: "The Seleucid and Maurya lines were connected by the marriage of Seleucus' daughter (or niece) either to Chandragupta or his son Bindusara"John Marshall, Taxila, p20. This thesis originally appeared in "The Cambridge Shorter History of India": "If the usual oriental practice was followed and if we regard Chandragupta as the victor, then it would mean that a daughter or other female relative of Seleucus was given to the Indian ruler or to one of his sons, so that Ashoka may have had Greek blood in his veins." The Cambridge Shorter History of India, J. Allan, H. H. Dodwell, T. Wolseley Haig, p33.[257]
Description of the 302 BC marital alliance in:[258] "The Indians occupy in part some of the countries situated along the Indus, which formerly belonged to the Persians: Alexander deprived the Ariani of them, and established there settlements of his own. ButSeleucus Nicator gave them toSandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants." The ambassadorMegasthenes was also sent to the Mauryan court on this occasion.
Classical sources have recorded that Chandragupta sent variousaphrodisiacs to Seleucus: "And Theophrastus says that some contrivances are of wondrous efficacy in such mattersas to make people more amorous. And Phylarchus confirms him, by reference to some of the presents which Sandrakottus, the king of the Indians, sent to Seleucus; which were to act like charms in producing a wonderful degree of affection, while some, on the contrary, were to banish love"Athenaeus of Naucratis, "The deipnosophists" Book I, chapter 32[259]
Ashoka claims he introduced herbal medicine in the territories of the Greeks, for the welfare of humans and animals (Edict No2).
Bindusara askedAntiochus I to send him some sweetwine, driedfigs and asophist: "But dried figs were so very much sought after by all men (for really, asAristophanes says, "There's really nothing nicer than dried figs"), that even Amitrochates, the king of the Indians, wrote toAntiochus, entreating him (it isHegesander who tells this story) to buy and send him some sweet wine, and some dried figs, and asophist; and that Antiochus wrote to him in answer, "The dry figs and the sweet wine we will send you; but it is not lawful for a sophist to be sold in Greece"Athenaeus, "Deipnosophistae" XIV.67[260]
WhenAntiochos III, after having made peace withEuthydemus, went to India in 209 BC, he is said to have renewed his friendship with the Indian king there and received presents from him: "He crossed the Caucasus (Hindu Kush) and descended into India; renewed his friendship withSophagasenus the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving Androsthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him."[261]
1) "It is necessary to considerably push back the start of Gandharan art, to the first half of the first century BC, or even, very probably, to the preceding century.(...) The origins of Gandharan art... go back to the Greek presence. (...) Gandharan iconography was already fully formed before, or at least at the very beginning of our era" Mario Bussagli "L'art du Gandhara", p331–332
2) "The beginnings of the Gandhara school have been dated everywhere from the first century B.C. (which was M.Foucher's view) to the Kushan period and even after it" (Tarn, p. 394). Foucher's views can be found in "La vieille route de l'Inde, de Bactres a Taxila", pp340–341). The view is also supported by Sir John Marshall ("The Buddhist art of Gandhara", pp5–6).
3) Also the recent discoveries atAi-Khanoum confirm that "Gandharan art descended directly from Hellenized Bactrian art" (Chaibi Nustamandy, "Crossroads of Asia", 1992).
4) On the Indo-Greeks and Greco-Buddhist art: "It was about this time (100 BC) that something took place which is without parallel in Hellenistic history: Greeks of themselves placed their artistic skill at the service of a foreign religion, and created for it a new form of expression in art" (Tarn, p. 393). "We have to look for the beginnings of Gandharan Buddhist art in the residual Indo-Greek tradition, and in the early Buddhist stone sculpture to the South (Bharhut etc...)" (Boardman, 1993, p. 124). "Depending on how the dates are worked out, the spread of Gandhari Buddhism to the north may have been stimulated by Menander's royal patronage, as may the development and spread of the Gandharan sculpture, which seems to have accompanied it" McEvilley, 2002, "The shape of ancient thought", p. 378.
^Tarn, William Woodthorpe (1966), "Alexandria of the Caucasus and Kapisa", The Greeks in Bactria and India, Cambridge University Press, pp. 460–462, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511707353.019, ISBN 9781108009416
^Wilson, John (1877).Indian Caste. Times of India Office. p. 353.
^Jackson J. Spielvogel (14 September 2016).Western Civilization: Volume A: To 1500. Cengage Learning. p. 96.ISBN978-1-305-95281-2.The invasion of India by a Greco-Bactrian army in ... led to the creation of an Indo-Greek kingdom in northwestern India (present-day India and Pakistan).
^Erik Zürcher (1962).Buddhism: its origin and spread in words, maps, and pictures. St Martin's Press. p. 45.Three phases must be distinguished, (a) The Greek rulers of Bactria (the Oxus region) expand their power to the south, conquer Afghanistan and considerable parts of north-western India, and establish an Indo-Greek kingdom in the Panjab where they rule as 'kings of India'; i
^Hermann Kulke; Dietmar Rothermund (2004).A History of India. Psychology Press. p. 74.ISBN978-0-415-32919-4.They are referred to as 'Indo-Greeks' and there were about forty such kings and rulers who controlled large areas of northwestern India and Afghanistan. Their history ...
^Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Pratapaditya Pal (1986).Indian Sculpture: Circa 500 B.C.-A.D. 700. University of California Press. p. 15.ISBN978-0-520-05991-7.Since parts of their territories comprised northwestern India, these later rulers of Greek origin are generally referred to as Indo-Greeks.
^Joan Aruz; Elisabetta Valtz Fino (2012).Afghanistan: Forging Civilizations Along the Silk Road. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 42.ISBN978-1-58839-452-1.The existence of Greek kingdoms in Central Asia and northwestern India after Alexander's conquests had been known for a long time from a few fragmentary texts from Greek and Latin classical sources and from allusions in contemporary Chinese chronicles and later Indian texts.
^Mortimer WheelerFlames over Persepolis (London, 1968). Pp. 112ff. It is unclear whether the Hellenistic street plan found by Sir John Marshall's excavations dates from the Indo-Greeks or from the Kushans, who would have encountered it in Bactria; Tarn (1951, pp. 137, 179) ascribes the initial move of Taxila to the hill of Sirkap to Demetrius I, but sees this as "not aGreek city but an Indian one"; not apolis or with aHippodamian plan.
^"Menander had his capital in Sagala" Bopearachchi, "Monnaies", p. 83.
^McEvilley supports Tarn on both points, citing Woodcock: "Menander was a Bactrian Greek king of the Euthydemid dynasty. His capital (was) atSanghol in the Punjab, "in the country of the Yonakas (Greeks)"." McEvilley, p. 377. However, "Even if Sagala proves to be a city, it does not seem to be Menander's capital for the Milindapanha states that Menander came down to Sagala to meet Nagasena, just as the Ganges flows to the sea."
^"A vast hoard of coins, with a mixture of Greek profiles and Indian symbols, along with interesting sculptures and some monumental remains from Taxila, Sirkap and Sirsukh, point to a rich fusion of Indian and Hellenistic influences",India, the Ancient Past, Burjor Avari, p. 130
^"Most of the people east of the Ravi already noticed as within Menander's empire -Audumbaras, Trigartas, Kunindas, Yaudheyas, Arjunayanas- began to coins in the first century BC, which means that they had become independent kingdoms or republics.", Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India
^:"To the colonies settled in India, Python, the son of Agenor, was sent."Justin XIII.4
^Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, pp. 26-27[1]
^Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, p. 27[2]
^History Of The Chamar Dynasty, Raj Kumar, Gyan Publishing House, 2008, p. 51[3]
^"Kusumapura was besieged from every direction by the forces ofParvata and Chandragupta: Shakas, Yavanas, Kiratas, Kambojas, Parasikas, Bahlikas and others, assembled on the advice ofChanakya" inMudrarakshasa 2. Sanskrit original: "asti tava Shaka-Yavana-Kirata-Kamboja-Parasika-Bahlika parbhutibhih Chankyamatipragrahittaishcha Chandergupta Parvateshvara balairudidhibhiriva parchalitsalilaih samantaad uprudham Kusumpurama". From the French translation, in "Le Ministre et la marque de l'anneau",ISBN2-7475-5135-0
^India, the Ancient Past, Burjor Avari, pp. 106-107
^abForeign Influence on Ancient India, Krishna Chandra Sagar, Northern Book Centre, 1992, p. 83[4]
^Pratisarga Parva p. 18Archived 2016-04-23 at theWayback Machine. Original Sanskrit of the first two verses: "Chandragupta Sutah Paursadhipateh Sutam. Suluvasya Tathodwahya Yavani Baudhtatapar".
^"A minor rock edict, recently discovered at Kandahar, was inscribed in two scripts, Greek and Aramaic",India, the Ancient Past, Burjor Avari, p. 112
^"The treaty between the two kings was settled with a marriage agreement by which a daughter of Seleucus Nicator entered the house of Chandragupta. Since she hardly had become the wife of any lesser person than the Indian emperor himself or his son and heir Bindusāra, the fascinating possibility arises that Aśoka, the greatest of the Mauryan emperors, may in fact, have been half or at least a quarter Greek." Vassiliades, 2016, p. 21, quoting Woodcock, "The Greeks in India", p. 17
^India, the Ancient Past, Burjor Avari, pp. 108-109
^"Three Greek ambassadors are known by name: Megasthenes, ambassador to Chandragupta; Deimachus, ambassador toChandragupta's son Bindusara; and Dyonisius, whom Ptolemy Philadelphus sent to the court of Ashoka, Bindusara's son", McEvilley, p. 367
^Classical sources have recorded that following their treaty, Chandragupta and Seleucus exchanged presents, such as when Chandragupta sent variousaphrodisiacs to Seleucus: "And Theophrastus says that some contrivances are of wondrous efficacy in such matters as to make people more amorous. And Phylarchus confirms him, by reference to some of the presents which Sandrakottus, the king of the Indians, sent to Seleucus; which were to act like charms in producing a wonderful degree of affection, while some, on the contrary, were to banish love"Athenaeus of Naucratis, "The deipnosophists" Book I, chapter 32Ath. Deip. I.32. Mentioned in McEvilley, p. 367
^"The very fact that bothMegasthenes andKautilya refer to a state department run and maintained specifically for the purpose of looking after foreigners, who were mostly Yavanas and Persians, testifies to the impact created by these contacts.", Narain, "The Indo-Greeks", p. 363
^"It also explains (...) random finds from theSarnath, Basarth, andPatna regions of terra-cotta pieces of distinctive Hellenistic or with definite Hellenistic motifs and designs", Narain, "The Indo-Greeks" 2003, p. 363
^"The second Kandahar edict (the purely Greek one) of Ashoka is a part of the "corpus" known as the "Fourteen-Rock-Edicts"" Narain, "The Indo-Greeks" 2003, p. 452
^"It is also in Kandahar that were found the fragments of a Greek translation of Edicts XII and XIII, as well as the Aramean translation of another edict of Ashoka", Bussagli, p. 89
^"Within Ashoka's domain Greeks may have had special privileges, perhaps ones established by the terms of the Seleucid alliance. Rock Edict Thirteen indicates the existence of a Greek principality in the northwest of Ashoka's empire—perhaps Kandahar, or Alexandria-of-the-Arachosians—which was not ruled by him and for which he troubled to send Buddhist missionaries and published at least some of his edicts in Greek", McEvilley, p. 368
^"Thirteen, the longest and most important of the edicts, contains the claim, seemingly outlandish at first glance, that Ashoka had sent missions to the lands of the Greek monarchs—not only those of Asia, such as the Seleucids, but those back in the Mediterranean also", McEvilley, p. 368
^"When Ashoka was converted to Buddhism, his first thought was to despatch missionaries to his friends, the Greek monarchs of Egypt, Syria, and Macedonia", Rawlinson,Intercourse between India and the Western world, p. 39, quoted in McEvilley, p. 368
^"In Rock Edict Two Ashoka even claims to have established hospitals for men and beasts in the Hellenistic kingdoms", McEvilley, p. 368
^"One of the most famous of these emissaries, Dharmaraksita, who was said to have converted thousands, was a Greek (Mhv.XII.5 and 34)", McEvilley, p. 370
^"The Mahavamsa tells that "the celebrated Greek teacher Mahadharmaraksita in the second century BC led a delegation of 30,000 monks from Alexandria-of-the-Caucasus (Alexandra-of-the-Yonas, or of-the-Greeks, the Ceylonese text actually says) to the opening of the great Ruanvalli Stupa at Anuradhapura"", McEvilley, p. 370, quoting Woodcock, "The Greeks in India", p. 55
^"The finest of the pillars were executed by Greek or Perso-Greek sculptors; others by local craftsmen, with or without foreign supervision" Marshall, "The Buddhist art of Gandhara", p4
^"A number of foreign artisans, such as the Persians or even the Greeks, worked alongside the local craftsmen, and some of their skills were copied with avidity" Burjor Avari, "India, The ancient past", p. 118
^Foreign Influence on Ancient Indiaby Krishna Chandra Sagarp. 138
^The Idea of Ancient India: Essays on Religion, Politics, and Archaeology by Upinder Singhp. 18
^"Antiochos III, after having made peace with Euthydemus I after the aborted siege of Bactra, renewed with Sophagasenus the alliance concluded by his ancestor Seleucos I", Bopearachchi,Monnaies, p. 52
^On the image of the Greek kneeling warrior: "A bronze figurine of a kneeling warrior, not Greek work, but wearing a version of the Greek Phrygian helmet.. From a burial, said to be of the 4th century BC, just north of the Tien Shan range". Ürümqi Xinjiang Museum. (Boardman "The diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity")
^Notice of the British Museum on the Zhou vase (2005, attached image): "Red earthenware bowl, decorated with a slip and inlaid with glass paste. Eastern Zhou period, 4th–3rd century BC. This bowl was probably intended to copy a more precious and possibly foreign vessel in bronze or even silver. Glass was little used in China. Its popularity at the end of the Eastern Zhou period was probably due to foreign influence."
^"The things which China received from the Graeco-Iranian world-the pomegranate and other "Chang-Kien" plants, the heavy equipment of the cataphract, the traces of Greeks influence on Han art (such as) the famous white bronze mirror of the Han period with Graeco-Bactrian designs (...) in the Victoria and Albert Museum" (Tarn,The Greeks in Bactria and India, pp. 363–364)
^Viglas, Katelis (2016)."Chaldean and Neo-Platonic Theology".Philosophia e-Journal of Philosophy and Culture (14):171–189.The name "Chaldeans" refers generally to theChaldean people who lived in the land ofBabylonia, and especially to the Chaldean "magi" of Babylon......The "Chaldeans" were the guardians of the sacred science: the astrological knowledge and the divination mixed with religion and magic. They were considered the last representatives of the Babylonian sages......In Classical Antiquity, the name "Chaldeans" primarily stood for the priests of the Babylonian temples. In Hellenistic times, the term "Chaldeos" was synonymous with the words "mathematician" and "astrologer"......TheNeo-Platonists connected theChaldean Oracles with the ancient Chaldeans, obtaining a prestige coming from the East and legitimizing their existence as bearers and successors of an ancient tradition.
^"General Pushyamitra, who is at the origin of the Shunga dynasty. He was supported by the Brahmins and even became the symbol of the Brahmanical turnover against the Buddhism of the Mauryas. The capital was then transferred to Pataliputra (today'sPatna)", Bussagli, p. 99
^Pushyamitra is described as a "senapati" (Commander-in-chief) of Brihadratha in thePuranas
^E. Lamotte: History of Indian Buddhism, Institut Orientaliste, Louvain-la-Neuve 1988 (1958), p. 109.
^Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas by Romila Thapar, Oxford University Press,1960 p. 200
^abEncyclopaedia of Indian Traditions and Cultural Heritage, Anmol Publications, 2009, p. 18
^Jairazbhoy, Rafique Ali (1995).Foreign influence in ancient Indo-Pakistan. Sind Book House. p. 100.ISBN978-969-8281-00-7.Apollodotus, founder of the Graeco- Indian kingdom (c. 160 BC).
^SeePolybius,Arrian,Livy,Cassius Dio, andDiodorus. Justin, who will be discussed shortly, provides a summary of the histories of Hellenistic Macedonia, Egypt, Asia, and Parthia.
^For the date of Trogus, see theOCD on "Trogus" and Yardley/Develin, p. 2; since Trogus' father was in charge ofJulius Caesar's diplomatic missions before the history was written (Justin 43.5.11), Senior's date in the following quotation is too early: "The Western sources for accounts of Bactrian and Indo-Greek history are: Polybius, a Greek born c.200 BC; Strabo, a Roman who drew on the lost history of Apollodoros of Artemita (c. 130–87 BC), and Justin, who drew on Trogus, a post 87 BC writer", Senior,Indo-Scythian coins IV, p. x; the extent to which Strabo is citing Apollodorus is disputed, beyond the three places he names Apollodorus (and he may have those through Eratosthenes). Polybius speaks of Bactria, not of India.
^Strabo,Geographia 11.11.1 p. 516Casaubon. 15.1.2, p. 686Casaubon, "tribes" is Jones' version ofethne (Loeb)
^For a list of classical testimonia, see Tarn's Index II; but this covers India, Bactria, and several sources for the Hellenistic East as a whole.
^Tarn, App. 20; Narain (1957) pp. 136, 156et alii.
^Demetrius is said to have foundedTaxila (archaeological excavations), and alsoSagala in the Punjab, which he seemed to have called Euthydemia, after his father ("the city of Sagala, also called Euthydemia" (Ptolemy, Geographia, VII 1))
^The first conquests of Demetrius have usually been held to be during his father's lifetime; the difference has been over the actual date. Tarn and Narain agreed on having them begin around 180; Bopearachchi moved this back to 200, and has been followed by much of the more recent literature, but seeBrill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World (Boston, 2006) "Demetrius" §10, which places the invasion "probably in 184". D.H. MacDowall, "The Role of Demetrius in Arachosia and the Kabul Valley", published in the volume: O. Bopearachchi, Landes (ed),Afghanistan Ancien Carrefour Entre L'Est Et L'Ouest, (Brepols 2005) discusses an inscription dedicated to Euthydemus, "Greatest of all kings" and his son Demetrius, who is not called king but "Victorious" (Kallinikos). This is taken to indicate that Demetrius was his father's general during the first conquests. It is uncertain whether the Kabul valley or Arachosia were conquered first, and whether the latter province was taken from the Seleucids after their defeat by the Romans in 190 BC. Peculiar enough, more coins of Euthydemus I than of Demetrius I have been found in the mentioned provinces. The calendar of the "Yonas" is proven by an inscription giving a triple synchronism to have begun in 186/5 BC; what event is commemorated is itself uncertain. Richard Salomon "The Indo-Greek era of 186/5 B.C. in a Buddhist reliquary inscription", inAfghanistan, Ancien Carrefour cited.
^"Demetrius occupied a large part of the Indus delta, Saurashtra and Kutch", Burjor Avari, p. 130
^"It would be impossible to explain otherwise why in all his portraits Demetrios is crowned with an elephant scalp", Bopearachchi,Monnaies, p. 53
^"We think that the conquests of these regions south of the Hindu Kush brought to Demetrius I the title of "King of India" given to him byApollodorus of Artemita." Bopearachchi, p. 52
^For Heracles, see Lillian B. Lawler "Orchesis Kallinikos"Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 79. (1948), pp. 254–267, p. 262; for Artemidorus, see K. Walton Dobbins "The Commerce of Kapisene and Gandhāra after the Fall of Indo-Greek Rule"Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 14, No. 3. (Dec., 1971), pp. 286–302 (BothJSTOR). Tarn, p. 132, argues that Alexander did not assume as a title, but was only hailed by it, but seePeter Green,The Hellenistic Age, p. 7; see also Senior, Indo-Scythian coins, p. xii. No undisputed coins of Demetrius I himself use this title, but it is employed on one of the pedigree coins issued by Agathocles, which bear on the reverse the classical profile of Demetrius crowned by the elephant scalp, with the legend DEMETRIOS ANIKETOS, and on the reverse Herakles crowning himself, with the legend "Of king Agathocles" (Boppearachchi, "Monnaies", p. 179 and Pl 8). Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, Chap IV.
^"It now seems most likely that Demetrios was the founder of the newly discovered Greek Era of 186/5", Senior,Indo-Scythian coins IV
^ab"Numismats and historians are unanimous in considering that Menander was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, and the most famous of the Indo-Greek kings. The coins to the name of Menander are incomparably more abundant than those of any other Indo-Greek king"Bopearachchi, "Monnaies Gréco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques", p. 76.
^"Menander".Encyclopædia Britannica Online.Menander, also spelled Minedra or Menadra, Pali Milinda (flourished 160 BCE?–135 BCE?), the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings and the one best known to Western and Indian classical authors. He is believed to have been a patron of the Buddhist religion and the subject of an important Buddhist work, the Milinda-panha ("The Questions of Milinda"). Menander was born in the Caucasus, but the Greek biographer Plutarch calls him a king of Bactria, and the Greek geographer and historian Strabo includes him among the Bactrian Greeks "who conquered more tribes than Alexander [the Great]."
^"There is certainly some truth in Apollodorus and Strabo when they attribute to Menander the advances made by the Greeks of Bactria beyond the Hypanis and even as far as the Ganges and Palibothra (...) That the Yavanas advanced even beyond in the east, to the Ganges-Jamuna valley, about the middle of the second century BC is supported by the cumulative evidence provided by Indian sources", Narain, "The Indo-Greeks" p. 267.
^Ahir, D. C. (1971).Buddhism in the Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. Maha Bodhi Society of India. p. 31.OCLC1288206.Demetrius died in 166 B.C., and Apollodotus, who was a near relation of the King died in 161 B.C. After his death, Menander carved out a kingdom in the Punjab. Thus from 161 B.C. onward Menander was the ruler of Punjab till his death in 145 B.C. or 130 B.C..
^Magill, Frank Northen (2003).Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 1. Taylor & Francis. p. 717.ISBN9781579580407.MENANDER Born: c. 210 B.C.; probably Kalasi, Afghanistan Died: c. 135 B.C.; probably in northwest India Areas of Achievement: Government and religion Contribution: Menander extended the Greco-Bactrian domains in India more than any other ruler. He became a legendary figure as a great patron of Buddhism in the Pali book the Milindapanha. Early Life – Menander (not to be confused with the more famous Greek dramatist of the same name) was born somewhere in the fertile area to the south of the Paropaisadae or present Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan. The only reference to this location is in the semilegendary Milindapanha (first or second century A.D.), which says that he was born in a village called Kalasi near Alasanda, some two hundred yojanas (about eighteen miles) from the town of Sagala (probably Sialkot in the Punjab). The Alasanda refers to the Alexandria in Afghanistan and not the one in Egypt.
^"The Greeks... took possession, not only ofPatalena, but also, on the rest of the coast, of what is called the kingdom ofSaraostus andSigerdis." Strabo 11.11.1 (Strabo 11.11.1)
^The coins of the Greek and Scythic kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum, p.50 and Pl. XII-7[6]
^Rocher, Ludo (1986),The Puranas, p. 254: "TheYuga [Purana] is important primarily as a historical document. It is a matter-of-fact chronicle [...] of theMagadha empire, down to the breakdown of the Sungas and the arrival of theSakas. It is unique in its description of the invasion and retirement of the Yavanas in Magadha."
^Sen, Sailendra Nath. (1999).Ancient Indian history and civilization (Second ed.). New Delhi: New Age International.ISBN81-224-1198-3.OCLC133102415.
^Sahu, N. K. (1959). "Bahasatimita of the Hathigumpha Inscription".Proceedings of the Indian History Congress.22:84–87.ISSN2249-1937.JSTOR44304273.
^"As Bopearachchi has shown, Menander was able to regroup and take back the territory that Eucratides I had conquered, perhaps after Eucratides had died (1991, pp. 84–6). Bopearachchi demonstrates that the transition in Menander's coin designs were in response to changes introduced by Eucratides".
^ab"(In the Milindapanha) Menander is declared an arhat", McEvilley, p. 378.
^ab"Plutarch, who talks of the burial of Menander's relics under monuments or stupas, had obviously read or heard some Buddhist account of the Greek king's death", McEvilley, p. 377.
^ab"The statement of Plutarch that when Menander died "the cities celebrated (...) agreeing that they should divide ashes equally and go away and should erect monuments to him in all their cities", is significant and reminds one of the story of the Buddha", Narain, "The Indo-Greeks" 2003, p. 123, "This is unmistakably Buddhist and recalls the similar situation at the time of the Buddha's passing away", Narain, "The Indo-Greeks" 2003, p. 269.
^Rudradaman (...) who by force destroyed the Yaudheyas who were loath to submit, rendered proud as they were by having manifested their' title of' heroes among all Kshatriyas.— Junagadh rock inscription
^ab"By about 130 BC nomadic people from the Jaxartes region had overrun the northern boundary of Bactria itself", McEvilley, p. 372.
^Senior,Indo-Scythian coins and history IV, p. xxxiii
^In the 1st century BC, the geographerIsidorus of Charax mentionsParthians ruling over Greek populations and cities inArachosia: "Beyond is Arachosia. And the Parthians call this White India; there are the city of Biyt and the city of Pharsana and the city of Chorochoad and the city of Demetrias; then Alexandropolis, the metropolis of Arachosia; it is Greek, and by it flows the river Arachotus. As far as this place the land is under the rule of the Parthians." "Parthians stations", 1st century BC. Mentioned in Bopearachchi, "Monnaies Greco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques", p. 52. Original text in paragraph 19 ofParthian stations
^"When Strabo mentions that "Those who after Alexander advanced beyond the Hypanis to the Ganges and Polibothra (Pataliputra)" this can only refer to the conquests of Menander.", Senior,Indo-Scythian coins and history, p. XIV
^Mitchiner,The Yuga Purana, 2000, p. 65: "In line with the above discussion, therefore, we may infer that such an event (the incursions to Pataliputra) took place, after the reign of Shalishuka Maurya (c.200 BC) and before that of Pushyamitra Shunga (187 BC). This would accordingly place the Yavana incursions during the reign of the Indo-Greek kings Euthydemus (c. 230–190 BC) or Demetrios (c. 205–190 as co-regent, and 190–171 BC as supreme ruler".
^According to Tarn, the word used for "advance" (Proelonthes) can only mean a military expedition. The word generally means "going forward"; according to theLSJ this can, but need not, imply a military expedition. See LSJ,sub προέρχομαι.Strabo 15-1-27
^abMcEvilley, 2002, The Shape of Ancient Thought, p. 371
^"Menander became the ruler of a kingdom extending along the coast of western India, including the whole ofSaurashtra and the harbourBarukaccha. His territory also included Mathura, the Punjab, Gandhara and the Kabul Valley", Bussagli p101)
^Strabo on the extent of the conquests of the Greco-Bactrians/Indo-Greeks: "They took possession, not only ofPatalena, but also, on the rest of the coast, of what is called the kingdom ofSaraostus andSigerdis. In short, Apollodorus says that Bactriana is the ornament ofAriana as a whole; and, more than that, they extended their empire even as far as theSeres and thePhryni." Strabo 11.11.1 (Strabo 11.11.1)
^"the account of the Periplus is just a sailor's story", Narain (pp. 118–119)
^"A distinctive series of Indo-Greek coins has been found at several places in central India: including at Dewas, some 22 miles to the east ofUjjain. These therefore add further definite support to the likelihood of an Indo-Greek presence in Malwa" Mitchiner, "The Yuga Purana", p. 64
^abcdHistory of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE, Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, BRILL, 2007, pp. 8–10[7]
^"Coin-moulds of the Indo-Greeks have also been recovered from Ghuram and Naurangabad." Punjab History Conference,Punjabi University, 1990, Proceedings, Volume 23, p. 45
^History and Historians in Ancient India, Dilip Kumar Ganguly, Abhinav Publications, 1984p. 108
^Encyclopaedia of Tourism Resources in India, Volume 1, Manohar Sajnani, Gyan Publishing House, 2001p. 93
^The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, James C. Harle, Yale University Press, 1994p. 67
^Published in "L'Indo-Grec Menandre ou Paul Demieville revisite," Journal Asiatique 281 (1993) p. 113
^ab"Iranian Heads From Mathura, some terracotta male-heads were recovered, which portray the Iranian people with whom the Indians came into closer contact during the fourth and third centuries B.C. Agrawala calls them the representatives of Iranian people because their facial features present foreign ethnic affinities."Srivastava, Surendra Kumar (1996).Terracotta art in northern India. Parimal Publications. p. 81.
^"Mathura has also yielded a special class of terracotta heads in which the facial features present foreign ethnic affinities."Dhavalikar, Madhukar Keshav (1977).Masterpieces of Indian Terracottas. Taraporevala. p. 23.
^"Soldier heads. During the Mauryan period, the military activity was more evidenced in the public life. Possibly, foreign soldiers frequently visited India and attracted Indian modellers with their ethnic features and uncommon uniform. From Mathura in Uttar Pradesh and Basarh in Bihar, some terracotta heads have been reported, which represent soldiers. Artistically, the Basarh terracotta soldier-heads are better, executed than those from Mathura." inSrivastava, Surendra Kumar (1996).Terracotta art in northern India. Parimal Publications. p. 82.
^"The figure of a Persian youth (35.2556) wearing coat, scarf, trousers and turban is a rare item."Museum, Mathura Archaeological (1971).Mathura Museum Introduction: A Pictorial Guide Book. Archaeological Museum. p. 14.
^abHistory of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE, Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, BRILL, 2007, p. 170
^"Because the Ionians were either the first or the most dominant group among the Greeks with whom people in the east came in contact, the Persians called all of themYauna, and the Indians usedYona andYavana for them", Narain,The Indo-Greeks, p. 249
^"The term (Yavana) had a precise meaning until well into theChristian era, when gradually its original meaning was lost and, like the word Mleccha, it degenerated into a general term for a foreigner" Narain, p. 18
^"Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins in the Smithsonian institution",Bopearachchi, p16.
^"The taut posture and location at the entrance of the cave (Rani Gumpha) suggests that the male figure is a guard ordvarapala. The aggressive stance of the figure and its western dress (short kilt and boots) indicates that the sculpture may be that of aYavana, foreigner from the Graeco-Roman world." in Early Sculptural Art in the Indian Coastlands: A Study in Cultural Transmission and Syncretism (300 BCE-CE 500), by Sunil Gupta, D K Printworld (P) Limited, 2008, p. 85
^"But the real story of the Indo-Greek invasion becomes clear only on the analysis of the material contained in the historical section of the Gargi Samhita, the Yuga Purana" Narain, p110,The Indo-Greeks. Also "The text of the Yuga Purana, as we have shown, gives an explicit clue to the period and nature of the invasion of Pataliputra in which the Indo-Greeks took part, for it says that the Pancalas and the Mathuras were the other powers who attacked Saketa and destroyed Pataliputra", Narain, p. 112
^"For any scholar engaged in the study of the presence of the Indo-Greeks or Indo-Scythians before the Christian Era, theYuga Purana is an important source material" Dilip Coomer Ghose, General Secretary,The Asiatic Society,Kolkata, 2002
^"..further weight to the likelihood that this account of a Yavana incursion to Saketa and Pataliputra-in alliance with the Pancalas and the Mathuras—is indeed historical" Mitchiner,The Yuga Purana, p. 65.
^"The advance of the Greek to Pataliputra is recorded from the Indian side in the Yuga-purana", Tarn, p. 145
^"The greatest city in India is that which is called Palimbothra, in the dominions of the Prasians... Megasthenes informs us that this city stretched in the inhabited quarters to an extreme length on each side of eighty stadia, and that its breadth was fifteen stadia, and that a ditch encompassed it all round, which was six hundred feet in breadth and thirty cubits in depth, and that the wall was crowned with 570 towers and had four-and-sixty gates." Arr. Ind. 10. "Of Pataliputra and the Manners of the Indians.", quoting MegasthenesTextArchived December 10, 2008, at theWayback Machine
^"The text of the Yuga Purana, as we have shown, gives an explicit clue to the period and nature of the invasion of Pataliputra in which the Indo-Greeks took part, for it says that the Pancalas and the Mathuras were the other powers who attacked Saketa and destroyed Pataliputra", Narain,The Indo-Greeks, p. 112.
^"Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins in the Smithsonian institution",Bopearachchi, p16. Also: "Kalidasa recounts in his Mālavikāgnimitra (5.15.14–24) thatPuspamitra appointed his grandson Vasumitra to guard his sacrificial horse, which wandered on the right bank of the Sindhu river and was seized by Yavana cavalrymen—the later being thereafter defeated by Vasumitra. The "Sindhu" referred to in this context may refer the riverIndus: but such an extension of Shunga power seems unlikely, and it is more probable that it denotes one of two rivers in central Indiaeither the Sindhu river which is a tributary of theYamuna, or the Kali-Sindhu river which is a tributary of theChambal." The Yuga Purana, Mitchiner, 2002."
^"The name Dimita is almost certainly an adaptation of "Demetrios", and the inscription thus indicates a Yavana presence in Magadha, probably around the middle of the 1st century BC." Mitchiner,The Yuga Purana, p. 65.
^"The Hathigumpha inscription seems to have nothing to do with the history of the Indo-Greeks; certainly it has nothing to do with Demetrius I", Narain,The Indo-Greeks, p. 50.
^"Numismats and historians all consider that Menander was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, and the most illustrious of the Indo-Greek kings", Bopearachchi, "Monnaies", p. 76
^"Menander, the probable conqueror of Pataliputra, seems to have been a Buddhist, and his name belongs in the list of important royal patrons of Buddhism along with Ashoka and Kanishka", McEvilley, p. 375.
^abBoot, Hooves and Wheels: And the Social Dynamics behind South Asian Warfare, Saikat K Bose,Vij Books India Pvt Ltd, 2015, p. 226[9]
^abOn the Cusp of an Era: Art in the Pre-Kuṣāṇa World, Doris Srinivasan, BRILL, 2007, p. 101[10]
^ab"P.Bernard thinks that these emissions were destined to commercial exchanges with Bactria, then controlled by the Yuezhi, and were post-Greek coins remained faithful to Greco-Bactrian coinage. In a slightly different perspective (...) G. Le Rider considers that these emission were used to pay tribute to the nomads of the north, who were thus incentivized not to pursue their forays in the direction of the Indo-Greek realm", Bopearachchi, "Monnaies", p. 76.
^abcBuddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religious and Social Change, C. Third Century BC to Fifth Century AD, by Julia Shaw, Left Coast Press, 2013p. 90
^"The railing of Sanchi Stupa No.2, which represents the oldest extensive stupa decoration in existence, (and) dates from about the second century B.C.E" Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia, John Clifford Holt, Jacob N. Kinnard, Jonathan S. Walters, SUNY Press, 2012p. 197
^Didactic Narration: Jataka Iconography in Dunhuang with a Catalogue of Jataka Representations in China, Alexander Peter Bell, LIT Verlag Münster, 2000p. 15ff
^Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religious and Social Change, C. Third Century BC to Fifth Century AD, Julia Shaw, Left Coast Press, 2013p. 88ff
^An Indian Statuette From Pompeii, Mirella Levi D'Ancona, in Artibus Asiae, Vol. 13, No. 3 (1950)p. 171
^abFaces of Power: Alexander's Image and Hellenistic Politics, Andrew Stewart, University of California Press, 1993p. 180
^abPopular Controversies in World History: Investigating History's Intriguing Questions [4 volumes]: Investigating History's Intriguing Questions, Steven L. Danver, ABC-CLIO, 2010p. 91
^abBuddhist Art & Antiquities of Himachal Pradesh, Up to 8th Century A.D., Omacanda Hāṇḍā, Indus Publishing, 1994p. 48
^abThe Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity, John Boardman, Princeton University Press, p. 115
^ab"These little balusters are of considerable interest, as their sculptured statues are much superior in artistic design and execution to those of the railing pillars. They are further remarkable in having Arian letters engraved on their bases or capitals, a peculiarity which points unmistakably to the employment of Western artists, and which fully accounts for the superiority of their execution. The letters found are p, s, a, and b, of which the first three occur twice. Now, if the same sculptors had been employed on the railings, we might confidently expect to find the same alphabetical letters used as private marks. But the fact is just the reverse, for the whole of the 27 marks found on any portions of the railing are Indian letters. The only conclusion that I can come to from these facts is that the foreign artists who were employed on the sculptures of the gateways were certainly not engaged on any part of the railing. I conclude, therefore, that the Raja ofSungas, the donor of the gateways, must have sent his own party of workmen to make them, while the smaller gifts of pillars and rails were executed by the local artists." in The stūpa of Bharhut: a Buddhist monument ornamented with numerous sculptures illustrative of Buddhist legend and history in the third century B. C, by Alexander Cunninghamp. 8 (Public Domain)
^abc"The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity, John Boardman, 1993, p. 112
^Didactic Narration: Jataka Iconography in Dunhuang with a Catalogue of Jataka Representations in China, Alexander Peter Bell, LIT Verlag Münster, 2000p. 18
^Buddhist Architecture, Huu Phuoc Le, Grafikol, 2010p. 149ff
^"There is evidence of Hellensitic sculptors being in touch with Sanchi and Bharhut" in The Buddha Image: Its Origin and Development, Yuvraj Krishan, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1996,p. 9
^Arora, Udai Prakash (1991).Graeco-Indica, India's cultural contacts. Ramanand Vidya Bhawan. p. 12.ISBN9788185205533.Sculptures showing Greeks or the Greek type of human figures are not lacking in ancient India. Apart from the proverbial Gandhara, Sanchi and Mathura have also yielded many sculptures that betray a close observation of the Greeks.
^These "Greek-looking foreigners" are also described in Susan Huntington, "The art of ancient India", p. 100
^"The Greeks evidently introduced the himation and the chiton seen in the terracottas from Taxila and the short kilt worn by the soldier on the Sanchi relief." in Foreign influence on Indian culture: from c. 600 B.C. to 320 A.D., Manjari Ukil Originals, 2006, p. 162
^"The scene shows musicians playing a variety of instruments, some of them quite extraordinary such as the Greek double flute and wind instruments with dragon head from West Asia" in The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia, Himanshu Prabha Ray, Cambridge University Press, 2003p. 255
^Purātattva, Number 8. Indian Archaeological Society. 1975. p. 188.A reference to a Yona in the Sanchi inscriptions is also of immense value.(...) One of the inscriptions announces the gift of a Setapathia Yona, "Setapathiyasa Yonasa danam" i.e the gift of a Yona, inhabitant of Setapatha.The word Yona can't be here anything, but a Greek donor
^"Kujula Kadphises, founder of the Kushan Empire, succeeded there (in the Paropamisadae) to the nomads who minted imitations of Hermaeus" Bopearachchi, "Monnaies", p. 117
^"Maues himself issued joint coins with Machene, (...) probably a daughter of one of the Indo-Greek houses" Senior,Indo-Scythians, p. xxxvi
^"The Indo-Scythian conquerors, who, also they adopted the Greek types, minted money with their own names". Bopearachchci, "Monnaies", p. 121
^Described in R. C. Senior "The Decline of the Indo-Greeks"[11]. See alsothis source
^"We get two Greeks of the Parthian period, the first half of the first century AD, who used the Indian form of their names, King Theodamas on his signet-ring found in Bajaur, and Thedorus son of Theoros on two silver bowls from Taxila." Tarn, p. 389.
^"Most of the people east of the Ravi already noticed as within Menander's empire—Audumbaras, Trigartas, Kunindas, Yaudheyas, Arjunayanas—began to coins in the first century BC, which means that they had become independent kingdoms or republics.", Tarn, p. 324.
^"The coinage of the former (the Audumbaras) to whom their trade was of importance, starts somewhere in the first century BC; they occasionally imitate the types of Demetrius and Apollodotus I", Tarn, p. 325.
^The Kunindas must have been included in the Greek empire, not only because of their geographical position, but because they started coining at the time which saw the end of Greek rule and the establishment of their independence", Tarn, p. 238.
^"Further evidence of the commercial success of the Greek drachms is seen in the fact that they influenced the coinage of the Audumbaras and the Kunindas", NarainThe Indo-Greeks, p. 114
^"The wealthy Audumbaras (...) some of their coins after Greek rule ended imitated Greek types", Tarn, p. 239.
^"Later, in the first century a ruler of the Kunindas, Amogabhuti, issued a silver coinage "which would compete in the market with the later Indo-Greek silver"", Tarn, p. 325.
^The Sanskrit inscription reads "Yavanarajyasya sodasuttare varsasate 100 10 6". R.Salomon, "The Indo-Greek era of 186/5 B.C. in a Buddhist reliquary inscription", in "Afghanistan, ancien carrefour entre l'est et l'ouest", p373
^"Around 10 AD, with the joint rule of Straton II and his son Straton in the area of Sagala, the last Greek kingdom succumbed to the attacks of Rajuvula, the Indo-Scythian satrap of Mathura.", Bopearachchi, "Monnaies", p. 125
^Mc Evilley "The shape of ancient thought", p385 ("The Yavanajataka is the earliest surviving Sanskrit text in astrology, and constitute the basis of all later Indian developments in horoscopy", himself quotingDavid Pingree "The Yavanajataka of Sphujidhvaja" p5)
^Buddhist architecture, Lee Huu Phuoc, Grafikol 2009,pp. 98–99
^World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India, Volume 1 ʻAlī Jāvīd, Tabassum Javeed, Algora Publishing, 2008p. 42
^* Inscription no.7: "(This) pillar (is) the gift of the Yavana Sihadhaya from Dhenukataka" in Problems of Ancient Indian History: New Perspectives and Perceptions, Shankar Goyal - 2001, p. 104 * Inscription no.4: "(This) pillar (is) the gift of the Yavana Dhammadhya from Dhenukataka" Description in Hellenism in Ancient India by Gauranga Nath Banerjeep. 20
^abThe Greek-Indians of Western India: A Study of the Yavana and Yonaka Buddhist Cave Temple Inscriptions, 'The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies', NS 1 (1999-2000)S._1_1999-2000_pp._83-109 p.87–88
^Hellenism in Ancient India, Gauranga Nath Banerjee p. 20
^The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy and the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia and India, Raoul McLaughlin, Pen and Sword, 2014p. 170
^abReligions and Trade: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West, BRILL, 2013p. 97 Note 97
^Upinder Singh (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India.ISBN978-81-317-1120-0. p. 383
^Nasik cave inscription No 1. "( Of him) the Kshatriya, who flaming like the god of love, subdued the Sakas, Yavavas and Palhavas" in Parsis of ancient Indiaby Hodivala, Shapurji Kavasjip. 16
^The historianDiodorus wrote that the king ofPataliputra, apparently a Mauryan king, "loved the Greeks": "Iambulus, having found his way to a certain village, was then brought by the natives into the presence of the king of Palibothra, a city which was distant a journey of many days from the sea. And since the king loved the Greeks ("Philhellenos") and devoted to learning he considered Iambulus worthy of cordial welcome; and at length, upon receiving a permission of safe-conduct, he passed over first of all into Persia and later arrived safe in Greece" Diodorus ii,60.
^"Diodorus testifies to the great love of the king of Palibothra, apparently a Mauryan king, for the Greeks" Narain, "The Indo-Greeks", p. 362.
^"Obviously, for the Greeks who survived in India and suffered from the oppression of the Shunga (for whom they were aliens and heretics), Demetrios must have appeared as a saviour" Mario Bussagli, p. 101
^"We can now, I think, see what the Greek 'conquest' meant and how the Greeks were able to traverse such extraordinary distances. To parts of India, perhaps to large parts, they came, not as conquerors, but as friends or 'saviours'; to the Buddhist world in particular they appeared to be its champions" (Tarn, p. 180)
^Tarn p. 175. Also: "The people to be 'saved' were in fact usually Buddhists, and the common enmity of Greek and Buddhists to the Sunga king threw them into each other's arms", Tarn p. 175. "Menander was coming to save them from the oppression of the Sunga kings", Tarn p. 178.
^"These Indo-Greeks were called Yavanas in ancient Indian literature" p. 9 + note 1 "The term had a precise meaning until well into the Christian era, when gradually its original meaning was lost and, like the wordMleccha, it degenerated into a general term for a foreigner" p. 18, Narain "The Indo-Greeks"
^"All Greeks in India were however known as Yavanas", Burjor Avari, "India, the ancient past", p. 130
^"The term Yavana may well have been first applied by the Indians to the Greeks of various cities of Asia Minor who were settled in the areas contiguous to north-west India" Narain "The Indo-Greeks", p. 227
^"Of the Sanskrit Yavana, there are other forms and derivatives, viz. Yona, Yonaka, Javana, Yavana, Jonon or Jononka, Ya-ba-na etc... Yona is a normal Prakrit form from Yavana", Narain "The Indo-Greeks", p. 228
^The coins of the Greek and Scythic kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum, p. 50 and Pl. XII-7[12]
^ab"De l'Indus à l'Oxus: archéologie de l'Asie Centrale", Pierfrancesco Callieri, p212: "The diffusion, from the second century BC, of Hellenistic influences in the architecture of Swat is also attested by the archaeological searches at the sanctuary of Butkara I, which saw its stupa "monumentalized" at that exact time by basal elements and decorative alcoves derived from Hellenistic architecture".
^Tarn, p. 391: "Somewhere I have met with the zhole-hearted statement that every Greek in India ended by becoming a Buddhist (...) Heliodorus the ambassador was a Bhagavatta, a worshiper of Vshnu-Krishna as the supreme deity (...) Theodorus the meridrarch, who established some relics of the Buddha "for the purpose of the security of many people", was undoubtedly Buddhist". Images of theZoroastrian divinityMithra – depicted with a radiatedphrygian cap – appear extensively on the Indo-Greek coinage of the Western kings. This Zeus-Mithra is also the one represented seated (with the gloriole around the head, and a small protrusion on the top of the head representing the cap) on many coins ofHermaeus,Antialcidas orHeliokles II.
^The Contribution of the Emperor Asoka Maurya to the Development of the Humanitarian Ideal in Warfare30-04-1995 Article, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 305, by Gerald Draper
^Lahiri, Bela (1974). Indigenous states of northern India, circa 200 B.C. to 320 A.D. University of Calcutta
^Strong, John S. (1989). The Legend of King Aśoka : a study and translation of the Aśokāvadāna. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN0-691-01459-0.
^"It is not unlikely that "Dikaios", which is translated Dhramaika in the Kharosthi legend, may be connected with his adoption of the Buddhist faith." Narain, "The Indo-Greeks" 2003, p. 124
^"It is probable that the wheel on some coins of Menander is connected with Buddhism", Narain,The Indo-Greeks, p. 122
^Stupavadana, Chapter 57, v15. Quotes in E.Seldeslachts.
^"King Menander, who built the penultimate layer of the Butkara stupa in the first century BCE, was an Indo-Greek."Albinia, Alice (2012).Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River.
^Foreign Impact on Indian Life and Culture (c. 326 B.C. to C. 300 A.D.) Satyendra Nath Naskar, Abhinav Publications, 1996, p. 69[13]
^The Crossroads of Asia, Elizabeth Errington, Ancient India and Iran Trust, Fitzwilliam Museum, Ancient India and Iran Trust, 1992, p. 16
^Mentioned throughout "Monnaies Greco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques", Osmund Bopearachchi, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1991
^Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia, Andrea L. Stanton, Edward Ramsamy, Peter J. Seybolt, Carolyn M. Elliott, SAGE Publications, 2012 p. 28[14]
^"The extraordinary realism of their portraiture. The portraits of Demetrius, Antimachus and of Eucratides are among the most remarkable that have come down to us from antiquity" Hellenism in Ancient India, Banerjee, p134
^"Just as theFrankClovis had no part in the development ofGallo-Roman art, the Indo-Scythian Kanishka had no direct influence on that of Indo-Greek Art; and besides, we have now the certain proofs that during his reign this art was already stereotyped, of not decadent" Hellenism in Ancient India, Banerjee, p147
^"The survival into the 1st century AD of a Greek administration and presumably some elements of Greek culture in the Punjab has now to be taken into account in any discussion of the role of Greek influence in the development of Gandharan sculpture", The Crossroads of Asia, p14
^"Others, dating the work to the first two centuries A.D., after the waning of Greek autonomy on the Northwest, connect it instead with the Roman Imperial trade, which was just then getting a foothold at sites likeBarbaricum (modernKarachi) at the Indus-mouth. It has been proposed that one of the embassies from Indian kings to Roman emperors may have brought back a master sculptorto oversee work in the emerging Mahayana Buddhist sensibility (in which the Buddha came to be seen as a kind of deity), and that "bands of foreign workmen from the eastern centres of theRoman Empire" were brought to India" (Mc Evilley "The shape of ancient thought", quoting Benjamin Rowland "The art and architecture of India" p. 121 and A. C. Soper "The Roman Style in Gandhara"American Journal of Archaeology 55 (1951) pp. 301–319)
^"It is noteworthy that the dress of the Gandharan Bodhisattva statues has no resemblance whatever to that of the Kushan royal portrait statues, which has many affiliations with Parthian costume. The finery of the Gandhara images must be modeled on the dress of local native nobility, princes of Indian or Indo-Greek race, who had no blood connection with the Scythian rulers. It is also evident that the facial types are unrelated to the features of the Kushans as we know them from their coins and fragmentary portrait statues.", Benjamin Rowland JR, foreword to "The Dyasntic art of the Kushan", John Rosenfield, 1967.
^"Those tiny territories of the Indo-Greek kings must have been lively and commercially flourishing places",India: The ancient past, Burjor Avari, p. 130
^"No doubt the Greeks of Bactria and India presided over a flourishing economy. This is clearly indicated by their coinage and the monetary exchange they had established with other currencies." Narain, "The Indo-Greeks" 2003, p. 275.
^"Since the merchants of Alexandria are already sailing with fleets by way of the Nile and of the Persian Gulf as far as India, these regions also have become far better known to us of today than to our predecessors. At any rate, when Gallus was prefect of Egypt, I accompanied him and ascended the Nile as far as Syene and the frontiers of Ethiopia, and I learned that as many as one hundred and twenty vessels were sailing from Myos Hormos for India, whereas formerly, under the Ptolemies, only a very few ventured to undertake the voyage and to carry on traffic in Indian merchandise."Strabo II.5.12
^"It is curious that on his copper Zoilos used a Bow and quiver as a type. A quiver was a badge used by the Parthians (Scythians) and had been used previously by Diodotos, who we know had made a treaty with them. Did Zoilos use Scythian mercenaries in his quest against Menander perhaps?" Senior, Indo-Scythian coins, p. xxvii
^"Though the Indo-Greek monarchies seem to have ended in the first century BC, the Greek presence in India and Bactria remained strong", McEvilley, p. 379
^"The use of the Greek months by the Sakas and later rulers points to the conclusion that they employed a system of dating started by their predecessors." Narain, "Indo-Greeks" 2003, p. 190
^"Evidence of the conquest of Saurastra during the reign of Chandragupta II is to be seen in his rare silver coins which are more directly imitated from those of the Western Satraps... they retain some traces of the old inscriptions in Greek characters, while on the reverse, they substitute the Gupta type (a peacock) for the chaitya with crescent and star." in Rapson "A catalogue of Indian coins in the British Museum. The Andhras etc...", p. cli
^"Parthians stations", 1st century AD. Original text in paragraph 19 ofParthian stations
^McEvilley, Thomas C. (2012).The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies. Simon and Schuster. p. 503.ISBN9781581159332.
^Under each king, information from Bopearachchi is taken fromMonnaies Gréco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques, Catalogue Raisonné (1991) or occasionallySNG9 (1998). Senior's chronology is fromThe Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian king sequences in the second and first centuries BC, ONS179 Supplement (2004), whereas the comments (down to the time of Hippostratos) are fromThe decline of the Indo-Greeks (1998).
^O. Bopearachchi, "Monnaies gréco-bactriennes et indo-grecques, Catalogue raisonné", Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1991, p. 453
^History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE – 100 CE, Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, BRILL, 2007, p. 9[15]
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![Lakshmi with lotus and two child attendants, probably derived from similar images of Venus[191]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLakshmi_Sanchi_Stupa_2.jpg)
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