History of the Indo-Greeks

The credit of discovery of Indo-Greek coins that had once been struck in India goes to Colonel Tod, in 1824. Probably no class of Indian coins attracted full attention than the Indo-Greek which marked first cultural mix of West and East. It is good to sketch in outline of the events took in Northern India and neighbouring countries from the time of Alexander to the first century AD. Alexander was the son of Philips, King of Macedonia, a small state in south east Europe. A man of remarkable energy became the King in 336 BC and within a span of two years, he formed a army of 3000 foot soldiers and 5000 horse-men to conquer the old Persian empire. Then he occupied Asia minor, Syria, Egypt, Kandahar and finally in 328 BC, Afghanistan too. In 327 BC, he occupied BACTRIA and garrisoned a number of forts in the area as a mark of conquest of India. The fight which took place between Poros and Alexander was remarkable and the toughest which he had ever experienced.

Impressed on the bravery of his enemy Poros, Alexander treated him generous and restored him to his throne. So great was the confidence which Poros inspired that Alexander left him in charge of all his dominions of India when he left back. Alexander then overran petty states in the vicinity and sangla, the capital of the Kathaioi (near modern Panjab) was captured. Finally when Alexander reached the bank of river Beyas beyond which Nandas had their huge empire, the soldiers of Alexander are said to have refused to go far. It was long time since they had left their home. Alexander finally began his retreat in 323 BC.

To commemorate his victories he struck a medal; about the same time an Indian prince, Sophytes (saubhuti), struck a silver coin in the Greek style. Probably, Alexander did not left any trace of his retreat other than these two exceptions. In 323 BC, the king in his youth went down with a irrecoverable fever and died prematurely in Babylon. Alexander's generals fought like dogs to inherit what Alexander had left behind, and the empire split into several kingdoms, four large - Selucid, Ptolemaic, Lysimachid and Antigonid and many smaller ones. About 250 BC, Diodotos-I, Satrap of Bactria proclaimed independence from the Selucids and took the title of King. It was Diodotos-I who founded the new dynasty now called by the historians as Indo-Bactrian or Indo-Greek. Diodotos-II, the son of the former was overthrown by Euthydemos-I who founded a new dynasty by re conquering Bactria and became the king. Thus the fourth Bactrian King Demetrios-I (200 - 190 BC), the son of Euthydemos-I assumed the throne and extended his kingdom as far as Panjab as Maurya's power was declining by then. Soon after Demetrios assumed the title "King of Indians", he became the Indian folk hero called 'Dharma-Mithra' because of his successful campaign. Eventually, the throne was passed onto his sons who governed the kingdom jointly and expanded its boundaries to include modern Panjab (part of Northern India and Pakistan).

In 170 BC, the rival Eukratides-I (177 - 135 BC) overthrew Demetrios-II and Antimachus-II in the name of Selucids and governed the Kingdom. Thus Bactria and a portion of Gandhara was lost to Eukratides-I. Hence forward, there were two rival Greek Dynasties, the house of Eukratides and Euthydemos. The house of Eukratides included Heliokles, Antialkidas, and Hermaious. They mainly ruled Gandara, Kabul and Kandahar. The house of Euthydemos had Appollodotos, Menander, Strato-I, Zoilos and Hippostratos, ruling east Gandhara and the modern Panjab. In 145 BC, Eukratides-I was murdered by his son Eukratides-II.

Menander (called Milinda, 155 - 135 BC) was a Greek general born in India. He is considered to be a contemporary of Pushyamitra. His capital Sagala became very important centre of learning and art. Patanjali was all praise for this great town of trade like that of Pataliputra - old. His campaigns were so great that he could be compared to Alexander. The difference between Alexander the great and Menander is that Alexander begun his retreat just because his army mutinied, but Menander stopped because he became Buddhist and ceded back the conquered territories to Indian rulers. The Milinda Panha (Questions of Milinda) narrates the story of conversion of Menander to Buddhism after a long discussion with Nagasen. Like Gautama Buddha, the ashes of Milinda were said to be divided amongst the representatives of various states and stupas were erected over them. Amongst his successors, the best known was Antialkidas of Taxila.

In around 70 BC, the tribal groupings were paramount : The Sakas east of the Caspian (Often called Scythians), The Sai (further Sakas of the upper Ili river) and Yueh-Chihs. Yueh-Chihs under pressure from Hsiung Nu confederation wandered over to the upper Ili in 175-160 BC pushing the Sakas southward to Kashmir and Swat. In 70 BC, Hermaios was defeated. Heliokles was driven from the country by the Scythians in 40 BC and finally in 10 BC, the last Indo-Greek ruler Strato-II disappeared from the Panjab, the hold of the Greeks over the north-western districts of India gave way.

Coinage:

Striving for realism in sculptural modelling, movement and expression became the major force motivating Hellenistic art. Perhaps there was a desire to impress subjects of the realm with the true appearance of their lawful monarch which led to engrave the portraits on the coins of Bactrian Greeks and Selucids. Alexander was the first emperor to put his portrait on his coins and the practise was inherited by his successors in India. Extraordinary realism of their portraiture and the praxitelean character of the full length images of deities on the reverse were the prime attributes of their coin. Though it is not clear whether Alexander himself has issued any coins in his name during his sojourn in India. But it is fact that his coins are a great rarity in India and it seems that his coins have come from Bactria.

The gold and silver coins with fabulous portraits, which circulated in Bactria were never current in India as they fall under Greek coinage category. The coins with the portrait head and bilingual fall under Indian coinage. The selucid king Antiochus I (293-280 BC) is shown on his coins with all the paths of humanity, the divine power is clearly reflected in Selucus's coins. Demeterios - I was the first ruler to strike square copper coins in bilingual format, Kharoshti on the reverse and Greek on the obverse. Silver coins underwent radical change upon the movement of government to south of Hindu Kush, and the coins were called Didrachm and Hemidrachms. Generally, coins are circular, exceptions are the few square ones of Appollodotos and Philoxenos. The portraits of early Indo Greek rulers such as Euthydemos-I, Demetrios-I (wearing elephant's scalp) and Antimachus (wearing Kausia - a flat shaped cap and with a smily face) are so realistic in appearance that the coin portrait seems to represent the ruler faithfully. The coins of Demetrious-II, Euthydemos-II, Pantaleon, Agathocles, Menander and Strato-I also be assigned to the same class as they express powerful features and every intricate personal details. The portrait of Eucradites-I and the bust of members of the house of Eucradites-I is so realistic that their coins indicate rigid majesty, tendency for idealization and the taste for symbolic ornamentation when compared to the coins of house of Euthedemos. Some of the coins of this house carried the image of the king on horseback. Notably, the Dioskouri, the Greek heroes featured in Eukratides's coins exhibits the horsemanship and prowess in battle through the raised spears. The coins of Appollophanes, Philoxenos and Theophilos are extremely rare and hence leads to suspect that they were the pretenders. Perhaps all the Indo Greek coins may have been the products of a single school of engravers, the realism makes us to believe that they were familiar with the Hellenestic school of Pergamon. Indo-Greeks were excellent coin smiths and the fabric far exceeded than the true Greek coins. Indo-Greeks did not like abstract shapes and so they modified Greek Gods to look like an Indian. Upon the arrivals of Greeks, the sculptural techniques had their influence. Indo-Greek remained very Greek which could be witnessed by the bilingual legends they carried on their coins. Perhaps they spoke Sanskrit than the Greek and India saw a revolution in art and culture. The Gods for whom the Indo-Greek artists laboured had hardly changed for many generations : APOLLO an intellectual God of Arts and Music, ZEUS the King and HERA the consort of Zeus, ARTEMIS a virgin huntress, muscular HERACLES the God of strength, ATHENA of wisdom, APHRODYTES a God of sexuality, DIONYSUS vitality and winged deities NIKE and EROS. HELIOS, POSEIDON, DEMETERARTEMIS, the DIOSKOURI and TYCHE are the other Greek divinities which could be seen in their coinage. Many of these images iconographically influenced Indian pantheon later stage. The vitality of Hellenistic art school is reflected in the coins the Indo Greek engravers engraved. Bold reliefs were employed on large flans to impart three dimensional effect of images and legends; The marginal borders and the legends along with the borders set the boundary. Clearly formed cheeks, broad smooth forehead, deep furrows which divides hair and beard, muscular bare body with every minute anatomical details reflect in their coinage. Though drapery is so thick, the movement is exhibited by the position of the limbs or partial torsion of the body. The figures formulated in a magnificent style that the light and shadow highlights the liveliness of image. On the reverse of Eukratides's copper has the figure of seated Zeus along with the legend in Kharoshti 'The city deity of Kapisa'. The later kings Strato-I and Hermois struck coins with debased silver and even in lead. One of the copper coins of Hermois, the legend Kujula Kadphises appears on the reverse. Probably this could be assumed that the dynasty was succeed by the Kushanas, which is dealt in the next chapter .