![]() The Greco-Bactrian kingdom became extremely rich and powerful due to trade and the fertile land of the Amu Darya or Oxus river basin. You will not find ‘Bactria’ on modern world maps but it is the ancient name for a region that roughly corresponds with Northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and bound by the Hindu Kush and the Pamir mountains. Megasthenes became famous for his text Indica, which gives a fascinating account of the India he saw at the time.Īround 250 BCE, the local governor of Bactria, Diodotus declared his independence from the Seleucid Empire founded by Seleucus Nikator, and established the Greco-Bactrian kingdom that maintained close links with the Indian subcontinent. Seleucus Nikator also gave his daughter Helena in marriage to Chandragupta and appointed Megasthenes as an ambassador in the Mauryan court. The details of this conflict are not known but the fact that Seleucus Nikator ceded the Hindu Kush, Punjab and parts of Afghanistan to Chandragupta Maurya means that the Mauryans were probably victorious. In fact, this belief was so widespread that when Alexander the Great reached a settlement called Nysa on the banks of the Indus River, the locals told him that they were the descendants of the Greeks who had come with Dionysus to India! One of the most famous of his expeditions was to India, which is said to have lasted several years. Ancient Greeks believed in a popular legend that Dionysus, the Greek God of Wine, travelled the world and taught people how to make wine. What is riveting is that the ‘Greek conquest of India’ is steeped in Greek mythology. They were different from the ‘Hellenistic Greeks’, who came with Alexander the Great. These were the ‘Bactrian Greeks’, known to Indians as ‘Yavanas’. Narain believed that the Persians exiled a number of Greeks to the eastern corners of their empire, where these Greeks intermarried with Persians and established their own settlements. Much of what we know of the Indo-Greek rulers is only through their coins, and that is what makes Narain’s work so important.Īfter an extensive study of coins found in Central Asia, Narain concluded that there may have been Greek settlements in Central Asia that predated Alexander. However, the book Indo-Greeks (1957) by Indian historian and numismatist A K Narain throws some very interesting light on the subject. It is popularly believed that Greek contact with India began with the invasion of Alexander the Great in 327-325 BCE. Who were these ‘Yavanas’ and how did they reach the heart of India? Another Sanskrit text, Gargi Samhita, an astrological work dating to the same time as Mahabhasya, also gives an account of the ‘Yavana’ invasion of Pataliputra. This has led historians like Dr R G Bhandarkar, Dr R C Mazumdar and others to conclude that there was indeed a Greek invasion of India during the lifetime of Rishi Patanjali. “ Arunad Yavanah Saketam” and “Arunad Yavano Madhyamikam” (Madhyamikas were besieged by the Yavanas). To illustrate his point, he cites two examples. In Mahabhasya, a 2nd century BC text on the rules of grammar, Rishi Patanjali engages in a discussion on an ‘imperfective tense’, explaining that “ the imperfect should be used to signify an action not witnessed by the speaker but capable of being witnessed by him and known to people in general”. We know of this forgotten chapter of Indian history from the unlikeliest of sources – a Sanskrit grammar textbook. To underline the fact that he was now the ‘Master of India’, Demetrius minted coins that showed him wearing a headdress with an elephant, a symbol most closely associated with India. The dream of ‘Yavanaraja Dimita’ was fulfilled, albeit for a short period. Pataliputra and Ujjain fell, and with Demetrius at Taxila, Menander at Pataliputra and Apollodotus at Ujjain, the Greeks held three of the most important cities in India at the time. The other army under Apollodotus marched down the Indus and captured the great city of Ujjain. ![]() One arm of Demetrius’s army under his general Menander marched through Punjab, sacked Saketa (Ayodhya) and Mathura and captured Pataliputra. Taking advantage of the chaos, Demetrius I set out to complete what Alexander the Great had failed to do achieve – establish a Greek kingdom in India. The Mauryan Empire had collapsed and Pushyamitra Shunga had just seized power after assassinating the last Mauryan ruler, Brihadratha Maurya. These were the Greek armies of ‘Yavanaraja Dimita’, as the Bactrian-Greek ruler Demetrius I was known to Indians. One army marched through Punjab and the Gangetic plains, while the other headed down the Indus, then up through Malwa, and finally met the other at Pataliputra. ![]() Around 170 BCE, two massive armies left Taxila for the great city of Pataliputra. ![]()
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