The Indo-Greek Kingdom, also known as the Yavana Kingdom, were Hellenistic-era Greek kingdoms in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent covering most of modern-day Pakistan, parts of northwestern India and some eastern parts of Afghanistan.
The term "Indo-Greek Kingdom" loosely describes a number of various Hellenistic states, ruling from regional capitals like Taxila, Sagala, Pushkalavati, and Bagram.Mortimer Wheeler Flames over Persepolis (London, 1968). Pp. 112 ff. 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 a Greek city but an Indian one"; not a polis or with a Hippodamian 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) at Sanghol 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." Other centers are only hinted at; e.g. Ptolemy's Geographia and the nomenclature of later kings suggest that Theophilus in the south of the Indo-Greek sphere of influence may also have had a royal seat there at one time.
The kingdom was founded when the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius I of Bactria invaded India from Bactria in about 200 BC. The Greeks to the east of the Seleucid Empire were eventually divided to the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdoms in the North Western Indian Subcontinent.
During the two centuries of their rule, the Indo-Greek kings combined the Greek and Indian languages and symbols, as seen on their coins, and blended Greek and Indian ideas, as seen in the archaeological remains."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 The diffusion of Indo-Greek culture had consequences which are still felt today, particularly through the influence of Greco-Buddhist art.Ghose, Sanujit (2011). "Cultural links between India and the Greco-Roman world". Ancient History Encyclopedia The ethnicity of the Indo-Greek may also have been hybrid to some degree. Euthydemus I was, according to Polybius,11.34 a Magnesian Greek. Euthydemus I was an Ionian-Greek from one of the Magnesias in Ionia, though it is uncertain from which one (Magnesia on the Maeander or Magnesia ad Sipylum).Strabo, Geography 11.11.1Polybius 11.34 Siege of Bactra 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 the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III. The ethnicity of later Indo-Greek rulers is sometimes less clear.("Notes on Hellenism in Bactria and India". W. W. Tarn. Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 22 (1902), pp. 268–293). For example, Artemidoros (80 BC) was supposed to have been of Indo-Scythian descent, although he is now seen as a regular Indo-Greek king.Osmund Bopearachchi Was Indo-Greek Artemidoros the son of Indo-Sctythian Maues
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 the Ravi River began to mint new coinage depicting military victories."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 The most prominent entities to form were the Yaudheya Republic, Arjunayanas, and the Audumbaras. The Yaudheyas and Arjunayanas both are said to have won "victory by the sword". The Datta dynasty and Mitra dynasty soon followed in Mathura.
The Indo-Greeks ultimately disappeared as a political entity around 10 AD following the invasions of the Indo-Scythians, although pockets of Greek populations probably remained for several centuries longer under the subsequent rule of the Indo-Parthians, the Kushans, and the Indo-Scythians, whose Western Satraps state lingered on encompassing local Greeks, up to 415 AD.
Background
Initial Greek presence in the Indian subcontinent
Greeks first began to establish authority in the Northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Persian Achaemenid 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 western Anatolian peninsula. When Greek villages rebelled under the Persian yoke, they were sometimes ethnically cleansed, their inhabitants relocated 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.
In the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great defeated and conquered the Persian empire. In 326 BC, this included the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent as far as the Hyphasis River. Alexander established satrapies and founded several cities, including Bucephala; he turned south when his troops refused to go further east.India, the Ancient Past, Burjor Avari, pp. 92-93 The Indian satrapies of the Punjab were left to the rule of Porus and Taxiles, who were confirmed again at the Treaty of Triparadisus in 321 BC, and the remaining Greek troops in these satrapies were left under the command of Alexander's general Eudemus. 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,:"To the colonies settled in India, Python, the son of Agenor, was sent." until his departure for Babylon in 316 BC.
Around 322 BC, the Greeks (described as Yona or Yavana in Indian sources) may then have participated, together with other groups, in the uprising of Chandragupta Maurya against the Nanda dynasty, and gone as far as Pataliputra for the capture of the city from the Nandas. The Mudrarakshasa of Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandragupta's alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, often identified with Porus,Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, pp. 26-27 and according to these accounts, this alliance gave Chandragupta a composite and powerful army made up of Yavanas (Greeks), Kambojas, Shakas (Scythians), Kiratas (Nepalese), Parasikas (Persians) and Bahlikas (Bactrians) who took Pataliputra.Chandragupta Maurya and His Times, Radhakumud Mookerji, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1966, p. 27 History Of The Chamar Dynasty, Raj Kumar, Gyan Publishing House, 2008, p. 51 "Kusumapura was besieged from every direction by the forces of Parvata and Chandragupta: Shakas, Yavanas, Kiratas, Kambojas, Parasikas, Bahlikas and others, assembled on the advice of Chanakya" in Mudrarakshasa 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",
In 305 BC, Seleucus I led an army to the Indus, where he encountered Chandragupta. 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 as Arachosia and received 500 war elephants (which played a key role in Seleucus's victory at the Battle of Ipsus):India, the Ancient Past, Burjor Avari, pp. 106-107
The details of the marriage agreement are not known,Barua, Pradeep. The State at War in South Asia. Vol. 2. U of Nebraska Press, 2005. pp13-15 via Project MUSE 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 Indian Puranic source, the Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purana, described the marriage of Chandragupta with a Greek ("Yavana") princess, daughter of Seleucus,Foreign Influence on Ancient India, Krishna Chandra Sagar, Northern Book Centre, 1992, p. 83 before accurately detailing early Mauryan genealogy:
Chandragupta, however, followed Jainism until the end of his life. He got in his court for marriage the daughter of Seleucus Nicator, and thus, he mixed the Indians and the Greeks. His grandson Ashoka, as Woodcock and other scholars have suggested, "may in fact have been half or at least a quarter Greek.""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