KOTINOS ~ THE PRIZE OF OLYMPIC EXCELLENCE IN ANCIENT GREECE

The Olympic Games were born in Ancient Greece, at the sacred site of Olympia, in 776 BCE. The Games, created by Heracles in honour of the Father of the Gods, Zeus, were held every four years and attracted great athletes and a lot of spectators. One of the most interesting aspects of the Games was that all these athletes competed and gave their all for one single prize. A kotinos, a wreath made from the branches of a wild olive tree which was near the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. No gold, no silver , no bronze medals. Just a wreath for the best athlete in each sport. And yet, this seemingly 'humble ' wreath was cherished more than any other material prize. 

  As we mentioned before, the kotinos was made from the branches of a wild olive tree called  Elaia Kallistephanos) . Hercules, who first laid out the Olympic track, also planted this sacred olive tree from which the wreaths were made. It is therefore clear that the wreath was not just a prize for athletic success; it was a sacred offering, imbued with cultural and religious significance. Hence , the process of making an olive wreath was a task of precision and reverence. Before the beginning of the Games, the branches of the sacred wild-olive tree were cut by a pais amphithales (Ancient Greek: παῖς ἀμφιθαλής, a boy whose parents were both alive) with a golden sickle. Then he took them to the temple of Hera and placed them on a gold-ivory table. From there, the Hellanodikai (the judges of the Olympic Games) would take them, and carefully weave them into wreathes, ensuring that each one was a perfect circle, symbolizing unity and eternity.

The use of olive tree branches as awards for the most important athletic event of the ancient worlds, reminds us once more of the special place the olive tree held in Hellenic Religion and culture. It is the sacred tree of Goddess Athena, who had gifted it to the city of Athens, winning the favor of its people over Poseidon. The  connection of the olive tree  to the Greek Goddess of Wisdom enhances its significance as a symbol of wisdom, peace, and prosperity.

The climax of the Olympic Games was the award ceremony, where victors were crowned with olive wreaths. This momentous occasion took place within the sanctuary of Zeus, adding a divine dimension to the athletes’ triumph. The ceremony was not just an athletic celebration but a religious and cultural festival, attended by thousands, including dignitaries and priests.

More Than Just a Prize

In the ancient Greek Olympic Games, there was only one winner per sport. Therefore, winning an olive wreath in Olympia was one of the truly highest honors for an ancient athlete. The fact that the kotinos wasn't an 'expensive' prize was unimportant. Its true value was that the victor had earned the glory of victory, the respect of his peers and his home town and most of all, the favour of the Gods.  The Kotinos  was also  a testament to the athlete’s physical prowess, dedication and discipline.

Famous Victors Who Received Olive Wreaths

The victorious athletes were honoured, feted, and praised. Their deeds were heralded and chronicled so that future generations could appreciate their accomplishments. In fact, the names of the Olympic winners formed the chronology basis of the ancient world, as arranged by Timaeus in his work, The Histories. Over the centuries, numerous athletes achieved glory in the Olympic Games and were honored with olive wreaths. Their victories became part of the rich tapestry of Greek history .Athletes like Diagoras of Rhodes, who won twelve crowns in the Olympics, and Milo of Croton, a renowned wrestler, were among those who received this prestigious honor. Their victories, celebrated with olive wreaths, elevated them to a near-mythical status, immortalizing their names in the annals of history.

 

A Symbol of Peace

The kotinos was not only a symbol of athletic victory ,but also of peace. The olive branch has traditionally been associated with peace and reconciliation, and its use in the wreaths at Olympia further emphasized the Olympic Truce, during which conflicts were suspended, and unity was celebrated.

Olive Wreaths in Modern Olympic Symbolism

Just like the Olympic Games themselves, which gloriously returned in the modern era, the tradition of the olive kotinos  has transcended the centuries, finding its place in the modern Olympic Games. While gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded to modern day athletes, the olive wreath still appears in various symbolic forms. It is often seen in logos, emblems, and the ceremonial aspects of the Games, serving as a link to the ancient traditions and a reminder of the Olympic Games’ Greek historical roots. Olive wreaths were the official emblem of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, where the athletes also received them  in honor of the ancient tradition.

For the conclusion of this short article about the history of the kotinos, it is worth mentioning an account given to us by Herodotus :  Xerxes was interrogating some Arcadians after the Battle of Thermopylae. He inquired why there were so few Greek men defending the Thermopylae. The answer was "All other men are participating in the Olympic Games". And when asked "What is the prize for the winner?", "An olive-wreath" came the answer. Then Tiritantaechmes, one of his generals uttered: "Good heavens! Mardonius, what kind of men are these against whom you have brought us to fight? Men who do not compete for possessions, but for virtue."'

Edited from : Wikipedia , peloponnesetravel.gr

SILVER TETRADRACHM OF THE GREEK KING SELEUCUS I NICATOR

 

Silver Tetradrachm of the Greek King Seleucus I . 312-280.  Obv. Bridled horsehead looking right, with horns. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ ( of King Seleucus )  Elephant walking right and monograms below it. 

This tetradrachm is an emblematic issue of Seleucus I, the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, whose Kingdom extended from Thrace and Asia Minor in the West to Bactria in the East and from the Black Sea in the north to the borders of Egypt in the South at its peak. Seleucus was essentialy the only Successor of Alexander the Great who came closest to restoring the entirety of the Macedonian Empire, and this coin gives us an idea of how he achieved to create such a vast Kingdom. 

The obverse type depicts the head of a magnificent horse adorned with the horns of a bull. Ioannis Malalas, a Syrian chronicler of the byzantine times, tells us that in his day (the late 5th-early 6th centuries CE) there was still a statue in Antioch erected by Seleucus, depicting a horned horse. Seleucus commissioned this statue to honour his own steed who had saved him from destruction at the hands of Antigonos Monophthalmos in 315 BCE. Although Seleucus had been appointed satrap of Babylonia by an assembly of Alexander's former generals in 321 BCE, Antigonos, who was made strategos of Asia at the same time sought to remove the satraps that he could not control and thereby become the new master of Alexander's Empire. Realizing the danger, Seleucus took to his horse and escaped from Babylon to the Egyptian court of Ptolemy. With Ptolemy's assistance, Seleucus was able to return to Babylon-again on his horse-and reclaim his satrapy in 312 BCE.

 In 306/5 BCE,  he embarked upon an eastern campaign to gain control of the Upper Satrapies. However, the real benefit of this campaign was a peace treaty made with the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta that involved the gift of 500 elephants. Elephants, such as the majestic creature depicted on the reverse of the tetradrachm, were the equivalent to the tank of the ancient Greek world, capable of great destruction and inspiring fear in infantry and cavalry alike ranged against them. 

Like the horse of the obverse, the elephants of Chandragupta had a pivotal role to play in Seleucus' reign. Thanks to their timely arrival at the Battle of Ipsos (301 BCE), it was possible for Seleucus and his allies to defeat and kill Antigonos, thereby ending an ever-present threat. With Antigonos gone, Seleucus could safely rule his eastern Kingdom. The tetradrachm itself gives us the end of the story. It was struck at Pergamon for Seleucus by a local dynast named Philetairos-the founder of the later Attalid dynasty. In 281 BCE, the year the coin was issued, Philetairos and other cities and rulers of western Asia Minor invited Seleucus to march west and destroy his sometime ally, Lysimachos, who had made himself very unpopular in the region. Seleucus accepted, and he defeated and killed Lysimacus at the Battle of Korupedion. This victory gained for Seleucus all of Lysimacus' former territory in Asia Minor and Thrace, but he did not have the chance to enjoy this new victory. Later in the year, as he marched through Thrace, Seleucus was murdered by a refugee from the Ptolemaic court. His name and legacy, however, remain immortal .

SURKH KOTAL INSCRIPTION IN GREEK SCRIPT ~ ~ PULI KHUMRI ~ AFGHANISTAN

 

Displayed at the Kabul Museum, this limestone tablet is from the 2nd century CE and is inscribed with the Greek alphabet. It was found in Surkh Kotal, an ancient archaeological site about 18 km north of Puli Khumri, the capital of Afghanistan’s Baghlan province. Use of the Greek alphabet was common for centuries after the campaign by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE  and was used for a long time, together with other local alphabets.

Image source  ~ Wikipedia

THE GORGONEION A GREEK APOTROPAIC IMAGE FROM THE DEPTHS OF CENTURIES

 

In Ancient Greece, the Gorgoneion (Greek: Γοργόνειον) was a special apotropaic amulet showing the Gorgon head, which was used by  Athena and Zeus: Both are depicted wearing  the gorgoneion as a protective pendant.  Among other attributes, it was used by Alexander the Great himself and later by rulers of the Hellenistic age as a royal aegis to imply divine birth or protection, as shown, for instance, on the Alexander Mosaic and the Gonzaga Cameo. It is considered to be one of the most powerful protective images. 

Homer refers to the Gorgon on four occasions, each time alluding to the head alone, as if she had no body. The story of Perseus slaying Medusa is well-known, yet the centre of attention has since turned on the immensely apotropaic qualities that her head obtained after the beheading.Prior to the 5th century BCE, Medusa  was depicted as particularly ugly, with a protruding tongue, boar tusks, puffy cheeks, her eyeballs staring fixedly on the viewer and the snakes twisting all around her.

The direct frontal stare, especially expressing violent aggression, was highly unusual in ancient Greek art. (The common depiction of the evil eye on 6th century drinking vessels, and particularly, eye-cups, like Gorgoneia, are assumed apotropaics.) In some instances, what sometimes appears as a beard (probably standing for stylized hair or streaks of blood) was appended to her chin, making her appear as an orgiastic deity akin to Dionysus.

Gorgoneia that decorate the shields of warriors on mid-5th century Greek vases are considerably less grotesque and menacing. By that time, the Gorgon had lost her tusks and the snakes were rather stylized. The Hellenistic marble known as the Medusa Rondanini illustrates the Gorgon's eventual transformation into a beautiful woman.

Gorgoneia appear frequently in Greek art at the turn of the 8th century BCE. One of the earliest representations is on an electrum stater discovered during excavations at Parium. Other early 8th-century examples were found at Tiryns. Going further back into history, there is a similar image from the Knossos palace, datable to the 15th century BCE. Marija Gimbutas even argues that "the Gorgon extends back to at least 6,000 BCE, as a ceramic mask from the Sesklo culture illustrates", and in her book, Language of the Goddess, she also identifies the prototype of the Gorgoneion in Neolithic art motifs, especially in anthropomorphic vases and terracotta masks inlaid with gold.

In the 6th century, gorgoneia of a canonical "lion mask type" were ubiquitous on Greek temples, especially in and around Corinth. Pedimental gorgoneia were common in Sicily; probably the earliest occurrence being in the Temple of Apollo in Syracuse. Around 500 BCE, they ceased to be used for the decoration of monumental buildings, but were still shown on antefixes of smaller structures throughout the next century.

Apart from temples, the Gorgon imagery is present on garments, dishes, weapons, and coins found across the Mediterranean region from Etruria to the Black Sea coast. The Gorgon coins were struck in 37 cities, making her image on coins second in numismatic ubiquity only to several principal Olympian Gods and Goddesses. On mosaic floors, the Gorgoneion usually was depicted next to the threshold, as if guarding it from hostile intruders. On Attic kilns, the gorgoneion over the kiln door protected from mishaps.

SOURCE Wikipedia

THE ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM OF THE GRECO ~ BACTRIAN KINGDOM

The structure of the administration of Greco-Bactrian kingdom closely followed that set up by Alexander, who in his turn had based his on the Iranian model of Darius I. Darius I had established in his provinces, beside the army commander and the Satrap a third post, that of royal representative or viceroy, but this post was abolished by Alexander. The ruler of the province was now known as ‘Strategos’, Darius’s provinces had been very large. In an empire many times greater than that of the Selukans, he had thirty three provinces while the Selukan kings divided their kingdom into seventy-two. The provinces were again divided into districts and sub-divisions.

The Bactrians converted the districts  into provinces ruled by the Satraps. In addition there were the towns, which followed the pattern of the Greek Polis. Alexander had set up about seventy townships. The Seleucid townships were military cantonments. The Greek city was administered by a council and an assembly.

Seleucia, situated on the banks of the Tigris, had a council of 300 which met every month and a larger assembly which held annual sessions. Not only was the assembly required to administer the town, but also to attend to the physical and cultural needs of the citizens. To this end, playgrounds, gymnasiums and theatres had been established. The official language was Greek. The magistrate of the city  was elected by the council.

The town also had an elected treasurer. Elections were generally held once every three years. Bactria and Gandhara were counted among the main Greek cities.

There were often marriages between Greek and non-Greek families.

The Mauryas too made foreigners Governors of provinces, as was the case in Gujarat. Books written in the first and second centuries CE mention how the Greeks dwelt in the Indian cities of Dashpur. The position was similar in the case of Bactria and Sogdia. It is possible of course that in other parts of Central Asia, the Greeks were not so easily absorbed into the local population as they were in India.

We have seen how Apollodotus’ coins bore nothing but Indian inscriptions and some of the Indian Greek kings stamped their money with the images of Indian gods. Menander openly embraced Buddhism. It was difficult to maintain any racial distinctions in India, because after the time of Alexander the Greek cantonments ceased to exist and when Dimitri I came he too pursued a policy of eliminating differences.

Edited from historydiscussion.net

EUTHYDEMUS I

 

Euthydemus I (Greek: Εὐθύδημος, Euthydemos) c. 260 BCE – 200/195 BCE) was a Greco-Bactrian King and founder of the Euthydemid dynasty. He is thought to have originally been a satrap of Sogdia, who usurped power from Diodotus II in 224 BCE. Literary sources, notably Polybius, record how he and his son Demetrius resisted an invasion by the Seleucid King Antiochus III from 209 to 206 BCE. Euthydemus expanded the Bactrian territory into Sogdia, constructed several fortresses, including the Derbent Wall in the Iron Gate and issued a very substantial coinage.

                                                                BIOGRAPHY 

Euthydemus 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), and was the father of Demetrius I, according to Strabo and Polybius.William Woodthorpe Tarn proposed that Euthydemus was the son of a Greek general called Antimachus or Apollodotus, born c. 295 BCE, whom he considered to be the son of Sophytes, and that he married a sister of the Greco-Bactrian king Diodotus II.

                                               WAR WITH THE SELEUCID EMPIRE

Little is known of his reign until 208 BCE when he was attacked by Antiochus III the Great, whom he tried in vain to resist on the shores of the river Arius (Battle of the Arius), the modern Herirud. Although he commanded 10,000 horsemen, Euthydemus initially lost a battle on the Arius  and had to retreat. He then successfully resisted a three-year siege in the fortified city of Bactra, before Antiochus finally decided to recognize the new ruler, and to offer one of his daughters to Euthydemus's son Demetrius around 206 BCE. As part of the peace treaty, Antiochus was given Indian war elephants by Euthydemus.

For Euthydemus himself was a native of Magnesia, and he now, in defending himself to Teleas, said that Antiochus was not justified in attempting to deprive him of his kingdom, as he himself had never revolted against the king, but after others had revolted he had possessed himself of the throne of Bactria by destroying their descendants. (...) finally Euthydemus sent off his son Demetrius to ratify the agreement. Antiochus, on receiving the young man and judging him from his appearance, conversation, and dignity of bearing to be worthy of royal rank, in the first place promised to give him one of his daughters in marriage and next gave permission to his father to style himself king

— Polybius, 11.34, 2 

Polybius also relates that Euthydemus negotiated peace with Antiochus III by suggesting that he deserved credit for overthrowing the descendants of the original rebel Diodotus, and that he was protecting Central Asia from nomadic invasions thanks to his defensive efforts.

The war lasted three years and after the Seleucid army left, the Kingdom seems to have recovered quickly from the assault. The death of Euthydemus has been roughly estimated to 200 BCE or perhaps 195 BCE. He was succeeded by Demetrius, who went on to invade northwestern regions of South Asia.

SOURCE : Activities on the Central Asian Steppe

Polybius claims that Euthydemus justified his kingship during his peace negotiations with Antiochus III in 206 BC by reference to the threat of attack by nomads on the Central Asian steppe:

"...[he said that] if [Antiochus] did not yield to this demand, neither of them would be safe: seeing that great hoards 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." (Polybius, 11.34).

Archaeological evidence from coin finds shows that Euthydemus' reign saw extensive activity at fortresses in northwestern Bactria (the modern Surkhan Darya region of Uzbekistan), especially in the Gissar and Köýtendag mountains. The Seleucid fortress at Uzundara was expanded and large numbers of Euthydemus' bronze coins have been found there, as was as hundreds of arrowheads and other remains indicating a violent assault.[8] Coin finds also seem to indicate that Euthydemus was responsible for the first construction of the Derbent Wall, otherwise known as the "Iron Gate", a 1.6-1.7 km long stone wall with towers and a central fortress guarding a key pass.[9] Landislav Stančo tentatively links the archaeological evidence with the nomad threat.[10] However, Stančo also notes that Derbent wall seems to have been designed not to defend against an attack from Sogdia to the northwest, but from Bactria to the southeast. Hundreds of arrowheads also seem to indicate an attack on the wall from the southeast. Stančo proposes that Euthydemus was originally based in Sogdia and built the fortifications to protect himself from Bactria, before seizing control of the latter.[11] Lucas Christopoulos goes further, proposing that he controlled a large area going from Sogdiana to Gansu and the Tarim basin walled cities together with enrolled Hellenized Saka horsemen even before he ascended the throne of Bactria in 250-230 BC.

In an inscription found in the Kuliab area of Tajikistan, northeastern Greco-Bactria, and dated to 200-195 BC,[13] a Greek by the name of Heliodotos, dedicating an altar to Hestia, mentions Euthydemus as the greatest of all kings, and his son Demetrius I.

This fragrant altar to you, Hestia, most honoured among the gods, Heliodotus established in the grove of Zeus with its fair trees, furnishing it with libations and burnt-offerings, so that you may graciously preserve free from care, together with divine good fortune, Euthydemus, greatest of all kings and his outstanding son Demetrius, renowned for fine victories

This is a further indication, alongside the passages from Polybius, that Euthydemus had made his son Demetrius a junior partner in his rule during his lifetime. The reference to Demetrius as a "glorious conqueror" might refer to a specific victory, in the conflict with Antiochus III[17] or in India, or look forward to future victories

Coinage

Euthydemus minted coins in gold, silver and bronze at two mints, known as 'Mint A' and 'Mint B'. He produced significantly more coins than any of his successors and was the last Greco-Bactrian coinage to include gold denominations until the time of Eucratides I (ca. 170-145 BC). Euthydemus' gold and silver issues are all minted on the Attic weight standard with a tetradrachm of ca. 16.13 g and all have the same basic design. On the obverse, his face is depicted in profile, clean-shaven, with unruly hair, and a diadem - this iconography is typical of Hellenistic kings, ultimately deriving from depictions of Alexander the Great. The reverse shows Heracles, naked, seated on a rock, resting his club on a neighbouring rock or on his knee, with a legend reading ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΕΥΘΥΔΗΜΟΥ ('of King Euthydemos').[18] Heracles was apparently a popular deity in Bactria, associated with Alexander the Great, but this reverse type is very similar to coins minted by the Seleucids in western Asia Minor, near Euthydemus' home city of Magnesia.[17][19] Heracles continues to appear on the coinage of Euthydemus' immediate successors, Demetrius and Euthydemus II.

Posthumous coinage

Euthydemus is also featured on the 'pedigree' coinage produced by the later kings Agathocles and Antimachus I. On this coinage he bears the royal epithet, Theos ('God'); it is unclear whether he used this title in life or if it was assigned to him by Agathocles.[44] His coins were imitated by the nomadic tribes of Central Asia for decades after his death; these imitations are called "barbaric" because of their crude style. Lyonnet proposes that these coins were produced by refugees fleeing the destruction of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom by the Yuezhi in the mid-second century BC

coinindia  kai wikipedia

TANAIS A GREEK COLONY IN THE SEA OF AZOF

Tanais, (Greek Τάναϊς) is the ancient name for the River Don. In antiquity, it was also the name of the city situated in the Don river delta that reaches into the northeasternmost part of the Sea of Azov, which the Greeks called Lake Maeotis. The site of ancient Tanais is situated near the Russian town of Azov, about 40 km west of modern Rostov on Don.

The central city site lies on a plateau with a difference up to 20m in elevation in the south. It is bordered by a natural valley on the east, and an artificial ditch on the west.

History of Tanais

The site of Tanais was occupied long before the Miletans founded an emporium there. A necropolis of burial mounds, over 300 of them, near the ancient city show that the site had already been occupied since the Bronze Age, and that mound burials were carried on through Greek and into even Roman times.

Greek traders were meeting nomads in the district as early as the 7th century BCE without a formal, permanent settlement, apparently. Greek colonies had two kinds of origins, apoikiai of citizens from the mother city-state, and emporia, which were strictly trading stations. Founded late, in the 3rd century BCE, by merchant adventurers from Miletus, Tanais quickly developed into an emporium at the farthest northeastern extension of the Hellenic cultural sphere, a natural post first for the trade of the steppes reaching away eastwards in an unbroken grass sea to the Altai, the Scythian Holy Land, second for the trade of the Black Sea, ringed with Greek-dominated ports and entrepots, and third for trade from the impenetrable north, furs and slaves brought down the Don. Strabo mentions Tanais in his Geography .

The site for the city, ruled by an archon, was at the eastern edge of the territory of the kings of Cimmerian Bosporus.

Tanais prospered. A major shift in social emphasis is represented in the archaeological site when the propylea gate that linked the port section with the agora was removed, and the open center of public life was occupied by a palatial dwelling in Roman times for the kings of Bosporus. For the first time there were client kings at Tanais: Sauromates (175-211 CE.) and his son Rescuporides (ca 220 CE) both left public inscriptions.

In 330 CE Tanais was devastated by the Goths, but the site was occupied continuously up to the second half of the 5th century CE. Increasingly the channel was silting, probably the result of deforestation, and the center of active life shifted, perhaps to the small city of Azov, halfway to Rostov.

Archaeology of Tanais

I. A. Stempkovsky first made the connection between the visible remains— which were mostly Roman in date— with the Greek "Tanais" mentioned in literature; that was in 1823. Systematic modern excavations began in 1955.

A cooperative Russian-German team has been opening Tanais, with the objectives of revealing the heart of the city the agora, to define the degree of Hellenistic influence on the urbanism of a city founded by Bosporan Greeks, and to study the defensive responses to the increasing pressure of the surrounding nomadic cultures.

ource ACADEMIC KIDS 

THE GREEK KINGS WHO RULED INDIA

 

Around 170 BCE, two massive armies left Taxila for the great city of Pataliputra. 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. These were the Greek armies of ‘Yavanaraja Dimita’, as the Bactrian-Greek ruler Demetrius I was known to Indians.

The Mauryan Empire had collapsed and Pushyamitra Shunga had just seized power after assassinating the last Mauryan ruler, Brihadratha Maurya. Taking advantage of the chaos, Demetrius I set out to complete what Alexander the Great did not have time to achieve – establish a Greek Kingdom in India.

One part of Demetrius’s army, under his general Menander, marched through Punjab, sacked Saketa (Ayodhya) and Mathura and captured Pataliputra. The rest of the army, under Apollodotus, marched down the Indus and captured the great city of Ujjain. 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 dream of ‘Yavanaraja Dimita’ was fulfilled, albeit for a short period. 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.

We know of this forgotten chapter of Indian history from the unlikeliest of sources – a Sanskrit grammar textbook. In Mahabhasya, a 2nd century BCE 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”. To illustrate his point, he cites two examples. “Arunad Yavanah Saketam” [Yavanas besieged Saketa (Ayodhya)] and “Arunad Yavano Madhyamikam” (Madhyamikas were besieged by the Yavanas).

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. 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.

Who were these ‘Yavanas’ and how did they reach the heart of India?

It is popularly believed that Greek contact with India began with the invasion of Alexander the Great in 327-325 BCE. However, the book Indo-Greeks (1957) by Indian historian and numismatist A K Narain throws some very interesting light on the subject. 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.

After an extensive study of coins found in Central Asia, Narain concluded that there may have been Greek settlements in Central Asia that predated Alexander. 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. These were the ‘Bactrian Greeks’, known to Indians as ‘Yavanas’. They were different from the ‘Hellenistic Greeks’, who came with Alexander the Great.

What is riveting is that the ‘Greek conquest of India’ is steeped in Greek Tradition. Ancient Greeks believed that Dionysus, the Greek God of Wine, travelled the world and taught people how to make wine. One of the most famous of His expeditions was to India, which is said to have lasted several years. 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!

Another myth also spoke of the conquest of India by Hercules, the son of Zeus. The 1st-century Greek historian Strabo, in his text Geographica, states, “Indians have never been engaged in foreign warfare nor have they ever been invaded or conquered by a foreign power, except by Hercules and Dionysus and lately by the Macedonians”. Perhaps it was this myth of the conquest of India that drew Alexander the Great here in the first place. We shall never know.

Following the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, his vast empire was split between his generals, with his possessions in India, Central Asia and Persia going to Seleucus Nikator. Between 305-302 BCE, Seleucus Nikator invaded India with a view to recapturing the Indian possessions of Alexander that had come under the control of Chandragupta Maurya.

The details of this conflict are not known but  Seleucus Nikator ceded the Hindu Kush, Punjab and parts of Afghanistan to Chandragupta Maurya. Seleucus Nikator also gave his daughter Helena in marriage to Chandragupta and appointed Megasthenes as an ambassador in the Mauryan court. Megasthenes became famous for his text Indica, which gives a fascinating account of the India he saw at the time.

Around 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. 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. The Greco-Bactrian kingdom became extremely rich and powerful due to trade and the fertile land of the Amu Darya or Oxus river basin.

The Greco-Bactrians maintained close trade and cultural ties with India, the focal point of which was the city of ‘Ai-Khanum’ (‘Lady Moon’ in Uzbek), earlier known as ‘Alexandria on Oxus’ and ‘Eucratidia’. The city was located in the present-day Takhar province of Northern Afghanistan, at the confluence of the Panj and Kokcha rivers, both tributaries of the Amu Darya, and on the route to India.

The archaeological site of Ai-Khanum was accidentally discovered by an Afghan nobleman named Khan Gholam Serwar Nasher on a hunting trip in the 1960s. While excavations by archaeologists between 1964 and 1978 revealed a magnificent city, sadly the site was extensively looted by the Taliban during the Afghan Civil War. Archaeologists had discovered a great city with a great palace, a large theatre, a gymnasium and various temples including a large temple dedicated to Zeus built in Zoroastrian style.

But it is the coins found at Ai-Khanum that are the most eye-catching. Among the numerous coins found here are those minted by King Agathocles of Bactria (r. 190-180 BCE). These coins are typical Indian-style square coins and depict Indian deities! Historians and numismatists interpret them as forms of Vishnu, Shiva, Balarama, and Lakshmi.

These are the earliest coins that depict Vedic deities. For example, there is a coin depicting Goddess Lakshmi with a Brahmi legend ‘Rajane Agathukleyasasa’ or ‘King Agathocles’. Equally interesting are the coins that depict Balarama-Shankarshana with a mace and a plough, and Vasudeva-Krishna with a shanka (conch) and a Sudarshana Chakra. In addition, there are coins depicting stupas and the Bodhi tree with a railing, which is common Buddhist imagery. This tells us how closely connected the city of Ai-Khanum was to India, culturally.

Emperor Ashoka (304 to 232 BCE) is said to have sent missionaries to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, where they converted many people to Buddhism. In fact, some of Ashoka’s missionaries were themselves Greek-Buddhist monks.

In Mahavamsha, an epic poem in Pali on the early history of Sri Lanka, there is a reference to how Ashoka sent a ‘Yona’ (Yavana) monk named Dharmarakshita to the Aparanta country (Konkan coast) to preach Buddhism. The Ashokan edict at Kandahar in Afghanistan is written in Greek and Aramaic, which tells us about the large Greek settlement there.

Demetrius’s Onslaught

After the death of Ashoka, a series of weak rulers led to the decline of the Mauryan power. In 180 BCE, Brihadhrata Maurya was assassinated by his general Pushyamitra Shunga during a military parade. Taking advantage of the chaos that followed, Greco-Bactrian ruler, Demetrius I invaded India, sending his armies to conquer some of India’s great cities like Mathura, Saketa (Ayodhya) and Pataliputra.

 Demetrius was victorious in his campaigns,and a new era, the Era of the Greek Kingdoms, began in India. This time period is also known as The Yavana Era. With his kingdom expanding deep into India, Demetrius moved his capital to Sirkap, just opposite the river bank from the city of Taxila (near present-day Peshawar). The ruins of Sirkap show that it was built according to the ‘Hippodamian’ grid-plan characteristic of Greek cities. It was organized around one main avenue and 15 perpendicular streets.

What is fascinating is that at a stupa at Sirkap has the earliest known motif of the ‘Double Headed’ Eagle, which later spread across India as a symbol of royalty. Interestingly, it is today used by the state of Karnataka, in present-day India!

In Indian texts like the Gargi Samhita, King Demetrius is known as ‘Yavanaraja Dimita’ or ‘Dharmamita’. We know very little of Demetrius after his India conquest. 

The death of Demetrius saw the decline of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The Yuezhi tribe from China (later known as Kushanas) began to invade Bactria from the north. In the 1st century BCE, King Heliocles moved his capital to the Kabul valley, from where he ruled Punjab. 

The Greek rulers who ruled from India after the fall of Bactria to the Scythians were called ‘Indo-Greeks’ to distinguish them from the ‘Bactrian Greeks’. The ‘Indo-Greek’ Kings ruled much of North India, the most prominent among them being King Menander, the General of Demetrius I, who had marched to Pataliputra. He set up his own kingdom and ruled from Sagala, modern-day Sialkot (in Pakistan’s Punjab).

The Greek geographer Strabo wrote that Menander had “conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great”. The sheer number of his coins found across India has led historians to conclude that he probably presided over a very prosperous empire. But Menander is the most well known Indo-Greek king due to a Buddhist text known as Milinda Panha.

According to Buddhist tradition, King Menander embraced Buddhism, following a religious discussion with a Buddhist monk named Nagasena. Interestingly, Nagasena was a disciple of Dharmarakshita, the ‘Yavana’ Buddhist missionary sent by Ashoka to the Konkan. King Menander had philosophical discussions with Nagasena at Sagala (Sialkot), which were compiled as Milinda Panha or ‘Questions of Milinda (Menander)’. The text gives us an interesting description of  Menander, stating:

“King of the city of Sâgala in India, Milinda by name, learned, eloquent, wise, and able; and a faithful observer, and that at the right time, of all the various acts of devotion and ceremony enjoined by his own sacred hymns concerning things past, present, and to come. Many were the arts and sciences he knew – holy tradition and secular law; the Sânkhya, Yoga, Nyâya, and Vaisheshika systems of philosophy, arithmetic, music, medicine, the four Vedas, the Purânas, and the Itihâsas, astronomy, magic, causation, and magic spells, the art of war, poetry, conveyancing in a word, the whole nineteen.”

Not just Buddhist sources but even Greek accounts such as that of 1st century CE Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea praise the just rule of Menander and claim that just like Buddha, Menander’s relics too were distributed among different stupas across North-West India.

The Milinda Panha states:

“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.”

Menander’s greatest legacy was the establishment of Greco-Buddhism, which saw a revival in art that was a unique synthesis of Greek and Buddhist influences. Menander’s successors depicted themselves or their Greek deities forming with the right hand a symbolic gesture identical to the Buddhist vitarka mudra and started to adopt on their coins the Pali title of ‘Dharmikasa’, meaning ‘follower of the Dharma’. During his reign, we see friezes of Greek-looking people appearing on the stupas at Sanchi and Bharhut.

 Interesting fact In 1950, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar started an educational college in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, which he named ‘Milind Mahavidyalaya’ after the Indo-Greek King Menander I..

Τhe cultural influence of the Yavanas or Greeks can be found across India. In the heart of India, in Besnagar near Bhopal, you will find the Heliodorus pillar. Around 115 BCE, King Antialkidas sent Heliodorus as his ambassador to the court of the Shunga king Bhagabhadra in Vidisha. A staunch devotee of Vishnu, Heliodorus built a Garuda pillar, where he described himself as a follower of the Bhagavata cult. In a number of cave complexes of Western India, such as Karla, Nashik and Manmodi, you will find references to ‘Yavana’ donors.

Perhaps the last reference to Indo-Greek rule in India is what is known as the Yavanarajya inscription, also called the Maghera Well Stone Inscription discovered in the village of Maghera, 17 km north of Mathura in 1988. The inscription mentions a donation for a water well to the community “in the year 116 of the Yavanarajya”. This roughly corresponds to 69 or 70 BCE.

Two things can be deduced from the inscription, the first being that Mathura was still under the rule of the Yavanas (Indo-Greeks) at the time and that the Indo-Greeks had their own calendar. The Yavana Era or the Yona era was earlier thought to have been started by Demetrius I .

The end of Indo-Greek administration at around 10 CE did not signify the end of the Greek influence in India. It continued through the Indo- Scythians and the Hellenistic Kingdom of the Kushans. The artistic movements of Gandhara and Seres -Serindian Art, were prevalent throughout India.But their strong cultural legacy continued for centuries. It is interesting how the ‘Yavanarajya’ continued to be a source of legitimacy for centuries. German historian Harry Falk in his paper Ancient Indian Eras: An Overview writes about how, when the Kushana king Kanishka launched his own era around 127 CE, he pegged it to precisely 300 years after the ‘Yavana Era’. Falk argues that Kanishka wanted to link his own rule with that of the Indo-Greeks, who had first linked Central Asia and India.

Edited from History of India