Demetrius
Also called: Demetrius I · Topic: Post-Mauryan India: Shungas to Kushanas · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Demetrius I was a Greek king of Bactria. Bactria was a region in present-day northern Afghanistan. In the early 2nd century BCE, after Mauryan power grew weak, he crossed the Hindu Kush and took parts of north-west India. This began the rule of the Indo-Greeks, the Greek kings who ruled in the north-west. He was the son of the Bactrian king Euthydemus.
Example
Demetrius's coins show him wearing a headdress made from an elephant's scalp. It was a symbol of his conquests in India. Coins like these are the main source for Indo-Greek kings, because few written records about them survive.
Don't confuse with
- Menander (Milinda): a later and more famous Indo-Greek king. He is remembered in the Buddhist text Milindapanha. Demetrius began the conquest, and Menander came after him.
- Alexander's satraps: these were governors Alexander left behind in the Indus region in the 4th century BCE. Demetrius came more than a century later, from Bactria.