Indo-Greek coins

Topic: Post-Mauryan India: Shungas to Kushanas · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"

Meaning

Indo-Greek coins were the coins issued by the Greek kings of northwest India (c. 2nd century BCE onwards). They were made of gold, silver, copper and nickel. They were the first coins in India to carry a ruler's name and image. Most showed the king's head on one side and a Greek god on the other. Many were bilingual, with Greek on one face and Kharosthi on the other.

They matter for two reasons. We have very few written records for the Indo-Greek kings, so coins are our main source for their history. Their bilingual legends also helped scholars read the lost Kharosthi script.

Explanation

Background: who issued them and why

• Alexander of Macedon invaded the northwest in 327–325 BCE. He left governors called satraps (provincial governors) in the Indus plains.
• Over time these Greek governorships grew into independent Indo-Greek kingdoms.
• After 185 BCE the Mauryan empire grew weak. The Indo-Greeks used this gap to take the northwest, roughly today's Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• Their parent land was Bactria, the area around the Oxus (Amu Darya) river. Indian texts call them Yavanas.
• Demetrius, king of Bactria and son of Euthydemus, led the push into India. He (or a king close to him) was the first to strike coins with a bilingual legend in Greek and Prakrit [3].
• The likely aim was to treat Indian subjects and Bactrian Greeks as equals [3].

Main features

• Metals: gold, silver, copper and nickel.
• Usual design:
• one side shows the king's head (a portrait);

• the other side shows a Greek deity.

• Name and image of the ruler: Before this, Indian punch-marked coins (pieces of metal stamped with symbols) carried only symbols and no named king. Indo-Greek coins were the first in India to carry the ruler's name and image (c. 2nd century BCE).

• Indian gods on some coins: A few coins show Vasudeva-Krishna and Lakshmi. These are Indian gods on a Greek king's money.
• Bilingual legends: Many coins carry the same message twice:
• in Greek on one face;
• in Kharosthi (a script written right to left and used in the northwest) on the other.
• The coins of Menander and Apollodotus are the standard examples.

Menander's coins: what large finds tell us

• Menander was the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings [2].
• Large numbers of his coins have been dug up, mostly in silver and copper [2].
• What these finds show [2]:
• his reign lasted a long time;
• trade in his kingdom was busy.

Results: the key to a lost script

• How Kharosthi was deciphered (read again after being forgotten):
• Scholars could already read Greek.
• The same king's name appeared in both scripts on one coin.
• So they matched Greek letters to Kharosthi letters, one by one.

• James Prinsep then worked out that the language written in Kharosthi was Prakrit.

• Lasting effect: The kingdoms ended with the Shaka (Indo-Scythian) invasions. The habit of putting the ruler's portrait and name on coins carried on.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: c. 2nd century BCE onwards, after the Mauryan decline (185 BCE). This falls in the post-Mauryan era (c. 185 BCE – 300 CE).
• Region: the northwest, from the Indus plains into today's Pakistan and Afghanistan, with Bactria as the parent land.
• Menander's kingdom: from the Kabul river valley to the Ravi river, and from the Swat valley to Arachosia (the Kandahar region) [2].
• Key rulers named on or linked to the coins:
• Demetrius (son of Euthydemus), linked to the first Greek–Prakrit bilingual coins [3];
• Menander, whose silver and copper coins survive in large numbers [2];

• Apollodotus, whose coins are a standard bilingual example.

• How we know:

• The coins themselves are the main evidence. Written records for these kings are very few.
• The Buddhist text Milinda-panha ("The Questions of Milinda") adds to the picture of Menander. In it, the monk Nagasena converts him to Buddhism [2].
• The Heliodorus pillar inscription at Besnagar, near Vidisha (Madhya Pradesh) names Antialcidas of Taxila, an Indo-Greek king. It is written in Prakrit and dated by ASI to 113 BCE [4][5]. It supports what the coins suggest: Indo-Greeks took up Indian gods such as Vasudeva.

Don't confuse with

• Punch-marked coins: these are older Indian coins with only stamped symbols and no named king. Indo-Greek coins were the first in India to show a ruler's name and image.
• Kharosthi vs Prakrit: Kharosthi is a script (a writing system, written right to left). Prakrit is the language written in it. On the bilingual coins, Greek faces Kharosthi, and James Prinsep identified the language as Prakrit.
• Kharosthi vs Brahmi: both are early Indian scripts. Kharosthi was used in the northwest and runs right to left. Brahmi runs left to right. The bilingual coins helped decipher Kharosthi.
• Heliodorus pillar vs Indo-Greek coins: both are evidence for the Indo-Greeks. The pillar is an inscription (epigraphy), set up by an envoy of Antialcidas [4]. Coins are numismatic evidence (the study of coins).

Prelims Hooks

• The Indo-Greeks issued the first coins in India bearing a ruler's name and image (c. 2nd century BCE).
• Metals used: gold, silver, copper and nickel. Nickel is a common trap option.
• Demetrius of Bactria, son of Euthydemus, is linked to the first Greek–Prakrit bilingual coins [3].
• Most surviving coins of Menander are silver and copper. Their large numbers point to a long reign and busy trade [2].
• Some Indo-Greek coins show the Indian deities Vasudeva-Krishna and Lakshmi.
• Greek–Kharosthi bilingual coins (Menander, Apollodotus) helped decipher Kharosthi. James Prinsep identified its language as Prakrit.

Mains Points

• Coins as a source: strength and limit.
• For the Indo-Greeks, coins give king lists, portraits, metals, religious symbols and evidence of trade, such as Menander's large silver and copper finds [2].

• But coins cannot tell us about administration, land revenue or society. A GS-I answer on sources for post-Mauryan history should argue both sides.

• Coins show a two-way cultural exchange.

• Greek-style portraits and named rulers changed Indian coinage for good.
• At the same time, Indian gods (Vasudeva-Krishna, Lakshmi) and Indian language (Prakrit) appear on Greek money [3].

• The Heliodorus pillar supports this. In it, a Greek envoy of Antialcidas worships Vasudeva in Prakrit [4][5]. So "invaders who stayed" fits the evidence better than "Greek rule over India".

• A coin that unlocked a script. The bilingual coins were economic evidence and also the key to reading Kharosthi. This shows how one kind of source can open up others, such as inscriptions in the same script.

Related concepts

• Demetrius
• Indo-Greeks
• Menander
• Heliodorus pillar
• Gondophares

Read more

• Indo-Greeks: invaders who stayed