Menander

Also called: Milinda · Topic: Post-Mauryan India: Shungas to Kushanas · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"

Meaning

Menander (called Milinda in Buddhist texts) was the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings [2]. He ruled the northwest of the subcontinent in about the mid-2nd century BCE. His exact dates are not certain. The Buddhist text Milinda-panha remembers him as a king who talked with the monk Nagasena and became a Buddhist [2].

He matters because both Western classical writers and Indian writers knew him [2]. His life is also the clearest early example of "invaders who stayed". He was a Greek ruler, but Indian religion shaped him, and his coins helped scholars read a lost script.

Explanation

Background: how a Greek king came to rule in India

• Alexander of Macedon invaded the northwest in 327–325 BCE. He left behind governors called satraps (provincial governors) in the Indus plains.
• Over time, the lands these Greek settlers ruled became independent Indo-Greek kingdoms.
• Their home base was Bactria, the land around the Oxus (Amu Darya) river. That is why they are also called Bactrian Greeks. Indian texts call them Yavanas.
• Mauryan power weakened after 185 BCE. This gave the Indo-Greeks a chance:
• Demetrius of Bactria, son of Euthydemus, led the push into India [3];

• later Indo-Greek kings ruled the northwest, roughly today's Pakistan and Afghanistan.

• Menander belongs to this later stage. He was the strongest of these kings [2].

His kingdom

• West: the Kabul river valley [2].
• East: the Ravi river in Punjab [2].
• North: the Swat valley in modern Pakistan [2].
• South: Arachosia, the Kandahar region of Afghanistan [2].
• According to the Milinda-panha, his capital was Sagala (Sakala, usually identified with modern Sialkot).

Menander and Buddhism: the Milinda-panha

• He is believed to have been a patron of Buddhism (a supporter who gave it protection and gifts) [2].
• The Milinda-panha ("The Questions of Milinda") is a Pali Buddhist text. It is written as a question-and-answer dialogue.
• King Milinda asks hard questions about Buddhist ideas, such as the soul, rebirth and karma.
• The monk Nagasena answers each one with simple examples.

• At the end of this long, sharp debate, the text says Menander became a Buddhist [2].

• This is the Buddhist tradition's account. We cannot fully check the conversion from other sources. So we can say he was linked to Buddhism. We cannot say with certainty that he became a monk or gave up the throne.

His coins and what they tell us

• Large numbers of his coins have been found. Most are silver and copper [2].
• What this shows:
• his reign was long [2];

• trade in his kingdom was busy [2].

• Design: the king's head is on one side and a Greek deity is on the other. The Indo-Greeks were the first rulers in India to put the ruler's name and image on coins. Before them, Indian punch-marked coins carried only symbols.

• Bilingual legend (the same words in two languages): Greek on one face and Kharosthi on the other. Kharosthi was a script of the northwest, written from right to left. Coins of Menander and Apollodotus are the standard examples.

Results: what his reign left behind

• Kharosthi was deciphered (read again):
• scholars could already read Greek;
• the king's name appeared in both scripts on the same coin;

• so they matched Greek letters to Kharosthi letters, and James Prinsep found that the language was Prakrit.

• Two-way exchange: Greek coin-making came into India, and Indian religion was taken up by Greek rulers.

• End of the line: after him, Indo-Greek power broke up and later ended with the Shaka (Indo-Scythian) invasions.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: c. 2nd century BCE (mid-century, roughly; exact regnal years are disputed). This is the post-Mauryan age, which runs from c. 185 BCE to 300 CE.
• Dynasty or group: the Indo-Greek (Bactrian Greek or Yavana) kings.
• Region: the northwest, from the Kabul valley to the Ravi and from Swat to Arachosia (Kandahar) [2].
• Key people:
• Menander/Milinda;
• the monk Nagasena;

• Demetrius, an earlier Indo-Greek king [3].

• How we know about him:

• Coins: the main source. There are large hoards of his silver and copper coins, many with Greek–Kharosthi legends [2].
• Text: the Milinda-panha, a Pali Buddhist dialogue [2].

• Western classical writers, who also knew him as a great king [2].

• Limit of the evidence: we have very few written records. Coins tell us his name, portrait, metals, gods and trade. They do not tell us how he ran his government or collected land revenue.

Don't confuse with

• Demetrius: king of Bactria and son of Euthydemus. He led the first Indo-Greek push into India and is linked to the first Greek–Prakrit bilingual coins [3]. Menander came later and was the greatest Indo-Greek king [2].
• Antialcidas / Heliodorus: Heliodorus was the Greek envoy of Antialcidas of Taxila. He set up the Garuda pillar at Besnagar (Vidisha) in honour of Vasudeva (Vaishnava faith) [4]. Menander is linked to Buddhism, not to this pillar.
• Nagasena vs Nagarjuna: Nagasena is the monk who debates Menander in the Milinda-panha. Nagarjuna was a later Mahayana philosopher of the Madhyamika school. He has nothing to do with Menander.
• Kanishka: a Kushana king and a later royal patron of Buddhism. He is linked to the Fourth Buddhist Council. Menander is the Indo-Greek king linked with Buddhism, from an earlier period.

Prelims Hooks

• Menander = Milinda. The text is the Milinda-panha, and the monk in it is Nagasena [2].
• Menander's kingdom ran from the Kabul valley to the Ravi, and from the Swat valley to Arachosia (Kandahar) [2].
• Most of Menander's surviving coins are silver and copper. Their large number points to a long reign and busy trade [2].
• Coins of Menander and Apollodotus are standard examples of Greek–Kharosthi bilingual coins. These helped decipher Kharosthi, and James Prinsep identified its language as Prakrit.
• Trap: the first bilingual Greek–Prakrit coins are linked to Demetrius, not Menander [3].
• Order of rule in the northwest: Indo-Greeks → Shakas → Parthians (Pahlavas) → Kushanas.

Mains Points

• Foreign rulers seeking Indian acceptance. Menander's link with Buddhism [2] and Heliodorus' Vaishnava devotion [5] are the earliest clear cases of outsiders taking up Indian religions. The Shakas and Kushanas later followed the same pattern. It supports the view that the Indo-Greeks were "invaders who stayed" and were absorbed into Indian culture. They were not just foreign rulers over India.
• Coins as a source: strength and limit.
• Strength: Menander's coins give us his portrait, the metals used, the gods shown and evidence of trade [2]. Bilingual coins also unlocked the Kharosthi script.

• Limit: coins say almost nothing about his administration, land revenue or society. This makes a useful two-sided answer on sources for post-Mauryan history.

• Continuity beyond the kingdom. Indo-Greek political power ended with the Shaka invasions. The mixing of cultures that Menander stands for did not end. It continued in coin-making, in Gandhara art, and in Buddhism spreading along the northwest routes.

Related concepts

• Demetrius
• Indo-Greeks
• Heliodorus pillar
• Indo-Greek coins
• Gondophares

Read more

• Indo-Greeks: invaders who stayed