Category History

The Kharosthi script (also known as ‘Indo-Bactrian’ script) was a writing system originally developed in present-day northern Pakistan, sometime between the 4th and 3rd century BCE. Kharosthi was employed to represent a form of Prakrit (Middle Indic), an Indo-Aryan language. It had a wide but irregular distribution along northern Pakistan, eastern Afghanistan, northwest India, and Central Asia. 

As the Brahmi script dominated most of India outside the northwest, Kharosthi remained dominant in this region: most inscriptions between c. 200 BCE and CE 200 in this area were written in Kharosthi.

Kharosthi arrived into several areas in central Asia, aided by the flourishing commerce of the Silk Road. It was Employed in the kingdom of Shanshan (founded in the 1st century BCE) located in the southern and eastern area of the Tarim basin. Most texts found in Shanshan are written in the Chinese script, but some Kharosthi examples were retrieved from the ancient cities of Niya and Endere, in the western section of Shanshan.

 

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The Shunga art style differed somewhat from imperial Mauryan art, which was influenced by Persian art. In both, continuing elements of folk art and cults of the Mother goddess appear in popular art, but are now produced with more skill in more monumental forms. The Shunga style was thus seen as ‘more Indian’ and is often described as the more indigenous.

Art, education, philosophy, and other learning flowered during this period. Most notably, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and Mahabhashya were composed in this period. It is also noted for its subsequent mention in the Malavikaagnimitra. This work was composed by Kalidasa in the later Gupta period, and romanticised the love of Malavika and King Agnimitra, with a background of court intrigue.

 

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The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra Shunga, after the fall of the Maurya Empire. Its capital was Pataliputra, but later emperors such as Bhagabhadra also held court at Besnagar (modern Vidisha) in eastern Malwa. Pushyamitra Shunga ruled for 36 years and was succeeded by his son Agnimitra.

Buddhist records such as the Ashokavadana write that the assassination of Brihadratha and the rise of the Shunga empire led to a wave of religious persecution for Buddhists, and a resurgence of Hinduism. According to Sir John Marshall, Pushyamitra may have been the main author of the persecutions, although later Shunga kings seem to have been more supportive of Buddhism. Other historians, such as Etienne Lamotte and Romila Thapar, among others, have argued that archaeological evidence in favour of the allegations of persecution of Buddhists are lacking, and that the extent and magnitude of the atrocities have been exaggerated.

 

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Seleucus Nicator, a Greek general of Alexander, held some of the land in the extreme north. Therefore, Chandragupta fought a long battle against him and at last defeated him around 305 B.C. and a treaty was signed. According to this treaty, Seleucus Nicator ceded the trans-Indus territories – namely Aria (Heart), Arachosia (Kandahar), Gedrosia (Baluchistan) and Paropanishae (Kabul) – to the Mauryan Empire and in exchange Chandragupta made a gift of 500 elephants to Seleucus. He (Seleucus) also gave his daughter in marriage to the Mauryan prince or it is supposed that Chandragupta married Seleucus’s daughter (a Greek Macedonian princess) as a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In this way he took his control over Indus region, some part of which is now in modern Afghanistan. Later he moved towards Central India and occupied the region, north of Narmada River.

In addition to this treaty, Megasthenese was sent by Seleucus to the court of Chandragupta and Deimakos to Bindusar’s court as Greek ambassadors. Chandragupta embraced Jainism towards the end of his life and stepped down from the throne in favour of his son Bindusara. Later he (Chandragupta) along with Jain monks led by Bhadrabahu went to Sravana Belgola, nearby Mysore and starved himself to death in typical Jaina fashion.

 

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“King Milinda by name, learned, eloquent, wise, and able; and a devoted and faithful observer. Many were the arts and sciences he knew- holy tradition and secular law; philosophy; arithmetic; music; medicine; the four Vedas, the Puranas, and the Itihasas; astronomy, magic, causation, and magic spells; the art of war; poetry. And as in wisdom so in strength of body, swiftness, and valor there was found none equal to Milinda in all India. He was rich too, mighty in wealth and prosperity, and the number of his armed hosts knew no end.” – On the Indo Greek King Menander, from the Milindpanho

After Alexander’s death, his vast empire (stretching from Greece to north-west India) was carved up amongst his generals. One of them, Seleucus, ruled over much of the Near East. By the 250s BCE, Bactria (Balkh in Afghanistan) had broken away, forming the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.

By 180 BCE, with the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, the Bactrian Greeks moved south of the Hindukush into India, under the ruler Demetrius. Various Greek dynasties ruled over parts of India till the 1st century BCE and are known as the Indo-Greeks. They were then defeated by the Scythian and Parthian invaders. We know about them mostly through the many different coins they had issued with their names.

Raid upto Pataliputra

One of the most important Indo-Greek rulers was Menander (155- 130 BC). Menander was born not in India, but up north in Greco-Bactria. He started out as a king there, but extended into the Indian subcontinent, ruling over the northern parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Punjab. His capital was a Sagla, a bustling city in northern Punjab, near modern-day Sialkot.

He raided upto Pataliputra. The scholar Patanjali and the Yuga Purana mention that ‘after having conquered Saketa, the Yavanas (Greeks), wicked and valiant,’ reached ‘The thick mud-fortifications at Pataliputra’. A great battle followed with ‘tree-like engines (siege engines).’

The Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he “conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great”, though this may just have been flattering exaggeration! He was also a great patron of Buddhism, and is referred to as King Milinda in Buddhist texts. He seems to have been not only a great soldier, but a keen thinker and avid debater.

FAMOUS DEBATE AND CONVERSION

The story of his conversion to Buddhism is interesting. Amusingly, according to the Milindapanha (“Questions of Milinda”), it is said that there were no scholars left in his capital as he would roam about engaging them in debate and defeating them, afterwards sighing, “No one speaking for any religion can defeat me in argument; alas for the world!” A Buddhist monk Nagasena showed up to debate with him. This debate recorded in Milindpanha which consists of questions supposedly asked by King Menander, employing Greek logic, to which Nagasena replies on the basis of Buddhist doctrine, with Indian reasoning. At the end of the book, King Menander is impressed, and adopts is impressed, and adopts Buddhism. The book is quite an intriguing and unexpected glimpse of the clash between Eastern and Western thinking.

KING ON ONE SIDE, GOD ON THE OTHER

Many coins have been found from Menander’s reign, and they are fascinating. You see classically Greek-looking coins, with the king in a variety of warrior poses on one side of the coin, and various Greek gods and Goddesses such as Athena, the goddess of wisdom, on the other. These coins could be straight from Greece! But, there is a difference. The inscriptions are bilingual, in both Greek and the native Kharoshti scripts. Later coins substitute the goddess Athena for various animal motifs, especially those important to the Buddhists, such as the elephant, bull and boar. There is even a coin with the eight-spoked Buddhist Wheel of Dharma. Imagine, a native Greek king, called Menander I Soter “The Saviour”, who most king Milinda for his Buddhist values!

Plutarch, a Greek biographer, relates that he died in camp while on a military campaign, and that his remains were divided equally between the cities to be enshrined in monuments, probably stupas, across his realm. After his death in 130 BC, he was probably succeeded by his wife Agathokleia who ruled as regent for his son Strato I. The last Indo-Greek kings were ultimately defeated by the Shakes by 50 BCE.

 

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Born in St. Louis, Missouri, the U.S., on August 8, 1884, Sara Teasdale was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. In 1918, Love Songs,her poetry collection, won the Columbia Poetry Prize (now, the Pulitzer) and the Poetry Society of America Prize. Though the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry was officially inaugurated in 1922, Sara’s win is listed today as the earliest Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Teasdale paved the way for women in poetry and writing, inspiring several of them to write and aim for the top prize – the Pulitzer Prize.

“I have no riches but my thoughts. Yet these are wealth enough for me.”

 

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