In the fourth century BCE, as Alexander stomped cross-continent from Macedonia in the west to the river Beas in the east, he left a trail of governors in charge of conquered provinces. After he died, Alexander’s generals divided his conquered territories amongst themselves. This is how the Central Asian province of Bactria found itself in Greek hands for almost two centuries, initially as part of the Seleucid empire and later as an independent Greco-Bactrian kingdom.
The end of the Mauryan empire left a power vacuum in northwestern India (the Shungas were nonstarters, really). Starting with the Greco-Bactrian ruler Demetrius I, many foreign tribes tried their luck at conquering India. Here they are in order of arrival:
The fashion-forward Greeks (second to first century BCE)
The Greeks were not new to the Indians, and it wasn’t just Alexander and his cohorts. Remember Megasthenes, the ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya’s court? He was Greek. We also know that Ashoka had Greek governors in his employ. So, by the time Demetrius I (r. 200–180 bce) came to India, Sanskrit already had a word for the Greeks – yavana, which later came to mean all foreigners. Unlike the yavanas of the previous generations who came to Indian courts seeking plush jobs, these yavanas had royal ambitions of their own (though not quite on the scale that the first Greek – Alexander – had). We do not know how well they fared, but their influence was significant when it came to coin design.
The Greeks introduced a new style of coins to India. Although coins had been used in India since c. 600 BCE, at that time they were probably only used by the richest people to store their wealth. Numismatists had found hoards of Mauryan coins – rectangular or round bits of silver with shapes punch-marked into them, which were probably used to pay government officials (according to the Arthashastra). The common man was still mostly depending on barter.
The coins that Demetrius I had made were like little pieces of art. There was more for the numismatist to glean from these coins than the older Indian coins, because these often had the rulers’ faces, names, titles and favourite deities on them.
Greek coins often carried both Greek and Kharosthi or Brahmi inscriptions, which gives us the impression that Indo-Greek rulers were eager to win over their subjects by using local scripts.
Over time, the Greeks also seemed open to adopting religion. From the Milindapanha, we know that the Indo-Greek king Milinda or Menander I (r. 165/155–130 bce) abandoned the Greek pantheon of gods in favour of Buddha. In the book, Milinda asks the Buddhist sage Nagasena hundreds of questions on the nature of wisdom, ethics, feelings and thought. Although written over a hundred years after Milinda’s reign, the book gives us insight into the interaction between the Greek and Indian cultures.
The unshakeable Shakas (first century BCE to second century CE)
According to Chinese texts, around the second century BC, a tribe of Central Asian nomads called the Yuezhi were defeated by other tribes in the vast grasslands north of China. The Yuezhi fled west and bumped into another horse-riding nomadic tribe – the Scythians or Shakas. Hassled by the grumpy Yuezhi, the Shakas turned south, and poured into the Indian subcontinent through Bactria, much like the Indo-Greeks had before them. When they reached India, they split into five branches and ruled over five different regions. Shaka kings are called satraps, which means “guardians of the realm”. Fancy!
The Western Shakas, who ruled over modern-day Gujarat, Rajasthan and part of the Konkan coast, were practically invincible and ruled western India for about 400 years. The first Shaka ruler’s name was Maeus, which was clearly foreign. Later rulers chose classical Indian names like Rudradaman, Jayadaman and Rudrasimha, married local Indian princesses and adopted local religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. Like the Greeks, they seemed very eager to convince their Indian subjects that they weren’t so foreign anymore.
The pious Parthians (c. 19–226 CE)
Gondophares, the king who brought St Thomas to his court as a master carpenter, is the first known Indo-Parthian king. Historians believe that he established his own rule in the region of northwest India and Pakistan, seeking independence from the Parthian empire, which ruled over Iran. We have very little information about the Parthians beyond a collection of coins found in northern Pakistan and the Jammu-Pathankot regions of India. Buddhist pilgrims from the west and east often had to travel through Parthian territory, which gives historians the impression that the Indo-Parthians must have been open to Buddhism, in addition to accidentally supporting Christianity’s entry to India.
The conquering Kushanas (first to third-century CE)
The Yuezhi tribes of Central Asia, who had pushed the Shakas into the Indian subcontinent, were the last to make their way here. In India, they were called the Kushanas. Of all the tribes who tried their luck, the Kushanas were the ones who established, by far, the largest empire.
Under their most famous ruler, Kanishka I (r. 127– 150 CE), their borders stretched to include parts of the modern nations of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and north India. The Kushanas, more than any other tribe, helped the spread of Buddhist philosophy into Central Asia and China.
The Kushanas controlled lands along a portion of the Silk Route, and they diverted much of the trade towards Indian ports. The caravans could thus bypass the high tolls imposed by the Parthians, who dominated the land routes in the Middle East. Traders who previously used the land route to the Middle East and Europe now went through India, shipping their goods from the Arabian Sea coast to international markets. Thanks to this, Indian merchants must have become richer and so were able to afford more expensive materials, like baked bricks and tiles, that we see in some of their buildings from this period.
The vast Kushana empire allowed artists to share techniques and materials across its many regions. Kushana sculptures depict men in tunics, trousers and belts, armed with broad swords and dashing moustaches. Could the Kushanas have introduced Indian men to high-fashion sherwanis and boots?
Excerpted with permission from History Unpacked: The Why, When and What of Ancient India, Saisudha Acharya, illustrated by Rohit Bhasi, Duckbill.
