Fwd: Milinda, the wise king of Sagala

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gandhara , YMalaiya <ymalaiya wrote:

 

Menander I

 

 

Tetradrachm of Menander I in Greco-Bactrian style (Alexandria-Kapisa mint).

Obv: King Menander throwing a spear.

Rev: Athena with thunderbolt. Greek legend: BASILEOS SOTIROS MENANDROY " King

Menander, the Saviour " .

 

 

 

Menander I ( also known as Milinda in Sanskrit, Pali), was one of the Greek

kings of the Indo-Greek Kingdom in northern India from 155 or 150 to 130 BC.

 

 

A renowned Indo-Greek king

His territories covered the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of

Bactria(from the areas of the Panjshir and Kapisa) and extended to the modern

Pakistani province of Punjab with diffuse tributaries to the south and east,

probably as far as Mathura.

 

Silver drachm of Menander I (155-130 BC).

Obv: Greek legend, BASILEOS SOTHROS MENANDROY lit. " Saviour King Menander " .

Rev: Kharosthi legend: MAHARAJA TRATASA MENADRASA " Saviour King Menander " .

Athena advancing right, with thunderbolt and shield. Taxila mint mark.

 

 

 

His capital is supposed to have been Sagala, a very properous city in northern

Punjab (modern Sialkot).

 

He is one of the few Bactrian kings mentioned by Greek authors, among them

Apollodotus of Artemita, who claim that he was an even greater conqueror than

Alexander the Great. Strabo (XI.II.I) says Menander was one of the two Bactrian

kings who extended their power farthest into India, possibly as far as

Pataliputra, which at least had been put under siege by the Indo-Greeks

according to Indian sources.

 

In the West, Menander seems to have repelled the invasion of the Greco-Bactrian

usurper Eucratides, and pushed him back as far as the Paropamisadae, thereby

consilidating the rule of the Indo-Greek kings in the northern part of the

Indian Subcontinent.

 

His reign was long and successful. Generous findings of coins testify to the

prosperity and extension of his empire, but the boundaries of his reign are

vague; between 155 BC and 80 BC.

 

Guesses among historians are that he was either a nephew or a former general of

the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius, but his predecessor in Bactria seems to have

been the king Apollodotus.

 

 

Menander and Buddhism

 

 

 

 

The Milinda Pañha

Menander was the first Bactrian king to strike coins with legends in both Greek

and Sanskrit; according to tradition he also embraced the Buddhist faith, as

described in the Milinda Pañha, a classical Pali Buddhist text on the

discussions between Milinda and the Buddhist sage NÄgasena.

 

In the Milindanpanha, Menander is introduced as

 

" King of the city of Sâgala in India, Milinda by name, learned, eloquent, wise,

and able; and a faithful observer, and that at the right time, of all the

various acts of devotion and ceremony enjoined by his own sacred hymns

concerning things past, present, and to come. Many were the arts and sciences he

knew--holy tradition and secular law; the Sânkhya, Yoga, Nyâya, and

Vaisheshika systems of philosophy; arithmetic; music; medicine; the four Vedas,

the Purânas, and the Itihâsas; astronomy, magic, causation, and spells; the

art of war; poetry; conveyancing in a word, the whole nineteen. As a disputant

he was hard to equal, harder still to overcome; the acknowledged superior of all

the founders of the various schools of thought. And as in wisdom so in strength

of body, swiftness, and valour 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. " (The Questions of King Milinda,

Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890).

 

A coin of Menander with an eight-spoked wheel.

Obv: Greek legend, BASILEOS SOTHROS MENANDROY lit. " Saviour King Menander " with

eight-spoked wheel.

Rev: Kharosthi legend MAHARAJA TRATASA MENADRASA " Saviour King Menander " , with

palm of victory.

 

 

 

Buddhist tradition relates that, following his discussions with NÄgasena,

Menander adopted the Buddhist faith:

 

" May the venerable Nâgasena accept me as a supporter of the faith, as a true

convert from to-day onwards as long as life shall last! " (The Questions of King

Milinda, Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890).

 

He then handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world:

 

" And afterwards, taking delight in the wisdom of the Elder, he handed over

his kingdom to his son, and abandoning the household life for the houseless

state, grew great in insight, and himself attained to Arahatship! " (The

Questions of King Milinda, Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890)

 

Greco-Buddhist proselytism

According to an ancient Indian source, the Mahavamsa, Greek monks seem to have

been active prozelitisers of Buddhism during the time of Menander: the Yona

(Greek) Mahadhammarakkhita (Sanskrit: Mahadharmaraksita) is said to have come

from “Alasandra†(thought to be Alexandria-of-the-Caucasus, the city founded

by Alexander the Great, near today’s Kabul) with 30,000 monks for the

foundation ceremony of the Maha Thupa ( " Great stupa " ) at Anuradhapura in Sri

Lanka, during the 2nd century BCE:

 

" From Alasanda the city of the Yonas came the thera Yona Mahadhammarakkhita

with thirty thousand bhikkhus. " (Mahavamsa, XXIX)

These elements tend to indicate the importance of Buddhism within Greek

communities in northwestern India, and the prominent role Greek Buddhist monks

played in them, probably under the sponsorship of Menander.

 

 

Menander's death

Detail of Asia in the Ptolemy world map. The " Menander Mons " are in the center

of the map, at the east of the Indian subcontinent, right above the Malaysian

Peninsula.

 

 

 

Plutarch (Praec. reip. ger. 28, 6) reports that Menander died in camp while on

campaign, thereby differing with the version of the Milindapanha. He describes

however that all his subject towns disputed about the honour of his burial,

ultimately sharing his ashes among them and placing them in stuppas, in a manner

reminescent of the funerals of the Buddha.

 

Menander's empire survived him in a fragmented manner until the last Greek king

Hermaeus disappeared around 10 AD.

 

In Antiquity, from at least the 1st century CE, the " Menander Mons " , or

" Mountains of Menander " , came to designate the mountain chain at the extreme

east of the Indian subcontinent, today's Arakan, as indicated in the Ptolemy

world map of the 1st century CE geographer Ptolemy.

 

 

 

 

Preceded by:

Demetrius II of IndiaIndo-Greek Ruler

(Paropamisadae, Arachosia, Gandhara, Punjab)

(155/150-130 BCE)Succeeded by:

(In Paropamisadae, Arachosia)

Zoilos I

 

(In Gandhara, Punjab)

Agathokleia

 

 

 

 

See also

Indo-Greek Kingdom

Greco-Buddhism

Indo-Scythians

 

 

 

 

 

 

External links:

Coins of King Menander

(http://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?results=100 & amp;search=Menander+I & amp\

;Thumb=1)

More coins of Menander

(http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/baktria/kings/menander/t.html)

Kapisa coinage of Menander

(http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=42937 & amp;AucID=46 & amp;Lot=53\

7)

The Debate of King Milinda (http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/milinda.pdf)

 

From

 

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=a9n76hlvt3a8?method=4 & dsid=2222 & d\

ekey=Menander+I & gwp=8 & curtab=2222_1 & sbid=lc03b & linktext=Menander%20I

 

 

 

 

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