Lectures on Ancient Indian Numismatics (Carmichael Lectures, 1921) c6.61

Language: English

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And you may naturally ask: What new contribution these coins can possibly make to the knowledge of Hellenic pantheon which we already possess from more direct and exhaustive sources? Let us, however, see whether it is possible to approach the study of these coins from a new angle of vision. If Sophytes was a Greek of the time of Alexander and yet he adopted a Hindu name, is it not possible to say that some of the Indo-Bactrian kings must have embraced Hindu religion? Or if you want to leave Sophytes out of account, do we not know that during the regime of Antialkidas when the Indo-Bactrian rule was in the heyday of its glory, his very ambassador Heliodorus, a Greek, had become a Bhāgavata, a devotee of Vāsudeva? How is it then possible to think that none of the Indo-Bactrian kings was a Hindu? Is it not therefore possible to study their coins more closely and from this view-point? In this connection, allow me to invite your attention to the square bronze coins of Eucratides.

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The deity figuring on the reverse has been taken to be Zeus seated on throne who holds a wreath and a palm branch and has fore-part of elephant in front of him.¹ There is also a Kharoshṭhī inscription on the reverse, which reads *Kaviśiye nagara-devatā* and means "the city-deity of Kāpiśī.” Now, Kāpiśī was a Hindu town and has been referred to in one of Pāṇini’s Sūtras as a place where good wine was brewed.¹ Evidently, therefore, the divinity figuring on the coin is a Hindu one, being the *nagara-devatā* of Kāpiśī, and yet it has been so figured on the coin that it can be easily mistaken for a Greek deity and has actually been mistaken for Zeus by the numismatists, as we have seen. The term *nagara-devatā* occurs on another coin also, which unfortunately cannot be assigned to any king as the legends on it have not been preserved whole and entire. On the obverse is a goddess with the Kharoshṭhī legend [*Pa*]khalavadi-devada,² which has been taken to mean the tutelary divinity of Pushkalāvatī. Pushkalāvatī also was a Hindu city, and yet we find that the goddess on this coin wears Greek dress and a mural crown which is the emblem of a Greek civic deity. The natural inference from a study of these coins is that mere Greek dress and emblems do not stamp a deity as necessarily a Hellenic one and that a Hindu divinity may appear under Hellenic garb on Indo-Bactrian coins.

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The Greeks were notorious for identifying foreign deities with their own so long as there were any characteristics in common. For do we not know that Megasthenes, *e.g.*, calls Kṛiṣhṇa or rather Balarāma of Mathurā, Herakles, and Śiva of the hills, Dionysos? Nay, that some of the deities occurring on the coins of the Indo-Bactrian Greek princes may not be Hellenic, though they are invested with Hellenic attributes, was suspected long ago by Percy Gardner. "On coins of Demetrius," says this eminent numismatist, "Artemis is sometimes radiate, on coins of Agathocles Zeus bears in his hand the three-headed Hekate, Herakles crowns himself with a wreath, Pallas appears in short skirts, and many other such strange forms of Greek deities appear. To search out the reasons of these variations of type, reasons to be found probably in many instances in the influence of local Indian or Persian legend or belief, would be a very attractive task, and not hopeless, considering the data furnished us by the legends of the gold Indo-Scythic coins. The earliest of the clearly Indian types to make its appearance is a dancing-girl, wearing long hanging ear-rings and oriental trousers, on the money of Pantaleon and Agathocles. As we come to a later period, non-Hellenic types, or types in which there is a non-Hellenic element, gradually make their way on the coins. On coins of Philoxenus and Telephus we find a radiate figure of a sun-god, holding a long sceptre.

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On those of Amyntas and Hermaeus we find the head of a deity wearing Phrygian cap, whence issue rays.”¹ I am sorry I had to quote this long extract here, but as Percy Gardner is looked upon as a very great authority on this subject, his opinion must be considered to be invaluable. And you have just seen what that opinion is. He clearly admits that some types of Greek deities are fantastic even according to the Hellenic standard and that some contain an unmistakable non-Hellenic element. It is a matter of regret that no numismatist has gone farther than where Percy Gardner left this line of inquiry, but what I have said is enough to show to you that the Indo-Bactrian Greeks were by no means slow to be influenced by Indian and other religious beliefs with which they came in contact. The exact character and extent of this influence can be determined only by a critical study of their coins, and the results of such a study, I have no doubt, will form an important contribution to the religious history of India, if not of the world.