Indian Epigraphy c15.t5.8

c15.t5.8

The earliest historical era in the true sense of the term seems to be the Seleucid era of 312 B.C. prevalent in the Greek empire of Western Asia which lay just on the north-western borders of the Maurya empire of India. About the end of the 3rd century B.C., the Greek emperor had to acknowledge the practical independence of the province of Bactria (modern Balkh) and the subordinate territory of Parthia (modern Khorasan), both of which had revolted about the middle of the same century. The Parthians conquered many districts of the eastern part of the Greek empire and instituted an era that starts from 248 B.C.⁴ The Graeco-Bactrians poured into North-Western India and established their sovereignty in the Punjab and the adjoining regions. No official document of the Indo-Greek kings has so far been discovered. The older Shinkot inscription⁵ belonging to an Indian feudatory of Menander is dated, in the Indian fashion, in the 5th regnal year of the Indo-Greek king. A large number of coins belonging to the Indo-Greek rulers, about 40 in number, have been discovered; but they do not bear any date. A unique silver tetradrachm of Platon, copied from the tetradrachm of Eucratides, is said to bear the date 147 of the Seleucid era corresponding to 165 B.C. But the letters of the date are not altogether clear,¹ and doubts may reasonably be entertained as to the existence of any date on it, especially in view of the fact that the absence of date on other Indo-Greek coins then becomes inexplicable. It is not impossible that the Graeco-Bactrian kings neglected the Seleucid era owing to its association with the hostile imperial house. As a matter of fact, Diodotus of Bactria might have intiated an era as Arsaces did in Parthia; but this Bactrian era would have died out owing to the dynastic revolution brought in by Euthydemus.² The Indo-Greek power soon declined as a result of internal dissentions and the rise of the Scytho-Parthians.