Indian Epigraphy c16.s2.1

c16.s2.1

The earliest Indian monarchs known from epigraphic sources enjoyed the simple royal title *Rājan*, ‘the king.’ Thus the Maurya emperor Aśoka (c. 272-232 B.C.), who ruled over the major part of India and Afghanistan, refers to his own self in his inscriptions as *Devānāmpriya Priyadarśī Rājā*.² The earliest use of the more dignified title *Mahārāja* (literally ‘the great king’) in Indian epigraphic and numismatic records is found in the coin-legend of the Indo-Greek rulers who flourished in the first half of the second century B.C. Thus certain bilingual coins of king Eucratides has on the overse the Greek legend *Basilēōs Mégalou Eukratidou*, ‘[the coin] of the great king Eucratides’, which is translated in Prakrit on the reverse of the coins as *Maharajasa Evukratidasa* (Sanskrit *Mahārājasya Evukratidasya*, ‘[the coin] of the great king Eucratides’).³ Eucratides originally issued coins with the simpler Greek legend *Basilēōs Eukratidou*, ‘[the coin] of king Eucratides’, without any Indian translation, probably when his dominions did not yet include any part of India.⁴ The word *Mégalou* was added to the legend in certain issues which have also likewise no Indian translation.⁵ These may have been issued shortly after the expansion of his dominions. It is interesting to note that the Greek legend *Basilēōs Mégalou Eukratidou* was originally translated into Prakrit as *Rajasa mahatakasa* *Evukratidasa* (Sanskrit *Rājñaḥ mahataḥ Evukratidasya*),¹ the expression *Rajasa mahatakasa* (Sanskrit *Rājñaḥ mahataḥ*) in it being later changed to *Mahārājasa* (Sanskrit *Mahārājasya*). The modification of the original simpler title ‘king’ to the more dignified ‘great king’ was apparently done in imitation of the style of the Achaemenian monarchs of ancient Iran, who referred to themselves in their inscriptions as *Khshāyaθiya vazṛka*, ‘the great king’.² The Indo-Greek kings assumed certain other titles, of which *Soter*, ‘saviour’, translated into Prakrit as *Tratara* (Sanskrit *Trātṛ*),³ became popular with some of the foreign rulers who succeeded them in North-Western Bhāratavarṣa.