Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c10.11.2

c10.11.2

The monogram on the lower left field of the reverse is AB which may either stand for ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, or may more probably be a contraction for Babylon, one of the mint cities of Alexander. The other class of silver coins which are usually supposed to have been minted in India, were the issues of one Sophytes, as we know from their legend on the reverse. This Sophytes has so long been identified with Sopeithes of Arrian (vi, 2, 2) and Strabo (xv. 699), who ruled over terroitories in the Salt Range region, Punjab, at the time of Alexander's invasion. Sopeithes appears to have been the Greek form of the Indian name Saubhūti who according to most scholars was an Indian¹. But R.B. Whitehead questioned the identity of Sophytes and Sopeithes not very long ago. He further suggested that Sophytes was an eastern satrap in the last quarter of the fourth Century B.C. ruling somewhere in the Oxus region, where his coins were originally minted—(Numismatic Chronicle, 1943). It is true that there is no record of an actual discovery of any of these coins in Indian soil, but there is also no clear proof of Sophytes' connection with the Oxus region. Arrian and Strabo are explicit about the existence of one Sopeithes (most probably the Greek transliteration of some such Indian name as Saubhūti) and it is tempting to connect it with the name Sophytes, the issuer of the coins in question (JNSI VII, pp. 23—6).