The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c26.s1.99

c26.s1.99

The Panjāb, or a considerable part of it, with some of the adjoining regions, remained more or less under Greek rule for more than two centuries, from the time of Demetrios (*c.* 190 B. C.) to the overthrow of Hermaios by the Kushāns (*c.* A. D. 20), and we might reasonably expect to find clear signs of hellenization in those countries. But the traces of Hellenic influence even there are surprisingly slight and trivial. Except the coins, which retain Greek legends on the obverse, and are throughout mainly Greek in type, although they begin to be bilingual from the time of Demetrios and Eukratides, scarcely any indication of the prolonged foreign rule can be specified. The coinage undoubtedly goes far to prove that the Greek language was used to some extent in the courts of the frontier princes, but the introduction of native legends on the reverses demonstrates that it was not understood by the people at large. No inscriptions in that tongue have yet been discovered, and few Greek names have yet been found in Indian epigraphic records.¹