The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s2.240

c10.s2.240

Most instructive of all are the Madras,⁷ a people between the Chenab and the Ravi who had entered India shortly before the Persian period; they are sometimes classed among ‘barbarians’ like the Yavanas, and there seems to be some evidence for non-Indian customs among them.¹ The name of their principal town, Sāgala (Sialkot), does not appear to be Indian; it has been suggested that it is ‘Saka-town’² and that it points to some old invasion or infiltration of Sacas prior to Alexander, which would explain why Indians sometimes classed the Madras among ‘barbarians’. They had been the people of the ‘bad Porus’, irreconcilable to Alexander. But now they were Buddhists³ and had lost the kingship;⁴ and the best testimony we have to a change of attitude in these peoples is that Menander selected Sāgala to be his capital instead of the Greek city Bucephala. The peoples between the Madras and Mathurā will be noticed later (pp. 238 sqq.)