The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s2.97

c10.s2.97

In the tradition (p. 177) Pushyamitra’s power reached anyhow to Sāgala (Sialkot between the Chenab and the Ravi); it is possible, as will be seen, that the halt at Taxila, while the ground won was being consolidated and Demetrius’ fleet was being built, was used to prepare Menander’s way with a little propaganda (p. 178). Menander first occupied Sāgala, known from the Milindapañha to have been his capital later (see Excursus), and then, as Apollodorus says, crossed the Beas, where Alexander had turned back. The Yuga-purāṇa then mentions the Yavanas at Mathurā (Muttra) on the Jumna; here comes in Apollodorus’ statement about the Isamos, if it be the Jumna. The Yuga-purāṇa then records the Yavanas at Sāketa (in Oude) and in the Pañchāla country (the Jumna-Ganges doab), which is followed by Apollodorus’ statement that the Greeks reached the Ganges. Finally both Apollodorus and the Yuga-purāṇa record the occupation of the capital. The latter document says that the Greeks first took Kusumadjava, which is Kusumapura, the old name of Pāṭaliputra, but which at this time must have been separate from, or a suburb of, the Mauryan town, and then took the Mauryan capital itself, which was defended by a mud wall, necessitating the use of their siege train, as Alexander had had to use his siege train against the high mud wall of Cyropolis; it is said that the excavations at Pāṭaliputra have brought to light a mud wall of the Mauryan period 14 feet thick and flanked with wooden palisades.¹ The Yuga-purāṇa subsequently treats the Greeks as masters of the country: they command, and the kings disappear.