The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s4.9

c10.s4.9

A modern writer has stated comprehensively that Menander’s empire extended from Mathurā (Muttra) in the east to Barygaza (Broach) in the west,¹ and this is substantially correct, allowing that in form it was a horse-shoe; but the details have to be considered. There is not much doubt about his south-eastern boundary. When he was recalled from Pātaliputra he abandoned a great stretch of the valleys of the Ganges and the Jumna and formed a new frontier to the south of Mathurā,² which remained the farthest town of importance toward the south-east held by the Greeks (p. 245); the Mathurā-Delhi country has produced many Greek coins.³ Whether Pātaliputra was reoccupied after Menander’s withdrawal by Pushyamitra has been disputed, but it seems probable that he reoccupied Ayodhya in Oude,⁴ and if so he was, as his legend states (p. 177), in possession of the capital. It seems uncertain whether Ayodhya and Sāketa were different towns or merely two names for one place, perhaps a double town;¹ but Menander had to take Sāketa from Pushyamitra on his way to the capital and the Sunga king would certainly reoccupy it if he could. In the story of Pushyamitra’s horse-sacrifice his grandson Vasumitra, who was guarding the horse, came to the south bank of the Sindhu and had a brush with some Yavana cavalry who were patrolling the northern bank;² this implies that the Sindhu was part of Menander’s frontier. It may be uncertain whether the Sind or the Sindhu tributary of the Chambal be meant; probably the Chambal, south of Mathurā, was the frontier west of the Jumna. On the Purāna chronology Pushyamitra died in 148, and as it was his grandson who guarded the horse, the incident must belong to the very end of his life; it is usually put about 150. As Menander’s death falls between 150 and 145, he and his opponent Pushyamitra must have died very close together. If Plutarch’s story that Menander died in camp be true,³ the reference must be to further fighting on this frontier, which may have had to be kept by the strong hand.