The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s7.33

c10.s7.33

¹ *CII* p. 4 no. 11, from Taxila, dated by Konow about the second half of the first century B.C. It reads: ‘By... the meridarch, together with his wife, the stupa was established in honour of his mother and father, for the presentation of a respectful offering.’ The name is lost; but it is said that Indian Buddhist texts always say ‘women and men’, putting the woman first (Rhys Davids 1 p. 83 n., 11 p. 127 n. 1), and in fact the phrase ‘in honour of mother and father’ is very common in Kharoshthi inscriptions, *CII* nos. xx, xxiii, xxvii, xxxvi no. 6, lxxxv, lxxxvi; also mother comes before father in other phrasing, *ib.* nos. xiii, xxxi, xcii. This makes this Buddhist meridarch an Indian, for it is incredible that a Greek would have named his mother before his father.