The Greeks in Bactria and India c12.2

c12.2

The Milindapañha¹ or Questions of Milinda is the one extant work professedly dealing with any of the Greek monarchs in the Far East; for Milinda, beyond any question, is the king Menander.² It exists in a Pali version and, in part, in a Chinese translation of the fourth century A.D. of which two recensions are extant. The Pali work falls into two well-marked divisions; the first comprises pp. 1–89 in Trenckner’s edition of the Pali text, being books I–III inclusive;³ the second and longer part comprises all that follows. It is now generally agreed that Part II is later than Part I and the work of a different hand,⁴ and it is also generally agreed that Part I (or perhaps I should say the original of Part I) cannot be placed too long after Menander’s death; but I need not quote the datings suggested, for none of those who have professedly dealt with the work have investigated Menander’s chronology and have usually put him near the end of the second century B.C. or even in the first century. The Chinese translation includes Part I and a few pages of Part II.